John Angelo Italiano, Youngstown, Ohio
John was born on September 14, 1933, in Youngstown, the son of Pasquale and Clara (Calo) Italiano. He was proud to have grown up on the Eastside of Youngstown.
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He attended Youngstown East High School as a 'Golden Bear'.
John was a proud United States Army Veteran serving in the Korean War. He served in the 945th Quartermaster Service Company stationed in Korea. While he was overseas, John helped arrest two Korean soldiers as they were in the process of stealing two vehicles from the Army. John was awarded the following decorations for his service to our country, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal with 2 Bronze Stars, the United Nations Service Medal and the Good Conduct Medal. He received an Honorable Discharge on January 4, 1954.
John was the owner and operator of Liberty Auto Wrecking along with Liberty Auto Sales for many years.
John was a member of St. Patrick Church in Youngstown and the Amvets.
John had many passions throughout his life. He enjoyed watching NASCAR and drag racing. He also loved making his own homemade wine and he valued the time he shared with his family and friends, especially his grandchildren at family BBQ's.
His wife of over 62 years, the former Theresa Meyers, whom he married on November 6, 1954, passed away on August 12, 2017.
John leaves behind to hold onto his memories, his son, John 'Jack' (Cindy) Italiano, II, of Youngstown; two granddaughters, Angelica (Dusty) Hammond and Nicole Italiano; four great-grandchildren, Mia and Avery Grau, Nicolina Italiano and Blaine Hammond; a sister, Rose (Captain Nick) Pacalo and his faithful and beloved pet dog, Smokey Joe; along with many nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.
Besides his parents and wife, John was preceded in death by two daughters, an infant, Theresa Italiano and Jody Italiano and three sisters, Florence Kloos, Frances Italiano and Sister Charlotte Italiano (OSU).
Per John's request there will be no calling hours or services at this time.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the professional care of the Rossi and Santucci Funeral Home, 4221 Market Street in Boardman.
On behalf of John's family, they would like to express their sincere appreciation to Renee and Lill for all the care compassion shown to them and John throughout this difficult time.
Family and friends may visit www.rossisantuccifh.com to send condolences to John's family.
To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of John Angelo Italiano, please visit our floral store.Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Time Magazine
3 days ago
- Time Magazine
The True Stories Behind 'Echoes of Survivors: Inside Korea's Tragedies'
At first glance, Netflix's The Echoes of Survivors: Inside Korea's Tragedies doesn't have a clear, specific framework. The eight-episode docu-series is a follow-up to 2023's In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal, expanding its focus beyond Korean cults to examine other horrific events that continue to cause trauma and pain in Korean society today. However, as the series goes on, a loosely overarching theme becomes clear: an examination of the lengths people will go for money in a society that allows for, encourages, or rewards the accumulation of wealth above all else. The eight-episode series covers four different events in Korean history—including Busan's Brothers' Home, a follow-up on the legal cases connected to JMS church, the 'Chijon family' gang murders, and the Sampoong Department Store collapse—through interviews with survivors and witnesses, as well as dramatic reenactments of the crimes and footage from news coverage of the events. At times, the series tips into what feels like unnecessarily exploitative behavior, such as dressing the survivors of the Brothers' Home facility in the same tracksuits they were forced to wear as abused children or in the episodes that recount the Chijon gang murders, also known as the Jijonpa serial murder case. In the latter case, justice has been served and it is unclear what purpose watching the sole survivor of the gang's crimes relive the most traumatic event of her life serves, other than as trauma porn. For a series that is ostensibly working to examine the dangers that come within systems that prioritize the accumulation of wealth over human life, these moments feel like a misstep. The cases examined in The Echoes of Survivors will all be familiar to Korean audiences, but perhaps not to global audiences. Most of the cases presented took place during the 80s and 90s in Korea, before the internet, streaming video, and mobile devices kept us so apprised of manmade horrors being perpetrated on the other side of the world. For those who aren't familiar with the subjects covered in Echoes of Survivors, here is a brief explanation of each event. (Content warning: This contains descriptions of child abuse and sexual violence) The history behind Brothers Home Brothers Home, or Hyungje Bokjiwon, was an internment camp operating as a 'welfare facility' in Busan, Korea's second-largest city. It operated from 1975 to 1987, and was propped up by anti-vagrancy ordinances, put in place in the 1960s and ramped up in the lead up to the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Summer Olympics. At the time, Korea was under a military dictatorship, which was overthrown in 1987. Brothers Home was owned and run by Park In-geun, a retired military man and a Christian social worker. During this 'social cleansing' period in Korea's history, these 'welfare' facilities were given subsidies from the government based on the number of people they took in. More residents meant more money, so facility management would kidnap people off of the streets, whether or not they fit the description of a 'vagrant,' or someone without a stable job or home. According to Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, those illegally detained off the streets included 