This Week In Gang Land
Judge: Teenaged Mob Hitman May Deserve An 'Oscar;' Not A Compassionate Release
A
federal judge dismissed the rehabilitation and remorse of mob hitman John
Pappa as a phony act in a damning rejection of his bid for early release
from his life sentence for four "unusually cold-blooded, calculating, and
ruthless" murders — including the killing of the 12th and last victim in the
bloody 1991-1993 Colombo family war.
Brooklyn Federal Judge Pamela Chen made that very clear in her May 30 decision denying the 50-year-old gangster's motion for a compassionate release for the four executions: the slaying of rebel Colombo family mobster Joseph Scopo in October of 1993 and Pappa's subsequent killings of three cohorts involved with Scopo's murder.
The judge's decision came on the eve of the long-delayed domestic violence trial of Pappa's celebrated attorney, Shon Hopwood, a convicted Nebraska bank-robber turned Georgetown Law School professor. His trial for assaulting his lawyer wife four times in 2022 and 2023 had been slated to begin June 2 but was put off until this week and began on Monday.
FBI Snitch Says Ex-Colombo Acting Boss Plotted To Kill Three Federal Officials
Freedom
proved fleeting for one-time acting Colombo family boss Ralph DeLeo.
Mob Busting FBI Agent To Testify Against Drug Dealer Freed By President Trump
The
feds are pulling out all the stops at the close of the detention hearing
against Jonathan Braun that wraps up tomorrow and calling a mob-busting FBI
agent to testify in the government’s two-months-long fight to keep the
Gambino associate behind bars, Gang Land has learned.
Remembering My Friend, Tom Robbins, An Extraordinary News Reporter
New
York and the world lost Tom Robbins, the quintessential, indefatigable,
savvy news reporter whose insightful
journalism appeared over the years in The
New York Times, the New York
Daily News, The Village Voice and many
other publications, including Gang Land,
to prostate cancer two weeks ago. Tom contracted the illness at Ground Zero
while covering a terror attack against the city he loved. He was 76.
Tom taught hundreds of news reporters their craft at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism from 2011 until last year, and shared his insights and knowledge with the many more he encountered during the four decades he covered or uncovered major stories involving corruption, politics and organized crime. In recent years, he also hosted "Deadline NYC," a discerning public radio interview program about the major topics of the day on WBAI FM.
Tom was a co-worker at the Daily News, my co-author of our book, Mob Boss, and my best buddy for decades. It was a pleasure and a privilege to have worked with him, and to be his friend. Tom is survived by his wife Susan Mastrangelo, son Maro, granddaughter Stella, sisters Penny, Meg and Katie, brother David, and daughter-in-law Amma.
