I guess people would do almost anything to sell a book, but it was a little strange watching “Mob Wives” star Karen Gravano try to defend herself and her former lifestyle while being grilled by ABC news commentator George Stephanopolous in a recent TV interview.

                In this interview, which took place on 2/14/2012, Stephanopolous seemed a little peeved at his perception that Karen Gravano seemed more upset about the fact that her father became a rat, than she did at the fact that her father admitted being involved in 19 murders, including the murder of her uncle, her mother’s brother Nicholas Scibetta.

                Karen Gravano tap-danced around the notion,  saying “I was disgusted at the entire life my father was involved in. The life all around him was bad. My father was going against everything he believed in and everything he told me to believe in (when he became an FBI Informant).”

                Amazingly, after Sammy  Gravano admitted in court he was involved in 19 murders, he got a measly five years in prison. After his released, he took his wife, daughter and son to Arizona, and got them involved in a major ecstasy drug operation . All were arrested. Sammy Gravano  got 19 years, his son got nine years, but his wife and Karen got suspended sentences. Karen said she is living with her 11-year old daughter in Arizona, but is looking to move permanently back to New York and continue her career as a businesswoman. In addition to staring on “Mob Wives,” she said she presently owns a spa and a skin care line.

                Good luck with that.

                However, the main  purpose for Karen Gravano appearing for the interview was to plug her new book “Mob Daughter – The Mafia, Sammy the Bull and Me,” which is ranked #1 on Amazon.com in the category “Organized Crime,” and #443 all the books on Amazon Kindle. Stephanopolous said that the families of her father’s murder victim were claiming her making money on the book was “blood money.”

                Karen Gravano denied this, saying, “This is my story. I didn’t commit the crimes. This is a lifestyle all these men chose. As for the family of the victims, we are all victims. My uncle was killed too.  I’m profiting off my life, not the deaths of the people whose murder my father was involved in. It’s my life and I want to shed light on a lifestyle that is so glamorized. If you read my book you’ll see that I’m not glamorizing anything.”

                It’s an indication of the dumbing-down of America that Karen Gravano’s book is such a big hit. People love to see a train wreck, or read about people whose lives are a proverbial train wreck. And the show “Mob Wives,” a conglomeration of lifestyle train wrecks,  is a wonderful advertisement for her book.

                As for me, I’m going to pass on reading the book. I made the mistake of buying her father’s autobiography more than a decade ago, and the book turned out to be a pack of lies, half-truths, and plain crap.

                At the present, I’m reading Bill O’Reilly’s “Killing Lincoln,” which is the story of a true American hero. Why waste your time reading about the Gravano family (hardly the Nelson Family of “Ozzie and Harriet”), when you can read about someone who made a difference in making America the great country it is?

                Having said that, I know Karen Gravano’s book might be a best-seller for the foreseeable future.

                Like I said before, people just love train wrecks.               

PS – In the interest of full disclosure,  I do have an personal motive for panning Karen Gravano’s book. While her book is ranked #1 under “Organized Crime” on Amazon Kindle, my book “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and other Creeps – Volume 1- New York City,” is not doing as well as hers. After rising as high as #8 under “Organized Crime,” It’s presently at  #13, out of the 100 ranked. Not shabby, but not Karen Gravano-book territory. I guess I’d need my own TV show to compete with her, but unfortunately, I have a face for radio.

 For the Kindle version, Karen Gravano’s books costs $11.95 (hardcover-$15.95); mine costs only 99 cents.

                And don’t be a wiseguy and say, “You get what you pay for.”

Because this is the work I choose to do, I decided to watch “Mob Wives” for a second time, just to see what the young ladies were up too, especially Renee Graziano (I know this is dirty work, but someone has to do it). Because of my impeccable timing, I was able to get two shows in a row; the rerun of the 2/12/2012 show at 7 p.m., and the regularly scheduled 2/19 show at 8 p.m. Plus I was given a silly show called “Sitdown” from 9-9:30 pm.

                First off the bat, I’m amazed that Hector “Junior” Pagan is still featured on the show, two months after it was revealed in the press that Pagan is now an informant for the government. Pagan even wore a wire while talking to “Mob Wives” star Renee Graziano’s father, Anthony Graziano, which resulted  in her father being sent back to prison. Yet the show is on like nothing has ever happened concerning Pagan’s flipping to the Feds. I know the show was shot before all this came to light, but the fact that VH1 is still running episodes, without even a disclaimer on the screen to set the viewers straight, is disingenuous at best. In the two episodes  I watched,  Pagan is still schmoozing with Renee, like they are two love bids in a wonderful nest with nary a care in the world. And that’s misleading and disgraceful, considering what has transpired in the past two months since Pagan turned canary.

                There were a few scenes concerning Renee and Pagan that were downright laughable. In one scene, Renee snatches Pagan’s cell phone without his knowledge, and mischievously  searches  for phone numbers of his old girlfriends. I was screaming  at my TV set, “Look for the phone numbers of the FBI, you fool!”

                In another scene Renee and Pagan are seeing  a marriage counselor. In the presence of the marriage counselor Renee tells Junior, “You said I wasn’t skinny enough for you; that I was fat. I was 135 pounds, I wasn’t fat.”

                Pagan just shrugs at the remark like he’s thinking, “You’re still too fat for me.” Then he says with a shrug and no smile, “Now you’re thinner.”

                Renee looks like she’s ready to pull her own hair out.  She screams, “You’re making me paranoid!”

                In light of future developments, she had every right to be paranoid. But not because of her weight.

The counselor  finally opens his mouth, and asks the obvious question. “Why are you two trying to get back together?”

Pagan, the sensitive bloke that he is, just shrugs and says, “I don’t know,” knowing that at this exact moment he’s talking to the Feds and there isn’t the slightest chance he and Renee will ever get back together again; especially after he rats on her father, and her father’s pals like Vincent  “Vinnie TV” Badalamenti, who was also arrested because of Pagan being a stool pigeon.

There was a telling scene when Renee is sitting on a park  bench outside the Criminal Court building with another  mob wife, the name of whom escapes me, if I ever knew it in the first place. First Renee  says, referring to Junior, “What kind of man are you, or a father to your kids if you abuse me as a woman?” Her saying this makes you wonder why she ever attempted to get back with Pagan in the first place. This woman must be a glutton for punishment.

Then Renee blasts out the best line of the show; maybe in the history of the show. Pointing to the door  of the Criminal Courts building she says,  “Once a man walks through that door, the chances that he doesn’t go to jail are slim to none.  Unless he’s a rat.”

Ta Da!!

As for the show” Sitdown,” it might be the worst show on television, except that distinction probably goes  to “Mob Wives” itself. The moderator of the show is a blond kewpie doll named Carrie Keagan.  Keagan, who looks  a lot like a young Christie Brinkley, asks stupid questions, and from the mob wives she has featured on that particular show, she gets stupid answers.  In one segment,  Keagan hands out three cue cards to the guests. One says “Marry Him,” another says “Date him,” and the third says something like “Dump Him,” or “Incarcerate him.” (This show is so intellectual, I tend to forget.) Then Keagan blurts out the name of a famous male, and the girls turn over their cue cards to give their verdicts.

