For cutting short the life of a fellow Mexican Mafia member in a hail of bullets, a judge ruled Monday that Jose Luis Loza should spend the rest of his own in a federal prison.
Loza, from Whittier, was convicted of murder, racketeering and other crimes after an unusual trial in August, in which Loza himself testified for two days. It was an unprecedented departure, law enforcement officials say, from the Mexican Mafia’s historical refusal to acknowledge in the courtroom such an organization exists, let alone discuss its politics on the witness stand.
There were no flower cars outside the funeral of 103-year-old John ‘Sonny’ Franzese—but gospel music, funny stories, and eulogies from his loving grandkids made it much grander.
No cops or FBI agents were waiting outside with cameras.
No flower cars accompanied the hearse and the three black limousines that pulled up to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.
And unless you knew otherwise, you would not have imagined that the bronze coffin borne up the steps contained the mortal remains of New York’s last bigtime Mafia boss.
The first hint to someone not in the know only came when the priest, Monsignor David Cassato, offered a joke.
“There’s an expression, there’s two things in life you’re sure of, right?” Cassato said. “Death and…
“Taxes,” a number of the roughly 75 mourners joined him in saying.
“If you’re smart, Sonny told me, you can avoid some of those taxes,” Cassato said, drawing laughter even from those who appeared to be feeling the loss most keenly.
John Franzese, known as Sonny, had been the federal prison system’s oldest inmate and its only centenarian when he completed his last stint behind bars in 2017. He died in a Queens nursing home at the age of 103, having lived long enough to become known as the Nodfather for dozing off in court.
Family of teenager who died after collision with car driven by Anne Sacoolas hope documents will bolster case for extradition
Lawyers acting for a teenager who died after a collision with a car allegedly driven by an American woman want the High Court to publish a secret document protecting her from prosecution.
Harry Dunn, 19, died last summer after his motorbike collided with a car near RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire. Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a US agent who worked at the base, has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving and has apologised to Dunn’s family, but is refusing to return to Britain.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has rejected the UK’s request for her extradition, claiming that at the time of the collision she had immunity from criminal prosecution, even though her husband did not.
(ANSA) – Palermo, February 28 – The 45-year-old brother of a local Mafia boss was shot dead in the early hours of Friday in Belmonte Mezzagno, an agricultural area near Palermo, which has registered a recent surge in violence, investigative sources said.
Agostino Alessanfro Migliore, 45, brother of Giovanni, who was recently arrested and is believed to be the chief aid of Mafia boss Filippo Bisconti, was killed while he was driving his car in the town at 5 AM.
Bisconti since December 2018 has been collaborating with investigators.
Two murders and an attempted murder have been recently registered in the area, investigative sources said.
The Archive of Our Own (AO3), the Hugo-winning fanfiction website, is the latest casualty of Chinese censorship, amid a continued crackdown in the country on queer content, sexually explicit content, and websites based abroad.
Reports surfaced on February 29 that AO3 was no longer accessible through the national Chinese web, and the site appears to be blocked from view within the country, according to Comparitech, a service that allows users to check whether China has blocked a website. In a tweet confirming the ban, the Organization for Transformative Works, the non-profit group that runs AO3, seemed surprised. It’s unclear whether the OTW was contacted by Chinese authorities before the site was blocked. (Vox has reached out to the OTW for comment.)
