Author: William

RHONJ star Dina Manzo’s ex in hot water again over claims he hired mob goon to rough up her new beau

It’s official: Just when he thought he was out, the feds pulled him right back in.

The ex-husband of “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Dina Manzo is facing a new set of federal racketeering charges — just a month after a judge dismissed the last case against him because prosecutors took too long to bring it to trial.

The new charges against Tommy Manzo — outlined in a three-count indictment filed last week in Newark federal court — are much the same as the old charges, which claim he hired a mafioso from the Lucchese crime family to rough up his famous ex’s new beau back in 2015.

Tommy Manzo allegedly had Dina’s new husband beat up twice in two years — and he has separate state and federal cases against him as a result. Thomas P. Costello via NJ Courts via Imagn Content Services, LLC
Dina Manzo with David Cantin, her new husband. @dina

Tommy Manzo will be arraigned in Newark on Tuesday afternoon on one count each of violent crime in aid of racketeering activity, conspiracy to commit an assault with a dangerous weapon and falsifying and concealing records related to a federal investigation.

His attorney, Zach Intrater, declined to comment Monday.

The new indictment is the latest chapter in a years-long drama that began when the feds first indicted the troubled 58-year-old restaurateur in 2020 for allegedly cutting a deal with mob capo John Perna to beat down David Cantin, Dina Manzo’s then-boyfriend.

In return, Tommy Manzo offered a deeply discounted wedding at his catering hall, The Brownstone in Paterson, New Jersey, according to the allegations.

“Manzo was outraged that his former wife became romantically involved with another man,” prosecutors said in court documents. “Rather than accept that, as law-abiding individuals do, Manzo wanted to extract physical revenge. Unwilling or incapable of doing so directly, he leveraged his catering hall.”

Perna and a guy from his crew caught up with Cantin in July 2015 and worked him over with a slapjack in the parking lot of a North Jersey strip mall. The savage attack left Cantin battered and scarred, court documents said.

The Manzo family owns The Brownstone, a catering hall in Paterson, New Jersey. Christopher Sadowski

Perna — who lives in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, and is the son of former mob capo Ralph Perna — pleaded guilty to committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering activity and was sentenced to nearly three years in prison.

He was released last August, according to jail records.

Meanwhile, Manzo remained free on bail as the case against him moved along at a glacial pace.

Reputed mafioso John Perna New Jersey AG

Late last month, federal Judge Susan Wigenton finally dismissed the charges, agreeing with both Manzo’s attorneys and federal prosecutors that the feds had violated Manzo’s rights under the Speedy Trial Act.

But she did so without prejudice — which allowed prosecutors to quickly re-indict the allegedly mob-connected Manzo, who lives in the ritzy New Jersey suburb of Franklin Lakes.

“The charged offenses are unquestionably serious,” Wigenton wrote in her dismissal, adding that the breadth of the alleged crimes and the substantial prison sentence Manzo faces weighed in prosecutors’ favor.

It’s not the only case that threatens to put Manzo — who hails from one of North Jersey’s most infamous families — behind bars.

He still has pending state charges in Monmouth County that allege he and another man broke into Dave and Dina’s home in Holmdel, New Jersey, and beat them with bats before robbing them in May 2017.

The next hearing in that case is scheduled for April 29, state prosecutors told The Post.

Manzo married Dina in 2005, but the couple split later over allegations of Tommy’s infidelity.

Manzo had married Dina in an over-the-top 2005 wedding chronicled on the VH1 reality series “My Big Fabulous Wedding.

But the couple split in 2012 over his alleged infidelity, “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star Kim DePaola told The Post in 2020 — though the couple didn’t officially divorce until 2016.

This article was originally posted here

Disgraced ex-NYPD detective Louis Scarcella calls murder of 22-year-old by his mobster uncle a ‘public service killing’

Disgraced former NYPD detective Louis Scarcella has bragged that the murder of a 22-year-old by his mobster uncle was a “public service killing.”

Scarcella made the outrageous comments on a true crime podcast, The Burden, in which he said he would have done the same thing as “Nicky Black” aka Nicholas Graciano, a captain in the Colombo crime family.

Despite being related to Graciano, Scarcella was assigned to the case — and he failed to make any arrests.


Detective Louis Scarcella speaking into a microphone on the witness stand during a court hearing at New York State Supreme Courthouse
Disgraced former NYPD detective Louis Scarcella claimed that a murder by his mobster uncle Nicholas Graciano was a “public service killing.” Stefan Jeremiah

Murder victim John Aratico who was shot four times in the chest in 1982 near his home in Mapleton, Brooklyn.

On the podcast Scarcella said that by the time he was asked to investigate the case he had already been tipped off that his uncle was to blame.

“I’m interviewing my uncle as a suspect in this murder at his house. He said the kid was not a good kid,” Scarcella remarked.

When questioned if he asked his uncle if he killed Aratico, Scarcella said, “I don’t remember, maybe I don’t want to remember. I was prepared to go as far as I could go with the case and if Nicky killed him I had to lock him up. I don’t think Nicky would have a problem with that.”

“The motive was that he (Aratico) turned Nicky’s daughter onto drugs. I was never able to prove that but that was the scenario we were getting.”


