This Week In Gang Land
Mob-tied Loanshark Enjoyed Life On The Run After 'Escape' From 30-Year Prison Term
Mel
Cooper, born 78 years ago in Brooklyn, is now retired there. In between, the
ex-mob associate had an exciting, exhilarating, but sometime depressing life
in New York and elsewhere. It includes a 20-month furlough from a 30-year
sentence for loansharking when he was released from prison 29 years early by
mistake, according to a new book, Wiseguys, Rabbis and the FBI.
Seven mob-tied co-defendants, including capos Vincent (James) Rotondo and Benedetto Aloi, were acquitted at trial, rightfully, according to Cooper, then 39, who wasn't. He immediately set out to get far away from the Hauppauge, L.I. courthouse where he'd just been released instead of turned over to deputy U.S. Marshals for a trip back to the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.
"I knew instantly that I can't stand there staring at the sky," he recalled in the book co-written by J.A. Schwartzman and Cooper. It was 9:30 AM on May 5, 1986. He had no money or identification, and was dressed in prison khakis with inmate numbers on his pants and shirt. But by 10 p.m., he had a room in a Boston boarding house — and was so excited, he couldn't sleep.
Mob Snitch-Turned Long Island Whoremaster Still Awaits Sentencing For His 1999 Guilty Plea To Bank Fraud
Two decades after low-level mob associate Frank Saggio boasted of
flipping and testifying against another low-level gangster, he awaits
sentencing for his 1999 guilty plea to federal bank fraud charges — with a
maximum prison term of 30 years — as well as state racketeering charges of
running a lucrative Long Island prostitution ring from 2019 to 2024, Gang
Land has learned.
Luchese Gangster Agrees To Take Up To Seven Years For A Six-Month Slew Of Crimes
Luchese gangster Joseph Cutaia can do both the crime and the time, with
the mob associate enjoying a mere six months of freedom over the last 16 years. So he should be able to do whatever prison term he receives for a slew of
violent crimes and offenses he committed between December of 2023 and June
of 2024 without too much trouble.
