Jackie DiNorscio
Giacomo "Jackie" DiNorscio (July 20, 1940 – November 14, 2004) was a member of the Philadelphia and later the Lucchese crime families. He acted as his own lawyer (pro se) in the ''United States v. Anthony Accetturo et al.'' RICO trial, famous for being the longest federal trial in history (at 21 months). This trial was conducted while DiNorscio was already incarcerated on separate drug charges. He was ultimately found not guilty (along with his fellow co-defendants) after a short deliberation by the jury. After the trial, DiNorscio went back to prison; he was released on November 23, 2002, after serving 17.5 years of a 30-year sentence. The film '' Find Me Guilty'' is based on this trial. DiNorscio died in November 2004, near the end of shooting. Philadelphia family The longtime Don of the Philadelphia crime family, Angelo "Gentle Don" Bruno, was killed on March 21, 1980, resulting in a huge power vacuum. Anthony Accetturo and Michael Taccetta, on the other hand, used the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Philadelphia Crime Family
The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Philadelphia Mafia, the Philly Mob or Philly Mafia, the Philadelphia-South Jersey Mafia, or Bruno-Scarfo family is an Italian-American Mafia family based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formed and based in South Philadelphia, the criminal organization primarily operates in various areas and neighborhoods in Philadelphia, the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area (i.e. the Delaware Valley) and New Jersey, especially South Jersey. The family is notorious for its violence, due in particular to its succession of violent bosses and multiple mob wars. As the Bruno crime family under the 20-year reign of boss Angelo Bruno (1959–1980), the family enjoyed an era of peace and prosperity. A complex dispute involving disgruntled subordinates and territory claims by New York's Genovese crime family led to Bruno's murder in 1980. The killing marked the beginning of years of internal violence for control of the Philadelphia family, leading t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lucchese Crime Family
The Lucchese crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, in the United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata; ''borgata'' (or brugard) is Mafia slang for criminal gang, which itself was derived from Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese family members as "Lukes". The family originated in the early 1920s with Gaetano Reina serving as boss up until his murder in 1930."The Lucchese Family: Blood and Gravy" by Anthony Bruno TruTV Crime Library It was taken over by [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pro Se Legal Representation In The United States
''Pro se'' legal representation ( or ) comes from Latin ''pro se'', meaning "for oneself" or "on behalf of themselves" which, in modern law, means to argue on one's own behalf in a legal proceeding, as a defendant or plaintiff in civil cases, or a defendant in criminal cases, rather than have representation from counsel or an attorney. This status is sometimes known as ''in propria persona'' (abbreviated to "pro per"). In England and Wales the comparable status is that of "litigant in person". Prevalence According to the National Center for State Courts in the United States, as of 2006 ''pro se'' litigants had become more common in both state courts and federal courts. Estimates of the ''pro se'' rate of family law overall averaged 67% in California, 73% in Florida's large counties, and 70% in some Wisconsin counties. In San Diego, for example, the number of divorce filings involving at least one ''pro se'' litigant rose from 46% in 1992 to 77% in 2000, in Florida from 66% ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Find Me Guilty
''Find Me Guilty'' is a 2006 American courtroom comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Sidney Lumet. The film is based on the true story of the longest Mafia trial in American history. Much of the courtroom testimony was taken from the original court transcripts. Vin Diesel stars as Jackie DiNorscio, a New Jersey mobster who is on trial with 19 of his colleagues for racketeering. A wrench is thrown into the system when DiNorscio fires his lawyer and decides to represent himself. The film also stars Peter Dinklage, Linus Roache, Alex Rocco, and Ron Silver. Plot In the mid 1980s, Mafia soldier Jackie DiNorscio (Vin Diesel) and 19 of his peers have been waiting a year for their federal racketeering trial to begin. While out on bail, Jackie is shot by his drug addict cousin Tony Compagna (Raúl Esparza). Afraid of being killed by the extended mob family run by Nick Calabrese (Alex Rocco), Tony agrees to be a government witness for district attorney Sean Kierney (Linus Roache). S ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Angelo Bruno
Angelo Bruno (born Angelo Annaloro; ; (May 21, 1910 – March 21, 1980) was a Sicilian Americans, Sicilian-American mobster, notable for being boss of the Philadelphia crime family for two decades until his assassination. Bruno was known as "the Gentle Don" due to his preference for conciliation over violence, in stark contrast to his successors. Early years Born in Villalba, Sicily, Villalba, Province of Caltanissetta, Sicily, Bruno immigrated to the United States as a child and settled in South Philadelphia with his brother, Vito. He was the son of a foundry worker who opened a small grocery store at 4341 North Sixth Street in Feltonville, Philadelphia. Angelo helped his father at the store until 1922, at the age of twelve when he first entered school but attended for only a few years before dropping out of South Philadelphia High School to open his own grocery store at Eighth and Annin streets in Passyunk Square, Philadelphia. Bruno was a close associate of New York Gambino cri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Anthony Accetturo
