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Crown Witness
A criminal turns state's evidence by admitting guilt and testifying as a witness for the state against their associate(s) or accomplice(s), often in exchange for leniency in sentencing or immunity from prosecution.Howard Abadinsky, ''Organized Crime'' (9th ed: Cengage Learning, 2010), p. 368. The testimony of a witness who testifies against co-conspirator(s) may be important evidence. According to a 2008 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime document, persons who turn state's evidence "are known by a variety of names, including cooperating witnesses, crown witnesses, snitches, witness collaborators, justice collaborators, state witnesses, "supergrasses" and ''pentiti'' (Italian for 'those who have repented')." United Kingdom In the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms, the term is to turn Queen's or King's evidence, depending on the sex of the reigning monarch. The term "turning approver" or "turn king's approver" was also historically used, especially in Ireland; an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Testimony
In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. Etymology The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. Law In the law, testimony is a form of evidence that is obtained from a witness who makes a solemn statement or declaration of fact. Testimony may be oral or written, and it is usually made by oath or affirmation under penalty of perjury. To be admissible in court and for maximum reliability and validity, written testimony is usually witnessed by one or more persons who swear or affirm its authenticity, also under penalty of perjury. Unless a witness is testifying as an expert witness, testimony in the form of opinions or inferences is generally limited to those opinions or inferences that are rationally based on the perceptions of the witness and are helpful to a clear understanding of the witness' testimony. Legitimate expert witnesse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diether Posser
Diether Posser (9 March 1922 in Essen – 9 January 2010 in Essen) was a German politician, representative of the Social Democratic Party. Life During his childhood in Essen he was influenced by the Lutheran church. After serving in the military for the required time Posser studied law and became a lawyer in 1951. In 1952 he founded, with the former Secretary of the Interior Gustav Heinemann (previously of the CDU), Hans Bodensteiner (from the CSU), Thea Arnold, Helene Wessel (both from the Zentrumspartei), Hermann Etzel (Bayernpartei), and the future President Johannes Rau the pacifist All-German People's Party, of which he was made General Secretary after the 1953 resignation of Bodensteiner. After the party's collapse in 1957, he became a member of the SPD, for whom he joined the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1966. In 1968 he was named the Minister for Federal Affairs. In 1972 he switched to the Judicial Department, before he became Finance Minister in 1978 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Army Faction
The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. The RAF described itself as a communist, anti-imperialist, and urban guerrilla group engaged in armed resistance against what they deemed to be a ''fascist'' state. Members of the RAF generally used the Marxist–Leninist term '' faction'' when they wrote in English. Early leadership included Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin, and Horst Mahler. The West German government considered the RAF to be a terrorist organization."24 June 1976: The West German parliament passed the German Emergency Acts, which criminalized 'supporting or participating in a terrorist organization,' into the Basic Law." ; "''Dümlein Christine'',... Joined the RAF in 1980,... the only crime she was guilty of was membership in a terrorist organization" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Joseph Massino
Joseph Charles Massino (born January 10, 1943) is an American former mobster. He was a member of the Mafia and boss of the Bonanno crime family from 1991 until 2004, when he became the first boss of one of the Five Families in New York City to turn state's evidence. Massino was a protégé of Philip Rastelli, who took control of the Bonanno family in 1973. Rastelli spent most of his reign in and out of prison, but was able to get the assassination of Carmine Galante, a mobster vying for power, approved in 1979. Originally a truck hijacker, Massino secured his own power after arranging two 1981 gang murders, first a triple murder of three rebel captains, then his rival Dominick Napolitano. In 1991, while Massino was in prison for a 1986 labor racketeering conviction, Rastelli died and Massino succeeded him. Upon his release the following year, he set about rebuilding a family that had been in turmoil for almost a quarter of a century. By the dawn of the new millennium, he was rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gotti
John Joseph Gotti Jr.Capeci, Mustain (1996), pp. 25–26 (, ; October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was an American gangster and Crime boss, boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. He ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambino boss Paul Castellano in December 1985 and took over the family shortly thereafter, becoming boss of what was described as America's most powerful crime syndicate. Gotti and his brothers grew up in poverty and turned to a life of crime at an early age. Gotti quickly became one of the crime family's biggest earners and a mentorship, protégé of Aniello Dellacroce, the Gambino family underboss, operating out of the neighborhood of Ozone Park, Queens, Ozone Park in Queens. Following the FBI's indictment of members of Gotti's crew for selling narcotics, Gotti began to fear that he and his brother would be killed by Castellano for dealing drugs. As this fear continued to grow, and amidst growing dissent over the leadership of the crime ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gambino Crime Family
The Gambino 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, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. The group, which went through five bosses between 1910 and 1957, is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963, when the structure of organized crime first gained public attention. The group's operations extend from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, and fencing. The family was one of the five families that were founded in New York after the Castellammarese War of 1931. For most of the next quarter-century, it was a minor player in organized crime. Its most prominent member during this time was its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Underboss
Underboss ( it, sottocapo) is a position within the leadership structure of certain organized crime groups, particularly in Sicilian, Greek, and Italian-American Mafia crime families. The underboss is second in command to the boss. The underboss is sometimes a family member, such as a son, who will take over the family if the boss is sick, killed, or imprisoned. However the position of street boss has somewhat challenged the rank of underboss in the modern era. The position was installed within the Genovese crime family since at least the mid-1960s. It has also been used in the Detroit crime family and the Chicago Outfit. The power of an underboss greatly varies; some are marginal figures, while others are the most powerful individual in the family. Traditionally they run day-to-day affairs of the family. In some crime families, the appointment is for life. If a new boss takes over a family with an existing underboss, that boss may marginalize or even murder the underboss a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salvatore Gravano
Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano (born March 12, 1945) is an American former mobster who became underboss of the Gambino crime family. Gravano played a major role in prosecuting John Gotti, the crime family's boss, by agreeing to testify as a government witness against him and other mobsters in a deal in which he confessed to involvement in 19 murders. Originally a mobster for the Colombo crime family, and later for the Brooklyn faction of the Gambino family, Gravano was part of the group that conspired to murder Gambino boss Paul Castellano in 1985. Gravano played a key role in planning and executing Castellano's murder, along with Gotti, Angelo Ruggiero, Frank DeCicco, and Joseph Armone. Soon after Castellano's murder, Gotti elevated Gravano to become an official captain after Salvatore "Toddo" Aurelio retired, a position Gravano held until 1987 when he became consigliere. In 1990 he became underboss, a position he held at the time he became a government witness. In 1991, Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witness Security Program
The United States Federal Witness Protection Program (WPP), also known as the Witness Security Program or WITSEC, is a witness protection program codified through 18 U.S. Code § 3521 and administered by the United States Department of Justice and operated by the United States Marshals Service that is designed to protect threatened witnesses before, during, and after a trial. A handful of states – California, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, and Texas – and Washington, D.C., have their own witness protection programs for crimes not covered by the federal program. The state-run programs provide less extensive protections than the federal program, in part because state governments lack the ability to issue federal documents, such as social security cards, verifying the new identity of protected witnesses. History The WITSEC program was formally established under Title V of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, which in turn sets out the manner in which the United State ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
