Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. In this bonus episode, Gary tells five short stories about the New York City Police Intelligence Unit and their efforts to plant hidden microphones on John Gotti and Neil Dellacroce in and around the Ravenite Social Club. Gary found these first-person accounts in a book titled Cop Talk : True Detective Stories From the NYPD by E. W. Counts. Subscribe to the Podcast for a new gangster story every week. Support the Podcast. Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwireClick here to “buy me a cup of coffee” To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup click here To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here To buy my Kindle book, Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos. To subscribe on iTunes click here. Please give me a review and help others find the podcast. Donate to the podcast. Click here! Transcript SPEAKERS GARY JENKINS 00:00 Hey all you Wiretappers out there back here in the studio of Gangland Wire, this is kind of a shorty want to take care of you guys in the especially the audio. I started working on a book written by some New York City policemen or they like collaborated with another author and they told a lot of stories about being in New York City policeman and in particular they got a bunch of guys from the Intelligence Unit to tell stories and so I was going through them and they were great stories about trying to bug the Ravenite Social Club which was Gotti’s social club and Dellacroce social club also, before then before that, you know, it’s this social club the Raven night on 477 I think Mulberry Street and he has in Mulberry Street down there little it lay in Manhattan. It goes all the way back to Albert Anastasia. And then Carlo Gambino took it over and then Carlo Gambino, you know if you know anything about him at all, he likes to keep a low profile. And by the time he took it over and been there for a while there was so much heat on it and so much police and agents, FBI agents attention that he left there, and he gave it to Neil Dellacroce. So he took it over and then God he will eventually take it over. So it’s got a long and storied history, it’s a shoe store. Now by the way, I’ll put some pictures up here on the YouTube channel. But the NYPD we’re working on it big time because like Gambino noted noted there’s a lot of attention paid to it and they got what what the FBI was called a plant or an observation point. And that would be a upper floor apartment with a window and where you could see the front of the social club but we did it down here in Kansas City boy and we were in what we call Little Italy or Columbus Park down here for our social club and it was really hard to get matter of fact we the FBI talked about buying a whole house but that house was not for sale and it was right across the street but there was nothing else really speak up we had a spot there was a buy at a community center there was almost a block away now with with binoculars you could pick out tags and then after a while you knew guys cars so didn’t have to actually see the tag and note that so it’s okay but you couldn’t really exactly see the front you could only see the cars as they pulled along Troost and then took a left and parked somewhere around the club or if they went east and west on Fifth Street and if they came from the east and parked on the east side you didn’t you couldn’t see him from that particular plant we had it was kind of a temporary deal anyhow I want spent Super Bowl Sunday up there watching to see who was coming and going and and if we’d see one of the name targets on the FBI wiretap affidavit column that the wire room and say so and so is there and then they could turn on the bug that was insid...

Stephen Blumberg and the stolen books

Here is another interview with my friend Steve St. John on life behind the walls. In this case, he tells us about a man named Stephen Blumberg. Steve remembers this guy was in prison for the unusual crime of stealing several million dollars of rare books from college libraries and museums. He tells us that Blumberg was independently wealthy living on a trust fund that paid him $72,000 a Year. He just liked to own rare books. Steve recounted he learned how Blumberg started stealing doorknobs and stained glass windows from old mansions and graduated to rare books. One of the most valuable was the first edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Stephen Blumberg gets caught

He was only discovered because a man who had worked with him stealing books told on him. We leaned that Blumberg mounted an insanity defense that failed. Steve stated that Blumberg was most definitely mentally ill from his observations at the prison.

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The post Wearing a Wire on Steve St. John appeared first on Gangland Wire.

Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. In this episode, I recount the thrilling tale of the Battle of Little Bohemia, a showdown involving infamous gangsters like John Dillinger and Babyface Nelson in the 1930s. The narrative vividly describes the chaotic raid on the Little Bohemia lodge by law enforcement under Melvin Purvis, showcasing a tense and dangerous confrontation filled with gunfights and dramatic escapes. The story delves into the planning challenges, unexpected twists, and tragic consequences, including casualties like Special Agent Carter Baum. The aftermath explores the criticism and emotional impact of the failed raid, offering a compelling insight into the relentless pursuit of justice and sacrifices made by law enforcement agents during that turbulent period.Support the Podcast Subscribe to get new gangster stories every week. Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwireClick here to “buy me a cup of coffee” To go to the store or make a donation or rent Ballot Theft: Burglary, Murder, Coverup, click here To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here To buy my Kindle book, Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How FBI Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos. To subscribe on iTunes click here. Please give me a review and help others find the podcast. Donate to the podcast. Click here! Transcript Transcript [0:00] Introduction [0:00]Well, hey, all you wiretappers. Glad to be back here in studio Gangland Wire. I’m glad to have you here with me. You know, this is Gary Jenkins, retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective, now turned podcaster. [0:15] Inquiry from Greg Scavuzzo [0:11]And I have a show for you today that I’m kind of excited about. I did this a long time ago. I had a inquiry from Greg Scavuzzo on my YouTube channel. And Greg’s longtime listener, Kansas City guy, he said, hey, why don’t you ever do anything about those 30s bank robbers? We had a lot of those here around Kansas City. [0:39] Kansas City Massacre at Union Station [0:33]We had the, as you know now, by now, we have the Kansas City massacre down at the Union Station. So this month, I’m doing nothing but those 30s gangsters. And so I’ve got the Kansas City massacre at Union Station with Terrence O’Malley, [0:49] John Dillinger’s Escape from Little Bohemia [0:48]who’s a real expert on that. And I am doing the John Dillinger story, but not the John Dillinger escape from jail story. I am doing the John Dillinger escape from the Battle of Little Bohemia story, which is maybe not as well known. John Dillinger and his crew, after he escaped from jail at Crown Point, Indiana, he was on the lam. He got back in with some of his old buddies, Babyface Nelson and Homer Van Meter and two or three others. [1:17]And they were going around robbing banks and doing things and they needed to lay low. And the police, after that Crown Point jail thing, and they took that lady sheriff’s car and it was it was it hit the headlines. It was so flew in the face of law enforcement that people were starting to like back off from this. Hey, John Dillinger’s like Robin Hood thing. And law enforcement was after him. They were raiding pads in Chicago. They were raiding apartments. They were raiding places all over the Midwest. There were reports coming in from all kinds of, you know, he wouldn’t, if John Dillinger was in Northern Minnesota and a bank was robbed in Southern Missouri, John Dillinger got the credit and Clyde Barrow, Bonnie and Clyde, they got some of the same kind of a thing. People are always, you know, trying to say that was Bonnie and Clyde or that was John John Dillinger, because they were so well-known. Well, John Dillinger really was up in northern Wisconsin. [2:12]He and these gang members, Babyface Nelson in particular, and Homer Van Meter,

Support Gangland Wire May 27, 1981 was a beautiful spring day at the exclusive Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A respected successful Tulsa businessman named Roger Wheeler finished his regular golf date with friends. He showered, dressed, had one drink with his golf buddies and walked to his car. This day seemed normal in every aspect except for a late model brown nondescript sedan occupied by two men parked in the lot. Mr. Wheeler entered his car and as he prepared to start the engine, a heavyset, black-bearded man with dark sunglasses walked up to him, raised a revolver and fired one round into Roger Wheeler’s face, killing him instantly. The shooter returned to the waiting driver of the brown car they quietly drive away. Among other successful business ventures, Roger Wheeler owned World Jai Alai, Inc., a sports/gaming organization based in Florida. At that time, World Jai Alai Inc. employed retired F.B.I. agent Paul Rico as a vice president of security. The Tulsa Police investigation was intense but failed to identify any suspects. The detectives would immediately focus on Wheeler’s connection to the Jai Alai business because of the gambling associated with this obscure sport. Mike Huff, one of the original officers responding to the crime scene, would become the detective assigned to pursue the case. Over the next two decades Detective Huff learned that the trail led to Boston gangsters John Martorano, Whitey Bulger, Stevie “The Rifleman” Flemmi and their South Boston Winter Hill Gang. On October 2, 2003, 22 years later, retired agent Paul Rico is indicted and arrested for the murder of his former employer, Roger Wheeler. By this time 78 year old Paul Rico was in poor health Paul Rico when he was arrested, placed into the general population of the Miami jail where is subjected to insults and assaults by the inmates. He is held without bond for several months during the extradition process and transported to Tulsa Oklahoma. He never regain his freedom or even have a chance to clear his name at a preliminary hearing before he would die because of improper health care by the jail staff while handcuffed to a hospital bed on January 18, 2004. What happened in between to culminate in this tragic end is the subject of an investigation by two retired F.B.I. agents, Chris Kerr and Joe Wolfinger. They learned that Paul Rico was a well respected agent with the reputation as a fearless, flamboyant gang-busting agent who earned this reputation while assigned to the Boston office. Agents Kerr and Wolfinger complied their evidence in a book titled, Rico: How Politicians, Prosecutors and the Mob Destroyed one of the F.B.I.’s Finest Special Agents. We do a conference call with these agents and learn that the actual shooter of Roger Wheeler was a Boston gangster named John V. Martorano and his wheel man was a member of the Boston Winter Hill gang named Joe McDonald, who will later die of natural caused in 1997. The agents lead us down a twisted path that reveals how James Whitey Bulger, Steve “The Rifleman” Flemmi were paid by a former employee of World Jai Alai named John Callahan to arrange the murder of Roger Wheeler. Bulger later orders Martarano to kill John Callahan because they fear he will testify. Martarano and Flemmi will make deals to avoid the death penalty and admit to this murder conspiracy and claim that Paul Rico provided them with a piece of paper that contained the automobile and license number and the address of the Southern Hills country club as part of the conspiracy. My own conclusion after this interview is that a police investigator and prosecutor led a grand jury to indict Paul Rico on the flimsiest of evidence and their hunger for headlines resulted in the besmirching of the reputation of a honest and dedicated F.B.I. agent. The tragic and unfortunate result was that Paul Rico was then killed while in the care of the Tulsa authorities. Don’t forget to listen to Aaron on the Big Dumb Fun Show...