'office workers who had fallen asleep outside after drinking too much, children waiting to take trains to visit relatives, teenagers on their way home, people with disabilities, and hospital patients.' Echoes of Survivors focuses on some of the children who were forced into the facility, in many cases kidnapped off of the streets by police officers, many of whom were incentivized by Brothers Home bribes and/or performance score points. Inside the facility, violence was perpetrated daily. This included physical and sexual abuse against women and children. Infants were sold through adoption agencies. Detainees were forced to perform unpaid labor, often with very little food. An estimated 657 people were killed. In total, an estimated 40,000 people were confined at the group residence over the course of its operation, with more than 3,000 people held at once at the facility's 'peak.' The second episode that covers Brothers Home shifts to a search for greater accountability. Ultimately, Park In-geun was found guilty for only embezzlement and corruption, and served just 30 months in prison. He was never found guilty of any human rights abuses, seemingly at least in part due to his political allies in President Chun Doo-hwan's administration and the Busan mayor's office, and died in a nursing home in 2016. In running the facility, Park In-geun appointed loyal family members as directors, including his wife, Lim Sung-soon; her brother Lim Young-soon; and Lim Young-soon's brother-in-law, Joo Chong-chan. Echoes of Survivors sees producer Jo Seong-hyeon and Brothers Home survivor Choi Seung-woo travel to Australia, where some members of the Park family moved after the atrocities of the Brothers Home were made public. They confront some of the living members of the Park family about the wealth they have inherited. Jo also confronts a member of the Park family still living in Korea about his alleged role in the human rights abuses. These scenes make for some of the most powerful, productive moments in the series. Did Brothers Home inspire Squid Game? The Brothers Homes facility has been posited as inspiration for Squid Game in the past. The production perhaps intentionally plays up the aesthetic connection between the real-life atrocities of the Brothers Home and the fictional horrors of Squid Game by having survivors wear tracksuits like the ones they were forced to wear as children while giving interviews. However, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has never directly cited Brothers Home as an inspiration for the series. The JMS cult case When In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal hit Netflix in March 2023, it shook Korean society. The docu-series, which examines abuses perpetrated by four different religious cults, leads with a focus on Christian Gospel Mission—also known as Providence and as Jesus Morning Star, or JMS. Jung Myeong-seok is the founder of JMS and a self-proclaimed messiah to his tens of thousands of followers across Korea and the world, including in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia. After being convicted of rape in 2008 and serving a decade in prison, he was indicted again in 2022 for the sexual assault of two female followers. The story of these two survivors, Maple and Amy, were told in the first season of the Netflix documentary. At the time, producer Jo noted that he wanted to tell this story because members of his family have been victims of a pseudo-religious cult. Echoes of Survivors uses two of its episodes to expand on how Jung Myeong-seok's pattern of sexual abuse was kept secret for so long, and the measures to which the organization went to try to keep In the Name of God from being released. Part of this is delving into the role Jung's second-in-command, Jung Jo-eun, played in allowing his abuse of female followers to continue. Last year, she was sentenced to seven years in prison for her role in the abuses. Jung was sentenced to another 17 years in prison in 2024. The docu-series also alleges that members of JMS who are also police officers abused their positions to try to keep Jung out of jail. It wonders just how many Korean institutions include loyal members of JMS. The episodes end with Maple, who is now married to former idol and Olympic swimmer Alex Fong. The couple is expecting their first child. The final JMS episode leaves viewers with this message from Maple: 'To every woman out there going through the same pain as me, let's stay strong.' The Chijon family murders The 'Chijon family' murders, also known as the Jijonpa serial murder case, refer to a series of crimes that took place between 1993 and 1994. The 'Chiwon family' was a gang organized by convicted rapist Kim Gi-hwan, motivated by class anger. Kim convinced six other working class men, aged 18 to 23 at the time, to join him in targeting rich people for extortion and murder. He came up with the idea for the gang after watching a news report about university entrance exam corruption. The gang planned to collect one billion won (roughly $1.25 million at the time). They killed five people, including one of their own members who tried to leave the group. The episodes are built around an interview with the sole survivor of the gang's kidnappings, Lee Jeong-su. In her 20s at the time, she was kidnapped alongside a man she was casually dating. The two were not wealthy, but were driving a Hyundai Grandeur, a car that was considered a sign of wealth at the time. Lee was held by the gang for seven days and was forced to kill several of their targets, including her boyfriend. Upon Lee's escape, facilitated by one of the members of the gang, she reported the crimes to the police. They apprehended the members, who were later sentenced to death. In the episode pair's final act, Echoes of Survivors makes a rushed, incomplete effort to place the murders in a more systemic context. Most murder is informed by broader systemic injustices and true crime media often fails to contextualize its horrors, leading