Gangsters, Prostitution and Gambling: Radio Broadcast

Slick handcuffed with his rap partners: Slick is 3rd from right

Here's the link for Cherie Rohn's 1-hour interview re writing Thief, the Gutsy, True Story of an Ex-Con Artist on Artist First radio network, Wed. Feb. 23, 2011: http://www.artistfirst.com/bookshows.htm. Just scroll down the list of authors till you see "Cherie Rohn," click on the name and the show will play on your computer.

See the post below for more information.

Mobwriter Radio Interview: Things that may shock you

Cherie today

Mobwriter Cherie Rohn says, "Nothing is dull when you keep reinventing yourself." Others say, she's "not afraid to raise a few eyebrows," and Cherie "changes lives." (Hope that's in a good way!) 

Things you may not know about Cherie...She's done stints as: Santa Fe TV station manager and on-air personality Bambi Lyn, made maps in the highlands of New Guinea, rowed paying customers down the San Juan River in Utah, sang in nightclubs, broadcast from a hot air balloon as a radio DJ, dealt blackjack and other casino games and now writes for a living, mostly true crime.   

34-year-old Cherie

On Wed. February 23 at 7:00 p.m. ET, Cherie will be the sole guest on the hour-long radio call-in talk show, Artist First http://www.artistfirst.com/. She answers questions such as:

• How did you hook up with a crazy ex-con like Slick whose book Thief you wrote? 
• What secrets did you learn about the mob, prostitution and gambling including how Marilyn Monroe really died?
• What was it like to be a casino dealer?
• Was your first BJ customer really a loose canon just out of the joint?

  

  3-year-old Cherie

  
• Were you really caught making love naked by the owner beside his swimming pool? 
• Did you recently sign up to live in Atlantica, a legitimate underwater colony located 100' beneath the sea?

Listeners are invited to call in or email their questions for Cherie. Tune in on your computer. http://www.artistfirst.com/. Just remember...Cherie can't talk about some things until a few innocent people die first.

Bellagio Heist Part II: Dumbest Criminals

Okay...here's what NOT to do when you steal $1.5 million from a prominent Las Vegas Strip casino:
1. Don't brag about it online,
2. Don't ask a so called friend what to do after you steal the dough--especially one who rats you out to the FBI.
3. Don't put a Bellagio chip worth $25,000 in a Salvation Army worker's pocket.

4. Don't brag to bar-mates that you just won a lot of money gambling in Vegas.
5. Don't come back to the Bellagio poker table with $5,000 in chips after losing an $11,000 pot.
And most important:
6. Don't try to sell stolen chips to an undercover agent.
7. Don't mix all of the above with drugs

Duh...the alleged Biker Bandit, Anthony Carleo (helmeted robber above), told a friend shortly before the heist that he was "hurting for money and might have to do something drastic in the next several days."

Carleo hoped to go to med school according to Facebook postings. Guess he's gonna have a slight delay in plans. Why am I not surprised that he's the son of a judge?

Bellagio Heist: Political Overtones?

Check out this recent story that appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal: http://www.lvrj.com/news/judge-s-son-arrested-in-bellagio-robbery-115167004.html

The thief, Anthony Carleo (right), who took off with $1.5 million is casino chips was arrested early this morning. 

NEW: Crime Beat Radio show

ATTENTION!

Ex-FBI agent Jack Garcia

NEW RADIO PROGRAM TO PRESENT ISSUES, PERSONALITIES
AND CONTROVERSIES FROM THE WORLD OF CRIME

January 20--On January 27 at 9 p.m., the Artist First Worldwide Radio Network (http://www.artistfirst.com/) will launch CRIME BEAT: ISSUES, CONTROVERSIES AND PERSONALITIES FROM THE DARKSIDE, a weekly hour-long radio program. Every Thursday from 9 and 10 EST, CRIME BEAT will present a fascinating topic that brings listeners closer to the dynamic underbelly of the world of crime. The guests will include ex-mobsters, undercover law enforcement agents, entertainers, informants, prisoners, drug dealers, victim advocates, politicians, crusading reformers and others who can provide insights and fresh information about the world’s most fascinating subject: crime. Listeners can access the program by going to http://www.artistfirst.com/ and click on the “Live Weekly Show Schedule” for Thursday, 9 p.m. See also http://www.artistfirst.com/crimebeat.htm.

CRIME BEAT is hosted by award-winning crime writer Ron Chepesiuk (http://www.ronchepesiuk.com/) and broadcast journalist and freelance writer Willie Hryb. Chepesiuk is the author of several true crime books, including Sergeant Smack: the Legendary Lives and Times of Ike Atkinson, Kingpin, and his Band of Brothers, and Drug Lords, the Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel. Ron has been interviewed about crime-related subjects by such media outlets as NPR, the Biography Channel, the New York Times, the Discovery Channel and Black Entertainment Television. He is also a consultant to the History Channel's Gangland documentary series and a contributing writer to the New Criminologist and Americanmafia.com websites. He is also a two-time Fulbright Scholar in journalism and the publisher of Strategic Media Books (http://www.strategticmediabooks.com/). Hryb is currently in the shipping business where he is a contributing writer to several trade publications. This year he will be publishing a book about the famous Gunilda shipwreck on Lake Superior.

“We are excited about hosting Crime Beat,” Chepesiuk said. “Each week we plan to entertain and inform listeners about crime topics both historical and topical.”