John Pennisi John Pennisi is the interview subject. A very unusual former mobster. john Pennisi writes a regular blog titled Sitdown News (click to find this). He has become an accomplished author as he creates a new life outside his former life as a soldier in the Lucchese crime family. John Pennisi and Staten Island The Lucchese crime family has held a strong presence on Staten Island for many years. John Pennisi tells Gary how he was actually a member of the Brooklyn facion of the Lucchese family but they operated out of Staten Island. over the years, with the Mafia clan holding a clandestine initiation ritual here and numerous members of its so-called Brooklyn crew operating on the borough, a mob snitch said last week. How John Pennisi landed in Witness Protection John describes himself as a “cooperating witness” because he never wore a wore or “worked” undercover. He started cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation sometime after October 2018, when he walked into the Bureau’s office to share his “concerns and basically crimes that he committed. That was just the beginning of his sharing the secret information about the Lucchese crime family and other New York City mobsters. www.sitdownnews.com Here is some information he wrote about: SECRET INITIATION Pennisi said he became a member of the Lucchese family in 2013, during a secret initiation ceremony at a house on Staten Island on his wife’s birthday. Matty Madonna, the acting boss of the Lucchese family, presided over the ceremony, he said. In the darkness of a basement, Pennisi sat in front of a table. “There was a gun, a knife, there was a picture of a saint, an ashtray, a lighter, and like a diabetic pin, needle to check your blood,” said Pennisi. Below are some interesting titles of his blog pieces The Fashion Of Cosa Nostra Bonanno Wiseguy Falsely Makes Himself A Boss Nefarious Way of Johnny Sideburns “A Mob Handbook,” Below are some excerpts from his blog A clueless La Cosa Nostra candidate John (Butch) Arpino allegedly seeks advice from Pennisi on how one wiseguy should let another know that he too is a wiseguy. When Pennisi repeats the curious inquiry to John (Johnny Sideburns) Cerrella, a then-acting Lucchese captain, the boss shakes his head and says, “It is truly unbelievable, a guy like that got no business [becoming a made man]. What’s it come to? They now gotta hand them a f–king handbook after they straighten them out!” “The Gotti Chaperone Ended Up with a Broken Bone” documents a circa-2000 snafu involving the Gotti family. Peter Gotti accompanied his niece, Victoria, on a trip to see her father, Gambino godfather John Gotti, in the federal pen at Marion, Ill. After the visit, Uncle Pete ordered a longtime associate to chaperone his niece, who wanted to take in a movie. “No harm was done, just two adults enjoying a night at the movies,” Pennisi writes. However, days later, Victoria’s hotheaded Gambino capo husband, Carmine (Bull) Agnello, “got wind of the movie night.” He summoned the chaperone to his Jamaica junkyard and allegedly broke his arm with a baseball bat. Show Notes by Gary Jenkins Support the Podcast Hit me up on Venmo for a cup of coffee or a shot and a beer @ganglandwire To go to the store or make a donation Click Here. To rent Brothers against Brothers, the documentary, click here. To rent Gangland Wire, the documentary, click here To subscribe on iTunes click here, please give me a review and help others find the podcast