The murder of former Purple Gang leader Michael Meldish is an integral piece of the recent racketeering indictments against the hierarchy of the Lucchese crime family.
According to the indictment, the mafia hit is specifically being charged as a murder in aid of racketeering along with various other charges as part of a long-running racketeering conspiracy by the Lucchese family. High ranking members of the Cosa Nostra family charged with the Meldish murder include acting boss Matthew Madonna and underboss Steven Crea along with capo Steven Crea Jr, soldier Christopher Londonio, and mob associate Terrence Caldwell. Even though the indictment doesn’t supply a reason for the murder sources familiar with the case believe it was linked to a breach of old school mafia protocol.
“Matthew Madonna and Michael Meldish”
When Meldish was found shot to death back in 2013 there were several theories as to who had killed him and why. The 62-year-old mobster was a stone cold killer believed to have carried out or been a part of at least 10 hits in the 1970’s and 80’s according to law enforcement. The Purple Gang terrorized the city for a couple of decades controlling a large part of the drug trade in Harlem and the Bronx. The crew was affiliated with several New York Mafia families including the Lucchese family giving Meldish a certain standing in the world of organized crime. But by the late 1980s, the gang’s power and influence had dwindled and it more or less evaporated although Meldish remained an associate of the Lucchese family according to reports.
Details surrounding the murder began to take shape when Christopher Londonio and Terrence Caldwell were indicted by federal prosecutors for their roles in the hit. According to sources familiar with the case including GanglandNews Meldish was warned to stop fooling around with the girlfriend of Bonanno family boss Michael Mancuso. He refused to heed those warnings leading to him being harshly beaten in public by Bonanno family mobster Ernest Aiello the year before he was brutally killed. The NYPD’s Organized Crime Investigation Division got wind of the altercation and paid Madonna a visit warning him against any retaliation which could trigger a war between the mafia families. Madonna seemingly agreed although Meldish remained hell bent on revenge and decided to take matters into his own hands according to sources which likely sealed his fate.
A few months later near the location where Meldish was assaulted he orchestrated the attempted murder of Bonanno family soldier Enzo Stagno sources say. He did so without the okay of Lucchese family leaders which lead to reports of Madonna bad mouthing Meldish for disrespecting him by disobeying orders a few months later. Sources say Madonna and the Lucchese family hierarchy had enough and the two-man hit team of Londonio and Caldwell was ordered to take Meldish out. This shows that even though the modern day American Mafia isn’t as violent as it once was a breach of mob protocol such as this can still be a death sentence.
Seems like the whole story or just about the whole story on Meldish is out with this indictment and it def doesn’t look good for the Lucchese leaders. But one question being asked by many I have seen around the web is when will we know the identity of the rat. surely someone with more knowledge and well connected is involved in supplying the feds with this kind of indepth info other than who we are aware of so far.
Only guy in this case that has been confirmed was a rat was joe foti he wore a wire for years before the meldish murder his own brother is a made guy and he is from the same area as Crea. Now it is unlikely he personally wore a wire on guys like steve or Madonna they were too high upto be an associate but he probably gave the feds probable cause for wiretapping certain places and would not surprise me if guys like londino he managed to get on tape talking about it.
John rubeo is also likely to be involved in this case. I have a feeling which if true these guys are in a lot of trouble that a lot of this case is based on wiretaps not with rats if guys like steve are openly talking about the murder they are done
Yeah we know about Foti but it sure does seem like with the depth of info the feds have now that someone from closer with in may have also turned. At least it seems that way I guess we won’t know for sure until this gets a little further along.
Well with the way things have been going lately for the Feds and their Allstar cast of Informants as well as the authorities meant to be handling them, more straight up audio and video recordings could be their saving grace. We keep seeing examples of jurors not warming up to Pedophiles, Sociopaths, and Federal Agents improperly managing them as well as being in a big ass hurry to strike their own book deals at the conclusion of these supposed “Landmark Mafia Ending” cases. Which also never really seems to happen. Yea they have taken them down a few large pegs but its always the same press conference with the big dramatic production about this being the end of Cosa Nostra in America. The routine has simply gotten old and becoming increasingly unbelievable. Having rock solid evidence not totally reliant on informants is the only way I believe the Feds will get big wins anymore… Sorry if Ive beaten this topic into the ground lately. Ive just grown tired of the Big Window Dressing Press Conferences and scandalous behavior by the alleged good guys haha… At least its been interesting lately thats for sure!!!
