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Why Is Freddy Geas Still In Solitary? Western Massachusetts Mobster, No. 1 Suspect In Whitey Bulger Murder, Wants Out Of Lockdown

Scott Burnstein
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Why Is Freddy Geas Still In Solitary? Western Massachusetts Mobster, No. 1 Suspect In Whitey Bulger Murder, Wants Out Of Lockdown

May 21, 2022 — Attorneys for and family members of Springfield (MA) mafia enforcer Freddy Geas are pleading for answers to why Geas, the top suspect in the 2018 murder of Boston Irish mob boss James (Whitey) Bulger — which took place in Bulger’s prison cell and saw him beaten to death by a padlock in a sock –, remains in solitary confinement at a West Virginia federal prison after more than three years and no charges brought. The Boston Globe penned an article posing the question this week, quoting defense attorney Daniel Kelly and Geas’ son, Alex.

Bulger, one of the most ruthless crime lords in American history and a longtime FBI informant, was killed on October 30, 2018, only hours following his arrival on the Hazelton Correctional Facility compound ion Hazelton, West Virginia, where he was quizzically placed into general population. Surveillance footage from inside the prison showed Geas and two other Massachusetts-bred convicts entering the 89-year old Bulger’s cell in the minutes before Bulger was slain.

From the 1970s well into the 1990s, Bulger oversaw Boston’s Winter Hill Gang from a Southie bar and liquor store while aiding the government in its assault on the Italian mafia in the city’s North End. Upon his indictment for racketeering and murder in 1995, Bulger went on the run for 16 years.

Geas, 55, and his brother Ty were the muscle for Springfield mafia don and Genovese crime family skipper Anthony (Bingy) Arillotta in the 2000s before Arillotta turned state’s evidence in 2009 and helped the feds put the Geas boys behind bars for the gangland slaying of Arillotta’s predecessor as the Godfather of Springfield, Adolfo (Big Al) Bruno. Arillotta and the Geas conspired to bump off Bruno and grab control of the rackets in Western Massachusetts for themselves, getting the green light from Genovese boss Arthur (Little Artie) Nigro in New York.

Bruno was shot to death outside Springfield’s Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Social Club in November 2003 by a hired gun retained by Arillotta and the Geas brothers. Arillotta’s testimony proved the end of the line for Nigro and the Geas brothers’ respective careers on the street.

The Bahama Breeze May Have Landed In Lake Mead: One Of The Vegas Bodies Found Could Be Coke Pusher Billy Crespo

Scott Burnstein
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The Bahama Breeze May Have Landed In Lake Mead: One Of The Vegas Bodies Found Could Be Coke Pusher Billy Crespo

May 20, 2022 — Another name has emerged as one of the two possible cold-case mob-hit victims that showed up beached on the shores of Lake Mead in Las Vegas in recent weeks. That name is Billy (Bahama) Crespo, who disappeared in the summer of 1983 on the verge of testifying against drug dealers and a mobbed-up casino executive in the feds’ sprawling skim investigation that concluded in the famous Strawman and Strawman II cases. Crespo was a narcotics trafficker from Puerto Rico often tasked with moving skim money back and forth from Las Vegas to Miami.

The Mob Museum’s Geoff Schumacher and Jeff Burbank broke the news of the Crespo angle to the story in an exclusive for The Daily Mail.

Federal authorities in Vegas are exploring the theory that the two bodies (remains found in a barrel on April 30, a skull with two bullet holes in the back) were victims of former Chicago mob figure Tony (The Ant) Spilotro, who headed Outfit interests on the Strip from the early 1970s until his own slaying in June 1986. Spilotro’s blood-stained reign was dramatized for the big screen in the 1995 gangster-film classic Casino, with Oscar-winner Joe Pesci playing a memorable character based on Tony the Ant.

