Posts Tagged ‘Harold Konigsberg’

Anthony Provenzano recruited Harold Konigsberg and Salvatore Briguglio to kill Anthony Castellitto . . .

Monday, April 19th, 2010

United States v. Local 560 of International Brotherhood of Teamsters
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

. . .
This appeal culminates a lengthy and complex civil action brought pursuant to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (“RICO”) Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961, et seq., by the United States against several defendants who allegedly acquired an interest in, and effectively dominated, Local 560 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (“Local 560″). The district court, concluding that Local 560 was a “captive labor organization,” enjoined certain defendants from any future contacts with Local 560, and removed the current members of the Local 560 Executive Board, replacing the Executive Board with a temporary trusteeship until free elections could be held.
. . .
The government alleged that five of the named defendants: Anthony Provenzano, Nunzio Provenzano, Steven Andretta, Thomas Andretta and Gabriel Briguglio, were members of an ongoing criminal confederation – the Provenzano Group*fn1 – which, through acts of exortion and murder, effectively acquired an interest in, and control of, Local 560, an enterprise within the meaning of RICO, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(b).*fn2 The government also charged these defendants, as the Provenzano Group, with unlawfully participating, directly and indirectly, in the conduct of Local 560′s affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c)*fn3 and with conspiring to violate the above two provisions of RICO (§§ 1962(b) and (c)) in contravention of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d).*fn4

Finally, the government charged the remaining seven individual defendants: Salvatore Provenzano, Joseph Sheridan, Josephine Provenzano, J.W. Dildine, Thomas Reynolds, Michael Sciarra, and Stanley Jaronko, who, at the time the suit was brought, constituted the Executive Board of Local 560, with aiding and abetting the Provenzano Group in violating 18 U.S.C. § 1962(b) and (d).*fn5
. . .
(1) Dorn: Between approximately January 1, 1952 and June 1, 1959, Anthony Provenzano (leader of the Provenzano Group), while an official of Local 560, extorted payoffs from Walter Dorn and his company, Dorn Transport, Inc., in exchange for “labor peace.” Anthony Provenzano was subsequently convicted on one count of Hobbs Act extortion under 18 U.S.C. § 1957 for his part in the Dorn labor peace payoffs. App. at 24, 69.

(2) Castellitto: In 1961, Anthony Provenzano recruited Harold Konigsberg and Salvatore Briguglio to kill Anthony Castellitto, who was a popular member of Local 560 and who posed a threat to Anthony Provenzano’s control of the union. On June 6, 1961 Konigsberg, Briguglio, Salvatore Sinno, and others, committed the murder. Salvatore Briguglio was killed while under indictment for the Castellitto murder, and on June 21, 1978, Anthony Provenzano was sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the murder of Castellitto, App. at 24-25, 30, 70-71.

(3) Braun: Between November 30, 1961 and December 12, 1961, Nunzio Provenzano and Salvatore Briguglio attempted to extort labor peace payments (the Braun Payoff Demand case) from the Braun Company in violation of New York Penal Law § 560 and § 1294 (Conspiracy and attempted grand larceny). Nuncio Provenzano and Salvatore Briguglio were convicted and incarcerated for approximately 2-1/2 years in New York. App. at 25-26, 29, 69.

(4) Seatrain: Between December of 1969 and June of 1977, Anthony Provenzano, Stephen Andretta, Thomas Andretta, and Gabriel Briguglio unlawfully received “labor peace” payoffs from Interocean Services, Inc. and Di-Jub Leasing Inc. (Seatrain Labor Peace Payoffs) in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 186(b). Anthony Provenzano and Thomas Andretta each received 20 years imprisonment for their part in the Seatrain payoffs, and Stephen Andretta and Gabriel Briguglio received 10 and 7 years imprisonment, respectively. App. at 22-23, 25, 28, 77.

(5) Romano: Between 1974 and 1977, Anthony Provenzano, aided and abetted by Salvatore Briguglio and Stephen Andretta, received kickbacks in connection with loans made by the union’s Passaic and Bergen Funds to Thomas and Frank Romano in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1954. App. at

(6) City-Man: Between January of 1971 and July of 1980, Nunzio Provenzano, Irving Cotler, and other individuals unlawfully received labor peace payoffs (the City-Man payoffs) from Pacific Intermountain Express Company, Mason and Dixon Lines, Inc. T.I.M.E. – DC, Inc., and Helms Express in violation of 28 U.S.C. § 186(b). On May 5, 1981, Nunzio Provenzano was convicted on RICO charges stemming from these City-Man labor peace payoffs and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. App. at 26, 82-83.
. . .
Read the Federal court’s decision.

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Being a Shop Steward better than owning

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

Up into the early ’70s, the Teamsters Union was extremely strong in Hudson County. So much so that a Shop Steward (the employee elected by the co-workers to communicate with the Union Local) was virtually a de facto partner in a trucking outfit. In a position to demand a constant cut of the action and with no investment at risk or exposure to loss, being a Shop Steward was actually better than ownership.