You make a very good point the feds have definitely been on the wrong end of things in quite a few cases of late and even some of which they have claimed victory haven’t really had the impact they lay claims too.
Always with the big claim “These indictments signal the end of organized crime in this town!” Blah blah. You figure how many times can they hold these press conferences and make those same dramatic claims over and over again. Its just so much hot air and self aggrandizement on their part it becomes hard to take serious. Im not judging a guy for wanting to capitalize on his success but the speed in which some of these Feds cut book deals immediately after a big case doesn’t help either. Often times they’re already setting the deal up before the case is finished… thats all fine and dandy but again they cant be expected to be taken seriously as Boyscout Crime Fighters haha… Starts to look like a racket all the way around. Bad guys making money off the street and good guys making money off putting away the bad guys in the most dramatic fashion possible!!! It seems to have become fairly routine for everyone involved. At the end of the day it’s always the beat cops assigned to these task forces who have all the quality snitches and intel from the neighborhoods. Most of those G Men havnt actually grown up or at least really worked those tough neighborhoods but they bask it up when the cameras arrive. Its been like that for years though. Explains a lot of the mistrust and rivalries between various LE agencies. Feds looking down on local cops and assuming they’re on the take from the Mob but using their invaluable information to make the cases and then taking full credit. Most of the time there would be no case without the local guys doing the legwork. Sorry off on a tangent again haha… just calling it as I see it. It will be interesting to see what kind of shape the Luchese’s are in after this. Not that big of a family numbers wise to begin with. Definitely less dysfunctional then the Colombos though lol… Will be very curious to see if any of the senior guys flip on this one. That would hurt them badly.
Everything you said is one of the main reasons why I think the thugs in law enforcement are no better than the mobsters. Anyway, I hope no one flips and instead do their time like men. It certainly doesn’t seem like snitching comes with the great retirement package it once did.
You right do the crime do the time if they proved gilty ok I do my tine if I was any of these , a man like Joe Bonanno RiP
this is mostly what capeci reported however it does not include all of it. Meldish and Caldwell turned up to kill stango but Meldish panicked and left Caldwell at the shooting. That is how the feds were able to see that Caldwell was the shooter in the stango hit as he had to walk out of the area and got caught on camera. That no doubt played apart in Caldwells reason for killing him and probably gave another reason for Madonna to have him killed.
As always with the Mafia there are plenty of twist and turns and one bad move is definitely not forgotten when it comes to the life and most wiseguys.
Unrelated but the word is Joe Mad Dog Sullivan passed away, not sure how long ago but obviously within the last couple days. Many rumors but rumor has it the commish called on him to take out Tony Bananas after the Bruno hit.
Yea it was about a week ago there were articles about Sullivans death. That is an interesting rumor though. I never heard that one before. There is that one story in his Bio that claims he attempted to solicit some type of partnership with Jimmy Coonan. I guess the notion was to have their own more independent Irish Mafia. Of course Coonan promptly ratted Sullivan out to his Italian employers who were apparently not as enthusiastic about that idea haha. I think Sullivan’s career was over at that point. He dies in prison and those Sociopaths from Hells Kitchen were destined to implode and collapse anyway. All they had to do was basically stop murdering people in broad daylight without permission. They could have made some real money with the Gambinos but apparently refraining from killing at the drop of a hat was far to rigid a concept for those dudes!
Michael Meldish doesn’t deserve any justice. Justice is for victims, and he wasn’t a victim. Although I’m sure the Justice Department will make him out to be.
Your certainly spot on there when he got clipped in many ways it was well deserved and he was a long ways from a victim.
Yea by all accounts Meldish was a heartless killer. That story was saying that Meldish panicked on that job with Caldwell and that was the final straw for him. He’s got this big rep as a killer but was he starting to lose his nerve I wonder? Thats if the story is accurate anyway? Guess his own karma got him in the end!