Billy Crespo was busted in 1982 at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas deplaning from a Miami flight with $400,000 in cocaine stashed in a suitcase. His federal grand jury testimony led to the indictment of ten conspirators in a drug and money-laundering scheme, including Chicago mob associate Victor Greger. When Crespo went missing in June 1983, the prosecutor’s case fell apart and the charges against Greger and six co-defendants were dropped. Greger was found guilty of money laundering and extortion in another case tied to his work at the Stardust Casino.

From The North End To Norfolk County: Boston Mafia’s Vinnie The Animal Back In Crosshairs, State Court Tosses Request For Money Return

Scott Burnstein
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From The North End To Norfolk County: Boston Mafia’s Vinnie The Animal Back In Crosshairs, State Court Tosses Request For Money Return

May 18, 2022 — The Massachusetts State Police believes Boston mob figure Vinnie (The Animal) Ferrara is running the show for the Patriarca crime family in Norfolk County, according to sources in law enforcement. The 73-year old Ferrara once ran Boston’s historic North End until he went to prison in 1990 for federal racketeering. Since his release in 2006, Ferrars has kept a low profile, claiming to be retired from his affairs in the mafia.

According to court records connected to a civil lawsuit filed by Ferrara seeking the return of nearly $300,000 confiscated by state authorities back in the fall of 2021, Ferrara is the target of an ongoing organized crime probe by state police. Last week, the case was dismissed on the grounds that he is at the center of a criminal investigation and the fact that he didn’t properly validate that the money was earned via legal means. Through his attorney Michael Natola, the $268,000 came from a real estate transaction he brokered, legal business endeavors and Social Security payments.

A grand jury has been convened and is hearing testimony regarding Ferrara and other reputed New England organized crime figures, according to sources. Ferrara beat a bookmaking charge at trial in Norfolk County Superior Court in 2008.

Per FBI documents and federal court sentencing memos, Vinnie the Animal was “made” into the Patriarca crime family in 1983, sponsored by North End capo Donato (Smiling Danny) Angiulo, brother of longtime New England mafia underboss Jerry Angiulo. When the Angiulo brothers were nailed in a RICO case, Ferrara took the mantle of power as boss of the North End. Indicted in 1990 in his own large-scale racketeering case, Ferrara went on to plead guilty to ordering the October 28, 1985 gangland slaying of mob associate Jimmy Limoli, his driver and bodyguard, and a slew of racketeering counts.

In 2005, Ferrara had his guilty plea in the Limoli homicide wiped off the books because prosecutors never informed Ferrara’s lawyer that the witness they had telling them Ferrara gave the green light for the murder had recanted his prior testimony in front of the grand jury. Ferrara walked free six years early from a 22-year prison term due to the murder count being reversed on appeal.

The Larry Hoover Interview Beef: J Prince & Wack 100 Feuding In Race For GD Boss’ First Public Words In Years

Scott Burnstein
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The Larry Hoover Interview Beef: J Prince & Wack 100 Feuding In Race For GD Boss’ First Public Words In Years

May 16, 2022 — Rap music impresario James Prince and hip-hop manager-producer turned influencer-personality Wack 100 are openly beefing over a recording of an exclusive interview with street gang legend Larry Hoover. The pair are going at it on social media, with Prince accusing Wack 100 of shady dealings with Hoover (incarcerated going on a half century) in relation to the interview and undermining the Gangster Disciples founder’s chance at freedom.

Prince, who pioneered Southern Rap in the 1980s with his Rap-A-Lot Records label out of Houston, is at the forefront to earn Hoover his release, along with fellow hip-hop luminaries Kanye West and Drake. Wack 100 possesses an interview Karen Chapman conducted with Hoover last year. Chapman’s interview was originally procured by the Hoover family, however, according to Prince, she and Wack 100 created a fraudulent contract assigning her all rights to the recording and are attempting to sell it without compensating Hoover or his camp.

