Latest news with #JohnAlite
The Guardian
17-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Former mob killer leaves crime behind to become New Jersey councilman
John Alite has big plans for Englishtown, New Jersey, a small hamlet best known for potatoes, a drag racing strip, and the Battle of Monmouth during the revolutionary wars. But not everyone is certain they want Alite, 62, having a say over municipal matters in the town of about 2,350 people, where he was appointed a council member earlier this year and comes up for confirmation early next month. The reason is an unusual one: Alite's background – about which he is open – as a former member of the Gambino crime family with a long history of violence, murder and extortion. For Alite once served as a top 'earner' for John 'the Teflon Don' Gotti, and later for his son John Gotti Jr. But after getting picked up in Brazil, where he was held for two years fighting extradition, Alite turned cooperating government witness against the younger Gotti, and pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, including two murders. But in his own telling, Alite is a changed man and plans to spend the next years helping the small New Jersey community and not, as in years past, causing mayhem. On the agenda is steering kids away from a life of crime, prettying up Englishtown with cobblestones and restaurants similar to nearby Princeton, and keeping out fentanyl dealers. Alite's is a compelling story. Albanian by extraction – meaning he could never be a 'made man' in the Italian mob – he was nonetheless nicknamed 'the Calculator' because of his financial acumen in helping to move 8kg of cocaine a month. Former FBI agent Ted Otto said Alite was 'a hybrid gangster … an exception to the rule'. Can his gangster background be applied to managing the economics, permits, zoning and construction codes of smalltown America? He certainly believes so, removing his yellow-tinted sunglasses for effect as he sat for an interview with the Guardian last week. The previous evening he was at a council meeting arguing for independent building contractors to develop a disused township building. 'Some people outside the town have had a lot to say, but the town is very supportive,' he says. Political office, he points out, is a natural for an ex-mobster. 'People ask me why? I tell them I have more experience than all these politicians. 'Plus I'm not a criminal any more – I'm on a mission to do things the right way,' he adds. After Alite was appointed to the council by Englishtown's mayor, Daniel Francisco, following the resignation of a number of council members last year, there was a contentious meeting in which Alite was accused of welfare fraud. But the accuser was shouted down by residents. 'He's started a new life!' one said, while another said: 'We don't want to hear any of this!' The man who brought up the accusation admitted to working for Alite's former boss Gotti Jr, according to USA Today. Opposite the diner where Alite likes to have lunch, a store owner advises a reporter to use Vaseline to block your ears. Alite can talk, and in the gravelly Brooklynese of his native tongue. He can talk so much, in fact, that he hosts a popular podcast, Catch Me on the Run, written several books, and appeared in numerous documentaries, including the recent Netflix series Get Gotti. The history of Gambino members going straight is not, however, entirely promising. Sammy 'the Bull' Gravano appeared to be on the straight and narrow until he was busted for dealing ecstasy. Last year, John Jr's wife and daughter were briefly charged after getting into a brawl at youth basketball game on Long Island, allegedly tearing the wig from the mother of an opposing team player. But that's not Alite's story. 'I live in a community and I want the community to be safe, because I know about that – obviously. I want it to be drug-free as much as possible, because I lost my daughter to fentanyl.' Three years ago, 20-year-old Chelsea Alite unwittingly took a fentanyl-laced disguised Percocet, causing a fatal overdose. But there are four cannabis dispensaries in Englishtown, with licensing for a fifth, twice as many as the number of bars. Must be a high-margin business? 'I wasn't on the council then,' he says, 'but I think two would be sufficient.' Asked if there are any fentanyl dealers in Englishtown, Alite gives a persuasive no. He's a supporter of charging fentanyl dealers involved in fatal overdoses with murder. He points out that when he was a dealer – 'I wish I wasn't' – and was asked for dope, cocaine or mescaline, 'we didn't stick other things in it'. It's a style of logic that permeates Alite's thinking: it wasn't good to do bad things, but at least those things were done honestly, mostly to people who were also out doing bad things. He is also a Republican. He's met Trump on several occasions and, like Trump, sees the federal government as a shakedown operation with a talent for skimming and pocket-lining. 'John Gotti Sr, who I knew as a kid, used to tell me all the time: the government is the mafia. I would laugh, and thought he was nuts, but later on I learned he was absolutely right,' he says. 'But I was just young and naive.' But what will Englishtown look like with Alite elected in it? 'This doesn't look like a beautiful, quaint Jersey town,' he says. 'I want the old-style lights, cobblestone sidewalks, restaurants, a florist, a Dunkin' Donuts. What was the old mayor and council doing all these years?' If he is elected to the council, Englishtown can expect a major upgrade under the guidance of a man who knows both sides. 'People ask me why would you want to be a politician, and I tell them: because most of them are corrupt and now I'm not, so I can see what they're doing and I'll fight what they're doing.'