I’ve just turned my cue card over on the show  “Sitdown,” and it says “Dump the show—now!! Only intellectually challenged (brain dead) people would watch this show anyway. (Remember, I have an excuse; this is my job)

As for “Mob Wives,” obviously it’s a big money-maker for all involved. But in the interest of fairness, someone connected with the show should have the integrity to somehow relay to the viewers that although Hector Pagan is still appearing on the show, because of his present status as a FBI informant, he’s “persona non grata,” with everyone connected with the show, especially with Renee Graziano, and her sister Jennifer Graziano, who is the producer of the show.

But I won’t hold my breath waiting for this to happen. Integrity and the show “Mob Wives” should never appear in the same sentence.

Editor’s note: There’s a woman on the show who isn’t specifically one of the mob wives, but rather a friend of theirs. Her name is “Big Ange,” and believe me, she’s big.  Not fat, but big because she claims to wear  a triple F bra. Big Ange is actually quite pleasant, and one of the bright spots of the show ( if there is a bright spot). Big Ange, who is slightly older than the other ladies, adds spice to every scene she’s in, and seems to have a pleasant disposition, not like the other ladies, who always seem like they’re ready to bite the head off a rattlesnake. ( I couldn’t leave without saying something nice about the show.)

Recently, there had been a spate of cases where New York City cops have been charged with of “flaking,” or planting drugs on suspected drug dealers. So it is not impossible for someone to be framed in America by law enforcement.

But what is shocking it that Lindsey DeVecchio, a retired FBI agent, accused of helping out a faction of the Colombo Crime Family while he was still in the FBI, could be so close to conviction, even though the evidence against him was shaky at best.

The main evidence against DeVecchio was provided by eager-beaver ex-FBI Special Agent Favo, and Linda Schiro, the former long-time girlfriend of the late Colombo mobster Greg Scarpa. It was Schiro’s contention that DeVecchio and Scarpa had met many times at Scarpa’s home and that she had  heard them discuss mob business as if DeVecchio was in on the deal.

The trial could have gone either way, when Jerry Capeci, long-time mob writer, remembered a tape he had made when interviewing Schiro a decade before. On the tape, Schiro had contradicted what she was telling the court during the DeVecchio trial. Capeci presented these tapes to the prosecutor Vecchione, and the charges were immediately dropped against DeVecchio.

Author Charles Brandt, a former deputy attorney general for the state of Delaware, does a fine job putting DeVecchio’s thoughts on paper, and I highly recommend this book to readers.

But what really bothers me, is if something like this could happened to a highly decorated former FBI agent, it could happened to any one of us too.

    The LAW is gloating that the Bonanno crime family is basically a non-entity, or maybe even extinct,  but I’m not so sure.

                According to Joseph Ponzi, chief investigator for the Brooklyn DA’s office, the recent arrest of acting Bonanno boss Vincent “Vinny TV” Badalamenti was the “last man standing” in the Bonanno hierarchy, and that the Bonanno’s presently have no one in charge. Badalamenti was arrested with the help of mob rat Hector “Junior” Pagan, who is the ex-husband of “Mob Wives” reality star Renee Graziano. Pagan also wore a wire while speaking to his ex-father-in-law Anthony Graziano, which resulted in Graziano’s arrest.

                The FBI is also gloating about the recent arrests of the top Bonannos. “They keep setting ’em up, and we keep knocking ’em down,” said Seamus McElearney, the FBI , the leader of the FBI squad assigned to the Bonanno crime family.

                If the FBI and New York City law enforcement has learned one thing in the past 80 years or so of chasing the mob, it should be that as soon as one mob boss goes down, by either getting whacked or put into prison, another mob boss rises from the ashes, or gets “a bump up” to take their place. So it surprises me how smug both the Brooklyn DA and the FBI are with their statements about the demise of the Bonannos.

                If the law enforcement groups really feel they have their Bonanno problem licked, I’m sure there are a few smiling faces in the Bonanno ranks, hoping the law has let their guard down, so that the mob can continue with business as usual.

                Stay tuned for further developments.

You can see the article below at:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/yes_we_have_no_bonannos_beqIqL1PSLA6O7jNCy4uzL

Infested by reality stars and rats, they may be the first of the Five Families to go extinct

By BRAD HAMILTON

Last Updated: 12:21 PM, February 12, 2012

Posted: 10:36 PM, February 11, 2012

More Print

It started “The Godfather.” It ended “Jersey Shore.” Last week, the Bonanno crime organization — one of the “Five Families” of New York lore — became a parody of itself, shot down not on the tollway but with leopard print and mascara.

There’s Renee Graziano in court, crying as she explains how her husband, Hector Pagan, flipped for the DEA, wearing a wire to nab her father, Anthony “TG” Graziano, consigliere to the Bonannos.

Then there’s Renee on VH1’s show, “Mob Wives,” undergoing full-body plastic surgery that leaves her sliced up like prosciutto. She discusses the family business in such detail that her father stopped talking to her.
It’s hard to tell who wounded the family more — the rat or the reality star.

In a recent episode, the oldest of the “Mob Wives,” Angela “Big Ang” Raiola, turned to Pagan and summed it up. “We need some new guys . . . some real men.”

An epidemic of snitching and a slew of arrests has gutted this once-robust family, started by original commission member Joseph “Joe Bananas” Bonanno.

Joseph Ponzi, chief investigator for the Brooklyn DA’s office, says the recent take-down of acting boss Vincent “Vinny TV” Badalamenti — a relatively unknown bagel-store owner from Bensonhurst whom Ponzi called “the last man standing” — has left the family rudderless.

There’s no clear boss, street boss or consigliere. The in-house counsel job became vacant on Jan. 27, when Anthony Graziano, busted with Badalamenti and other senior leaders, was charged with racketeering and extortion, thanks to Pagan’s wire.

“They keep setting ’em up, and we keep knocking ’em down,” said Seamus McElearney, the FBI supervisor whose squad investigates the Bonannos and has been hammering them and the Colombos with equal vigor.

The feds have secured a number of key Bonanno defections, including that of Joseph “Big Joe” Massino, the only New York crime-family leader ever to rat out his own people. Massino began cooperating in 2004, and over the last eight years his defection has been exploited to maximum advantage, bringing down virtually the entire upper management.

The biggest to fall was the family’s toughest tough guy, ex-boss Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, and one of the few not to flip. He nearly drew the death penalty in June, thanks to Massino having secretly recorded the two of them blabbing behind bars, where Basciano not only copped to killing an associate but discussed in detail how and why the hit went down. Massino loosened up Basciano, his successor as family head, with a grim summary of the state of affairs.