The 71-year old Hoover heads the Gangster Disciples today from his prison cell in Colorado, according to the federal government. Almost two dozen subpoenas from a sitting federal grand jury were issued for incorporated companies connected to Hoover, including his defense fund and several other community-enrichment centered businesses. The grand jury was first convened in 2020. Hoover is locked up 23 hours a had in his cell. Sources tell Gangster Report, the current set of subpoenas are part of a sprawling racketeering investigation into Hoover and GD affairs.

Last year, U.S. District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber denied Hoover’s motion for a sentence reduction on his 1996 federal drug conviction. He was incarcerated in 1973 on a state murder charge out of Illinois. Hoover ordered the murder of William (Pookie) Young for stealing from the Gangster Disciples. Authorities believe Hoover is the most powerful African-American crime boss in the United States.

Hoover’s GDs began on Chicago’s Southside in the late 1960s and has since expanded around the country. The DEA places the number of GDs across the nation at 25,000-30,000, representing 14 different states. GD co-founder David Barksdale died of kidney failure in 1974.

Deep Diving The Dead: Making Mountains Of Mob Ant Holes Out On Lake Mead In LV Harkens Back To Bloody Spilotro Era

Scott Burnstein
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Deep Diving The Dead: Making Mountains Of Mob Ant Holes Out On Lake Mead In LV Harkens Back To Bloody Spilotro Era

May 15, 2022 — Experts are speculating that the two bodies just found in Las Vegas’ Lake Mead are victims of former Chicago crime boss Tony (The Ant) Spilotro, the man who reeked-havoc on The Strip in the 1970s and 1980s until dying as a result of a brutal mob hit himself. Spilotro was sent to Vegas in 1971 by mafia dons in Chicago to look after the Midwest mob’s massive interest-slate in the city’s hotel and gaming industry.

Spilotro’s desert mob crew, sometimes referred to the “Hole In The Wall Gang,” was responsible for more than 25 gangland homicides. Some in law enforcement belief that pair of human remains recently discovered on the shores of Lake Mead belong to Chicago mafia associates Jay Vandermark and John (Johnny Pappas) Panagiotakos, who both went missing in the same three-week period back in the summer of 1976. Vandermark’s drug addled son was killed less than a year later.

Vandermark served as the mob’s “boots on the ground” in its casino skimming activities and was in charge of the count rooms at Outfit-run gambling palaces such as The Stardust, The Tropicana, The Fremont and The Hacienda. He disappeared on August 1, 1976 while being sought for questioning by the FBI. The feds had raided The Stardust that May. Days later Vandermark bolted town for Arizona, per Clark County Sheriffs Department records.

Vandermark’s official title was slot supervisor at The Stardust. The last public sighting of him last seen alive in Phoenix with members of the Spilotro’s Arizona crew. He’s believed to have been murdered to prevent him from giving up the mob’s casino-skimming racket to save himself and his junkie son, Jeff.

Vandermark’s name is changed to John Nance in the movie Casino. Nance was slain near a swimming pool in the script, a fact taken from a real mob hit committed by the Spilotro crew in subsequent years. Jerry Lisner was found dead floating in his swimming pool in 1979.

Johnny Pappas managed a Teamster-funded, mafia-owned resort on Lake Mead. He vanished on the night of August 18, 1976 his way to a meeting at Jo Jo’s Restaurant to discuss selling his boar. Pappas’ abandoned car was found in the parking structure attached to Circus Circus casino on August 21. Las Vegas Police Department records linked the Windy City transplant to infamous Outfit fixer Gus (Slim) Alex.

From almost the day he landed in Las Vegas in the 1960s, Pappas was deeply involved in Nevada Democratic Party politics. In the 1970s, Pappas was employed at a variety of casino-hotels, The Castaways, the Las Vegas Hilton and Caesar’s Palace, among them. By 1974, he was given the plum job of running the Echo Bay Resort, owned by mob-puppeted casino mogul Allen Glick.

On April 23, 1977, Jeff Vandermark is bludgeoned to death inside his Las Vegas apartment. The younger Vandermark’s addiction is referenced in the John Nance storyline in Casino.

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