Stop being a criminal? Just because he's a felon means he can't try and go straight? Interesting logic.

The point is. 16 years is excessive. He was acquitted on all the substantive predicates except the conspiracy charge. Thats all I am saying. Its a trumped up charge thats all it is.

And do what exactly?

Aged 62, career criminal, half his adult life in jail? Seriously? Do what?


Run for congress?

Finally. Thank you. At least somebody here gets it. They won't admit it but the reason some people on the forums are bitching about this is because they're rooting for these guys.

Sentencing is way out of line. Whatever he did in past does not justify 16 years on a gambling charge. It's not possible to go shopping without having lottery tickets in your sight, ann watching news without seeing at least one lottery commercial is impossible. Signs on highways urge us to play lottery. Gambling is all over, in our faces, but only politicians want to have their political hacks run it. Judge was very over the top here. No justification for this.

You're preaching to the choir as far as legalized gambling goes. It is hypocritical and the state shouldn't be involved in it. But that doesn't excuse Massimino and other mob guys for engaging in it. And the crimes he's committed in the past do justify the long sentence he got. He's proven time and time again that he's a career criminal with no intention of changing. Lock him up.

Fact is they took 10 years of taxpayer money to come at Mousie, Ligambi and the bunch and when they finally realized that Joe Ligambi's crew isn't quite the Gotti-Casso bunch they thought they was; they decide to roll the dice on trial. Pick up whoever they could. Well, Mousie's gone for most of the rest of his life. Hope it was worth it, taxpayers.

He roll the dice ,good luck 16 years of bookmaking

And some people are bitching about this because they simply just don't agree.

You can agree that legalised gambling has its hypocrisy so why not agree there may be some grey area to this debate?

It's not a case of your perspective vs people rooting for the bad guys.

Most arguments you'll find have two sides.
And not necessarily subjective ones.

And relegating one sides argument to 'just bitching' is hardly going to make friends now is it?

Considering Mousie is a career criminal, with a record as long as your leg, I don't see where there's any grey area. Maybe if this was his first or second arrest and but not when you look at his history. And I'm not exactly known for going out of my way to make friends.

fuck excessive. fuck fair. thats life. and more importantly, thats THE LIFE. when he told them he didnt know why he was called in he knew what he was doing.

my opinion? he shouldve stayed away from meth. hes lucky they didnt get him for more.

You hit it on the nose. Thats the life. Fold it into a major rico your looking at a shit load of time.

If he committed a violent felony I would not disagree. For someone like him, this is as legitimate as he can probably get. It's still a gambling charge, I see no way 16 years is justified, no matter what his past.

The prosecution goes out of their way to nail guys like Mousie.I'm sure they have some weight with the judge and all those wise-cracks added up.I knew he wasn't going to go down easy and I'm sure the feds are eatin it up.All the laughter stopped abruptly,why put yourself in that position.The argument that the state does the same thing but its legal,when was the last time state threatened any individual or did bodily harm to its customers?

Harsh sentence that!

Wow. They definitely threw the book at Ol' Mousies ass. That's for sure. Early 60's though, I wouldn't be surprised if he's out in 10 which would put him at 71 or so and by then he might have staked his claim to maybe even be Boss, but probably still UB. Although I've always doubted that he's even the UB as he's portrayed to be. I see him as Capo but I've never seen him as any type of a Boss that's for sure.

We all know Mousie is a carreer criminal but the government has a hard on for the Mob. REally...there is no Mob. Philly is a small family, smaller than most drug gangs that are on every corner in the city. Thats my point. There is no need to even go after these guys for poker machines when there are a bunch of casinos in and around philly and more in the making. And enough crime for them to go after in the Northeast. They went after these gusy for bull shit and there case was bull shit. There only success was getting this guys 16 years. The friggin boss of the family beat every friggin charge except the racketeering. NOt even loooking forward to that trial. And that poor bastad, who I can't stand, George Corky irish looking Borgesi, is still behind bars. Im fromn south philly and i am not mob groupie but this case was stupid and they were hoping a nobody like bent finger lou was going to put all these guys away. Go after the real criminals. You guys are on here acting like these guys were out there whacking guys. To much Sopranos and Goodfellas....