By Joe Bruno

          PUBLISHED BY:

                                                Joseph Bruno Literary Service

 EDITED BY:

Marc A. Maturo

COVER BY:

 Nitro Covers

                                      Copyright 2012 Joseph Bruno Literary Services

                                                            Introduction

I’ve written three volumes on “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps – New York City,” and there seems to be no end in sight.

I originally planned to write two volumes on New York City subjects, then get on to the rest of the country. However, after finishing three volumes just on the miscreants, disasters, riots, and assorted murders which took place in the five boroughs of New York City, I realize I have a long way to go to give a full account of the truly horrible people who have lived, died, and desecrated the Big Apple, starting in the early 1800’s, and continuing up until the present time.

Although this book is presented in alphabetical order, I will give you the introduction in chronological order.

The first order of business was a nasty business indeed. It was called the Old Brewery, which was built as Coulthard’s Brewery in the late 1700’s, in what later became the treacherous Five Points section of Lower Manhattan. In 1837, Coulthard’s Brewery went out of business and the building was converted into 100 squalid tenement apartments, which housed over 1000 men, women, and children, the vast majority of whom would never see the light of day for many years. The Old Brewery was undoubtedly the most decadent building ever built. Besides the debauchery, including incest, which took place in the Old Brewery on a daily basis, more than a murder a day was committed on the premises.

When the Old Brewery was razed in 1853, the bones of hundreds, maybe even thousands of people were found by workers, either hidden in the walls, under the floorboards, or buried in the basement.

In the 1850’s, Sadie “The Goat” Farrell was a common thief in the Fourth Ward near the East River, who had her ear bitten off by the infamous Amazon Gallus Mag in the Hole-In-The-Wall bar on Dover Street (now the Bridge Café). However, Sadie gained her fame and fortune as the leader of a gang of “river pirates,” who terrorized the East and North (now the Hudson) Rivers all the way to upstate New York. When the police finally put a stop to her pirating ways, Sadie wandered back to the Fourth Ward, where she made up with Mag, and had her severed ear returned to her.

Then we have Satan’s Circus, the area between 24^th and 40^th Streets, and between Fifth and Seventh Avenues, which was teeming with houses of prostitution and illegal gambling. The “Main Street” of Satan’s Circus was Broadway between 23rd and 42nd Streets, which was then known as “The Line.” Satan’s Circus later became part of a larger tract of decadence known as “The Tenderloin.”

Satan’s Circus began thriving right after the Civil War, and continued to prosper until the beginning of the 20^th century. Satan’s Circus was allowed to exist due to corrupt New York City police officers, who took payments to look the other way, and sometimes even became partners in the sex and gambling dens themselves.  In 1895, the Ladies Temperance Movement, under stalwart leaders like Carrie Nation, put pressure on New York City Mayor Strong to put an end to Satan’s Circus. Strong, in turn, appointed Teddy Roosevelt as New York City police commissioner. Under Roosevelt’s leadership, the brass in the New York City police department gradually weeded out the cops who allowed Satan’s Circus to exist.

By 1910, Satan’s Circus was just a sad memory of what can happen when police officers fill their pockets with ill-gotten cash.

Then we have the McFarland/Richardson Murder Case.

Abby Sage, a famous New York City stage actress, was married to a Daniel McFarland, an especially cruel man who was a failure as a husband, and as a businessman. In 1867, Sage met Albert Deane Richardson, an upstanding individual, and one of the most notable journalists of his time. The two fell in love, and Sage divorced McFarland, with the intention of marrying Richardson. However, Richardson, an habitual drunk, wanted his revenge. After first wounding Richardson in the leg while Richardson and Sage were exiting a theater, McFarland, while Sage was out of town, shot Richardson three times in the chest in Richardson’s Park Row office of the New York Tribune. Sage rushed to Richardson’s side, and they were married on his deathbed.

The resulting McFarland murder trial captivated and split New York City. The main thrust of the trial, was did a man (McFarland) have a right to kill another man (Richardson) because of a failed marriage?

You’ll be as shocked as to the outcome as I was.

The Brooklyn Theater Fire of 1876, was the third worst fire in United States history. Because of the terrible condition of the dead bodies, an accurate account of how many people actually perished in the fire could not be determined. Due to the forensic evidence available at that time, it was estimated by the coroner that anywhere from 275-400 people had perished. But that was just an educated guess. 103 unidentified bodies, and parts of bodies, were buried in a common grave in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

The Great Rocking Chair Scandal of 1901was the result of an entrepreneur conning the Parks Department of the City of New York into allowing him to put his own brand-new, green rocking chairs in the city’s parks, instead of the usual hard wooden benches. This was all fine and dandy until the general public discovered that it would cost five cents a day to sit in those new chairs. This outrage transpired during a raging summer heat wave in New York City that killed hundreds, and the resulting riots graphically displayed the fact that you can’t charge the general public for something that was previously free.

The General Slocum paddleboat fire was one of the most devastating incidents ever to take place in America. The boat, filled with more than a thirteen hundred German/Americans, mostly women and children on their way to their yearly German-oriented picnic, caught fire in New York Harbor on June 15, 1904. When the boat was finally extinguished, 1,031 people had perished in the tragedy.

 Amazingly, because of the oncoming war with Germany, and because the vast majority of the General Slocum victims were Germans, the memory of the General Slocum Fire was soon eradicated from the public’s consciousness. It was replaced by the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911, in which there were approximately one-tenth of the deaths (146 deaths) as did the General Slocum fire.

            “Typhoid” Mary Mallon was an Irish immigrant who came to America in 1884. After working menial jobs that paid little, Mallon became a cook of some note. Unfortunately, she was also a healthy carrier of the deadly typhoid virus. In several households where Mallon was employed as a cook, the inhabitants of these households suddenly became sick, and some even died. Finally, it was determined that Mallon was the cause of these infections, but since Mallon had never been sick herself, she refused to believe it was possible she could be a carrier of this deadly disease. But after Mallon was forced to undergo blood and feces analyses, it was determined without a doubt that she was in fact a carrier. As a result Mallon was segregated on a small island off the coast of Manhattan, with only a small dog as a companion. What happened next showed how deadly Typhoid Mary really was.

            “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps – Volume 3 – New York City” contains bios on several Mafioso, such as Carlo Gambino, his cousin Paul Castellano, Vito Genovese, and Carmine Galente. There is also a piece on the murder of Jewish mobster Harry “Big Greenie” Greenberg, who became the victim of the first mob hit in the state of California.  Plus, we have a feature on Evelyn Mittelman, who was called “The Kiss of Death,” because several of her boyfriends wound up quite dead.

            The Prohibition era is covered quite well here too. First there is the Cotton Club, a legendary mobster-run Harlem nightclub, where all the entertainers and workers were black, and all the customers — lily white. Then we have a nice ditty on Texas Guinan, a cowgirl, turned Hollywood actress, turned raunchy singer/entertainer/speakeasy owner, who greeted all her well-healed nightclub customers with a hearty “Hello Sucker!” Guinan was such a roaring success during Prohibition, she was known as “The Queen of the Nightclubs.”

