Rudolph Santobello (1928 – May 2013) was a New York mobster who served as a caporegime in the

Genovese crime family The Genovese crime family, () also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American M ...

. On July 21, 1950, Santobello and Joseph Corbo murdered Alfred Loreto, an off-duty

New York Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

officer, during an attempted kidnapping of Ralph Sgueglia, a butcher arriving home after work, in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

section of New York. Apprehended at the crime scene, Santobello later testified that police brought him to the police station and interrogated him all night. Santobello also claimed that police hit him on the head with their guns and dazed him with a blow on the nose with a billy club. In June 1951, Santobello was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 1966, a U.S. Supreme Court decision on illegal searches by police resulted in Santobello's sentence being reversed and his release from prison. In 1968, detective and

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

Frank Serpico arrested Santobello in the

South Bronx The South Bronx is an area of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx. The area comprises neighborhoods in the southern part of the Bronx, such as Concourse, Bronx, Concourse, Mott Haven, Bronx, Mott Haven, Melrose, B ...

for numbers running. Santobello was later sentenced to one year in prison, but was freed early due to another court decision on

plea bargain A plea bargain (also plea agreement or plea deal) is an agreement in criminal law proceedings, whereby the prosecutor provides a concession to the defendant in exchange for a plea of guilt or '' nolo contendere.'' This may mean that the defendan ...

s. In later years, Santobello supervised a crew from his headquarters at "Club Arthur's', a social club on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. From 1991 on, Santobello was heavily involved in loansharking, illegal gambling in the form of craps games, bookmaking, and numbers running. On October 24, 1994, Santobello was convicted on ten counts of gambling and was sentenced on March 27, 1995 to 78 months in prison. Relaxed and joking during the trial, Santorello pleaded with the judge for leniency at the sentencing hearing, citing his family ties:

This has been a very delicate situation for me. After getting married, having a daughter, I don't think I would be so foolish to subject myself to going back to prison at this stage of my life. I've done my best to bring my daughter up in the right manner.

Santobello also claimed that the police had a vendetta against him because of his reversed 1950 murder conviction. On June 12, 2000, Santobello was released from federal prison. In May 2013, Santobello died of natural causes.''Rudy Santobello, Wiseguy Who Wised Up Serpico To Mob-NYPD Ties, Dead At 84'' by Jerry Capeci (May 23, 2013
GanglandNews
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In popular culture

The 1973

Sidney Lumet Sidney Arthur Lumet ( ; June 25, 1924 – April 9, 2011) was an American film director. He was nominated five times for the Academy Award: four for Best Director for ''12 Angry Men'' (1957), ''Dog Day Afternoon'' (1975), ''Network'' (1976), ...

film '' Serpico'' dramatized the Santobello arrest.

References

External links

The Guardian: The movies and the mob
* ttp://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F3/101/108/595865/ Justia US Court of Appeals*[http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=NameSearch&needingMoreList=false&FirstName=Rudolph+&Middle=&LastName=Santobello&Race=U&Sex=U&Age=&x=81&y=5 Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator]
NYPD Angels
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santobello, Rudolph 1928 births 2013 deaths Genovese crime family American gangsters of Italian descent