Updated(2): Historic Serbian Orthodox Church in New York City Destroyed By Fire; Three Other Serbian Churches Burned Same Day

Posted May 2, 2016 9:09 PM ET; Last updated May 10, 2016 9:07 PM ET


A Serbian newspaper has accused ex-mobster John Alite (right) of starting the fire that gutted this cathedral. 

Photo: Stephen Yang; Spencer Burnett (right)

[From article]
The mystery over the fire that gutted a Christian Orthodox church in Manhattan took the strangest turn yet — when a Serbian newspaper accused former Gambino enforcer John Alite of torching the cathedral, an allegation he called “ridiculous.”
Alite, who was sprung from prison in 2013, said the article was likely planted to inflame long-standing tensions between Albanians and Serbs.
“It’s ridiculous,’’ Alite, an Albanian, told The Post Friday about the claim he’s being investigated for the blaze that engulfed the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava on West 25th Street last Sunday.
“That’s not what my life is about,’’ he said, insisting he’s changed. “I don’t want to be known as the guy who used to kill people on the street.”
The former hit man, who now works to as a motivattional speaker and a mentor for bullied kids, said he called the FBI and Homeland Security when the article appeared.

[. . .]

“The Serbians’ mission has been to incite another war,” Alite said. “This been going on for a couple months.”
While saying the blaze may have been caused by carelessly stored candles, the FDNY is also probing whether it’s connected to fires the same day at Serbian Orthodox churches in Australia and Russia.
http://nypost.com/2016/05/07/ex-mobster-accused-of-starting-massive-cathedral-fire/

Ex-mobster accused of starting massive cathedral fire
By Joe Tacopino
New York Post
May 7, 2016 | 7:21am

* * *


Photo: Peter Gerber

Updated May 4, 2016 8:39 PM ET
[From article]
“It is strange that four of our (Orthodox Christian) churches burned at the same time on three different continents,” he said. “It’s all symptomatic. We still don’t know if it is some kind of warning, and what kind. And whether someone set them on fire in an organized way.”
Irinej added that the Serbian Orthodox Church, also known as SPC, was “unpleasantly surprised” that Serbia’s top officials failed to immediately contact them after the Cathedral of St. Sava in Manhattan was gutted by a four-alarm fire on Sunday, just hours after Easter services.
Churches in Russia and Australia also caught fire that day, but SPC wasn’t alerted to any of the blazes “until noon on Tuesday,” the patriarch said.
Worried that the incidents could all be connected, Serbian Consul in New York Mirjana Zivkovic on Wednesday said the Serbian Embassy in Washington has decided to reach out to the US State Department, asking for all results of the FDNY’s investigation to be reviewed by the consulate.
[. . .]
“I have received reports from our embassy in New York that the cause of the fire is being investigated,” he said, adding that people shouldn’t “jump to conclusions” about who was responsible “before the truth has been determined.”
Many people in the Christian Orthodox community believe the blazes at St. Sava and in Russia and Australia may have been set in retaliation for Pope Francis’ recent decision to postpone the canonization of Croatian Cardinal Aloysius Stepinac, an infamous Nazi supporter.
Francis chose to stop the ceremony from happening last week after the Serbian Orthodox Church and Patriarch Irinej himself urged the pontiff to consider Stepinac’s notorious past.
Orthodox Christians ultimately fear that the churches may have all been set on fire by Stepinac supporters fuming over the pope’s decision.
http://nypost.com/2016/05/04/heard-of-serbian-church-fears-fires-were-coordinated-attacks/

Serbian church head says string of fires could be a ‘warning’
By Chris Perez
New York Post
May 4, 2016 | 1:49pm

* * *

On May 1, the Annunciation of Our Lady Greek Orthodox Church in Melbourne, Australia, went up in flames.