            The one person featured in this book who has never been portrayed as one of the “bad guys” was special prosecutor, and later New York Governor and Presidential candidate, Thomas E. Dewey. However despite his credentials, Dewey was so ambitious, it was not beneath him to frame a mobster for something the mobster didn’t do, because Dewey couldn’t nail the mobster on a crime the mobster did commit. So in my book (which is this book), that makes Dewey just as bad as the bad guys he enjoyed putting in jail. After you finish reading my piece on Dewey, I think you’ll agree with my assessment.

            “Mobsters, Gangs, Crooks, and Other Creeps – Volume 3– New York City” was a labor  of love, which I thoroughly enjoyed writing,  as I did writing Volumes 1 & 2. And because I can’t seem to run out of New York City bad guys, Volume  4 will probably detail just New York City miscreants too. Future Volumes, and I figure there will be at least a dozen in all, will finally touch on other cities in our fine country of America.

Upstate New York. New Jersey. Boston. Philadelphia. Chicago. Detroit. Cleveland. Milwaukee. Kansas City. California, and Las Vegas. Just wait. Your time is coming too. Then on to Canada, Mexico, and the rest of the world.

If I live that long.

            Now fire up your Kindle, or whatever device you desire, and start reading about some of the worst people God has ever created.

Joe Bruno

  According to an indictment brought by the Federal government, Vincent “Vinny TV” Badalamenti, an alleged top Bonanno crime family banana, dispatched three tough guys to “have a little chat” with mob informant Hector “Junior Pagan who was allegedly delinquent on a $5,000 loan. And the chief witness against Badalamenti in his upcoming trial is Pagan himself, who had been wearing a wire while talking to various alleged mobsters, including his ex-father-in-law Anthony Graziano, the father of Pagan’s ex-wife Renee Graziano, one of the co-stars of VH1’s “Mob Wives.”

            However, Badalamenti’s lawyers expect to have a field day grilling Pagan on the stand when it comes time for Pagan’s to perform his rat act in court.

            “We intend to attack his credibility and expose his motive to testify falsely for the government,” Ronald Fischetti, Badalamenti’s defense lawyer, told the New York Post.

            As was reported yesterday in this blog, Fischetti, along with his co-counsel Eric Franz, intend to allege that Pagan was involved in the murder of alleged Luchese crime family associate James Donovan in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn in 2010. In fact, Fischetti and Franz have written to Brooklyn federal prosecutors asking for information about “Pagan’s role in Donovan’s murder.

            If there is evidence that Pagan was involved with Donovan’s murder, Badalamenti’s lawyers will allege that Pagan is just making up tales out of school in order to save his own skin.

            It wouldn’t be the first time a mob canary testified against former pals in order to get a reduced sentence. As far back as 1941, Abe “Kid Twist” Reles, one of Murder Incorporated’s top killers, turned state’s evidence and began testifying against his former associates. Reles’ testimony helped put killers like Harry “Pittsburg Phil” Strauss, Mendy Weiss, and Louie “Lepke” Buchalter right into the Sing Sing electric chair. But on November 12, 194, before Reles could testify against other Murder Inc. alumni like Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Frankie Carbo, and Albert Anastasia, Reles went flying out of the 6^th floor window of the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island, while supposedly under twenty-four hour New York City police guard.

            The official NY police story was that Reles “fell” out of the window while trying to escape. But mob boss Frank Costello said years later that he spread $50,000 around the NY City police department in order to quicken Reles’ demise. In fact, Costello said that the cops who were supposed to be guarding Reles, were the ones who actually flung Reles out the window.

            But times have changed, and Pagan is now in the Witness Protection Program, safe as a newborn baby in his mother’s arms.

            Stay tuned for further developments.

You can view the article below at:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/tv_mobster_shakedown_xAgSdPB1126xScBNvjc3qN

TV mobster shakedown

By MITCHEL MADDUX

Last Updated: 12:44 AM, February 14, 2012

Posted: 12:44 AM, February 14, 2012

More Print

The reputed acting street boss of New York’s Bonanno crime family dispatched three tough guys to “chat” with a reality-show mobster who failed to pay back a $5,000 loan, the feds said yesterday.

Vincent “Vinny TV” Badalamenti, an alleged senior member of the Bonannos’ ruling panel, allegedly sent the hoods to shake down Hector Pagan, a wiseguy-turned-rat who is featured on “Mob Wives” and is the ex-husband of star Renee Graziano.

The gritty details of the extortion could be laid bare in court if Pagan — a former Bonanno associate — takes the stand against Badalamenti.

The reputed mobster’s attorneys said, however, that they plan to portray Pagan as a self-serving turncoat who will say anything to save his own skin.

“We intend to attack his credibility and expose his motive to testify falsely for the government,” Ronald Fischetti, Badalamenti’s defense lawyer, told The Post.

At yesterday’s hearing in Brooklyn federal court, Fischetti told a judge that Pagan was recently linked publicly to the Mafia murder of a Luchese family associate in July 2010.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/tv_mobster_shakedown_xAgSdPB1126xScBNvjc3qN#ixzz1mOjFJnNM

It looks like Hector Junior Pagan, resident rat of the popular VHI show “Mob Wives,” could be facing a murder rap, even though he became an informant whose actions resulted in the arrests of several alleged mob figures, including his former father-in-law Anthony Graziano.

According to the below article in the NY Post, Pagan, who allegedly secretly began wearing a wire around the same time he was appearing in cameos on “Mob Wives,” allegedly took part in the robbery-murder of James Donovan, a Luchese family associate, in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn in July 2010. According to the Post, “attorneys Ronald Fischetti and Eric Franz (who are representing Vincent “Vinny TV” Badalamenti) wrote to Brooklyn federal prosecutors, asking for information about Pagan’s role in the Donavan murder.”

Baldalmenti is one of the alleged mob figures that Pagan secretly taped, and those tapes are one of the reasons Baldalmenti was arrested in late January.

Pagan is the ex-husband of “Mob Wives” star Renee Graziano, who says she was as surprised as anyone when it was revealed Pagan had become an informant. Renee has recently denounced Pagan and says she supports her father “100 percent.”

The kicker here is, even though Pagan may have been promised a reduced sentence for his cooperation, he was most likely under obligation to reveal every crime he had committed in the past to get that deal. If Pagan didn’t reveal his role in the Donavan murder and it can be proven that he indeed was involved, his deal with the government could go right out the window.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

The article below can be seen at:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/reality_star_slay_link_SmFfwJB6xSuPNWYubW3UuI

The ex-husband of “Mob Wives” star Renee Graziano may have to answer for a Mafia murder carried out just months before he assumed a featured role in the show, sources told The Post.

Hector Pagan, then a Bonanno crime family associate, took part in the robbery-murder of James Donovan, a Luchese family associate, in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn in July 2010, according to sources and official documents.

Roughly a year later — while the VH1 reality series was still taping — Pagan secretly became a DEA informant and taped wiseguys.