The initial program features Jack Garcia, former FBI agent and best selling co-author of Making Jack Falcone, the story of how Garcia took down a Mob family. Other guests include Andrew DiDonato, ex-mobster and co-author of Surviving the Mob: A Street Soldier’s Life in the Gambino Crime Family; Lou Diaz, co-author of Dancing With the Devil and the undercover DEA agent instrumental in taking down drug lord Nicky Barnes, the so-called “Mr. Untouchable”; and Rick Porrello, author of To Kill the Irishman, the basis for the Hollywood movie of the same name that will premiere this March 11; Tim Donaghy, former

NBA refer and author of Personal Foul: A Personal Account of the Scandal that Rocked the NBA; and Seth Ferranti and Wahidi Clark, a con and ex-con who will talk about prison life and becoming writers behind bars.

“We plan to give listeners a front row seat into the events and developments of the criminal underworld and the personalities who shape it,” Hryb revealed. “What can be more fascinating?”

For more information, go to the Artist First Worldwide Radio Network at www.artistfirst.com. To contact the Crime Beat radio program, e-mail crimebeat123@yahoo.com.

127 Alleged Mobsters Arrested

"More than 100 suspected members and associates of seven Mafia families were arrested Thursday in what was described as the biggest organized crime round-up in FBI history.

Significant leaders of the Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese, Bonanno and Colombo families and also the DeCavalcante of New Jersey were among those arrested, NBC New York reported.

The charges ranged from murder to extortion, narcotics trafficking and illegal gambling, officials said."

Check out the rest of the story here:
http://www.centurylink.net/news/read.php?ps=1011&rip_id=%3CD9KS4KPG0%40news.ap.org%3E&_LT=HOME_LARSDCCLM_UNEWS

What does a guy nicknamed "The Hatchet" actually do? (photo below)

The following was posted on www.TheChicagoSyndicate.com:    

Reviewing the History Behind Famous Mob Nicknames

A colorful nickname comes with the job when you are a reputed Chicago crime boss, often whether you like it or not.

The trial of Michael "Big Mike" Sarno is getting underway in federal court in Chicago, with prosecutors arguing that the 6-foot-3-inch, 300-pound Sarno wasn't just imposing because of his size, but because he was the big man behind a violent mob jewelry theft and illegal gambling ring.

Imposing aliases have captivated the public and aggravated mobsters since the days of Al "Scarface" Capone, a fact that apparently was too much for one prospective juror. The juror, a suburban businessman, told U.S. Judge Ronald Guzman he would be biased by the repeated use of nicknames during the trial. So Guzman sent him home.

Defense attorney Michael Gillespie said he's not worried about his large client's nickname, which is pretty mild for an alleged mobster. "There's nothing nefarious about that nickname," Gillespie said. "But I do think (federal prosecutors) put the nickname in there for a reason. They could've just charged him as 'Michael Sarno.'"

A big appetite is a more benign way to get a pet name than, say, Anthony "Joe Batters" Accardo, the former reputed mob kingpin who earned his sobriquet for beating people with baseball bats. The story goes that after hearing of one such beating, Capone himself said, "That guy, (Accardo), he's a real Joe Batters." Throughout his life, everyone called Accardo "Joe," said Gus Russo, author of "The Outfit."

"They started to call (Accardo) 'Big Tuna' in the press, but no one ever called him that," said Russo. Mobsters' nicknames often were generated by the press or FBI agents eager to antagonize their targets, a favorite tactic of longtime Chicago FBI chief William Roemer. "(Roemer) was the one that referred to (Outfit Vegas boss) Anthony Spilotro as 'The Ant,'" Russo said. "That was (Roemer's) way of infuriating these guys."

Attorney Joseph Lopez said the press hung the nickname "The Breeze" on his loan-sharking client Frank Calabrese Sr. "That's a media nickname. No one ever called him that. He was 'Cheech,'" said Lopez. "Cheech is 'Frank' in Italian. It's a neighborhood thing. These guys get their nicknames like anyone else, as young kids in the neighborhood."

Of course, former Lopez client Anthony "The Hatchet" Chiaramonti was known for attacking juice-loan delinquents with a hatchet, the attorney acknowledged. "Hatchet earned that nickname," said Lopez, noting that jurors heard Chiaramonti strangle an informant — who was wearing a wire at the time — during a trial in the 1990s. "I called him Tony."

When reputed mobsters deny, or take offense to, their nicknames, it may be because they haven't heard them until someone plays them tapes of a wiretap. Wiretaps in Sarno's case will show that some of his lieutenants often called their boss "Fat Ass" behind his back. Not a good career move in most jobs, and a potentially deadly one in The Outfit.

"These are not guys you might want to call by a nickname to their face," said Markus Funk, one of the lead prosecutors in the Family Secrets trial that featured defendants Frank "the German" Schweihs; Paul "the Indian" Schiro; and Joseph Lombardo, who was listed with three nicknames: "the Clown," "Lumbo" and "Lumpy."

U.S. attorney's office policy is to include nicknames in an indictment only when the monikers are used in wiretaps or correspondence, said former prosecutor Chris Gair. However, modern mobsters are so paranoid about wiretaps and FBI surveillance that they seldom even risk using a nickname, Gair said. Their coded euphemisms get so vague, often it's clear the mobsters can barely carry on a conversation.

"Instead of a name or a nickname, they'll say something like 'You know that guy down by Grand and Ogden (avenues)?' 'You mean the guy who stands outside the grocery?' And the circumlocutions are so obscure, it's obvious they don't know who the other guy's talking about," Gair said. "But they're so paranoid, they still won't use a name."

Gair, for the record, said he seldom used nicknames in cases he handled.

"I would almost never put (nicknames) in an indictment. FBI agents and IRS guys have a nickname for everybody," he said. "For most guys, they use nicknames the way you or I do among friends."

Thanks to Andy Grimm