They can join an amnesty programme and turn informer—thereby risking being killed by their erstwhile chums.
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Already serving time for fraud, Coppa agreed to turn informer rather than face the prospect of an additional conviction that would effectively send him to prison for life. He was the first made man in the Bonanno family's history to turn informer.DeStefano 2007, pp. 204–206Raab, pp.
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393 Gravano ultimately opted to turn state's evidence, formally agreeing to testify on November 13, 1991.Capeci, Mustain (1996), p. 413 He was the highest-ranking member of a New York crime family to turn informer. Gotti and Locascio were tried in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York before District Judge I. Leo Glasser.
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Unusually for bosses of his era, he actively encouraged his men to have their sons made as well. In Massino's view, this would make it less likely that a capo would turn informer, since if that happened the defector's son would face almost certain death. To minimize the damage from informants or undercover investigations Massino decentralized the family's organization.
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Under interrogation James Carey, the leader of the Invincibles, cracked: he was persuaded to turn informer against his fellow assassins, as were Michael Kavanagh and Joe Hanlon.Moloney pp.172–3 In a lengthy series of trials beginning on 11 April 1883 Joe Brady, Tim Kelly, Dan Corley, Thomas Caffrey and Michael Fagan were tried and convicted for murder; all were subsequently hanged.Moloney pp.
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Casso has also admitted to several attempts to murder Gambino family boss John Gotti. Following his arrest in 1993, Casso became one of the highest-ranking members of the Mafia to turn informer. In 1998, however, the US government rescinded Casso's plea agreement and dropped him from the witness protection program. Later that year, a federal judge sentenced him to 455 years in prison.
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Massino subsequently claimed he decided to turn informer due to the prospect of his wife and mother having to forfeit their houses to the government. Mob authors and journalists Anthony D. DeStefano and Selwyn Raab both consider the turning of so many made men as a factor in disillusioning Massino with Cosa Nostra,Raab, p. 687 the former also assuming Massino had decided to flip "long before the verdict".
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Raab, pp. 678–679 While the prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of five other turncoats,Raab, p. 681 Vitale was of particular significance to the prosecution's case. Not only was he the third confessed underboss of a New York crime family to turn informer (after the Gambinos' Sammy Gravano and the Luccheses' Anthony Casso), but he had spent most of his three decades in the Mafia as a close confidant to Massino.
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Casso claimed to have sold large amounts of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana to Gravano over two decades. Once again, no one was interested. However, Casso was vindicated to some extent when Gravano pleaded guilty in 2000 to operating a massive narcotics ring, which included selling ecstasy to adolescents. He was the second confessed underboss of a New York crime family to break his blood oath and turn informer, after Gambino underboss Gravano.
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He convinced his bosses to lend him a pair of forensic accountants normally used in fraud investigations, believing that they could easily pinpoint conspirators in the family's money laundering schemes. Stubing believed that the threat of long prison sentences would be sufficient to get any conspirators to turn informer, and thus make it easier to trace how the money flowed to Massino.Raab, p. 647-648. In the meantime, the FBI also targeted other members of the Bonanno administration.
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Frankie, tired of hiding for six months, is on his way home to visit his mother (Una O'Connor) and sister Mary (Heather Angel) under cover of the foggy night. The slow-witted Gypo decides to turn informer for the £20 reward, enough for passage to America for the both of them. The Black and Tans find Frankie at his house, and Frankie is killed in the ensuing gunfight. The British contemptuously give Gypo his blood money and let him go.
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For the next few years, Amuso and Casso ruled the family from afar and ordered the execution of anyone they deemed troublesome, either they were considered rivals or potential informants. All of this convinced many Lucchese wiseguys that Amuso and Casso were no longer acting or thinking rationally. Alphonse D'Arco in a 1970s FBI surveillance photo What followed next was a series of botched hits on family members suspected of being informants. Ironically, these hits caused several family members to actually turn informer.