to narratives that contort perpetrators into monsters rather than products of our flawed social systems. Echoes of Survivors makes an attempt to contextualize the Chijon gang's crimes, but it feels hollow after so much of the runtime presents sensationalized media coverage and dramatic reenactments of the crimes without deeper analysis, especially in a docu-series ostensibly focused on survivors' stories. The Sampoong Department Store collapse The final two episodes of The Echoes of Survivors examine Korea's worst 'peacetime' disaster in history: the Sampoong Department Store collapse. In 1995, five years after its opening, one of Seoul's most luxurious department stores collapsed, killing 502 people and injuring another 937. More than half of the victims were employees. Many of the customers in the building at the time of collapse, in the early evening, were women shopping for dinner groceries. The episodes include interviews with some of the survivors of the incident, including then 18-year-old store clerk Yoo Ji-hwan, who was pulled from the wreckage almost 12 days after the initial collapse. The docu-series also includes interviews with some of the people who lost family members in the disaster, and people who assisted in the rescue efforts. The collapse came about as a result of shoddy construction that knowingly broke safety requirements in place at the time. The company originally contracted to build the massive, flat-slab structure left the project after Lee Joon, chairman of the Sampoong Group's construction division, demanded changes to the design that would allow for a more spacious floor plan. Subsequent investigations determined the building was not structurally sound, and was bound to collapse. As much as two months prior to the collapse, employees had noticed a large crack on the roof of the top floor, where the building had begun to crumble. On the day of the collapse, the structural damage became more obvious. As the docu-series recounts, department store management held an emergency meeting at 3pm, roughly three hours before the collapse, to determine if they should close down and evacuate the building. Led by Lee, they voted only to close the fifth floor, wanting to wait until after work hours to inspect the building. Lee didn't want to lose business. Emergency alarms were sounded at 5:50pm, and employees started evacuating shoppers. Two minutes later, the roof and fifth floor of the south wing collapsed, triggering a catastrophic collapse all the way to the basement floors. Lee was later found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and served seven years, six months in prison. His son, Lee Han-sang, who was also president of the store, was convicted of corruption and accidental homicide. Two city planners were convicted of taking bribes. Two months after the collapse, Lee Joon and Lee Han-sang offered the entirety of the Sampoong Group's wealth to help compensate the victims and their families. The former site of the department store houses a luxury high-rise apartment building, despite requests from the victims' families that a memorial be built. Impeached president Yoon Suk-yeol lived in the building before and after his truncated term as president. Echoes of Survivors' builds some connective tissue between incidents like the Sampoong Department Store collapse and more recent Korean disasters, including the Sewol ferry disaster, as preventable manmade tragedies driven by greed. Like other moments in the eight installments, it is left to the viewer to decide how effectively the docu-series walks the line between civic-minded investigative journalism designed to hold power to account and the sensationalization of tragedy for entertainment value.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Yahoo
Murder victim was ‘beloved' father and grandfather, family say
A man who was killed in Co Down has been described by his family as a 'beloved' father and grandfather. The body of Stephen Brannigan, who was in his 50s, was found in a house in Marian Park in Downpatrick on Sunday afternoon. Police are investigating if his death is linked to an attack on a priest in the town, Fr John Murray. A 30-year-old man is being questioned on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. In a statement, Mr Brannigan's family said: 'In the midst of our shock, pain and total heartbreak at the news of the brutal murder of our beloved dad, grandad, son and brother Stephen yesterday, we want to convey our sincere thanks to all those who have surrounded us with such love and care in the hours that have followed. 'We want to express our particular thanks to those who organised and gathered for the beautiful prayer vigil in St Brigid's Church in the town on Sunday evening. 'It means so much to us at this difficult time and reflects the very special people who make up the Marian Park and wider Downpatrick community.' The family said they wanted to convey their concern for Fr Murray, who remains in a serious but stable condition in hospital. The statement added: 'Fr John is highly respected by our family and by all in our community. 'It is so typical of his kindness that he was willing to reach out in trust to someone he believed was in distress, despite the obvious risk to himself. 'With so many others, we pray for his full recovery and thank him for his own prayers for us which he has conveyed through the priests of the parish. 'Stephen was known among his neighbours and friends as someone who was always willing to help out, ready to do whatever needed to be done for the good of others. 'Even the day before he died, he was tending the graves of friends and neighbours, as he did, almost every day, the grave of his late wife Dorenda, who died five years ago from cancer. 'Stephen faced many difficult issues in his life. We know his life was not perfect. But for us, he was our dad, our grandad, our son and our brother. 'His rock through all of this was Dorenda. We pray they will be reunited now in perfect peace and love.'


