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Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How a former killer for a major crime family became a New Jersey 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 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. 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 This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: This New Jersey councilman was once a killer for Gambino crime family
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
As Rays stadium plans stall, new film remembers the Gas Plant neighborhood
A new documentary starring former residents of the Gas Plant aims to tell the story of what life was really like in the racially segregated neighborhood that is now Tropicana Field. Black-owned businesses thrived. Neighbors raised each other's children as their own. Kids caught crawfish in Booker Creek and scaled the two giant natural gas tanks that gave the neighborhood its name. It had the best views. Then public officials and the St. Petersburg Times described the area as blighted. They sold the community on a redevelopment plan promising affordable housing and light industry. Residents believed they could move out and come back to something better. None of that happened. That land was later used to build a baseball stadium on the prospect of luring a professional team to St. Petersburg. The Gas Plant, a safe haven in a city slow to reckon with its Jim Crow past, was lost in a bait-and-switch, residents who lived there say in the documentary. 'I can never forgive the city of St. Petersburg for the lie that they told us,' said William Graveley, one of two dozen Gas Plant descendants featured in 'Razed.' 'Razed' takes viewers through a timeline of how the Gas Plant came to be, how it grew into an important business and cultural district and how the neighborhood was torn down in the name of something better that never came. The documentary debuts this Saturday as the future of that land — and plans to right those wrongs — approaches a breaking point. 'Razed' revels in joyous memories and photographs but pulls no punches on what happened to the Gas Plant. But it stops short of wading into what is supposedly next for the Trop — a $6.5 billion public and private plan to build a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium and surround it with a neighborhood of housing, shops, restaurants, entertainment, office space and an African American history museum. The project's name pays homage: the Historic Gas Plant District. 'I hope it plays out differently this time around,' said Charles Dew, a St. Petersburg-born historian and author, at the end of the film. Mayor Ken Welch, who features prominently in 'Razed,' negotiated terms for the project that include affordable housing, jobs for local workers and opportunities for minority-owned businesses. But those plans are now up to the Rays to carry out, and it's not looking good. The Rays have until March 31 to move forward with that deal. Team brass as recently as Friday accused Pinellas County and St. Petersburg, which have granted $742 million in public funding toward the project, of breaking the agreement by delaying votes after last year's hurricanes resulting in cost increases. 'Razed' credits Gwendolyn Reese, a Gas Plant descendant and president of the African American Heritage Association, as a producer of the film. She helped the Rays with their development proposal as a paid consultant and gave public presentations on the team's plans. Reese helped organized a reunion in 2021 where 'Razed' director Andrew Lee and assistant director and producer Tara Segall began interviewing descendants of the Gas Plant. She kept that group together to share ideas and suggestions with the Rays as the team worked on plans for the new stadium and Gas Plant project. At a recent event discussing the film at Tombolo Books, Reese was asked by an audience member what choices or actions could be made to envision a better future for St. Petersburg. 'Well, mine is that we get up off our asses, excuse me, and move forward with the redevelopment of Tropicana Field,' Reese said, calling the deal 'the best thing that has ever come to St. Petersburg.' 'To move forward on that would, today, presently, would be a very great, giant step towards showing that the city is serious about that broken promise,' she told the crowd, 'but not just that broken promise, serious about progress, serious about equity.' Reese told the Tampa Bay Times that though the Rays agreed to cover all cost overruns as part of the deal, increased costs due to delays should not fall solely on the team. 'I think we all need to sit down together and figure it out,' she said, referring to the city and county. 'Razed' premieres Saturday to a sold-out crowd at the Center for Health Equity with a rolled out red carpet for the stars of the film, the Gas Plant descendants. A second show has been added due to demand. The film's executives are considering a limited run in local theaters and have pitched the documentary to a film festivals, as the story of stadiums displacing communities of color has played out throughout the United States.