USA Today
22-04-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
How a former killer for a major crime family became a New Jersey councilman
How a former killer for a major crime family became a New Jersey councilman Show Caption Hide Caption Former hitman John Alite now serves Englishtown as a councilman Former Gambino crime family mobster John Alite, who admitted to two murders and four murder conspiracies, now serves as an Englishtown councilman. ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. – Two hours into a town hall meeting in this small New Jersey town, a man took out his phone, hands shaking, and began filming. "Are you aware that he's committed welfare fraud?" the man asked Englishtown Mayor Daniel Francisco, referring to the borough's newest councilman, John Alite, whose mob past has drawn an unusual amount of attention to the quiet borough east of Princeton. "He's started a new life!" a resident shouted back. "We don't want to hear any of this!" another resident declared. "Go! Go! Go!" residents chanted. The support for Alite was palpable. The man who brought up the accusation of welfare fraud, who admitted to working for Alite's former boss John Gotti Jr., left the room, leaving a packet of handouts on a seat on his way out. A resident snatched up the stack of papers before anyone could read them and later handed them to Alite. More: Englishtown council loses four members, gains ex-mobster as critics slam mayor as autocrat More: Englishtown clerk: I was fired for being a whistleblower who questioned police spending It's certainly not the back-and-forth you would expect in a town meeting for a small historic place like Englishtown, which has a population of about 2,300 people. Alite by his own admission is a former mobster who ran with the Gambino crime family, one of the five major families who for decades controlled organized crime in New York City. He pleaded guilty to racketeering activity in federal court, which included two murders, four murder conspiracies, at least eight shootings and two attempted shootings. He has also acknowledged that he was part of armed home invasions and robberies in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida. Alite said in an interview that the home invasions and robberies were committed against drug dealers. In New Jersey, disqualification from serving a public office is limited to crimes involving a person's public office or public employment. Jersey Shore mob history: Mafia kingpin Vito Genovese lived in these Monmouth County homes Drugs, gambling, kidnapping and murder Alite had a reputation for brutality, according to his 2021 book "John Alite Mafia International," which was cowritten with Lou Romano. It was that reputation and his connection with John Gotti Jr. that drew him into the mob. Gotti Jr. is the son of John Gotti Sr., who was the boss of the Gambino crime family from 1985 to his imprisonment in 1992. A 1989 New York Times article placed Alite, then 26, with Gotti Jr., then 25, at a restaurant in Long Island where they got into a brawl. Alite would later move to New Jersey and then Florida, where he was involved with drug trafficking and extortion. As investigators were closing in, Alite fled to Brazil in early 2004, according to a St. Petersburg Times article at the time. Alite was accused of "controlling illegal businesses, illegal gambling, extortion, drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping and murder as a top lieutenant in New York's Gambino family," according to the article. After spending 10 months in Brazil, the FBI tracked down Alite at an internet cafe. Alite would then fight extradition for over two years in a prison in Brazil before being handed over to the FBI in late 2006. In early 2008, Alite pleaded guilty to a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act conspiracy charge and admitted to the two murders and shootings, local news outlets reported at the time. He began to cooperate with prosecutors, including in a case against Gotti Jr., who had succeeded his namesake father as boss of the Gambino crime family. In 2011, Alite was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Some of the 10 years was considered served due to time spent in jails in the US and Brazil and, according to the Tampa Bay Times, he received an additional 20-month reduction in his sentence. He was released in 2012. Gotti Jr.'s case ended in a mistrial, with some jurors stating they did not believe Alite, who was the chief witness. Life after the mob Since Alite's release in 2012, he has declared himself to be a reformed man, doing interviews with news stations about his former life and recording podcasts. Alite said he moved to Englishtown after his daughter Chelsea died from using fentanyl in 2022. His family had owned a house in Englishtown but had been renting it out. Alite said after his daughter's death, he decided to move to the sleepy town to forge a new life. In March, Alite was appointed to the town council to fill a vacancy with support from Francisco, the mayor of Englishtown, and other local leaders. Francisco said he and Alite have known each other for a few years. "Our understanding of each other is hanging out at these local businesses, hanging out with our business owners and talking about the issues that our town faces, mostly around the prospect of trying to get development going," Francisco said. Alite described Francisco as a nonjudgmental person who doesn't care about his past criminal record. The two don't discuss the past much, but Francisco has taken an interest in Alite's role as a speaker, sharing cautionary tales from his days in the Gambino crime family. NJ mobsters: 8 notorious Jersey Shore wise guys "I have a big interest in drug issues, whether it's this town or around the country," said Alite. "(I) took a big interest in that after being devastated like hundreds of thousands of families have." Alite's talks also discuss the dangers of drug use but mainly center around his life of crime and how he managed to turn his life around. "I don't run from (my past). I'm not proud of it. I'm ashamed of it," he said. Alite is not up for election until 2027. Contributing: Christopher Cann
