Elect Hunter Harris for Judge – Commercial
Santo Trafficante, Jr. (November 15, 1914 – March 17, 1987) was one of the last of the old-time Mafia bosses in the United States. He allegedly controlled organized criminal operations in Florida, which had previously been consolidated from several rival gangs by his father, Santo Trafficante, Sr. Reputedly the most powerful mafioso in Batista-era Cuba, he never served time in a United States prison.
Trafficante maintained links to the Bonanno family, in New York City, but was more closely allied with Salvatore “Sam,” “Mooney” Giancana, in Chicago. Subsequently, while generally recognized as the most powerful organized crime figure in Florida, throughout much of the 20th century, Trafficante was not believed to have total control over Miami, Miami Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, and Palm Beach, Florida. The east coast of Florida was a loosely knit conglomerate of New York family interests with obvious links to Meyer Lansky, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Calogero “Carlos Marcello” Minacore, Leo Stein and Frank Ragano. To this day, control of Florida by organized crime is likely divided between Chicago, New Orleans, New York, and international organized crime interests.
During the rule of Cuba’s ex-dictator Batista he openly operated the Sans Souci and the Casino International gambling establishments in Havana. As a leading member of the syndicate, it was suspected that he also had behind-the-scenes interests in other syndicate owned Cuban gambling casinos namely, The Hotel Habana Riviera, The Tropicana Club, The Sevilla-Biltmore, The Capri Hotel Casino, The Commodoro, The Deauville and the Havana Hilton. Nightly, Batista’s “bagman” would collect 10 percent of the profits at Trafficante’s casinos.
Trafficante was arrested in 1957, along with 56 other mobsters, at an apparent underworld convention, the Apalachin Meeting in New York. Charges were later dropped, though authorities believe the meeting was set up, among other things, to fill the power vacuum created by the recent assassination of Murder, Inc. head Albert Anastasia. Trafficante later denied knowledge of the circumstances of Anastasia’s death.
In January 1958 Trafficante was questioned by the Cuban National police regarding the Apalachin meeting. A full report was made by the Cuban police dated January 23, 1958 that includes transcripts of long distance telephone calls made from the Sans Souci during the period August-December 1957. This report was given to the District Attorneys office. In addition, on January 23, 1958 the Cuban Department of Investigation, Havana, Cuba notified the Bureau of Narcotics that Santo Trafficante was registered in their Alien Office under No. 93461.
After Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government seized the assets of Trafficante’s Cuban businesses and expelled him from the country as an “undesirable alien”, Trafficante came into contact with various U.S. intelligence operatives, and was involved in several unsuccessful plans to assassinate Castro. Allusions to these historic connections were confirmed by the Central Intelligence Agency’s 2007 declassification of the “Family Jewels” documents.
Suspicions that Trafficante, along with Marcello, mob boss of New Orleans in the 1950s and ’60s, Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa, and Chicago boss Sam Giancana, were involved in some way with the John F. Kennedy assassination have been alleged repeatedly but have not been proven.
Trafficante was summoned to court in 1986 and questioned about his involvement with the King’s Court nightclub operated by members of the Bonanno family from New York, including undercover FBI agent Joseph D. “Joe” Pistone, alias, “Donnie Brasco”. Trafficante again escaped conviction.
Trafficante’s health had declined in his older years, and he died in Houston, Texas, where he had gone for heart surgery, in 1987.
Duration : 0:8:31
http://www.crimemagazine.com/06/marcello,1019-6.htm From pot dealing, police-and politician-corrupting street thug, Marcello graduated to godfather of New Orleans (and Dallas), governing a vast and violent criminal empire that brought in an estimated $2 billion-a-year. He succeeded Sam Carolla, who was deported to Sicily in 1947. Marcello quickly became a generous financial supporter of Richard Nixon; and, eventually, a suspect in the murder of Nixon’s nemesis: President John F. Kennedy.
Marcello’s first dealings with Vice President Dick Nixon involved Jimmy Hoffa, the mobbed-up Teamsters Union leader. Because Jimmy shared a common enemy with Nixon, Hoffa and his two million-member union backed Nixon against Sen. John Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. A Louisiana Teamster official who later became a government informant has revealed that Hoffa met with Marcello to secretly fund the Nixon campaign with stacks of cold Mob cash. Edward Partin told Mob expert Dan Moldea: ”I was right there, listening to the conversation. Marcello had a suitcase filled with $500,000 cash which was going to Nixon … (Another $500,000 contribution) was coming from Mob boys in New Jersey and Florida.” Hoffa himself served as Nixon’s bagman. Within a few weeks of that payoff, Vice President Nixon managed to stop a Florida land fraud indictment against Hoffa.
The Hoffa-Marcello meeting took place in New Orleans on Sept. 26, 1960, and has been verified by William Sullivan, a former top FBI official.