The crooked cop was assigned to investigate the 1982 murder of John Aratico in Brooklyn, but didn't make any arrests.
The crooked cop was assigned to investigate the 1982 murder of John Aratico in Brooklyn, but didn’t make any arrests. Stefan Jeremiah for NY Post

The NYPD’s internal affairs bureau looked into the case and Scarcella claims that he came out of it “smelling like a rose.”

But the producers of the Burden, including veteran journalist and producer Steve Fishman, reviewed the internal report and key details were missing.

Scarcella even claimed he didn’t know his uncle was involved in organized crime.

Unsurprisingly, nobody was arrested in the end, not least because Scarcella was so sympathetic to his uncle.

“We had a phrase, unfortunately enough: public service murder. This fit the criteria,” Scarcella told the podcast.

Asked if the shooting of Aratico was a “public service murder,” Scarcella tried to walk it back.

“I’m not going to disrespect his family. I’m not going to disrespect him. But (with) regards to Nicky Black I’m sure he had that feeling. I’m sure he thinks he deserved to die,” he said.

But later in the episode, Scarcella says that he saw things from his uncle’s point of view.

If it was his daughter hooked on drugs, “I believe I would have probably did the same thing and just turned myself in,” he says.

Scarcella complains that “it’s very hard for me to call my uncle a murderer” — Graciano was shot dead in a mob killing in 1992.

“Alright he was a murderer, are you happy? It’s hard to do it,” Scarcella griped.

In his heyday in the 1980s and 90s, Scarcella was a cigar-smoking legend of the NYPD who was known as “The Closer” because he could get the confessions nobody else could.

By his count he solved at least 175 cases and helped with the same number again.

But in 2013 witnesses began to come forward to question his record and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office started reviewing his case history.

Since 2014 the DA’s Conviction Review Unit has vacated 37 convictions linked to Scarcella.

Eighteen cases have been overturned, the latest of which was Steven Ruffin, 45, who spent 14 years behind jail for a murder he didn’t commit.

New York City has been forced to pay out more than $110 million in settlements to more than a dozen people who were wrongly jailed.

This article was originally posted here

Son of notorious Irish mobster Mickey Spillane busted for slugging dog-walker in same NYC neighborhood his dad ruled

The son of notorious Manhattan mobster Mickey Spillane landed in court Monday for allegedly taking a whack at a dog-walker in Hell’s Kitchen — the same area his Mafioso dad controlled in the 1970s.

Michael J. Spillane Jr., 60, got his Irish up and allegedly punched the stranger in the face outside Mediterranean wine bar Kashkaval Garden at around 7:37 p.m. on Feb. 21, according to a criminal complaint.

Spillane — who owns Mickey Spillane’s, a bar named after his dad about six blocks south on Ninth Avenue — pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment and was released after his Manhattan Criminal Court arraignment.

Michael J. Spillane Jr. appears in court Monday.

His ties to the neighborhood date back decades to when his father ruled Hell’s Kitchen as the head of the Irish-American mob in the ’60s and ’70s.

Known as the last “Gentleman Ganger,” Mickey was a quick riser in the loan sharking scene who opposed dealing drugs and was adamant about not associating with the Italian mafia.

After he was pushed out of Hell’s Kitchen by the Westies, a more vicious rival Irish gang, Mickey was murdered outside his Woodside, Queens home in 1977 — shot five times in the head in what cops said was a gangland assassination.

He was married to Maureen McManus, a daughter of the famed local political dynasty who ran the city’s Tammany Hall Democratic party for decades — which Michael Jr. led as district leader, according to W42ndSt.com.

“My dad was a serious man. Back when he was in business, he worked with a lot of labor unions and they controlled most of the docks,” Spillane said in the 2016 interview with the website. “Then the Italian branch of the mob tried to dominate everything. And if it wasn’t for men like my dad, there would be no Irish unions.”

Mobster Mickey Spillane.
Mickey Spillane was married to Maureen McManus, a daughter of the famed local political dynasty who ran the city’s Tammany Hall Democratic party for decades. Robert Miller

The Irish-American mob scion’s beef with the dog-walker is said to have started when the man encountered Spillane and a group of people standing outside the restaurant, creating a bottleneck.

He asked the group to make a path for him and his two dogs to get through, and most of them did — except for Spillane, who allegedly stuck his foot out and tried tripping the dog-walker, according to a source in the victim’s camp.

Spillane was allegedly aggressive and looked at the dog-walker “menacingly,” the source said.

The man went to grab Spillane — who then allegedly laid a closed-fist haymaker to his face, according to the source.

Spillane’s fight occurred outside Kashkaval Garden in Hell’s Kitchen.
Michael Spillane thumbs through a wad of cash next to his attorney after his court appearance Monday.

The dog-walker was also arrested and hit with the same charges. He suffered swelling and bruising from the punch and a laceration to the neck, according to the complaint against Spillane.

Spillane, who doesn’t have a rap sheet, was spotted flipping through a wad of $100 bills as he stood next to his attorney, Eugene Byrne, shortly after his arraignment. He’s due back in court April 29.

The bar Mickey Spillane’s located in Hell’s Kitchen. Tamara Beckwith

Spillane is the eldest of three children,

His actor brother, Bobby Spillane, who appeared in shows “Rescue Me” and “Law & Order,” tragically died when he leaned against his window screen and fell from his sixth-floor apartment on Eighth Avenue in 2010.

This article was originally posted here