Sunday, April 25, 2021

Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch

On-the-run Dublin gangster Gerry Hutch would be killed by enemies or arrested if he was spotted in Ireland. Five years ago the Hutch gang stormed a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel to murder rival Daniel Kinahan. Hutch is officially wanted for the murder of David Byrne.
Hutch in disguise leaving the funeral for his brother Eddie.
The gunmen failed to kill their main target as Kinahan and his top henchmen escaped through a back door. The Monk fled Ireland weeks after. The event would become a pivotal episode in the Hutch-Kinahan war and sparked a wave of retaliatory murders. A cycle of bloodshed resulted in 14 murders over the next two years.

Drug trafficker David Byrne was shot dead.
Daniel Kinahan reinvented himself from drug kingpin to boxing promoter and has suggested he will never return to Ireland from his bolthole in Dubai. The 43-year-old issued a lengthy statement in which he claims to be “a legitimate and respected businessman”

Gardai believe Hutch has been lying low in Spain, Portugal and Turkey. Every law enforcement agency in Europe is now aware he’s a wanted man so he’s under serious pressure. The veteran criminal has a €1m bounty on his head by the Kinahan cartel.

Saturday, April 24, 2021

Michael Roberto out and about

Notorious Calgary killer Michael Roberto has regained his liberty. The man who admitted being a part of multiple gang killings is now a free citizen. Roberto was originally convicted of three counts of first-degree murder in the New Year’s Day 2009 shootings at the Bolsa Restaurant. Rival gangsters Sanjeev Mann was killed along with Aaron Bendle and bystander Keni S’ua. Roberto eventually pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiring to commit murder, discharging a restricted firearm with intent and commission of offence for a criminal organization.
Prosecutors called it a “deal with the devil”. In a videotaped interview with cops, Roberto talked about his killings. “Five, and four of them were because of the war that I was involved in because I lost friends,” he said. “One was having to do business. Towards the end, I wasn’t even really about business or making money. It was always to get revenge because I lost people, I lost friends, and I knew they were coming after me so I wanted to get them first.”

Friday, April 23, 2021

Ylli Didani torpedoed

Albanian Ylli Didani, 43, was indicted on a drug conspiracy charge in Detroit. Along with the late Marty Tibbitts, the men were building a submarine designed to store cocaine and attach itself via magnets to the hull of cargo ships crisscrossing the Atlantic. Their prototype submarine was called "The Torpedo." Tibbitts was portrayed as the drug ring's financier, bankrolling the purchase of cocaine.
Tibbitts' death in a vintage plane crash forced co-conspirators to abandon submarine plans. The drug ring was torpedoed in 2019 as cops seized more than 3,400 kg of cocaine worth more than $100m in a banana shipment in the Netherlands.

Todd Gouwenberg whacked

Todd Gouwenberg was gunned down outside the Langley Sportsplex. He was a former MMA fighter with long ties to Lower Mainland gangs, including the HA.
Cops noted Gouwenberg’s 20-year history in organized crime in B.C.
Gouwenberg’s execution is the Lower Mainland’s third in four days. Gouwenberg was related to the UN gang and its ongoing conflict with rivals from the Red Scorpion/Kang group and the Brothers Keepers.

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Aileen Wuornos: ‘America’s First Female Serial Killer’

Aileen Wuornos was a serial killer, responsible for the deaths of seven men in Florida between 1989 to 1990. Wournos had an upbringing of sexual assault and child abuse. She never met her father, a convicted child molester who hung himself in prison. Her mother abandoned her to her alcoholic grandparents when she was four. She was sexually active at a young age, including with her older brother. She was the first woman in America to be profiled by the FBI as a serial killer.
During her trial, she maintained the murders were self-defense. Each of the victims raped or attempted to rape her. She later recanted her testimony. She received death sentences for the six murders she ultimately pled guilty to. After a decade on death row, she was executed by lethal injection in 2002.
Her alleged last words: “I’d just like to say I’m sailing with the rock, and I’ll be back like Independence Day with Jesus, June 6. Like the movie, big mother ship and all. I’ll be back.”

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

The Madoff Auctions

Bernie Madoff, Ponzi scheme mastermind, died in prison at 82 two weeks ago.
In late 2010, two years after he was first arrested for an $ 18 billion Ponzi scheme, Madoff possessions hit the auction market. Thousands of belongings from his New York City penthouse, including his used shoes, went on the auction block.

Bernard Madoff owned 250 pairs of shoes.

A bidder paid $55OK, for a 10.5-carat diamond engagement ring that belonged to Madoff's wife, Ruth. Ruth Madoff's French diamond earrings fetched the next highest price. They went for $135,000.

A guitar signed by Bruce Springsteen was part of the sale.
Platinum Brooch
The man who became a symbol of greed and deceit on Wall Street had a lavish collection of watches. One of his vintage steel Rolex "Moon Phase" watches sold for $68k. The watch was part of Madoff's 40-plus watch collection that also included 16 other Rolexes. U.S. marshals seized everything in the Madoffs' Manhattan apartment and Long Island beach house. Worn socks, new monogrammed boxer shorts, even the used Italian velveteen slippers bearing the initials "BLM" in gold embroidery were seized.
Madoff's fleet were stars. A 55-foot Rybovich yacht named Bull fetched $700k. Madoff's 38-foot Shelter Island sport runabout, named Sitting Bull, went for $320k. The 24-foot Maverick center console dubbed Little Bull made $21,000. A black 1999 Mercedes-Benz CLK 320 convertible that belonged to Madoff's wife, Ruth, went for $30k.
Madoff's 4,000-square-foot duplex Manhattan penthouse sold for $8m, a 8,750-square-foot home in Palm Beach $7.4m, and Madoff's Montauk beach home sold for $9.4m.
Morrell Wine Auctions auctioned off 262 bottles of wine and liquor that had been seized by federal authorities from Madoff's mansion in Palm Beach. The collection sold for over $41,500. Five former employees were found guilty of conspiracy March 24 2014. A jury ruled they had for years helped conceal his massive Ponzi scheme.
Annette Bongiorno worked for Madoff for 40 years as his secretary and at one point had as much as $50m in her accounts. Bongiorno, 65, had multi-million dollar homes in Long Island and Florida and drove a Mercedes worth $100k.