Sen. John Kennedy edged out Vice President Nixon in the 1960 presidential election, and Hoffa thanks to Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy was soon sitting in a prison cell for jury tampering and looting his own union’s pension funds of nearly $2 million. Yet the Nixon-Hoffa link remained solid at least until Dec. 23, 1971 when, as president, Nixon gave Jimmy an executive grant of clemency and opened the prison’s gates for him. Hoffa served only five years of a 13-year sentence.
In 1961, Marcello was “deported” to Guatemala by Atty. Gen. Bobby Kennedy. But the Louisiana godfather quietly returned in a small plane piloted by an associate named David Ferrie later considered a prime JFK assassination suspect by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison. Identified by the Warren Commission as the lone killer of President Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald had his own ties to Carlos Marcello.Jack Ruby stalked Oswald after his arrest finally killing him with a pistol shot to the guts two days after Kennedy’s murder, as the alleged presidential assassin was being transferred from one Dallas jail to another.
Shortly after entering the White House in 1969, Richard Nixon moved to solidify his close favor-trading friendship with Carlos Marcello known in the underworld as “the Big Daddy in the Big Easy.” Their main go-between was old Nixon loyalist and Mob lawyer Murray Chotiner. The pinky ring-wearing Chotiner and his brother were responsible for defending 221 organized crime figures in California.
Chotiner had a White House office and an official government job from which to trade on his powerful behind-the-scenes influence. He had served Nixon since the Navy vet’s very first campaign for Congress in 1946. In fact, Chotiner had introduced Nixon to L.A.’s top hoodlum, Mickey Cohen and pressured Cohen to contribute to the Nixon campaign. Chotiner was associated with scores of other leading gangsters, including Meyer Lansky and Ben “Bugsy” Seigel.
Duration : 0:10:24
Thomas D Arnhold Alumni Achievement Award Winner
Author: New Orleans // Category: Law & Ethics
Thomas D. Arnhold
75 BS Political Science
Hutchinson, Kansas
Thomas D. Arnhold, Hutchinson, graduated from FHSU in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science. He went on to earn a Juris Doctor from the Washburn University Law School in 1978. He is a partner and attorney in the Hutchinson firm of Oswalt, Arnhold, Oswald and Henry. He also spent 24 years as a judge advocate in the Kansas Army National Guard, retiring as a colonel in 2007. For the last seven years of his military service he was the staff judge advocate for the 35th Infantry Division. At his military retirement, he was awarded the Legion of Merit, the highest award given to members of the military in peace time.
His legal career has encompassed a wide range, from indigent criminal clients in Kansas District Courts to cases before the Kansas Supreme Court. His military service included duty in Bosnia in 2003 and in New Orleans in 2005 during the response to hurricane Katrina.
In my 20 years of law practice and 12 years on the District Court bench, writes Judge James A. Patton, I have observed many excellent lawyers. Tom rates as one of the best. Most striking are his sense of fairness and honesty and his dedication to the rule of law and the profession of law.
In addition to his career as an attorney and military JAG officer, Arnhold has co-written two books on workers compensation, co-authored a book on real estate law, written another book, A Wingshooters Guide to Kansas, and published articles in The Army Lawyer and in The Territorial Magazine. In 2008, he began writing as a guest columnist for The Hutchinson News and also writes for Hutchinson Magazine.
While at FHSU, he was active in student government, the Political Science Club and intramural sports. In civic and professional life, Arnhold has been a youth soccer, basketball and baseball coach and has been active in many organizations, including the Hutchinson Public Library Board, on which he served as vice president, vice president of the Hutchinson Human Relations Board, Big Brothers, the Trinity Catholic High School Booster Club, Knights of Columbus, Downtown Development Board, the Arkansas River Coalition, and the FHSU Alumni Association. He has served as president of the Reno County Bar Association and is a member of the Kansas Bar Association, and the Kansas National Guard Association.
Besides the Legion of Merit, Arnholds 20 military decorations include the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Humanitarian Service Medal and the Army Commendation Medal. He and his wife, Joleen, were also named the outstanding volunteers in 1999 by Trinity Catholic High School.
The Arnholds have two children, daughter Colleen M. Connealy and son Kevin T. Arnhold.
Duration : 0:6:54
Judge Cannizzaro with Sidney Torres and Marlin Gusman
Author: New Orleans // Category: Safety
Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman and business leader Sidney Torres show their strong support for Leon Cannizzaro for Orleans Parish District Attorney.
Duration : 0:0:31
This sick should be horsewhipped.
A new law on the books starting Tuesday stiffens the penalties for people who refuse breathalyzer tests when they’re pulled over on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.
