Former Gambino crime family consigliere and underboss Frank (Frankie Loc) Locascio has failed to have his 1992 conviction overturned.
The 85-year-old mobster was arrested back in 1990 along with former Gambino family boss John Gotti and Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano and charged with racketeering. Gravano turned on his New York Mafia pals and became one of the most notorious rats in Cosa Nostra history. Both Gotti and Locascio were convicted of racketeering and conspiracy charges with the help of Gravano’s testimony and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Frankie Loc claimed he was innocent and has been searching for reasons to appeal ever since in an effort to regain his freedom.
“Frank Locascio”
In this latest appeal, Locascio’s lawyer Harlan Protass argued that Brooklyn Federal judge Leo Glasser who presided over the trial back in 1992 should have recused himself. He claims that Glasser should have revealed that his son was an assistant U.S. Attorney in Connecticut at the time of the trial because one of the racketeering charges Locascio was convicted on partially had to do with a Connecticut gambling operation according to NY Daily News report. Protass also noted that Glasser disqualified four defense lawyers from the case due to conflicts of interest. But court papers indicated that the defense had no specific evidence that Glasser’s son knew about the probes into the organized crime family or that he shared any information with his father in regards to the case.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors denounced the claims made by Locascio calling them a low blow. The Manhattan 2nd Circuit court agreed and said the argument for Glaser’s recusal would in no way establish Locasio’s innocence. Protass said they were once again disappointed in the result and that they were evaluating their appeal options.
They were never going to let John out of prison alive and it looks like the same goes for Frankie. He may not have had the target on his back that Gotti did but his name will forever be linked to John so the feds won’t ever show him any mercy.
Exactly!! Not necessarily the top target but a major player from the Gotti Administration so NO he ain’t getting out. The appeal is week anyway. It doesn’t actually seem to have any relevance to the case. The irony here is the only one from that crew who is actually a free man is old Sammy The Bull. Probably has more bodies than any other Wiseguy from that crew but he is soaking up the sun down in AZ. Nobody ever said Mob Life was supposed to be fair.
Yes, he never had chance to gain his. nfreedom…The Feds never could break john Gotti so Frank is tied directly to Gotti and his glory days…so frank is and always has been doomed…even though Rat trash Gravano is the person who should rot and die in the big house..
If he was John Gotti’s consigliere then perhaps he should have talked some sense into John Gotti about his big mouth and high profile. If he had they probably could have gotten away with everything and Frankie Loc wouldn’t be rotting in prison. Hindsight is 20/20.
Your right he didn’t do a good job as consigliere so he’s partly at fault for his predicament. His job was to counsel. Even without rat Gravano they were going down cause of Gottis big mouth, though.
As we all know it was Frankie on some of the tapes in the same convo with Johnny boy. They should have whacked Sammy when they had the chance. They still would have did their time like stand up men.
Actually the Mafia would have been a lot better off if the Genovese and Lucchese families had succeeded in whacking John Gotti, I think him being on camera all the time and being such a high profile character is what saved his life. Salvatore Gravano isn’t the one who brought them all down, it was John Gotti and his big mouth. Frank LoCascio was on the tapes, but he was just playing along with his boss rather than being a strong consigliere. He shouldn’t have just been a yes-man, though I’m not sure if it would have made a difference. John was John.
I agree with some points with Gotti’s high profile and we can probably go back and forth all day. However, we cannot ignore the damage that high ranking rats like Leonetti and Sammy have done to countless amounts of wiseguys. It’s funny how no one ever mentions Castellano on tapes and Tony Ducks in his Jag. Were they not bosses also…
One major difference with Paul Castellano and Anthony Corallo is that when they were bugged, wiretaps weren’t anywhere near as common. They were new to bugs and didn’t have anyone to learn from. John Gotti on the other hand, should have learned from the mistakes of Paul Castellano and Anthony Corallo but he didn’t. With his hunger for attention and publicity, I almost get the sense that he WANTED to be bugged. Yes, Salvatore Gravano and Philip Leonetti have done lots of damage, but they were both serving bosses who were undeserving of their positions. I’m not excusing the rats, but you can easily look at John Gotti and Nicodemo Scarfo and decide that had they not done A or B, then maybe C and D wouldn’t have happened.