Photo: ABC News 24
[From article]

FDNY marshals are investigating whether the blaze that gutted a Serbian cathedral in Manhattan is connected to similar infernos at Orthodox churches in Australia and Russia, sources told The Post on Tuesday.
While the investigation is zeroing in on a caretaker who may have left candles burning under flammable furniture at St. Sava on West 25th Street, the sources said a coordinated attack against the Christian Orthodox religion hasn’t been ruled out.
[. . .]
On Monday, members of the Serbian Orthodox community said they feared an international plot targeting their religion amid a dispute between Serbs and Croatian Catholics over the canonization process for Aloysius Cardinal Stepinac, who has been labeled a Nazi supporter while he was archbishop of Zagreb during World War II.
[. . .]
Many believed that the blazes at St. Sava and in Russia and Australia were set by Stepinac supporters who are upset with Pope Francis’ move last week to block the canonization.
The Cathedral of St. Sava burned down Sunday hours after 700 parishioners packed the church for Orthodox Easter.
[. . .]
Mystery still surrounds the fires in Australia and Russia.
In Melbourne, where the 115-year-old Holy Church of Annunciation of Our Lady went up in flames, officials said Tuesday the fire was considered “suspicious,” according to 9News.com.au.
Causes of the blaze that gutted the Macedonian Orthodox Church of the Resurrection in Sydney and the one that destroyed the Valaam Monastary in northern Russia have not been established, either.

http://nypost.com/2016/05/04/fdny-probes-cathedral-fires-connection-to-overseas-infernos/

FDNY probes cathedral fire’s connection to overseas infernos
By Shawn Cohen and Chris Perez
New York Post

May 4, 2016 | 1:44am

* * *

Posted May 2, 2016 9:09 PM ET
[From article]
The inferno that gutted a historic Manhattan cathedral is being probed as “suspicious,” fire investigators said Monday.
Flames that engulfed the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava on West 25th Street on Sunday seemed much more intense than a blaze sparked by church candles, FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Michael Gala said.
[. . .]
Firefighters struggled to get inside the church on Sunday because of the ferocity of the four-alarm blaze, officials said.
“We were only committed inside the structure for a few minutes (fighting the flames on Sunday night) before we were overwhelmed (by the fire’s intensity),” Gala said outside the cathedral, which was completely hollowed out by flames.
Crews were still on hand Monday dousing any remaining flames and blasting the structure with cold water, as a precaution against any potential flare-ups.

http://nypost.com/2016/05/02/easter-fire-at-cathedral-is-suspicious-investigators-say/

Easter fire at cathedral is ‘suspicious,’ investigators say
By Jazmin Rosa and David K. Li
New York Post
May 2, 2016 | 10:02am

http://nyp.st/1QNkqCY

New Book About John Gotti, Lufthansa Heist, Good Fellas

[From review]
The mobster — famously portrayed by Joe Pesci in “Goodfellas” — killed two made men, tried to rape the wife of his gangster pal Henry Hill and stupidly lifted his ski mask during 1978’s historic $6 million Lufthansa heist.
So John Gotti took care of it — personally.
The handsome capo used a silencer-equipped Colt .38 to shoot DeSimone three times in the skull in January 1979 in the basement of an Italian restaurant on Arthur Avenue in The Bronx, says an upcoming book, “The Lufthansa Heist,” written by Hill and journalist Daniel Simone.
It’s the first time the details of Gotti’s role in the death of the 28-year-old psychopath have been revealed.

[. . .]

Tommy DeSimone, Played by Joe Pesci in Good Fellas

Photo: Supplied

The book by Hill and Simone, due out Aug. 1, also exposes Gotti’s part in the infamous Dec. 11, 1978, holdup of the Lufthansa freight terminal at JFK Airport, the biggest heist in US history at the time. The robbers made off with about $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewelry, none of which was ever recovered.
[. . .]


Robert DeNiro played  Jimmy Burke

The book reveals that Gotti got a $200,000 cut of the proceeds.
Gotti, Burke and Hill discussed the caper beforehand at Prudenti’s Vicin’ O Mare, an Italian restaurant in Long Island City, Queens.

“It’s a good shot. I like it,” Gotti said. “What can I do to make it go smooth?”
“Well, John, we need some cooperation,” Burke said.
Gotti promised to provide a warehouse where the loot hauled from Lufthansa could be transferred from the getaway van into a “switch car” to evade the cops. He also offered to destroy the getaway van at an auto-salvage yard he controlled in Brooklyn.
[. . .]
Devino — a made man whose last name is sometimes given as Bentvena — spent several years in federal prison on drug charges. During that time, DeSimone and Burke took over his loanshark business. They wanted to keep it, so after Devino was released, DeSimone and Burke killed him, says author Simone.
[. . .]