Anthony "Tumac" Accetturo (born 1938) is a former caporegime and leader of the Lucchese crime family New Jersey faction, New Jersey faction of the Lucchese crime family, popularly called "The Jersey Crew." Biography Accetturo was born in 1938 in Orange, New Jersey. His father was a butcher, his mother a seamstress. Accetturo dropped out of school after completing the sixth grade. At age 16, Accetturo moved to Newark, New Jersey, Newark and became the leader of a large street gang. He gained a reputation as a ferocious street fighter, which led several of his fellow gang members to call him "Tumac," after the caveman hero of the 1940 adventure film ''One Million B.C.'' At age 17, Accetturo was recruited by Anthony Delasco, Anthony "Ham" Delasco, the boss of the Jersey Crew. By the early 1960s, he had become Delasco's driver. Accetturo became Delasco's protégé learning trades in illegal gambling and loansharking controlling the Newark area. Delasco died in the late 1960s and A ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michael Taccetta
Michael Salvatore Taccetta (born September 16, 1947), also known as "Mad Dog," is a high-ranking member of the Lucchese crime family, who controlled the family's New Jersey faction in the 1980s. Personal life Taccetta, also known as "''Mike T''," was born in the Vailsburg neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey on September 16, 1947. This was the same neighborhood as the Gambino crime family's ''capo'' Joseph Paterno, for whom Taccetta reportedly worked in his early teens. Taccetta is the son of Angelo Taccetta, a self-employed building materials supplier, who law enforcement agencies reputed was a "made man" in the Lucchese crime family. Taccetta stands at 5'7" and weighs close to 225 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. Michael was first arrested for assault at the age of twelve and was sent to Boys Town, a Catholic youth facility. He lived in Florham Park, New Jersey before his incarceration. He told people that he was self-employed. Taccetta graduated from Saint Benedict's ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Five Families
The Five Families refers to five major New York City organized crime families of the Italian American Mafia formed in 1931 by Salvatore Maranzano following his victory in the Castellammarese War. Maranzano reorganized the Italian American gangs in New York City into the Maranzano, Profaci, Mangano, Luciano, and Gagliano families, which are now known as the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese families. Each family had a demarcated territory and an organizationally structured hierarchy and reported up to the same overarching governing entity. Initially, Maranzano intended each family's boss to report to him as the '' capo di tutti i capi'' ("boss of all the bosses"). However, this led to his assassination that September, and that role was abolished for The Commission, a ruling committee established by Lucky Luciano to oversee all Mafia activities in the United States and to mediate conflicts between families. It consisted of the bosses of the Five Families as well ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Organized Crime
Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a form of illegal business, some criminal organizations, such as terrorist groups, rebel forces, and separatists, are politically motivated. Many criminal organizations rely on fear or terror to achieve their goals or aims as well as to maintain control within the organization and may adopt tactics commonly used by authoritarian regimes to maintain power. Some forms of organized crime simply exist to cater towards demand of illegal goods in a state or to facilitate trade of goods and services that may have been banned by a state (such as illegal drugs or firearms). Sometimes, criminal organizations force people to do business with them, such as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for "protection". Street gangs may ofte ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. RICO was enacted by section 901(a) of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 () and is codified at as . G. Robert Blakey, an adviser to the United States Senate Government Operations Committee, drafted the law under the close supervision of the committee's chairman, Senator John Little McClellan. It was enacted as Title IX of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, and signed into law by US President Richard M. Nixon. While its original use in the 1970s was to prosecute the Mafia as well as others who were actively engaged in organized crime, its later application has been more widespread. Beginning in 1972, thirty-three states adopted state RICO laws to be able to prosecute similar conduct. Summary Under RICO, a person who has committed "a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Conspiracy (crime)
In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act be undertaken in furtherance of that agreement, to constitute an offense. There is no limit on the number participating in the conspiracy and, in most countries, the plan is the crime, so there is no requirement that any steps have been taken to put the plan into effect (compare attempts which require proximity to the full offense). For the purposes of concurrence, the ''actus reus'' is a continuing one and parties may join the plot later and incur joint liability and conspiracy can be charged where the co-conspirators have been acquitted or cannot be traced. Finally, repentance by one or more parties does not affect liability (unless, in some cases, it occurs ''before'' the parties have committed overt acts) but may reduce their sentence. An unindicted co-conspirato ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |