"Florida/Hollywood Mob Connection, CIA, OJ Simpson" Excerpt
Alex Constantine
the CIA and O.J. Simpson," from Virtual Government,
by Alex Constantine, Feral House (1997).
I: Pizza Drippings
on the Courtroom Floor
"Here, take a good look." He tossed it across the desk. Chuck
[Giancana, brother of the Mafiaąs Sam Giancana] caught the coin and
instantly realized it was old, ancient in fact. Chuck fingered the
coin, turning it over and over again, and then tossed it back to his
brother. Mooney [Sam Giancana] leaned forward. "Look, this is one of
the Roman gods. This one has two faces, two sides. Thatąs what we are,
the Outfit and the CIA ... two sides of the same coin."
‹ Sam (Jr.) and Chuck Giancana
The shadow of Joey Ippolito falls across the courtroom, seeps
into every crack in the Simpson case. Yet his name is seldom
mentioned.
His father, Joseph Ippolito, Sr., was in the pay of the
syndicateąs Meyer Lansky and a soldier of Sam "the Plumber"
DeCalvacante, who brought Joey into the league. "Little Man"
Lansky, of course, was no homunculus. He led the mob into an
alliance with the in telligence sector of government in WW II
and loomed above the Combination until his death in 1983.
Today, Meyer Lanskyąs foot soldiers march in step with
Langley. CIA denials have been scuf fed by too many tongues
over the years to be taken seriously (Campbell, Hoch, Pizzo,
et. al.).
Joey Ipąs Murder, Inc.
Joey Ippolito is second generation Mafia, one of several
powerful successors of Meyer Lansky. He was born to a brood of
nine children. Joeyąs brother Frankie perished of a heart
attack unloading a crate of marijuana from an Eastern Airlines
plane in New Jersey. His brother Louie is a convict (Burdick).
Ippolitoąs influence in the Mafia is felt from Philadelphia to Dade
County, Florida to Southern California. Joey received a med ical
discharge from the U.S. Marines in 1968, and went to work for his
father, the proprietor of Ippolito Construction in New Jer sey. A few
years later he was charged with counterfeiting federal reserve notes
and served a single year, hard time (Medvene).
Joey, a one time U.S. Powerboat Champion, was forced out of
racing after a competing boat veered out of control and
hurtled across his own, crushing one hand and killing
Ippolitoąs best friend. In 1988, after completing a 40 month
prison sentence for marijuana smuggling, he spent a year
rebuilding his familyąs mo tel in New Jersey, then headed for
California. Ippolitoąs brothers purchased a restaurant in
Malibu, the PCH Bar & Grill, and Joey undertook its renovation
and management (Medvene; Anastasia & Jennings).
For at least eight years he retained a burly, African American
bodyguard, one Allen C. Cowlings, then an assistant to the
presi dent of Jonathon Martin Dress company in L.A.. On August
24, 1994, the Boston Herald reported that O.J. Simpsonąs chum
was a "close associate" of the mobster when he "was running a
popular restaurant ‹ and a thriving cocaine dealing business ‹
until last year. Telephone records from the restaurant,
confiscated by federal prosecutors and the FBI in Los Angeles,
also show calls from Ippolitoąs restaurant to O.J. Simpsonąs
Brentwood estate, where the tense freeway drama ended"
Los Angeles law enforcement enjoys publicizing its efforts to
frustrate the attempts of organized crime to gain "a foothold"
in Los Angeles (a Hooverism, since the Mafia established roots
in Southern California decades ago). The Organized Crime
Intelli gence Division (OCID) maintains a squad of operatives
at L.A. International Airport to intercept incoming mob
figures at the turnstile and send them packing (Lieberman).
Presumably, Ip polito slipped into town and opened a
restaurant in an exclusive area without drawing the attention
of the OCIDąs watchdogs.
Another explanation, of course, is that certain Mafia figures
are permitted to flourish in Los Angeles. There is even a
question as to whether the OCID gives a fig about organized
crime. The division evolved from a unit called the Public
Disorder Intelligence Division, a highly political unit, and
retired OCID detective Mike Rothmiller maintains that the
priority is still politics, not the Ma fia. After resigning
from the department, Rothmiller gave a deposition to the ACLU
with the result that six lawsuits were filed charging the
PDID's "subversives" squad with illegal spying and undercover
political provocations. In his deposition, Rothmiller charged
that OCID officials had instructed him to find "dirt" on "at
least a half dozen" public officials. One source to the
department recalls, "They had files on almost everybody. They
were interested in people who could hurt the government,
publishing companies, media people, show business people,
people like that" (Lieberman & Berger). The division kept no
files on organized crime at the time of Rothmillerąs
resignation, but did target liberal activists for
surveillance, spied on police in rival departments, harassed
opponents of former police chief Daryl Gates and performed
local services for the CIA (Rothmiller & Goldman).
Among the notables to emerge from the OCID into the headlines:
o In 1988, one OCID detective agreed to taking an early
retirement after he was questioned by police upon receiving
information that he had tipped the Mobąs labor negotiator to a
federal investigation. The detective's OCID partner was
suspended for thirty days for failing to inform department
heads of the impropriety (Lieberman & Berger).
o Former police detective Michael D. Brambles, an acclaimed
mob investigator, convicted to 102 years in state prison for a
string of stickups and sexual assaults in 1994. The 47 year
old OCID veteran exhibited "no remorse whatsoever," Superior
Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk observed from the bench
(Abrahamson & Lieberman).
Among Ippolitoąs narco goons was bodybuilder Rod Columbo, his
life ended with three shots to the back of the head on January
7, 1992. Columbo himself had been the leading suspect in the
murder of cocaine dealer Rene Vega in 1989. Columbo worked at
CentąAnniąs, a restaurant owned by Ippolito, until it folded
in 1991. At this time Columbo began to travel extensively. His
body was found slumped over the wheel of a 1984 Cadillac in
southern New Jersey. LAPD Detective Lee Kingsford told
reporters that it was the West Coast consensus that the murder
had been "drug related."
A few months before to the Columbo killing, Ippolito fell
under the scrutiny of Los Angeles police and the FBI. The
timely death of a leading distributor eased his legal
difficulties considerably.
Danteąs Circle of Ippolito associates is not a lonely place.
Another ranking member of the Ippolito syndicate on this plane
of existence was John Steele, formerly the mayor of
Hallendale, Florida. Mayor Steele once placed a police station
at the sub division where Meyer Lansky lived, at the
gangsterąs request (Burdick). Joey Ippolito, who also lived in
the high security subdivision, was arrested in Long Island in
the early 1980s with a dozen other marijuana smugglers running
eight tons of cannabis from a ship anchored offshore
(Burdick).
Yet another cog in Joeyąs dope machine was Donald Aronow, a
friend of George Bush and designer of the famous Cigarette
speed boat, a high speed favorite of cocaine runners
everywhere. Aronow, a wealthy Casanova with more testosterone
in his blood than Earnest Hemingway, built racing boats for
the Shah of Iran, Charles Keating (convicted of securities
fraud in 1991 in a case prosecuted by William Hodgman, a trial
strategist in the Simp son case ‹ who failed to mention for
the record that Keating had extensive ties to the CIA and
Mafia. The judge in the Keating case was Lance Ito) and Robert
Vesco, among other financial outlaws (Burdick).
Aronow was gunned down in his parking lot on February 3, 1987.
Throughout the week prior to the fatal ambush, Aronow held a
series of lengthy telephone conversations with Vice Pre sident
George Bush (Burdick). It was rumored about Miami that Aronow,
whoąd been questioned by police about cocaine trafficking a
few days before, intended to turn stateąs evidence. A subpoena
was to be served on him the day after the shooting.
Ippolito once broke parole after an eight year prison term to
visit actor James Caan of Godfather fame in Los Angeles. The
actor was also friendly with Ben Kramer, the convicted Bell
Gardens, California casino owner and marijuana smuggler.
Kramer is married to Meyer Lanskyąs niece (Burdick).
The syndicate lurking behind the O.J. Simpson case is a closed circle.
Actor James Caan was a regular at the exclusive Turnberry Island
resort, twelve miles south of Fort Lauderdale, Floridaąs Bacchanalian
playground for wealthy men (daily rates for a suite range from $275 to
$2,100) with teeming hormones.
Turnberry Isle is the Floridian stomping ground of Robert Evans, once
Denise Brownąs paramour. (He still dotes fondly on erotic memories
elicited by the photo of Denise that hangs on his wall.)
Bill Mentzer and Alex Marti ‹ the convicted killers of
fledgling Hollywood producer Roy Radin (the godson of Johnny
Stoppelli. a soldier in the Genovese crime family) ‹ accused
Evans from the witness stand of complicity in the murder.
Evans was subpoenaed. He pled the Fifth and went home.
Alex Marti hails from an Argentine death squad. Newsdayąs Steve Wick
writes that Marti "loved guns, had a fascination with violence, craved
money and hated lots of people, but particularly Jews. A watercolor
portrait of Adolph Hitler adorned one wall of his Los Angeles home,
and he was a collector of books and writings about the Third Reich....
His most quoted remark was that to really put someone away, you had to
shoot him in the back of the head. That was the way the Nazis did it"
(Wick).
CIA mind control operations overlap with the activities of
this family of cocaine distributors and contract killers.
Tally Rogers, a cocaine courier who had the misfortune of fal
ling in briefly with the Mentzer/Marti circle, is currently
serving a prison sentence for child molestation. He claims:
"They are frying my brain with microwaves. Itąs some kind of
government plot, and I donąt understand it" (Wick).
In the early Ś70s, Robert Evans, according to author Maury Terry in
The Ultimate Evil, gave orders to the "Son of Sam cult" in New York, a
heavily armed death squad that recruited Bill Mentzer, Martiąs co
conspirator in the Radin murder, to participate in the contract
killings.
Evans, the producer of Popeye, cut his teeth in syndicated
crime at the gaming tables of Batistaąs Cuba. He boasts in his
autobiography of his friendship with Henry Kissinger. Bill
Mentzer, a co caine courier, bodybuilder and hit man, belonged
to the Sams and took part in the killings attributed to David
Berkowitz. His neo Nazi partner, Alex Marti, opened a private
investigation service in Los Angeles and employed the late Rod
Columbo before the bodybuilder and cocaine distributor found
employment with Joey Ippolito, another regular at Turnberry
Island, James Caanąs friend and the employer of Al Cowlings.
Other regulars at Turnberry Isle: Jack Nicholson and Tommy
Lasorda. Statuesque hostesses, employed by Don Soffer, the
resortąs developer, have included model Donna Rice, Lyn
Armandt (the wife of a Miami drug dealer alleged to be a
friend of Lanskyąs great nephew Ben Kramer ‹ her phone call to
the Miami Herald finished Gary Hartąs presidential ambitions),
and a clutch of heart breakingly beautiful hookers with pasts
in CIA sex trap operations.
On the afternoon Donald Aronow was gunned down, his chum
Soffer received a telephone call at Turnberryąs central
office, in forming him: "Youąre next" (Burdick).
Chris Dardenąs book tells the tale of one Beth Reed, who
phoned the Simpson trial prosecutor from the Bahamas to
volunteer that a store clerk had informed her O.J. Simpson was
due, shortly after the Brentwood murders, to arrive in the
Bahamas for a rendévous with a yacht dubbed the "Miss
Turnberry." Darden writes that he checked Simpsonąs address
book, and found a reference to "Turnberry Associates" and the
name, "Don Soffer." Dar den flew to the Bahamas to check into
the story, and met the boatąs captain, who adamantly denied
the story despite the insistence of several witnesses that
Simpson had planned to meet there with Soffer's subordinates.
Parenthetically, the resort is the home of the Wolfsonian Mu
seum, named for Miami business tycoon Mitchell Wolfson, Jr..
The museum opened in 1995 with an exhibition titled, "The Arts
of Reform and Persuasion," drawn from Wolfsonąs permanent
collection, an endless labyrinth stuffed full of historical
objects promoting ideas of modernism. "There were," wrote a
reporter for the Nashville Business Journal on February 12,
1996, "Nor wegian tapestries celebrating romantic nationalism
... and post ers from Germany and Italy exploring how the
Nazi and fascist propaganda machines there penetrated all
aspects of life and art."
II: Meyer Lanskyąs
Migratory Birds of Prey
"It seems like all the LCN [La Cosa Nostra] drug interests are
interconnected," I suggest. "Iąm thinking that you just
chopped off one arm of an enormous octopus."
[Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Norris] nods. "Thatąs us ually
what we do," he says in a somewhat resigned tone. "And it
turns out to be more like one arm of a starfish, so it
regenerates."
‹ Thomas Burdick,
Blue Thunder
Meyer Lanskyąs attorney Mel Kessler was a suspect in the
investigation of Joe Ippolitoąs drug smuggling venture.
Kessler was suspected of being brains of the operation
(Burdick). Hollywood, Florida vice squad officials suspect
that Kessler arranged the shipment of 200 kilos of cocaine
from Bolivia and was involved in a smuggling operation based
in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with stopovers in the Caribbean.
Telephone records revealed that Ippolitoąs fellow mobster, Ben
Kramer, an investor in the Bicycle Club in Southern
California, consulted with Kessler almost daily (Burdick).
Kessler has also been linked with "Little Ray" Thompson,
another Lansky associate, indicted for drug smuggling with
Steadman Stahl, a Dade County judge groomed for the post by
state prosecutor Richard "One Eye" Ger stein, a former
Watergate investigator who doubled as Kramerąs attorney and a
business partner of F. Lee Bailey.
He lived in Meyer Lanskyąs back pocket. Gerstein was elected
in 1956 to the first of six terms as state attorney, generally
considered to be the second most powerful office in Florida,
after the Governorąs (Myers). He was also the most popular
prosecutor in Dade County history.
1: F. Lee Bailey, "Bad Eye" Gerstein and BCCI
In 1982, Dick Gerstein was investigated, but not indicted,
after accepting drug money intended for laundering in Panama.
He has long been a coeval of F. Lee Bailey. In fact, O.J. Simp
sonąs celebrated attorney hung a shingle in Florida with him:
Bailey, Gerstein, Carhart, Rushkind, Dreskick & Rippingille.
At the time of Baileyąs migration to Florida, he represented
the families of the passengers of Korean Airlines Flight 007,
downed by the Soviets in 1983, in a wrongful death suit. A few
years later, the familiesą steering committee sued Bailey
himself for mis representation after making "a personal
pledge" in his letter of acceptance to "work full time as
required" on the case. In five years, Bailey clocked only 97
hours on pretrial preparation, compared with 6,311 hours put
in by the two other law firms retained by the families. In a
court brief, Bailey cited the move to Florida, allowing his
wife Patricia to be near her "ailing parents," as his
rationale for not assisting the families heąd been hired to
represent ‹ although he had no qualms about charging full time
legal fees. In 1993 a federal court in Washington ordered
Bailey to return a share of his ill gotten fees to the
families (Felsenthal).
Bailey and Gerstein were the directors of CenTrust Federal Sav
ings Bank, a failed satellite of the Bank of Credit and
Commerce International (BCCI), the CIAąs preferred money
laundering franchise (Truell & Gurwin; Bender suit). A major
share in CenTrust was secretly owned by BCCI ‹ in fact, a full
quarter of the bankąs shares were snapped up by Saudi tycoon
Ghaith Pharaon, a BCCI front man who maintained daily contact
with CenTrust President David Paul between 1984 and 1988, when
the S&L was declared insolvent (Truell & Gurwin), and Paul was
convicted on 68 charg es of bank fraud to a maximum prison
term of five years. Pauląs financial strategies included
illegal bond deals with Charles Keat ing and false entries in
the S&Ląs accounting books (New York Times, 11 25 93).
CenTrust Savings, the largest thrift in Florida, made handsome
contributions to the campaign funds of several Congressmen,
including Joseph Biden (Truell and Gurwin) and Newt Gingrich
(FEC Report). When it defaulted, taxpayers were saddled with
$2 billion in debts (Truell & Gurwin). The co trustee named in
lawsuits filed against CenTrust was Citibank and its president
John Reed, a banker with extensive ties to the CIA (Thompson &
Kanigher).