John Gotti

When Gotti, still seven years from becoming the “Dapper Don,” heard DeSimone was about to be “made,” he demanded a sit-down with Vario.
“This f- -kin’ DeSimone whacked two of my top earners, and I let it go for a long time,” Gotti told his fellow capo. “Now he wants to be made, and I’m not gonna sit quietly. I mean, that’s as bad as putting a cactus up my a–. Understan’ what I’m sayin’, ­Paulie?”
[. . .]
Vario considered how DeSimone was a constant source of agita. He also figured the feds or the cops would soon pinch DeSimone for the robbery. But there was another reason, the book ­reveals.
When Hill was in federal prison several years before, DeSimone had tried to assault Hill’s wife, Karen. Vario was furious about this — partly because, at the time, he and Karen were having an affair.

Lorraine Bracco played Karen Hill in Good Fellas

[. . .]
DeSimone was led to the basement of Don Vito’s restaurant. Several old men were seated around a card table, and candles gave the room a dim light. De­Simone was surprised to see Gotti, a Gambino. He thought his induction would be a Lucchese affair.
“Welcome, Tommy. Congratulations!” Gotti said. “Pull a chair up to the table and sit comfortably. This is not an ordinary day in your life, I want you to know.”
DeSimone sat down. Within three seconds, “Gotti pulled out a silencer-equipped .38 Colt Magnum from his inner breast pocket and drilled three bullets into DeSimone’s cranium. PAH . . . PAH . . . PAH.

http://nypost.com/2015/07/12/new-book-reveals-john-gottis-role-in-goodfellas-murder/

New book reveals John Gotti’s role in ‘Goodfellas’ murder
By Bill Sanderson
New York Post
July 12, 2015 | 6:12am

Sal Polisi, The Sinatra Club, Book Review

Posted June 26, 2013 9:22 PM ET; Last updated July 15, 2013 10:50 AM ET

* * *
[Related story]

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/workers_at_jfk_face_heat_in_heist_tYAWbpwdG3iZWRn2sK4DvJ

This article about a theft at JFK Airport, mentions the earlier JFK robbery in which friends of Polisi participated.

Feds believe $1.2M heist from Swiss air shipment may be inside job
By PHILIP MESSING
New York Post
Last Updated: 9:53 AM, June 26, 2013
Posted: 12:59 AM, June 26, 2013

* * *
You can see three videos of Sal Polisi at this link
http://enoughroomvideo.blogspot.com/2013/06/sal-polisi-talks-about-sinatra-club.html



The Sinatra Club
My Life Inside The New York Mafia
Sal Polisi and
Steve Dougherty
Gallery Books
New York 2012


Sal Polisi

Sal Polisi survived an exciting life in New York City working as an associate of ranking members of the five crime families. Published in 2012 it is a recent account of events in the 1970s through the 1990s. He tells about his upbringing in Brooklyn as a child of divorced parents. His father remarried. His sister, who he loved dearly, died young, as well as a step brother.

This book is well written. It is one of those books that when you are reading it you do not want it to end. He tells a familiar tale about corruption in local governments, a lesson never learned, except by criminals. Polisi reports, "The only fees the Mob paid on all of is profit came in the form of payoffs [. . .] It took some hefty sums to grease all the politicians and government officials, judges, lawyers, prosecutors, police brass, investigators, detectives, and cops on the job[.]"

He adds, "thanks to the greed and corruption of the same people taxpayers paid to serve and protect them, the Mafia's enormous gang of criminals were able to commit the most brazen acts of thievery and violence imaginable--from back-alley serial killings to public executions, including the most blatant whacking of all time, the assassination of a president--and get rich in the process. The so-called good guys gave us the greatest gift any small-time hoodlum or Mafia don could ask for: They let us get away with it."



"Prohibition was the golden goose that made the Mob. Narcotics was the poison that killed it." He reveals that in 1948, "Lucky Luciano established the Turkey-to-Sicily-to-Marseilles-to-New York smuggling [of heroin] operation known as the French Connection."


Charles "Lucky" Luciano

This exposed the myth portrayed in the film and book, The Godfather. "[T]he real French Connection was a joint venture between the Sicilian Mob and the American Mob. [T]he Sicilians got the poppies in Turkey, refined them into junk in Sicily, and exported it to New York from Marseilles."



"[T]here was a whole new kind of French Connection. There were guys in Marseilles who got their stuff from the Arabs direct and refined it themselves; their product was better, purer than the Sicilians'[.] The french guys bypassed the Sicilians and shipped their product to the United States. Their main customers were black gangs up in Harlem and in the Bronx."