+1 TRUE

To me it basically come downs to...was this case worth the 10 to 15 years they put into the Ligambi guys. That time and money could have been used on much better crimes. And now we pay for him to stay in jail for 15 years. Was it worth it? Especially when the city of philadelphia has casinos and you can bet on sports right down the street in delaware...not to mention AC down the road. To me, its hypocritical to give this guys 16 years. Like others said, what about the non street guys who take advatange of people everday with these banks and shit. It just doesn't add up to me. Thats my point. Its not just about Mousie. He was a carree criminal but did serve time for his prior crimes. And to beat the other charges but still found guilty on racketeering conspiracty doesn't make much sense to me.

I do feel bad for Borgesi, that poor bastard has been in a while and he beat a lot of the charges and they wont even give him bail...

spmob I see your point on a lot of things but the 1 statement I always hear that I have to disagree with is ''the law should be going after the so-called real criminals''Like I said earlier what's the percentage of mob guys in all these prisons.I would say barely a fraction,so there are real criminals that are in our prisons.I mean I can't agree with that if the feds were not watching Mousie the twin towers would still be there and the people in Boston would have legs.That's a good one.Even like you even say there isn't a so-called mob in Philly one guy claims to have been a part of 11 hits while back in Dec. somebody got hit in broad daylight.Maybe this wasn't Mousie's thing but it still exists to some extent.Not sure if you can just turn a blind eye to it.

They sentenced Gary Battaglini to 96 months about an hour ago

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2013/July/13-crm-782.html

Phillie is getting whiped out. That's for sure

8 years. He'll probably only serve 6 or 7 years of it. Wouldn't be surprised if he gets made once he's out of prison.

He's not even made? Really? That cements my idea that the media referring to him as Underboss is not only wrong but way off. I said the biggest he would be us Capo if that, and if your right about him not having his stripes I seriously doubt he even has Capo status.

No I was talking about Gary Battaglini . But I do agree with you about Massimino not really being underboss. My guess would be Staino.

Once again, it's not just this one gambling charge. It's this one gambling charge (which is part of a greater RICO conspircy) + his extensive criminal history. You guys want to look at this latest charge in isolation and that's a mistake.



That line, "They should be going after the real criminals" has always been a bunch of BS. DTO's, street gangs, other OC groups, etc. get busted all the time.



A) You should read more carefully. B) Massimino is made and he was acting underboss.

Not true at all, there are quite a few up and coming players along with the guys still out on the street. The way things are now in this country with the economy, jobs and the cost of living a lot of these younger kids today want a piece of the action from what I have seen and heard. A few years back these types of people would have steered clear of that kind of life but the saying we often use in SP "to get ahead you always got to have some extra money on the side" seems to be true now more than ever.

These younger kids around here (20-30's) also all grew up in the era of pop culture and the rap music culture where it's cool to be involved in that kind of life and everyone wants to be among the most popular in SP. I see it everyday given that I have many of my 2 sons friends on Facebook.

I hear you Southphilly4ever but do these younger guys have what it takes.I mean so much of the money gets kicked up to the top is there enough left for the reward vs.the risk factor.I mean even this guy Battaglia that just got sentenced was working as a courier.Remember in the tapes how somebody said its a broke mob,I mean if you are really doing good all it takes is one small bust and the lawyer's fees are outrageous.I don't think the feds will ever give up on the Philly mob even if its down to a few guys.Somebody always fills the void but in todays world it just doesn't seem as appealing as it once was.

Well Staino and Canalichio are gonna get 15+, I wonder if Canalichio is going to flip, or Nicodemo seeing that Dame is gonna get hammered and flip before he does. Im sure the FBI and the Fed attorneys are already thinking about these possibilities.