Duration : 0:1:41
Accident, arrest, divorce. When you need legal help, call the attorneys at Stephenson, Chavarri & Lambert, LLC in New Orleans. Their expertise can help with legal matters involving personal injury, criminal defense, divorce, business matters, and maritime law. Put your legal problems in the hands of attorneys who care.
Visit us http://www.yellowpages.com/info-451058799/Stephenson-Chavarri-Lambert-LLC?from=youtb
Duration : 0:0:39
A new law on the books starting Tuesday stiffens the penalties for people who refuse breathalyzer tests when they’re pulled over on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.
Duration : 0:1:41
William Jefferson, Congressman black man, is sentenced to 13 years in prison. prince mongo’s brother
Author: New Orleans // Category: Rap and Hip-Hop
video, tape, movie, Former LA Congressman William J. Jefferson is sentenced to 13 years in prison. On Friday 62 year old former Louisiana Congressman, Democrat William Jennings Jefferson, affectionately known to his friends as Bill, and to his admirers and political adversaries as Dollar Bill, was sentenced by a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia to 13 years in prison. Former Democratic Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson, left, enters U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. on Friday, Nov. 13, 2009 for sentencing in his bribery case accompanied by his wife Andrea Jefferson. Jefferson was convicted on charges including bribery and racketeering. Prosecutors said he took in nearly half a million dollars in exchange for using his influence to broker business deals in Africa. Prosecutors were asking for 27 years, however, the judge ascertained that sentencing Jefferson to 27 years would be in consideration to his age, sentencing him to a life sentence. Convicted by a jury on August 5, 2009 of 11 criminal corruption charges, charges that included the crimes of bribery, money laundering and racketeering, the former 2d Congressional District Congressman who once represented much of New Orleans, has finally stopped free falling and is now facing spending much of the remainder of his life behind prison bars. Jefferson’s defense attorneys, who had hoped their client’s sentence would be less than 10 years, have said they will appeal his conviction. William J. Jefferson began his public service to his New Orleans constituents in 1979 as an elected state senator, in his senatorial victory, Jefferson had become the first Black to be elected to the Louisiana Senate since Reconstruction. To political analysts, Jefferson was an undeniable raising star in Louisiana politics. Infamously redefining the colloquial term of cold cash, federal investigators found over $100,000 stashed in boxes of veggie burgers that were hidden in Jeffersons homes freezer.The former 9 term Congressman who served from 1991 to 2009 had planned according to prosecutors, to use the money in order to bribe the vice president of Nigeria who was at the time, in Washington D.C. – Jefferson had hoped the money would help pave the way for a telecommunications deal that would have been lucrative for the congressman’s family, prosecutors said.The investigation into Jeffersons suspected illegal activities began in mid-2005, after an investor alleged $400,000 in bribes were paid through a company maintained in the name of Jefferson’s spouse and children. The money came from a tech company named iGate, Inc., of Louisville, Kentucky, and in return, it is alleged, Jefferson would help iGate’s business. Jefferson was to persuade the U.S. Army to test iGate’s broadband two-way technology and other iGate products; use his efforts to influence high-ranking officials in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon; and meet with personnel of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, in order to facilitate potential financing for iGate business deals in those countries.William Jennings Jefferson was born on March 14, 1947, in Lake Providence, Louisiana. Jefferson grew up in poverty in a family of 10 children in the far northeastern part of the state. In 1969, he graduated from Southern University Agricultural and Mechanical College with a B.A. degree. Three years later, on scholarship, he earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School. In 1996, Jefferson earned a Master of Laws in taxation from Georgetown University. After law school, he served for a year as a law clerk for veteran U.S. District Court Judge Alvin B. Rubin in New Orleans. From 1973 to 1975, Jefferson then served as a legislative assistant to Senator J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana.Jefferson twice unsuccessfully ran for New Orleans mayor, first challenging Dutch Morial in the election of 1982, and then being defeated by Sidney Barthelemy in the mayoral runoff of 1986. During the 1982 mayoral race, Morial attacked Jefferson by calling him “Dollar Bill” a nickname which has stuck to this day.Jefferson is married to Andrea Jefferson. Together they have five daughters: Jamila Jefferson-Jones, Jalila Jefferson-Bullock – a former Louisiana State Representative – , Jelani Jefferson Exum – a professor of law at the University of Kansas – , Nailah Jefferson – a documentary filmmaker – , and Akilah Jefferson.As always Louisianans, the Examiner.Com is interested in what you think. Has Americans for the most part given up on finding a politician that best represents their best interests and not the best interests of the politician? Should the former congressman do the full 13 years in prison? And will this conviction “scare straight” current politicians who accept lobbyists big bucks? Inquiring minds want to know. Sound off.Until next time Louisianans, Good Day, God Bless and Good Fishing.
Duration : 0:10:3