My Uncle George was Shop Steward at a trucking firm. One day when he happened to be out, the company management allowed a vending machine company to install cigarette and candy dispensers. Incensed that he had not been consulted first (and appropriately gifted), George got on a fork lift (a machine used to move freight on pallets). He then used the fork lift to pick up each of the vending machines and then to dump them off of the dock (the raised area where trucks pull up to pick up or to deliver freight). George then phoned the vending company and demanded that they remove their machines.

When the vending machine company people arrived to retrieve their damaged equipment they threatened George.

My Uncle George was friendly with Harold Konigsberg, then one of the Mob’s top enforcers. George spoke with Kayo Konigsberg about the situation. Not only did Konigsberg assault the vending machine company people, but — literally adding insult to injury — ordered that they return to the trucking company to apologize to George. George related how two bruised and battered guys showed up begging forgiveness.

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04/11/07 – Congressman Gallagher addresses the Bayonne Historical Society

Friday, January 1st, 2010

Congressman Cornelius Gallagher and President Johnson
In 1964, while he was serving as the cochairman of the Canadian-American Interparliamentary Group, Democrat Gallagher was received warmly by President Johnson at the White House.

I once met Congressman Gallagher at a Knights of Columbus hall in the Jersey City Heights. I remember him as being very old and very tired. Walking up the block after leaving the K of C my mother remarked, “They say Congressman Gallagher is owned by the Mob, but he’s always been a good friend of your grandmother’s.”

That was around forty years ago. Today, my grandmother is dead; my mother is dead; the Knights of Columbus building is gone and the Mob is to a large part made up of shadows now, too. But, Cornelius Gallagher is very much still here. He appeared hardly any older than what I remembered and seems to be enjoying the benefit of a good rest. He spoke for two hours — on his feet and without notes.

When I was young saying that someone was a “real politician” was a compliment. The meaning was that the person was well-dressed, affable, and a good public speaker. Cornelius Gallagher is a real politician.

Congressman Cornelius Gallagher and Congressman Dominick Daniels of Hudson County
Playfully waving a cane resembling a shillelagh, Gallagher marches with Democratic congressional colleague Dominick Daniels in Jersey Citv’s Columbus Day parade

Congressman Gallagher served from 1959 to 1973, during the Administrations of presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. Cornelius Gallagher worked in JFK’s presidential campaign.

Congressman Gallagher contends that after beginning to investigate the government’s assault on privacy he was hounded from public life by J. Edgar Hoover.

The Congressman equated what he calls the replacement of the Constitution by the Patriot Act with government spying by Robert Kennedy and J. Edgar Hoover. Cornelius Gallagher claims that Harvard University was a hotbed of mind control — Manchurian Candidate — research and that the Unabomber was the result. Gallagher also points out that America today lays claim to a military empire through over one thousand bases overseas.

The Congressman reflected on a wide range of historical figures including Roy Cohn, Joe McCarthy, and Cardinal Spellman — a self-described “simple man;” Gallagher’s comment: “as simple as Sadam Hussein.” Cornelius Gallagher also described visiting war-torn India during the Bangladesh conflict. On his return to the US, the Congressman briefed President Nixon. Nixon called in National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger who Gallagher reports as commenting, “That broad (India’s Indira Gandhi) is always getting heated up.”

Gangster Joe Zicarelli was a New Jersey capo in the Bonanno Family of La Cosa Nostra
Gangster Joe Zicarelli was a New Jersey capo in Cosa Nostra
Life reported that there were ties binding the congressman and the hoodlum in an alliance of interests.

Contemporary accounts associated Congressman Gallagher with the Mafia. Cornelius Gallagher called these fabrications by a spiteful J. Edgar Hoover. Gallagher says that his only meeting with Joe Zicarelli was when the Bayonne crime boss introduced the Congressman to a Cuban soldier. This disillusioned former follower of Castro wanted to inform the US that Russian soldiers and engineers were building missile silos in the mountains of Cuba. This was under Eisenhower, two years before the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cornelius Gallagher says that he only met with Tino DeAngelis when the salad oil mogul’s empire was about to collapse. Gallagher described DeAngelis not as a salad oil swindler but a succesful local businessman who was a victim of the big outfits. The Congressman says that he only met Harold Konigsberg (hit man, serial killer, sadist, and sex criminal) once when the Bayonne resident introduced himself to the then Freeholder Gallagher. Gallagher paints “Kayo” Konibsberg as a local “character,” one of many in Bayonne. Cornelius Gallagher denies that he called Konigsberg to remove a corpse from the Congressman’s home.

Tino De Angelis of the Bayonne salad oil fraud
A bland-faced enigma, Tino De Angelis stands amid steamy clouds in his New Jersey refinery

There was a good-sized crowd at this Bayonne Historical Society event, filling most of the seats in the Library’s upstairs meeting room. Boxing great Chuck Wepner was among those attending.


- – -

Some stories from Cornelius Gallagher’s talk:

  • Congressman Gallagher was to meet Tony, a Jersey City Ward leader, at 7:15, but was two hours late. The steaming local pol demanded to know the cause of the delay. The Congressman explained that the Russians were blockading Berlin. Soviet tanks faced US tanks and WWIII was feared. Tony wanted to know the source of the information. Upon hearing that it was John Foster Dulles, Tony replied, “You kept me waiting for that Republican after I carried my Ward in Jersey City for you.”