Polisi explained the meeting of crime leaders in Apalachin, New York in 1957, which was called to discuss new drug sentencing laws. They agreed that any made man caught selling drugs would be killed.



On the intimacy of the FBI with crime families he says, "J. Edgar Hoover was the best friend the Mafia ever had. Hoover's ties to the Mob went back decades, and that was the main reason the Families prospered that way they did for so long without the feds [stopping them.] The nation's top cop was closely associated with [. . .] Frank Costello, who used his knowledge of Hoover's secret gambling addiction and his closeted life as a homosexual to intimidate and control him; and Roy Cohn, the infamous Mob lawyer who helped Hoover wage war on Communists and the Left[.]"


J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Director

"When the Kennedy brothers got into office [. . .] the FBI finally turned up the heat. [on the crime families that did not support Kennedy] And when J. Edgar led the Warren Commission investigation into the Kennedy assassination, he suppressed all evidence that pointed to the true culprits behind the plot."


Robert F. Kennedy (left), and John F. Kennedy

He says, what he loved most about working with crime families, "was the action, the excitement. [. . .] it was the danger, the thrills that made the life of crime something special. [. . .] That was the best part, the actual hijacking, when you stick a gun in the driver's face and steal his truck."

He admits he was arrested dozens of times but he "never did any real jail time for any of it; the charges were always dropped or forgotten. The reason for that is that I was connected."

"[I]f there was trouble with any witnesses [. . .] we had a guy in a Queens [NY] detective squad who could trace their license plate numbers for us."



"Everything we did flowed from gambling, [. . .] If guys couldn't meet their nut [debt payments] every week, they'd become tipsters, paying their debt by offering information and assistance instead of cash. They tipped us off to high-value shipments coming into JFK [airport,] maybe they'd forget to lock up at closing time [. . .] or they'd tell us when a competitor's payroll was delivered. They'd tell us about diamond and gold deliveries in Manhattan's famous Diamond District[.] It was the choice of either that or getting their legs broken."



"The real problem [with selling drugs] and the key to our success if we solved it, was how to hide the money. [. . .] We could start a restaurant, but we might as well call it the Money Laundry 'cause that's why wiseguys get in the restaurant business in the first place."


Frank Costello

"Frank Costello had a fleet of bulletproof speedboats that he used to bring in the booze from Canada. Joe Kennedy, JFK's father, was Costello's partner."


Joseph Kennedy

Polisi's uncle told him "Costello was the most powerful godfather in the country in the 1940s and '50s and had every politician in New York in his pocket, including Paul O'Dwyer, who was mayor when [Polisi] was born." His uncle said, "The politicians were all Irish [. . .] but the Italians owned them." His uncle "said it was common knowledge in the Mob that Hoover was a degenerate gambler who was into the Mob for big money. [Walter] Winchell was friends with both Costello and Hoover[.]"


Walter Winchell

One USPS Carrier had a son who was "on the Queens [NY] vice squad. Like every other cop in town, [the son] was on the take. [He brought along] another cop [. . .] who had access to the DMV records[.] When Serpico [the film] came out, you'd have thought it was tavern owners and the guy at the corner store paying off the cops. [. . .] It was the Mob greasing everyone's palms. I can't speak for every borough, but in Queens we owned the police department. [. . .] Jimmy Burke used to say he loved living in Queens because it was the best place in the world to commit crimes. That's because Jimmy almost single-handedly turned the blue-collar Queens police force into middle-class suburbanites. [. . .] Jimmy must have had one of the largest payrolls in Queens County. Besides half the cops in the borough, he had tipsters in most of the trucking companies and cargo warehouses at JFK Airport on retainer."


Frank Serpico

The night before the film "The Godfather premiered in New York, in the middle of March 1972, [Carlo Gambino sent out word that n]o made guys, no connected guys, nobody in this Life goes" to see that movie.


Carlo Gambino

During a war between Joe Colombo and the Gallo brothers, "the Westies, the Irish gang from Hell's Kitchen, were doing contract work for both sides in the new Gallo War. They were carrying out hits and they were also using the war  to promote their side business, which was kidnapping connected guys. Normally they would just hold them for ransom and whack them if nobody paid up. With the war, they could grab a guy and sell him to the highest bidder--either let him go for a ransom or, if the enemy Family offered more, whack him."


