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By Jerry Capeci

His son Greg Jr., 47, (left) reputedly a family capo also has been in jail for a decade, and after years of delays finally went to trial last week on racketeering, loansharking, illegal gambling tax fraud charges and five murders that could keep him inside for the rest of his life. And Junior is claiming that the feds are trying to make him pay for his father's sins.

In his opening remarks, Junior's lawyer Larry Silverman said Scarpa Sr. was actually behind a series of murders and many other crimes involving a prolific Colombo family crew in the 1980s and early 1990s.

He was vicious, treacherous, deceitful, manipulative and known by his crew as the Grim Reaper, the Mad Hatter and Hannibal Lechter, Silverman said, and "the one calling the shots."

He said the government would conduct a parade of mob associates who would point their fingers at his client because they couldn't get their  sentences reduced by testifying against a dead man.

"Scarpa Sr. (right) is not this innocuous ghost. Senior was always at the center of what was going on," said Silverman.

Maybe so, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Sung-Hee Suh said she will show that Junior was ready and willing to follow his father's lead. She said he killed for fun and profit, listing four of the younger Scarpa's former cohorts who would testify to that. Her first witness, William Meli, put both Scarpas at the scenes of several killings, noting that after one in 1981, Junior had gotten so close to his victim he had to change his clothes "because they were full of blood."

Scarpa, who has hinted in pre-trial documents that he may testify in his own defense, won a big ruling from Brooklyn Federal Judge Reena Raggi on the eve of trial that kept some tape recorded jailhouse ramblings by him from being played at trial. Raggi ruled prosecutors couldn't use the tapes - in which Junior allegedly talks about Mafia goings on - as admissions of membership in the Colombo family, one of the charges in the indictment. Raggi said they seemed more like "ranting and raving."

Prosecutors bugged Scarpa's jail cell earlier this year after they got a tip from a jailhouse informer that Junior was plotting to tamper with witnesses. Scarpa has been kept away from other mobsters ever since he punched out Lucchese boss Vittorio (Vic) Amuso three years ago. Amuso (right) had made some disparaging remarks about his father's FBI informer status.

The feds didn't hear any threats, but did get an earful of Scarpa spouting things like: "They hate the Mafia because they feel we're a threat to them." By blaming his father, Scarpa seems to be copying tactics that 16 other Colombos used to win acquittals a few years ago when they went to trial for murder conspiracies as part of a 1991-1992 mob war that left 10 dead and many others wounded. But the bloody war is not part of the case, and the feds are using mostly fresher, less tarnished cooperating witnesses.

Scarpa will be hard pressed to pull off a win, and will likely go back to virtual solitary confinement for the rest of his life.

Russo, who has been in jail for two years awaiting trial for racketeering in  the private carting industry, was hit last week with jury tampering charges in the 1994 federal racketeering trial of his son, Joseph (JoJo) Russo.

For several reasons, beyond the obvious, the timing stinks.

Russo, 64, allegedly committed this new crime while in a federal prison in Petersburg Va. And whatever his efforts, they did no good, because his son and four other defendants were all found guilty of crimes committed during the Colombo war.

The indictment discloses scant details, charging Russo with "participating in an effort to contact" a member of the anonymous jury between March 1994 and May 1994. Russo was released from prison on July 29, 1994.

He and Dennis Hickey, (left) a codefendant in the carting case, are also charged with trying to help a woman evade a 1995 federal grand jury investigating alleged jury tampering. They might have committed both crimes, but it's curious that these charges were filed after Judge Denis Hurley refused to permit an anonymous jury in their current case, suppressed business records and other evidence from the trial, and put off the trial so prosecutors could appeal.

Like we said, the timing of the jury tampering charges stinks.

ASK ANDY
This week, Andy, our organized crime historian seen here with one of his favorite Mafia books, "Mob Star,"  tackles a few queries from reader Daniel G. Robinson, who recently saw the movie, "Hoodlum." Robinson asks for the elusive "true story"about Harlem bookmaker Bumpy Johnson, his and Harlem's importance to the mob, and the integrity of the late Thomas Dewey, a former prosecutor and governor of New York.

Thomas Dewey was the prosecutor who convicted Lucky Luciano, for which the Mafia boss received a 30-to-50 year sentence. After World War II, Luciano was mysteriously paroled and deported to Italy.

Naval authorities denied rumors that Luciano had earned his parole by aiding the allied war effort, causing speculation that Dewey, then governor of New York, had taken a payoff. Dewey refused to respond to the charges, adding fuel to the rumor file.

After a political opponent made outrageous claims of bribery, Dewey commissioned an inquiry which found that Luciano had cooperated with Naval Intelligence authorities and helped prevent sabotage along the strategic New York waterfront, which earned him an early parole. Unfortunately for Dewey, the Navy asked him to keep this quiet in the nation's interest and he did so at great cost to his reputation.

The record is clear that Dewey (right) targeted Luciano (left) and destroyed his North American crime career. Whatever Dewey's politics and ambition, he was an outstanding, honest public servant and not for hire by gangsters.

While Bumpy Johnson was a Harlem bookmaker, Hoodlum greatly exaggerated his stature in the crime scene. Dutch Schultz did take over most of the large number banks that had been controlled by blacks. While there was some limited resistance it certainly was not of the order portrayed in the movie.

Johnson spent a lifetime in the criminal mileu, essentially acting as a middle man between the Genovese family and other black gangsters. He spent much time in jail but became a sort of folk hero due to his colorful personality, clothes and money. The facts seem to suggest just he was not the independent hoodlum portrayed in the movie.

Some books of interest that touch on these areas include:

THE LUCIANO PROJECT by RODNEY CAMPBELL
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE JEWISH GANGSTER IN AMERICA by ALBERT FRIED
AFRICAN AMERICAN ORGANIZED CRIME by RUFUS SCHATZBERG and ROBERT KELLY
KILL THE DUTCHMAN by PAUL SANN