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Acceturo had served many of them meals in headier days. Blaming Amuso and Casso for the turmoil in the family, Accetturo decided to turn informer in hopes of saving his life and gaining a lenient sentence. The investigation that ultimately brought him down was led by Robert Buccino, a childhood friend who was now a top organized-crime expert in the New Jersey Attorney General's officeRaab, p. 507. Accetturo's decision to break his blood oath was a major coup for investigators.
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314–315 He did so in hopes of sparing his life; he was facing the death penalty if found guilty of Gerlando Sciascia's murder. Indeed, one of John Ashcroft's final acts as Attorney General was to order federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Massino. Massino thus stood to be the first Mafia boss to be executed for his crimes, and the first mob boss to face the death penalty since Lepke Buchalter was executed in 1944. Massino subsequently claimed he decided to turn informer due to the prospect of his wife and mother having to forfeit their houses to the government.
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As the highest-ranking New Jersey mobster at the time to turn informer and a three-decade veteran of the Mafia, Accetturo provided investigators with a clear picture of the Lucchese family, including its penetration and exploitation of businesses in New Jersey and its relationship with corrupt officials. Accetturo provided information on 13 murders, although he insisted he never personally participated in the slayings. Accetturo provided unexpected information about the origins of the New Jersey family, going back to 1931 and Lucky Luciano. Mysteries about the relationship between the American and Sicilian Mafia were also clarified.
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By contrast, Abinell's perspective is shaped by what she hears from the press and other characters. Moore said one aim of the episode was to raise the question of whether the audience could understand her point of view and should sympathize with her. He also notes that, in at least one respect, Abinell is right where Adama and Roslin are wrong: she believes correctly that the defense ministry of the Twelve Colonies was infiltrated by Cylons before the Destruction of the Twelve Colonies. Abinell is also correct that Sharon is not being as helpful as she could be, she refuses to turn informer against other Cylon agents in the fleet.
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In October 2002, having served several months on his recent stock fraud conviction, Coppa was indicted again on racketeering charges of extortion against Barry Weinberg, a Bonanno business associate. To avoid prosecution on his own criminal charges, Weinberg secretly recorded conversations for law enforcement in which Coppa pressed him for extortion payments. Facing charges that would have all but assured he would die in prison if convicted, Coppa decided to become a government witness, later declaring that, "I didn't want to do no more time." He became the first member of the Bonanno family to break his blood oath; until then the Bonannos had been the only family to have never had a member turn informer since the Castellammarese War.
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It appeared particularly likely that Andocides was an accomplice in the latter of these crimes, which was believed to be a preliminary step towards overthrowing the democratic constitution, since the Herm standing close to his house in the phyle Aegeis was among the very few which had not been injured.Cornelius Nepos, Alcibiades 3Jan Otto Sluiter, lectiones Andocideae c. 3. Andocides was accordingly seized and thrown into prison, but after some time recovered his freedom by a promise that he would turn informer and reveal the names of the real perpetrators of the crime; and on the suggestion of one Charmides or Timaeus,Andocides, De Mysteriis § 48 he mentioned four, all of whom were put to death. He is said to have also denounced his own father on the charge of profaning the mysteries, but to have rescued him again in the hour of danger - a charge he strenuously denied.
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However, all of this came undone when Amuso not only stripped Casso of his title of underboss, but declared that all Lucchese mafiosi should consider him a pariah—in effect, banishing Casso from the family. Amuso had long been suspicious of Casso's failure to use his law enforcement contacts to find out who betrayed him, and finally concluded Casso did it himself to take control of the family. Facing the prospect of a trial at which D'Arco, Acceturo, and Chiodo were due to be star witnesses against him, as well as spending the rest of his life in prison, Casso offered to turn informer himself just before his trial was due to begin. He finalized a deal at a hearing on March 1, 1994, where he pleaded guilty to 72 counts spelling out a litany of Mafia-related crimes, including racketeering, extortion and 15 murders.
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