On Friday, attorneys Ronald Fischetti and Eric Franz wrote to Brooklyn federal prosecutors, asking for information about Pagan’s role in the murder.

They represent Bonanno senior ruling panel member Vincent “Vinny TV” Badalamenti, whose arrest last month resulted in part from conversations secretly recorded by Pagan.

            She was not as vicious with her claws as the Dead Rabbits’ Hellcat Maggie. Nor as big and strong as an Amazon riverfront bouncer named Gallus Mag. But Sadie “The Goat” Farrell made more money than both women combined when she was the “Queen of the New York Waterfront.”

            Sadie Farrell was born and raised in the slums of the Fourth Ward near the East River. As a young girl she hung around with street hustlers and thieves. Slight of built, but mean and vicious, Sadie usually worked the streets around the docks in concert with a male companion, who gave her the muscle backup she needed. When a mark emerged drunk from one of the local dives, Sadie would take a running start, then ram the top of her head into the victim’s stomach. This was a dangerous maneuver, since sometimes the person delivering the headbutt does more damage to themselves than to the intended victim. But Sadie was a pro, and she made sure only the top of her head made contact with the victim’s gut, and not sensitive areas like her nose and forehead. The headbutt stopped the victim in his tracks, and as soon as he turned his attention to Sadie, her male companion used a slingshot to propel a rock to the side of the victim’s head. If that didn’t work, a bat or a sap always did the trick. Then Sadie and her partner would take everything of value from the unconscious mark, even his shirt, pants and shoes. This was small-time work for Sadie, but it still puffed up her reputation on the East Side docks.

            One day, Sadie made the mistake of having one too many belts in the Hole-in-the-Wall bar on Dover Street, just two blocks from the East River. The bouncer at the Hole-in-the-Wall was a six-foot female creature from England named Gallus Mag. Mag patrolled the bar with a small bat strapped to her wrist, which she was not reticent to use on unruly customers. If after a few whacks on the head the drunk was still feisty, Mag would then wrap him in a headlock, then bite off one of his ears, before she flung him out the front door. The ear would then go into a jug of alcohol, which Mag proudly displayed behind the bar. The jars filled with ears behind the bar was called “Gallus Mag’s Trophy Case.”

            Sadie being Irish and Mag being from England was an accident waiting to happen. It’s not certain who started the slurs first, but it’s a good bet it was Sadie, and that was not a smart thing to do. Mag, who was twice Sadie’s size, bopped Sadie on the head a few times with the bat, but Sadie still flailed away at Mag with a vengeance.

            Another not a smart thing to do.

            Mag enveloped Sadie’s head with her massive arms, and in a flash, one of Sadie’s ears had been detached from the side of her head. Mag deposited Sadie on her rump on Dover Street, then deposited Sadie’s ear in an alcohol-filled jug, and proudly displayed it behind the bar. Mag even scripted on the jug, “Sadie the Goat’s Ear.”

            Disgraced and disheartened, Sadie took her show on the road and wound up on the West Side docks, clear around to other side of Manhattan from her former haunts. One day while wandering around trying to figure out how to make a score, Sadie witnessed members of the Charlton Street Gang unsuccessfully attempting to board a small sloop anchored in the middle of the North River (now called the Hudson River). The Charlton Street Gang was so inept and disorganized, the ship’s crew had no trouble beating them back and beating them up in the process. Sadie figured with her expert direction, the gang would do much better than before if she were the boss. So Sadie helped the gang members lick their wounds, and then convinced them with her brains and their brawn, they could make a very successful team indeed.

            A few days later, with Sadie leading the gang, they were able to hijack a much larger sloop, and with the “Jolly Roger” (skull and crossbones) flying from the masthead, Captain Sadie led the gang up and down the North and Harlem Rivers, up to Poughkeepsie and beyond. They raided small villages; robbing poor people’s farm houses and the riverside mansion of the rich. Because ocean liners and major shipping vessels were so well-protected, Sadie and her crew concentrated on raiding smaller up-river merchant ships instead.

            Sadie was so into her “River Pirate” routine, she began reading voraciously on pirate history and pirate lore. After discovering that pirates had once kidnapped Julius Caesar, she ordered her crew to go on a kidnapping spree. In the spirit of old pirate traditions, some true, some contrived, Sadie even forced several members of her own gang to walk the plank if they did not do exactly as she demanded.

            For several months, Sadie and her crew were extremely successful in their endeavors. They stashed their booty in several hiding places, until they could dispose of it for cold, hard cash, though the various fences along the North and East Rivers. One of these fences was Fourth Ward,, who through her store on Clinton Street, was said to be the largest fence on the entire east coast of America.

            But all good things must come to an end.

            After several home owners were murdered by Sadie and Charlton Street Gang, the upstate Hudson Valley residents banded together and formed a force of resistance. The farm folk ambushed the Charlton Street Gang as it came ashore, and police patrolling New York’s harbor stopped them from pillaging the small merchant ships on the North River. Soon, so many gang member were killed, Sadie was forced to abandon her pirating ways. What was left of the Charlton Street Gang went back to the West Side docks, and soon they completely disbanded.

            Sadie decided to return to her old haunts in the Fourth Ward, where she was now hailed as the “Queen of the Waterfront.” With the cash she had earned from her pirating days, Sadie opened up her own ginmill.

            Soon after Sadie’s return to the East Side docks, the Hole-in-the-Wall bar was the site of seven murders in just two months. As a result, the New York City police shut down the Hole-in-the-Wall bar for good. But before last call at the Hole-in-the-Wall, Sadie visited Gallus Mag. The two girls made up, and Mag was so gracious, she went behind the bar, retrieved Sadie’s pickled ear, and returned it to its rightful owner.

            Sadie wore her severed ear in a locket around her neck for the rest of her life.

He was a mob insider, whom his former pal Louie “Lepke” Buchalter” decided knew too much to live. As a result, Harry “Big Greenie” Greenberg became the victim of the first mob hit ever in the sunny state of California.

Harry Greenberg, who also went under the names of Harry Schacter and Harry Schober, grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan with Lepke and Lepke’s longtime partner Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro, who were affectionately known as the “Gorilla Boys,” and then, as they became more prosperous — the “Gold Dust Twins.” Greenberg was tight with the two murderers, and was their partner in various garment center businesses, and swindles. Apparently a few murders were involved, and while there is no evidence that Greenberg participated in any of these these murders, he sure knew about the murders, and why they were committed. Maybe Greenberg even knew who had committed those murders. That knowledge turned out to be not such a good thing in the wicked world of Louis “Lepke” Buchalter.

Greenberg palled out with Lepke and Shapiro, and he even spent the better part of his summers with them at the Loch Sheldrake Country Club, in the Catskills in upstate New York, owned by legitimate businessman named Sam Tannenbaum. Sam Tannenbaum had a teenage son named Allie, who who worked at the hotel, either waiting tables, or setting up beach chairs by the lake. Sam had hoped that Allie would be his heir apparent at the hotel when Sam decided to retire, but Allie was destined for bigger and better things.

