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King's Evidence
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', macarons and (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 a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Testimony
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 in which a witness makes a "solemn declaration or affirmation ... for the purpose of establishing or proving some fact". According to Bryan A. Garner, the editor of '' Black's Law Dictionary'', the word "testimony" is properly used as a mass noun (that is, always uninflected regardless of number), and not a count noun. Testimony may be oral or written, and it is usually made by oath or affirmation under penalty of perjury. Historically, to be admissible in court and to ensure maximum reliability and validity, written testimony presented in the form of an affidavit (i.e., the witness would not be appearing in court at the hearing at which the affidavit was considered as evidence) was usually witnessed by anot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organized Crime
Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run 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 organizations, terrorist groups, rebel groups, and Separatism, 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 authoritarianism, 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 protection racket, protec ... [...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 1 ... [...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 ( ), was a West German far-left militant group founded in 1970 and active until 1998, considered a terrorist organisation by the West German government."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" . The RAF described itself as a communist and anti-imperialist urban guerrilla group. It was engaged in armed resistance against what it considered 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 RAF engaged in a series of bombing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Five Families
The Five Families refer to five American Mafia, Italian American Mafia Crime family, crime families that operate in New York City. In 1931, the five families were Organized crime, organized 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 crime family, Bonanno, Colombo crime family, Colombo, Gambino crime family, Gambino, Genovese crime family, Genovese, and Lucchese crime family, Lucchese families, respectively. Each family had a demarcated territory and an organizationally structured hierarchy and reported to the same overarching governing entity. Initially, Maranzano intended each family's boss to report to him as the ''capo dei capi'' ("boss of all the bosses"). This led to his assassination that September, and that role was abolished for The Commission (mafia), the Commission, a ru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Massino
Joseph Charles Massino (January 10, 1943 – September 14, 2023) was an American mobster. He was a member of the American Mafia, Mafia and Crime boss, 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 Racket (crime), 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 ... [...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 '' mafioso'' and 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, leading what was described as the most powerful crime syndicate in the United States. 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 Gambino family's biggest earners and a protégé of Aniello Dellacroce, the family's underboss, operating out of Ozone Park, Queens. Following the FBI's indictment of members of Gotti's crew for selling narcotics, Gotti began to fear that Castellano would kill him and his brother Gene for dealing drugs. As this fear continued to grow, and amidst growing dissent over the leadership of the family, Gotti arranged the murder of Castellano. At his peak, ... [...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, 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 underboss Albert Anasta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Underboss
Underboss () is a position within the leadership structure of certain organized crime groups, particularly in Sicilian Mafia, Sicilian and Italian-American Mafia crime families. The underboss is second in command to the Crime boss, boss. The underboss is also person-in-charge of all Caporegime, capos and its Soldato, soldiers. 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 ... [...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 rose to the position of underboss in the Gambino crime family of New York City before becoming a government witness. As the underboss, 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. As part of the agreement, Gravano confessed to his involvement in at least 19 murders, although he was also responsible for a number of other crimes, including the 1977 murder of a 16-year-old boy with no ties to the Mafia, who was shot and killed after witnessing Gravano and an associate carry out a drive-by shooting. Originally an associate for the Colombo crime family, and later for the Brooklyn faction of the Gambino family, Gravano was part of the group in 1985 that conspired to murder Gambino boss Paul Castellano. Gravano played a key role in planning and executing Castellano's murder, ... [...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. The program is operated by the United States Marshals Service and is designed to protect threatened witnesses and their family members before, during, and after a trial when those witnesses have an association with the federal government. The program was originally authorized by the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 and later amended by the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. The amended issues included bail, sentencing reform, pleas for insanity, and penalties for drug offenses. History The WITSEC program was formally established under Title V of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, which states that the United States Attorney General may provide for the relocation and protection of a witness or potential witness of the ... [...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 Title IX of the Organized Crime Control Act, Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 (), and is codified at as . This article primarily covers the federal criminal statute, but since 1972, 33 U.S. states and territories have adopted state RICO laws, which although similar, cover additional state crimes and may differ from the federal law and each other in several respects. History G. Robert Blakey, an adviser to the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, United States Senate Government Operations Committee, drafted the law under the close supervision of Senator John L. McClellan, the Chairman of the Criminal Law and Procedures Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was signed i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