Joseph Colombo

"When the police broke the famous 1960 French Connection case that the movie was based on, they confiscated a shipment of [drugs] worth something like $30 million. The junk was stored in the NYPD's property clerk's office [. . .] Altogether the NYPD's stash was worth about $73 million. Because of all the publicity [. . .] somebody thought it might be interesting to find out whatever happened to all the drugs. The cops opened up the storage bin. [. . .] which now contained a couple hundred pounds of cornstarch and flour. The entire property clerk's drug stash was gone. [Polisi] was living in a world where wiseguys were selling smack that they stole from the cops who took it from other wiseguys.

Polisi testified the Gambino Bergin crew "had the entire Queens courthouse in their pockets, from the DAs to the top judges; how hard it was to find a cop or a detective who wasn't on the take."


Diane Giacalone

During the trial Polisi noticed that the jurors were being driven in limos "to wherever they were being sequestered." When he got the opportunity he mentioned this to the prosecutor, Diane Giacalone. "I told her they were crazy to drive the jury around in those limos. What was stopping the crew from following them and finding out where they were staying? She said I was paranoid. I said she was nuts if she didn't think they'd try to fix the jury. She laughed at me and said it was impossible; there was no way that could be done. I told her she didn't know how these guys worked. [. . .] I kept after Giacalone about it, but she never listened." He added, "She was real smart and well organized, but she was naive."


James "Jimmy The Gent" Burke

"Jimmy [Burke] went to prison for fixing Boston College basketball games[.]"

When Polisi drove in Mexico near El Paso, he saw extreme poverty for the first time. He watched "young mothers with babies begging in the streets. [. . .] I thought about all the greed that fed the machines the gangs of New York ran on, the greed that made the dollar the almighty so it didn't matter how you got it. Money was everybody's god, not just us guys in the Mob. That's why the cops let us get away with murder. And the feds? They let us get away with assassinating the president of the United States. All because J. Edgar Hoover's greed and fear of being outed as a degenerate gambler and a closeted homosexual who blackmailed others for their own sexual preferences had to protect his friends in the Mob at all costs."

In Boston MA James Bulger is on trial for 19 homicides allegedly committed while he worked as an FBI informant. His handler, John Connolly, is in prison for homicide in Florida. One other FBI special agent in Boston died in prison awaiting trial for homicide. In New York City Roy Lindley Devecchio was tried in state court and acquitted for helping Greg Scarpa in his war for control of the Colombo crime family. There were reportedly up to 50 homicides during that period when Scarpa was an FBI informant. There is no end to the list of corrupt agents, police officers, judges, and politicians. Yet there is silence across the nation regarding these extreme abuses by public officials. Education dominates the economy in Massachusetts. Harvard University dominates education. Are the President and Fellows of Harvard College responsible for the wholesale corruption of the local and state governments? Silence in Cambridge MA, host city of Harvard University, MIT and Lesley University. Silence from the MA Attorney General who focuses on high school bullies and same sex marriage. Silence from the five laws schools in Boston; silence from the government schools and the political science departments of the many colleges in the Boston area. Will we all be safe if high school bullies are stopped? If all people are allowed to marry whoever they want? Will that end the corruption of the public officials who abuse their power to steal taxpayer money? 

Gotti Adviser Reveals Associations With Celebrities

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/secrets_gottis_F466MZ8kzKccnYgPKw9lJI/0

Teflon Don's former adviser reveals the secrets of the Gottis
By BRAD HAMILTON
New York Post
Last Updated: 11:09 AM, July 1, 2012
Posted: 1:33 AM, July 1, 2012

Gambino Family Member Converts to Judaism

http://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-mobster-first-reformed-now-modern-orthodox/

Ex-mobster: first reformed, now modern Orthodox
Former Gambino family associate Louis Ferrante recounts his transformation from violent criminal to observant Jew
By Nathan Burstein
February 15, 2012, 12:57 pm