Bailey was Dick Gersteinąs legal and business partner. The
prosecutorąs Family chum, Joey Ippolito, never wanders far
from the Simpson case. Nor do his mob associates. Simpsonąs
well connected attorney brought in a retired New York
investigator, John E. McNally, to investigate the Brentwood
murders. Mc Nally, the Los Angeles Times reported, was, in
1989, accused by federal in vestigators "of being part of the
Śsecurity departmentą of Gene Gotti, the younger brother of
notorious mobster John Gotti." Prosecutors in New York believe
McNally screened pro spective employees for the Mafia
(Newton). Also hired to look into the case on behalf of the
defense was Pat McKenna, a Palm Beach investigator, a veteran
of the William Kennedy Smith rape case.
Attorneys on both sides of the case have been an odd assortment.
Robert Baker, Simpsonąs attorney in the civil trial, specializes in
wrongful death suits with an emphasis on medical malpractice and
product liability. "He has fought on behalf of doctors accused of
killing or injuring patients" reported Stephanie Simon in the L.A.
Times, on September 10, 1996, "manufacturers blamed for dangerous
products and corporations suspected of producing toxic waste. In a
tribute to his top notch reputation, Baker has also defended some of
L.A's most powerful lawyers against clients claiming malpractice" His
fuse is short: under questioning about drug use, O.J. Simpson
repeatedly spurned Bakerąs advice to stop talking. Baker snapped out,
"Am I a potted plant?"
Of the original "Dream Team," Simpson chose to bring along to
his civil trial F. Lee Bailey, the attorney closest to
Ippolito.
The plaintiffąs attorneys had little experience trying murder
cases. Daniel Petrocelli, an attorney from Mitchell,
Silberberg & Knupp, represents Occidental Petroleum. Arthur
Groman, a Yale graduate and a senior partner in the same firm,
is a director (with Al Gore and John Kluge) of Occidental
(1995 FEC report). The Petrocelli team boasted two former New
York prosecutors, an appeals consultant and a criminal defense
attorney whose client list includes Radovan Karadzic, the Serb
leader accused of or chestrating genocide in Bosnia (Simon,
September 9, 1996). The latter attorney would be Petrocelliąs
law partner, Edward Med vene, who has also represented Marlon
Brando and Ruben Zunoi Arce, the Mexican businessman who spear
headed the 1985 kidnap and murder of DEA agent Enrique
Camarena (Weinstein).
Again, the CIA and drugs enter the Simpson orbit. Scripps
Howard reported on October 4, 1990 that the CIA "trained
guerrillas at a ranch owned by a Mexican drug lord" convicted
of kil ling Camerena:
A DEA report filed in a Los Angeles federal court quotes
informant Lawrence Harrison, 45, as saying representatives of
Mexicoąs now disbanded Federal Security Directorate were at
the ranch to give the CIA Ścover.ą According to the report,
Har rison said the directorate was working with drug
traffickers to move narcotics from Mexico to the United
States. The House Government Operations Information
Subcommittee has held two closed door hearings on the matter
and plans to question Justice Department officials at another
private hearing (Bennett).
The CIAąs Mark Mansfield flatly denied any connection. "The
whole story is nonsense," he swore, "We have not trained Guate-
malan guerrillas on that ranch or anywhere else." Naturally,
the Agencyąs interaction with Guatemalan death squads has
since turned up with nauseating regularity in the "mainstream"
press.
So, in this tale, does Joey Ippolito. In his 1992 court battle on
cocaine distribution charges in Los Angeles, Joey retained Edward
Medvene ‹ two years later an attorney for Fred Goldman in the wrongful
death trial ‹ and his partners Robert DiNicola and Scott Bauman, to
represent him (U.S. v Lorenzo et.al.). On November 16, Ippolito fired
the Medvene team and hired Cowlings attorney Donald Re. But the
conflict of interest in Medveneąs role as a for ensics specialist in
Simpsonąs civil trial is staggering: The plaintiffs hired an attorney
for a mobbed up cohort of O.J. Simpson, the employer of Al Cowlings, a
suspect in a score of murders....