Or so Allie thought.

At the end of the summer in 1931, Tannenbaum was strolling down Broadway in Manhattan, when he bumped into Greenberg.

Greenberg asked Tannenbaum, “Do you want a job?”

“I could use one, if it pays,” Tannenbaum said.

Greenberg smiled. “This one is for Lepke. You know what kind of a job it will be.”

Unwittingly, Greenberg had just helped hire one of his own killers.

As time passed, Tannenbaum rose up the ladder in Lepke’s “Murder Incorporated,” which was a mob subsidiary, whose only purpose was to kill anyone that the top mob bosses in New York City, and later, mob bosses all over America, said needed to be killed.

Things started to go south for Lepke, when in 1936, Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey, who had already put Lucky Luciano, Lepke’s partner in the National Crime Syndicate, in jail for a 30-year bit, set his sights directly on Lepke. Dewey went after Lepke’s garment center rackets, and Lepke’s shakedown “Bakers Union.” However, these swindles were small potatoes compared to what Dewey really had in mind for Lepke. Convicted drug dealers always did substantial time in prison, so Dewey convinced the Federal Narcotic Bureau to build a case against Lepke, in a massive drug-smuggling operation. Figuring he was facing big-time in the slammer, Lepke went on the lam. Lepke was hidden in several Brooklyn hideouts by his Murder Incorporated co-leader Albert Anastasia, while Lepke’s rackets were tended to by other Syndicate leaders.

While Lepke was in hiding, he started thinking about who knew enough about his rackets to put Lepke in jail for a very long time, if not right into the electric chair. Lepke got word to all his killers, and anyone in the know, to either “Get out of town, or die.” Lepke’s thinking was, if any of his men got arrested, they might squeal on him in order to work out a better deal for themselves. It turned out that Lepke was right to worry about this, and that’s why in the spring of 1939, Lepke sent word to “Big Greenie” Greenberg to lam it out of town.

Greenberg took Lepke’s “advice” to heart and he hightailed it up to Montreal, Canada. While in Montreal, Greenberg got to thinking, “Hey, I’m up here in nowhere Canada, and I can’t even earn a decent dime. These guys better start taking care of me good.”

As a result, “Big Greenie” Greenberg did something very stupid. He sent a letter to Mendy Weiss, who was Lepke’s second-in-command in Murder Inc., saying, “I hope you guys aren’t forgetting about me. You better not.” Then he asked Weiss for a reported $5,000 to help him fight the cold weather in Canada.

Greenberg waited for a response, or the money, or both. When he got neither, he got to thinking again. “Hey maybe, sending that letter was not such a great idea.”

By this time, Weiss, after conferring with Lepke, had already given the order to Tannenbaum to go up to Canada and erase Big Greenie from Lepke’s list of “people to worry about.” But when Tannenbaum arrived in Montreal, Big Greenie had already flown the coop, and was officially a “lamster,” not only from the law, but from the guys he thought were his best friends.

Greenberg figured he’d hightail it up to Detroit, where the “Purple Gang,” another subsidiary of the National Crime Syndicate, might be nice enough to stake him a few bucks, and maybe even give Greenberg a safe place to hide. The Purple Gang, run by Sammy Coen, whose nickname was Sammy Purple, was very nice to Greenberg; too nice Greenberg thought. While he waited for some stake money, Big Greenie started thinking again, and he came up with the notion that the Purple Gang was stalling him so that killers from New York City could travel up there to do the big job on Big Greenie.

“They must have checked the New York office,” Greenberg figured. “The New York boys must have told them, ‘Keep him in tow until we get a couple of boys up there.’”

Greenberg was right. Tannenbaum and two other gunsels were in route to Detroit at the precise time Greenberg decided to take Horace Greeley’s advice and “Go West young man.”

Greenberg went as far west as he could without swimming, and he stopped in Hollywood, California, the new hometown of Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, a top boss in Murder Incorporated, and one of the few killers who thoroughly relished doing his job.

Siegel had been sent out to California in 1937 by the National Crime Syndicate to take control of all the illegal activities in the state, which was considered virgin territory by the East Coast mob. After organizing the syndicate’s gambling interests, Siegel decided there was big money to be made by unionizing the Hollywood extras.

You could have the biggest movie stars, the best scripts, and the finest producers and directors, but without extras, most movies could never get made. So Siegel unionized the extras and collected tidy sums from each and every one of them for the privilege of appearing, if only a few seconds, in a Hollywood production. Siegel even became a movie extra himself.

However, that was chump change compared to what Siegel really had in mind.

Tall and Hollywood-handsome, Siegel inveigled himself into the upper reaches of the Hollywood elite. He dated starlets two at a time, and even had a hot and heavy affair with an Italian Countess. The top actors and actresses of that time were Siegel’s best friends, but they learned fast being pals with a man known as Bugsy (no one ever called him “Bugsy” to his face) was an easy way to put a huge dent in your bank account.

Using the same technique he learned from Lepke in the labor unions, Siegel approached the biggest stars with his smooth line of patter. He would romance the female stars, then scare the hell out of them with his reputation, and a few pointed words. But with male stars, Siegel got straight to the point

With a notebook and pen in Siegel’s hands, the conversation would go something like this, “Hey look chum, I’m putting you down for $10,000 for the extras.”

“What kind of deal is this?” the actor would protest. “What have I got to do with the extras?”

Siegel would then shake his head, like a father disgusted at an ignorant child. “I don’t think you understand. Take your new picture, for instance. Every thing’s ready to go. But what happens if the extras go out on strike? That means the stagehands go out on strike too, because they’re all union. So there goes your picture.”

Without blinking an eye, every Hollywood star Siegel approached, without exception, paid up and paid up good. In 1940, when the Fed got a warrant for Siegel’s thirty-five room Holmby Hill’s mansion, they found in a safe upstairs a detailed accounting of the “loans” Siegel received for all the top Hollywood names. In one year alone, Bugsy Siegel had shaken-down actors and actresses to the fine tune of $400,000. And no one even complained to the cops. These frightened Hollywood suckers even palled out with Siegel while he was sticking his hands deep into their pockets.

So when the word came from back east that Greenberg was in Hollywood, of course Siegel was given the contract. Now, usually a man of Siegel’s stature would just give out the orders, and maybe help with the planning. But Siegel insisted, against the advice of Lepke, on getting in on the actual Greenberg murder himself.

Bugsy just loved a good killing.

“We all begged Bugsy to keep out of the shooting,” Lepke’s pal Doc Stracher said years later. “He was too big a man by this time to become personally involved. But Bugsy wouldn’t listen. He said Greenberg was a menace to all of us and if the cops grabbed him he could tell the whole story of our outfit back to the 1920s.”

At Newark Airport, just before he boarded a flight to Hollywood, Tannenbaum was given a small doctor’s instrument bag by the boss of New Jersey mob himself: Abner “Longie” Zwillman. Inside this bag were several “clean” guns, which were to be used in the Greenberg Hollywood caper.