  • A train fell off of a bridge in Bayonne. Congressman Gallagher went out on a friend’s boat to assist in the rescue efforts. People were screaming. The dead and injured were everywhere. Because the locomotive was underwater, steam made it difficult to see. From another boat, someone hollered asking if that was Congressman Gallagher. He called out in the affirmative. The reply: “What ever happened with that job you promised?”

  • In DC, Congressman Gallagher was being briefed by Secretary of State Rusk. At the end of the meeting, Rusk offered Gallagher a lift. Cornelius Gallagher was surprised to see two telephones in the car. He proceeded to call his office, asking the receptionist if there were any messages. There were: from President Johnson and from Mayor Kenny. The Congressman had to return the most important one first — Mayor Kenny’s. (Getting reelected was the most important thing.)

Congressman Cornelius Gallagher and Hudson County Political Boss J. V. Kenny
Gallagher poses happily with Boss John V. Kenny (right), who declares that the congressman was a “victim of an outrageous assault – but I’m with him 100 percent.”

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Congressman Barney Franks remembers Kayo Konigsberg.

Friday, January 1st, 2010

“We loved the fact that he was one of us. I mean, here’s a guy who had—you know, he wasn’t just an accountant like Meyer Lansky. I remember teasing one of your father’s cousins about him. She’d get upset, but most of the Jewish kids I knew were sort of worshipful of Kayo.“
Congressman Barney Frank (born and raised in Bayonne) on Harold Konigsberg
Blood Relation

Harold Konigsberg (AKA “Kayo” and “Heshey”) was a sadist and a serial killer. Harold Konigsberg worked for La Cosa Nostra and then, becoming a Federal informant, turned on the Mob.

A few choice bits of local lore concerning Harold Konigsberg:

  • During the commission of an armed robbery, Harold Konigsberg forced a female office worker to remove her blouse so that he could view her breasts.

  • Before killing one of his victims, Harold Konigsberg emasculated the man by grabbing his scrotum and then pulling it away from the body.

  • When an attractive young man was incarcerated, Harold Konigserg told the new inmate, “Tonight, you’re gonna be my wife.” Before the homosexual rape could occur, the young inmate committed suicide. After that, all the Mobsters and their associates refused to have anything more to do with Konigsberg.

I hope that Congressman Franks rethinks his comments.

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Hudson County’s version of a spa

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Frankie DePaula supposedly said “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.” What he failed to mention was that for the well-heeled malefactor the local hoosegow was Hudson County’s version of a spa. For a price, all amenities were available. The boxer himself, while serving a sentence, spent the nights carousing at Union City clubs. In a Hudson County Cinderella story, DePaula had to return to the lockup before dawn. The day then was spent sleeping away any ill effects of the previous evening.

Those not able to afford a nightly let loose, at a somewhat reduced rate might still enjoy the company of the opposite sex. To all those inside looking out, the presence of women was made quite obvious by occasional laughter and other unmistakable vocalizations.

Harold “Kayo” Konigsberg’s canary song caused the curtain to fall on the shenanigans at the local jail. One observer commented that he never could understand why Konigsberg ratted out the warden, “’cause the man always was good to him.”

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Konigsberg, the Congressman and the corpse

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Harold Konigsberg struggles in the grip of a detective.
Konigsberg struggles in the grip of a detective.

A regular customer in my father’s tavern was a friend of Harold “Kayo” Konigsberg. The bar patron related how he was the one who actually removed the body from Congressman Gallagher’s house. The Congressman had requested assistance from Konigsberg. Kayo, though nervy in most ways, was frightened at the thought of carrying a body out of the home of a prominent Bayonne resident with all the nice little old ladies up and down the block watching from behind the blinds. So, Kayo called for help. The guy, who we shall call Hal, after a little negotiating (Very one-sided, given the circumstances, the Congressman and Konigsberg simply promised Hal whatever he wanted.) just wrapped the body up in a rug, heaved it over his shoulder, and hauled it out the door to his car.

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“Kayo” Konigsberg decides to lean on “Newsboy” Moriarty

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Gangland enforcer Harold “Kayo” Konigsberg of Bayonne, once conspired with an associate (who here we’ll call Hal) to muscle in on the numbers business of Jersey City bookmaker Joe “Newsboy” Moriarty. Konigsberg’s friend asked if the action had been sanctioned by the Mob. Kayo replied that, as Moriarty was nothing but a nobody (not affiliated with any of the Cosa Nostra Families), permission wasn’t needed. Konigsberg’s partner, sensing some reason to fear to tread here, said that he was interested, but, first the higher-ups would have to give their blessing. Some days later, Hal asked Konigsberg about his plans for the take over of the illegal gambling territory. Kayo would only say that he “didn’t want to talk about it.” Hal could only speculate that even the Mafia dreaded retaliation from powerful people in Jersey City who made mortgage payments, sent children to college, and took vacations only through the grace of payoffs from the bookie Newsboy.

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