September 24, 2020
This Week in Gang Land
FBI Snitch In Top Mob Story Of 2016 Says He Screwed Up The Case — Big Time
In
a series of stunning admissions made with the videorecorder rolling, a
controversial mob turncoat who wore a wire for five years and stung 45
wiseguys and associates of five crime families in a monster racketeering
case in 2016, now says that he "mangled" the huge case by destroying
evidence and deserved a long prison term instead of the sweet 15-month
sentence he received.
John (J.R.) Rubeo, 45, says the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office should have "ripped up" his cooperation agreement because his shenanigans — robberies and other crimes he committed while working as an FBI snitch — enabled Philadelphia mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino to win a sweetheart deal of two years after his first case ended in a deadlocked jury and a mistrial.
And his less than honest work didn't just help Merlino and screw the government, namely two FBI agents who were suspended for not supervising him properly. Rubeo admits to having framed an aging mob associate who got a four year prison term for arson for setting fire to a rival gambler's car in 2011 — a crime Rubeo committed before he began cooperating. "I blew the kid's car up," says Rubeo, describing his actions as "a pussy move" to "impress" the "harmless old man."
Accused Dad Killer Not Qualified To Be Housed At The
Westchester County Jail
The Westchester County Jail in Valhalla was just fine for a pair of top Luchese mobsters facing federal murder charges in the execution slaying of former Purple Gang leader Michael Meldish. Before their conviction, Matthew (Matty) Madonna and Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea spent many months cooling their heels there before, during and after their trial in November.
Feds:
Colombo Family Associate With Spinal Cord Injuries Too Dangerous
For Compassionate Release
Colombo associate Francis (BF) Guerra beat a double mob murder rap back in 2012, but he still lives in a world of pain.
Read this week's column
Unless you get really lucky, and find a copy squirreled away in the
wrong section of your local bookstore, you won't be able to get a
first printing of Mob Boss: The Life Of Little Al
D'Arco, The Man Who Brought Down The Mafia. But there
are still some second print versions of the hardcover available
as gifts or for your own reading pleasure.
Because of the heavy demand, Thomas Dunne Books went to the well again for a second printing of Mob Boss, the book that The New York Times called a "gripping, novelistic biography — a bulls-eye."
The mass market, paperback version was published in 2015. It is available online and at your favorite bookstores for about eight bucks. You still should be able to pick up a copy of the hard cover at your favorite bookstore, or, as Claude Raines might say to Humphrey Bogart, from any number of the usual online suspects: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and BooksAMillion, as well as an independent book seller near you.
See why Mob Boss has been praised by Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, Nicholas Pileggi, Mister District Attorney Robert Morgenthau — as well as readers everywhere.
Mob Boss is also available in a special BIG PRINT edition. And for those who would rather hear every word of the 406 page book read to them, Mob Boss is also available on an MP3 CD from Tantor Audio.