In the meantime, Siegel was assembling his “hit team,” which included Whitey Krakow, Siegel’s bother-in-law from New York City, and Frankie Carbo, a Lower East Side thug and Murder Inc. operative, who had already been arrested 17 times, and charged with five murders, but none of the charges had resulted in Carbo doing any significant time in prison. Carbo was also a bigtime fight promoter and manager, and many of his top-notch fighters were suspected of not giving their best effort when their boss and his pals had bet bigtime on the other man.

Now came the issue of obtaining a getaway car.

Sholem Bernstein, an independent operator from New York City, just happened to be vacationing in Hollywood, when he decided to visit his old pal Benny Siegel. Soon, Bernstein would be sorry he ever made that visit.

Before even the small talk began, Siegel got right to the point.

“Clip a car,” Siegel barked at Bernstein. “Leave it in the parking lot down the street.”

Bernstein, a veteran at these sort of things, looked perplexed. Usually, when he clipped a car, he hid it in a private garage where the police wouldn’t be able to see it.

“A parking lot?” Bernstein said.

“That’s right,” Siegel snapped. “Just do as I say?”

So, Bernstein clipped a car and parked it in the open parking lot, just as Siegel had requested. Almost immediately, the owner of the stolen car filed a police report. Because they were on the lookout for the stolen car, the cops spotted the car right out in the open and returned it to its rightful owner.

Despite this misfortune, Siegel told Bernstein to clip another car. Bernstein said he would, and he even told Siegel how he usually operated. “Then you get license plates off another car that you case to see the owner only uses it once in a while, like a Sunday driver,” Bernstein said. “By the time the guy find out, you got the job done, and the cops are looking for him – why are his plates on a hit car. Then you…”

Siegel cut Bernstein off in mid-sentence.

The veins bulging in his neck, Siegel said, “Who the hell are you, coming in and telling me how to do a job? Out here it goes my way. And don’t you forget it.”

Even though Bernstein was in Hollywood on vacation, the mob rules were when a mob boss tells you to do something, you do it, or you’re dead. But Bernstein figured, when he was back in New York City and asked to do a job, the mob bosses, because Bernstein was a capable freelancer, let him handle things his own way. Now, since Siegel was dictating terms, Bernstein felt he was under no obligation to continue with the job. So Bernstein jumped in his car and headed back to New York City, which displeased Siegel to no end, and caused him to find someone else to pilfer a car for the Greenberg caper. Fuming, Siegel now wanted Bernstein dead.

But more on that later.

By this time, the surveillance on Greenberg’s residence at 1804 N. Vista De Mar Drive revealed that Greenberg was little more than a recluse. He never left home, except for his nightly 15-minute drive, each way, to get a newspaper in nearby Bel Air. Greenberg told his wife that his little nightly excursion “kept him from blowing his top.”

On the night of November 22, 1939, Thanksgiving Eve, a gunmen blew Goldstein’s top for him.

Just after dark, Tannenbaum picked up the stolen car from the parking lot. Then he drove Siegel and Carbo to Siegel’s home to pick up Siegel’s Cadillac, which was to be used as a crash car in case the cops, or a nosy bystander, decided to chase them after the deed was done. The two cars, with Carbo in Siegel’s car, then drove to a spot a several houses down from Greenberg’s residence. They watched as a few hours later, Greenberg emerged from his house, looked carefully both ways (missing the two parked cars down the block), got into his car and sped away. Carbo then emerged from Siegel’s car, slithered down the block, and hid in the bushes near Greenberg’s house.

Like clockwork, just over 30 minutes later, Greenberg turned the corner of Yucca Street and headed toward 1804 N. Vista De Mar Drive. Greenberg’s car passed the two parked cars, but both Tannenbaum and Siegel had slid down in their seats so they could not be seen. A spit second later, Tannenbaum flashed his headlights, just for an instant, alerting Carbo, who was waiting in the wings ready to exit stage right into a murder scene. As Greenberg tried to exit his car, Carbo sped from the shadows and pumped five bullets into Greenberg’s head.

Then Carbo raced back to the stolen car and jumped in next to Tannenbaum. Tannenbaum sped away, with Siegel in his crash Cadillac following close behind. (The crash car was always a legitimate registered car, so the driver could claim after a crash, either with a police car, or a civic-minded civilian’s car, that he had just lost control of his car.). The two cars rushed to a preordained spot where they met with another co-conspirator waiting in a third car. The third chap turned out to be Champ Segal, a small-time criminal who was always willing to help the big boys with whatever. Segal immediately drove Tannenbaum to San Francisco, where, mission accomplished, Tannenbaum hopped on a plane back East.

While Greenberg was being filled with lead, his wife Ida was inside their house waiting for her husband’s return. She was called to testify at the 1940 Harry Greenberg murder trial of Siegel (Carbo was scheduled to be tried at a separate trial, and Tannenbaum had turned rat, ready to fly out to California to testify at both trials).

On the stand, Ida Greenberg said, “I was reading and suddenly I heard a few shots, and because they were so fast and because I heard a car drive away, I thought they were backfires. But finally I got out of bed and went downstairs. I recognized the car and I saw a great amount of blood outside the car. I opened the door and there was my husband. I started screaming for help.”

During Siegel’s trial, Abe “Kid Twist” Reles, who had also turned canary and was the corroborating witness the prosecution needed to convict Siegel and later Carbo in California, suddenly flew out of the sixth-story window of the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island. At the time, Reles was under 24-hour police guard, even while he was sleeping. However, the official police report said Reles died “trying to escape by lowering himself down the side of the hotel using several bedsheets.” How this was possible with a policeman supposedly in Reles’ bedroom was never fully explained by the police. Frank Costello later said he had spread $50,000 around the New York City police department to get rid of Reles. It was also rumored, the police guarding Reles were the ones who threw Reles out of the window.

The case against Siegel also went “out the window” with Reles, and the charges against Siegel were dismissed due to lack of evidence.

Carbo was tried in California a few months later, but due to the lack of corroborating evidence of Tannenbaum’s testimony by Reles, his case ended in a hung jury. Carbo was set to be tried a second time, but according to Burton Turkus, New York City District Attorney William O’Dwyer, who had Tannenbaum under wraps, refused to allow Tannenbaum to travel back to California to testify at Carbo’s second trial. As a result, the charges against Carbo were dropped, and no one was ever convicted of the murder of Harry “Big Greenie” Greenberg.

Still, Siegel had a stone in his shoe and that stone was named Sholem Bernstein.

There was a system the National Crime Commission had in place for settling matters of dispute. Bernstein couldn’t be touched by Siegel unless Siegel had the permission of the boss of Bernstein’s New York City territory. The New York City bosses considered Bernstein one of their best men and refused to harm a hair on his head. But Siegel was adamant that Bernstein must die, so this compelled Siegel to fly to New York City in order to plead his case for the death penalty for Bernstein.