Politico
11-08-2025
- Politico
Black Hat and DEF CON offer lessons for Congress
With help from John Sakellariadis Driving the day — After a week in Las Vegas talking to some of the top cybersecurity professionals in the country, your host compiled three key takeaways from Black Hat and DEF CON for federal lawmakers. HAPPY MONDAY, and welcome to MORNING CYBERSECURITY! John and I are back on the East Coast after Black Hat and DEF CON. By the end, I successfully convinced a small group of reporters to go to The Rainforest Cafe with me. It was a real bonding moment. Anyone else get into any fun side quests? Drop me a line at dnickel@ Follow POLITICO's cybersecurity team on X at @RosiePerper,@johnnysaks130,@delizanickel and @magmill95, or reach out via email or text for tips. You can also follow @POLITICOPro on X. Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories. On The Hill HIGHLIGHTS — Cybersecurity professionals converged on Las Vegas last week for the back-to-back Black Hat and DEF CON cyber conferences. Top cyber experts from the private and public sectors highlighted some of the biggest challenges and innovations in the industry today, from the scope of U.S. adversaries' cyber capabilities to how federal cuts are impacting the country's cyber posture. — No target is 'too small': During the conference, the cybersecurity community detailed that foreign adversaries such as China have the hacking capabilities to cast a wide net in cyberspace. And no entity involved in vital U.S. defense operations is too small to be considered an attractive target for foreign hackers, according to a top NSA official. 'China's hacking resources outnumber those of the U.S. and allies combined, and China has stolen more corporate data from the United States than any other nation in the world,' said Bailey Bickley, chief of defense industrial base defense at the NSA's Cybersecurity Collaboration Center, which helps U.S. defense contractors protect their networks. Bickley said during a Black Hat keynote that many of the 'small companies' in the defense industrial base often 'think what they do is not important enough' to be targeted by Chinese-backed hacking groups. 'But when you have the significant resources like that to conduct mass-scanning and mass exploitation, there is no company and no target too small,' she said. Cybersecurity experts have long warned that any device connected to the internet can be a key gateway for hackers to breach a network. At DEF CON on Sunday, officials from the U.S. Coast Guard disclosed last year's discovery of a little-known device that potentially left ports across the country exposed to Chinese hacking. Kenny Miltenberger, a lieutenant commander for a Coast Guard cyber protection teams, told John that many of the port operators weren't even aware of the devices, cellular modems embedded in cranes and support infrastructure made by a Chinese company. 'The good news story here is we're finding a lot of vulnerabilities on cranes, and our partners are mitigating those,' Miltenberger said on the Coast Guard's work to help operators find and plug cyber vulnerabilities. — 'Too close to the bone': Meanwhile, experts spoke out about the impacts of the Trump administration's cuts to federal cyber agencies, including CISA and the Pentagon's Cyber Command and Defense Information Systems Agency. 'You've cut assets at CISA and in other places … we're less able to make a government contribution to the collective welfare of the cyber ecosystem,' said Chris Inglis, former national cyber director, on the sidelines of Black Hat. Congress has previously examined how cuts to the federal cyber workforce and funding could hurt the country's ability to defend itself long-term. Inglis added that though he isn't aware of the specific number of positions cut from cyber agencies, 'I do think we should be concerned about cutting those capacities too close to the bone.' — AI everywhere: The role that artificial intelligence is playing in global cyber operations was one of the key topics of discussion. Michael Leland, field CTO of cyber firm Island, told your host at Black Hat that the U.S. and its adversaries see AI as 'the great force multiplier.' 'AI is going to be used as a tool, both by the [U.S. government], but the adversaries are leveraging it against us in the opposite way,' he said, highlighting reports of adversarial use of AI — including Russian-linked hackers using the tech to spread disinformation and Iranian-linked hackers using AI to ramp up the scope of phishing campaigns. At DEF CON on Friday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced the winners of a years-long competition to build AI models to autonomously find and patch vulnerabilities in open-source code used across critical infrastructure networks. For experts like John Watters, CEO of cyber risk firm iCounter, entities will have to walk a fine line of embracing AI while also ensuring it is implemented securely. 