FBI Can't Find Its Tail

FBI Can't Find Its Tail

The lack of prosecutions of organized crime in Massachusetts is
due more to the priorities of the FBI, than the lack of organized
crime operations . (Kevin Cullen, "Wiseguys, wannabes," Boston Globe,
February 11, 2008) Major crime operations moved into offices run by
corporations and public officials. As the Corleones said you can steal
more money with a law degree than with a gun. US Judge Mark Wolf
questioned why US Attorney Michael Sullivan does not focus on white
collar crime.
Taxpayers cover multi-billion-dollar thefts using government
agencies. See the Savings and Loan scandal, the subprime mortgage
scandal, HUD, etc. Best Buy employees discovered a terror plot not the
FBI. The corruption of the Boston FBI office was revealed by defense
attiorney Anthony Cardinale. US Attorney Donald Stern took credit when
credit was not due.
The Gambino arrests resulted from an informants who was arrested, in order to save his own behind, not from FBI diligence. The New York arrests excluded public officials, police and corporation executives that worked with the Gambino crew members. They will cooperate with any family. Business is business. In Boston after
Weeks (in print) and Bulger boasted of having local police and state
police on their payroll there has yet to be any investigation of any
police agencies including the FBI. It appears that crime families
moved out of the streets and now comfortably operate in public and
private offices. It is possible to fool most of the people most of the
time.

Roy Bercaw - Editor ENOUGH ROOM

Wiseguys, wannabes
By Kevin Cullen,
Boston Globe Columnist
February 11, 2008

Reading through that 170-page indictment aimed primarily at the
Gambino crime family in New York the other day, it was hard not to
feel a twinge of nostalgia.

Among the 62 wiseguys and wannabes named were such luminaries as John
"Johnny Red Rose" Pisano, Thomas "Tommy Sneakers" Cacciopoli, John
"Jackie the Nose" D'Amico, and the deliciously named Anthony
"Buckwheat" Giammarino.

Now, perhaps there is some loanshark in Cleveland called "Stymie," but
I'm guessing Giammarino is the only made guy in America named after a
black kid on "The Little Rascals."

Despite this talk of the Red Sox having exorcised the demon of
inferiority complex when it comes to all things New York, my first
reaction to the indictment was: Why we no have?

There hasn't been a roundup of mafiosi by the feds around here in
years - and don't hold your breath waiting for one.

The difference between New York and Boston is not simply one of scale:
that New York, as home to the five biggest crime families, is a
major-league wiseguy town while Boston is not. There are still more
than a few made guys around here extorting bookies, running drugs,
whatever. Still, federal prosecutors are loath to bring another
era-spanning racketeering case against the remnants of Boston's mob
not merely because there are so few wiseguys left but because doing so
would inevitably mean revisiting the legacy of corruption within law
enforcement, especially Boston's FBI office.

To suggest, as the Department of Justice does, that it began and ended
with a few rogue agents involved in the mishandling of James "Whitey"
Bulger is simplistic. So, while the good guys in New York are still
chasing real live wiseguys, we're chasing ghosts, namely Bulger, who
may or may not be alive and is most definitely not where the FBI has
been or has not been looking for him.

Taking advantage of the federal racketeering act, prosecutors were
able to charge the New York wiseguys with crimes that stretch to 1976.
Detailing in court the way people around here were getting framed,
used, and excused going back to 1986, let alone 1976, would be a
defense attorney's dream.

"As the FBI approaches its 100-year anniversary, we remember that our
very beginnings were rooted in fighting gangsterism," FBI Deputy
Director John Pistole said in New York. "We face other daunting
challenges today, but our commitment to battling organized crime has
never wavered."

Could Pistole come here and make that same speech? Actually, let me
rephrase the question: Could Pistole come here, make that same speech,
and be believed?

If federal prosecutors here were to prepare an indictment similar in
scope and historic reach to the one in New York, some of those
indicted would have been working for the FBI or enlisted as government
witnesses over the last decade to clean up the mess created by corrupt
agents. Some of them will be in Miami in June, ready to testify for
the government when Bulger's old FBI handler, John Connolly, goes on
trial for allegedly helping Bulger's guys murder people.

The greatest single act of government aggression against the Mafia
around here was the creation of the Massachusetts Lottery. It muscled
out the mob's bread and butter, the daily number, essentially leaving
the gangsters with sports betting. The federal prosecutions of the
1980s took out some big shots, but the chances of seeing another big
Mafia trial here are, unlike Carmen DiNunzio, the alleged local Mafia
leader, slim.

DiNunzio faces state charges for extortion and sports bookmaking,
which might land him maybe five years, instead of a federal rap that
would be effectively a life sentence. As for DiNunzio's supposed
nickname, "The Big Cheese," he insists nobody calls him that, that
it's an invention of the cops and the newspapers because he runs a
cheese shop in the North End.

We have been reduced to bookmaking cases and made-up wiseguy nicknames.

What would Buckwheat say?

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com.