The National Crime Commission prided itself on its internal justice system. Every man who was targeted to death by someone, was allowed to have his case pleaded in a kangaroo court, usually by someone with pull within the organization. The man who took Bernstein’s part was none other then Abe Reles, who had not yet turned canary, and was still very much alive. As was shown when he took the stand against his old friends, Reles had a way with words, and he could be very convincing when he got the urge, which, considering his career, was quite often.

The sitdown took place in midtown hotel room, with a nine-member panel deciding on the fate of Bernstein, of which there was no appeal process possible. Siegel pleaded his case first, firmly stating that Bernstein was on a job, and not only had disobeyed direct orders, but had fled the scene before his job was completed. Siegel pointed out that the penalty for this was death. Period.

Now it was Reles’ turn.

Reles began by saying he was calling no witnesses. He also admitted that his client – Bernstein – had indeed fled California before he was able to steal the much-needed second murder car. And then Reles went on to explain why his client was completely innocent of all the charges.

Reles told the panel, “The same day Ben gave him the contract, Sholem got word from New York that his mama is going to cash in. Sholem is a good boy. His mama is dying; he figures he should go there. You all know how a mama is. It makes it easier for her to go if her boy is sitting there by the bed, saying nice things – like he loves her and she is getting better and like that.”

“So Sholem doesn’t even think of a contract. He don’t think of nothing. He lams out of L.A. and hustles home to be with his mother when she checks out. He drives day and night. All he wants is to hold her hand. He is a good boy.”

Reles’ put his chin up into the air and raised his voice an octave. “And that gentlemen,” he said, “that is why Sholem left town. Not on account of ducking the contract. But on account his mama is kicking off.”

When Reles had finished, there was not a dry eye in the room; not even Siegel’s. Bernstein was unanimously acquitted, and Ben Siegel flew back to California, only to have his own murder contract approved by the National Crime Syndicate, and summarily executed, on June 20, 1947.

It was an extremely uncomfortable situation in Federal court on Tuesday, February 7^th, 2012.

Mob Wives’ star Renee Graziano sat in court to hear the criminal charges alleged against her father Anthony Graziano, who was arrested recently. along with several other alleged Mafia figures, including Vincent (Vinny TV) Badalamenti. Also in the courtroom were the relatives of the other defendants, but nary a word, or glance was exchanged between Renee, who was in tears, and the other defendant’s relatives.

The reason for the cold shoulder appears to be that Renee Graziano’s ex-husband Hector “Junior” Pagan, who has been featured in episodes of Mob Wives (including one where the two apparently were headed back together) has been working as an informant for the Feds. Beside giving the Feds inside information on the defendants, Pagan wore a wire when speaking to Anthony Graziano. This wire allegedly revealed that Graziano asked Pagan to collected an overdue usurious loan. This was one of the charges leveled against Graziano in court.

When a reporter approached Renee and asked if she felt uncomfortable being around the relatives of the other defendants, she said, “I don’t feel uncomfortable around anybody. I send my apologies and I feel horrible, but I’m not responsible (for Pagan’s treachery). I didn’t do anything. But I can understand they may feel uncomfortable around me.”

I really don’t see the need for any apologies on Renee’s part. Obviously, she and the executives of Mob Wives knew nothing about Pagan working for Team America. The Feds would never allow this knowledge to leak out, otherwise they would have a very dead ex-informant on their hands.

I realize the show Mob Wives is an abomination, especially from the standpoint of the average Italian-American. I watched one episode and my ears were ringing from all the cursing (one of the stars banged out 22 variations of the f-bomb in a short segment, and seemed proud of the fact). I lived in Little Italy in NY City for 48 years, and I never heard a woman curse in front of me, let alone in front of tens of millions of viewers. (I know women curse, but in my neighborhood, never in front of men. And men never cursed in front of women either. Just the rules. If an f-bomb ever slipped out, there would be an immediate profuse apology. Or a severe smack in the face. Or maybe worse.)

But no matter what you think of the show, or of Renee Graziano in particular, you have to know she was an innocent victim in all of Pagan’s treachery. And what about her son AJ, who is the most innocent victim of all?

As for the lawyer in court who said about Renee Graziano, “She’s the one with the fake face and the black shoe polish hair, right?”, he deserves a kick in the belly. That potty-mouth retort was totally irrelevant to the trial, and if I were his client, I’d make this lawyer totally irrelevant too, by firing him on the spot.

I know there are people out there gloating about the Graziano family’s problems, but I’m not one of them.

Remember the old Indian proverb, “Walk a mile in my shoes.”

Or the verse in the Bible, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

People need to show a little compassion. They’ll never know when they’ll need a little compassion themselves.

You can see the article below at:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mob-wives-reality-show-star-renee-graziano-meltdown-federal-court-article-1.1018972

‘Mob Wives’ reality show star Renee Graziano has meltdown in federal court

Graziano cries a river for her wiseguy father

Comments (5)

By John Marzulli / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, February 8, 2012, 2:06 AM

“Mob Wives” reality show star Renee Graziano cried a river in federal court Tuesday for her wiseguy father, who was secretly recorded by his scheming former son-in-law.

Graziano, wearing a plush fur coat, covered her face with both hands and wept when the prosecutor discussed her ex-hubby Hector Pagan’s taping of Bonanno gangsters — including her capo father Anthony (TG) Graziano and the crime family’s reputed boss, Vincent (Vinny TV) Badalamenti.

Dabbing her eyes with a tissue, Graziano looked straight ahead and did not glance at the relatives of the other indicted gangsters sitting around her in the courtroom.

“I don’t feel uncomfortable around anybody,” Graziano said later. “I send my apologies and I feel horrible, but I’m not responsible (for Pagan’s treachery). I didn’t do anything.

“But I can understand they may feel uncomfortable around me,” she added.

Her surprise appearance at a routine status conference surprised some observers.

PHOTOS: MOB STYLE

“She’s the one with the fake face and the black shoe polish hair, right?” snipped a lawyer.

A gossip Web site had reported that she suffered a panic attack last month when prosecutors unsealed the indictment against her father, although Pagan’s double-crossing had been known since Anthony Graziano’s arrest two months ago.

Pagan wore a hidden wire since at least last August, recording incriminating conversations about extortions and the armed robbery of a Bonanno-controlled illegal social club, according to court papers.

But Renee Graziano insists she’s not a drama queen.

“This is real life — this is reality,” she said. “If I had known what (Pagan) had done, I would have told my father, 100%.

“He (Pagan) is dead wrong,” she continued. “My son loved his dad. He’s destroyed by this.”

Assistant Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Nicole Argentieri disclosed in court that the feds have a reality show of their own — a videotape of federal agents executing a search warrant at Badalamenti’s social club in Bensonhurst two years ago.

Renee Graziano’s co-stars include Karen Gravano — the daughter of mob rat-of-all rats Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano, who testified against the late John Gotti — and the wives of a couple of Mafia wannabes. The show was created by Renee’s sister Jennifer.

jmarzulli@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mob-wives-reality-show-star-renee-graziano-meltdown-federal-court-article-1.1018972#ixzz1lnv9E2N1