Bobby Manna, 94, Still Kicking & Still Looking For Compassion

Despite what you may have read on social media, Genovese wiseguy Louis (Bobby) Manna did not die in prison last weekend, the same way his mobster father did 72 years ago. The once powerful family consigliere is still alive, but not doing so well as he is in a prison hospital. This is why the ailing 94-year-old gangster is seeking a compassionate release that will allow him to live the rest of his days at home.

The feds say nuts to that. Manna should die behind bars, they insist, even though his conviction is for a single murder. This gives him just ten percent of the number of confirmed bodies on his record that the Murder Machine mobsters, Anthony Senter and Joseph Testa, had when they were ordered freed by the U.S. Parole Commission last year.

That came after they had served 35 years for 10 mob murders. No loud dissent was heard at the time from federal prosecutors. Not that anyone is keeping track, but numerous other drug dealers and gangsters have also been freed by federal judges after similar stretches behind bars after convictions for multiple murders.

In its last filing six weeks ago, the government stated that Newark Federal Judge Maryanne Trump Barry (yes, the once again future President's older sister) "had necessarily contemplated (Manna) spending the remainder of his life in prison" when she gave him 80 years for ordering the storied 1987 rubout of Irwin (The Fatman) Schiff, and for plotting to whack Gambino boss John Gotti and his brother Gene that same year.

"Nothing that has occurred in the intervening years has fundamentally altered the factors" that Barry considered in 1989 or that Judge Peter Sheridan considered last year when he wrote that "his numerous crimes were extremely serious and heinous" and he denied Manna compassion, wrote assistant U.S. attorney Alexander Ramey.

Sheridan has also denied two similar motions for compassion for Richard (Bocci) DeSciscio, now 82, the longtime Manna crony who was convicted of being part of the hit team that killed Schiff, the millionaire mob-linked businessman who was shot to death as he dined at the Bravo Sergio Restaurant on the Upper East Side on August 8, 1987.

In his filing with the newly assigned judge, Robert Kirsch, prosecutor Ramey noted that from the outset until his "sentencing, Manna failed to accept responsibility for his crimes" and refused to provide any mitigating information to probation officials. He argued that Manna should be ordered to complete the 80-year prison term that was handed down by Judge Barry, even though it would be highly unlikely that Manna makes it to the finish line which is November 7. 2054 — exactly 30 years from today.

Ramey didn't pretend otherwise in his memo. He noted that Manna "has roughly 30 years left on his sentence," and that despite the fact that he is "94 years old — turning 95 in December — and will not survive" his lengthy prison term, he does not deserve compassion even though "compelling and extraordinary reasons exist that justify compassionate release."

That is so, Ramey argues, even though Manna has a "low-level risk of recidivism," has numerous debilitating ailments, and that two prison wardens and the Bureau of Prisons approved his release under the First Step Act of 2018 in 2020 when a BOP social worker at his prison hospital stated that Manna appeared to "have the support and resources necessary for successful re-entry."

Manna's status as "a major figure in organized crime who occupied a leadership role in a racketeering conspiracy that planned to murder two individuals and successfully murdered another" along with his "violent and egregious conduct in the offenses," wrote Ramey, "weigh against any reduction" in his sentence.

But at least Manna is still breathing. "I'm happy to say that the reports of Mr. Manna's death were fake news," said attorney Jeremy Iandolo. He told Gang Land he is "hopeful" that his pending third motion for compassion for Manna will be successful, and plans to speak to his client about the case later this week.

"It's a damn shame," said Iandolo. "My client's got a long list of ailments, he's convicted of ordering one murder — he's not the triggerman — and he's in prison while a lot of defendants who were serial killers have been released and are back on the streets."

Manna was just a budding wiseguy in his early 20s when his father, Mauro (Morris) Manna, died at the age of 56 while serving a three-to-five year prison term for receiving stolen goods at the New Jersey State prison in Trenton in November of 1952.

Mauro was indentified on November 4, 1952 as a major player in the Genovese crime family's rackets on the New Jersey docks in the 1940's and early 1950's in a two part series in the New York Daily News titled "Waterfront Sore Spot," a year before the now defunct Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor was created in 1953. Bobby Manna apparently decided to live his life like his old man. Now he may die like him too.

Should be released.

I was sitting there thinking how could the passing of such a major figure go unnoticed, I guess this is my answer.