'AI is being deployed everywhere by everybody, individually,' he told your host. 'AI [is being] fully embraced by adversaries, and defenders are still kind of looking at, 'What's the risk of doing it? And [how] should it be regulated?' At the Agencies COAST TO COAST — Hackers at DEF CON concentrated their efforts on attacking a 20-foot Coast Guard Auxiliary vessel, a self-driving Pentagon naval drone and software from the largest U.S. ports. John reported on Sunday that the decision to focus hacker efforts at the conference on maritime vessels and technology signals two pressing worries: that recreational boats, U.S. ports and commercial ships are increasingly hooked up to the internet, and that the U.S. military isn't prepared for the cyber assault many expect China to launch if it invades Taiwan. 'The South China Sea is where the next generation of autonomous warfare and homeland defense will be demonstrated,' said Duncan Woodbury, executive director of the conference's Maritime Hacking Village — which made its debut at this year's conference. — Boosting security: The demonstration at DEF CON comes as the U.S. Coast Guard implemented a final rule last month that requires U.S.-flagged ships and ports to beef up their network defenses. The Coast Guard also received an injection of $25 billion in Congress' recent reconciliation bill, which will enable it to ramp up its cybersecurity measures. Critical infrastructure TSUNAMI OF THREATS — A small army of hackers are coming together to protect one of the country's most vulnerable sectors: water systems. Jake Braun, former acting principal deputy national cyber director, unveiled a new group at this year's DEF CON to help beef up water systems' cyber defenses. 'We've both the urgency of the threat and the potential of a community-driven solution,' Braun, co-founder of the group, told your host. He added that the new group, known as DEF CON Franklin, was unveiled after a nine-month pairing period of DEF CON hackers with small water utilities across four states. Cyberattacks on water treatment facilities could lead to potentially fatal consequences, including shutting off water access completely to altering the chemical balance of the water. — Zoom out: Cyber experts have signaled that the water sector faces significant gaps in cybersecurity funding and expertise, which was demonstrated by cyberattacks against water facilities in the U.S. by Iranian-linked hackers in 2023. 'Protecting our nation's critical infrastructure isn't a want but a necessity, and for the nearly 50,000 water systems nationwide, they need the tools and resources to not only be cyber aware but cyber resilient,' said Matt Holmes, CEO of the National Rural Water Association. Hacked INFORMANTS AT RISK — Officials are worried that Latin American drug cartels are among the groups that obtained sensitive court information from a massive breach of the federal judiciary's case filing system. John and POLITICO's Josh Gerstein reported on Friday that judicial officials with knowledge of the cyberattack are concerned cartels could weaponize the stolen data to identify witnesses in cases the federal government has opened against them or gain insights on criminal investigations, such as arrest and search warrants. — Zoom out: As of Friday, at least a dozen district courts across the country are believed to have been directly impacted by the ongoing breach of the digital case filing system — known as CM/ECF. The incident is believed to be one of the most severe cyberattacks on a federal court filing system in years. While it's unclear if the cartels were directly connected to the breaches, it's possible that they could purchase data from the hackers with access to the system. Quick Bytes TROLL TOLL — Cybersecurity researchers unmasked a prolific scamming operation that involves the infamous unpaid toll or undelivered mail item texts, writes Zack Whittaker for TechCrunch. 'ANSWER MACHINE' — President Donald Trump's new AI search tool on Truth Social contradicts the president by saying the 2020 election wasn't stolen, and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was violent and linked to Trump's 'baseless claims of widespread election fraud,' reports Drew Harwell for The Washington Post. PRIVACY PLEASE — Apple's AI ecosystem, known as Apple Intelligence, routinely transmits sensitive user data to company servers beyond what its privacy policies inform, cyber firm Lumia Security revealed, Greg Otto writes for CyberScoop. INVESTING IN THE CYBER TALENT POOL — The non-profit NobleReach foundation last week announced its second-ever cohort of public-interest cyber and emerging tech scholars. The 28 recent graduates and earlier-career professionals will take up one-year posts at places including the Department of Defense, city of Pittsburgh, and Oklahoma City, and the state of Maryland. Chat soon. Stay in touch with the whole team: Rosie Perper (rperper@ John Sakellariadis (jsakellariadis@ Maggie Miller (mmiller@ and Dana Nickel (dnickel@