FBI "knew all along they were not guilty"

Michael J. Albano, former Springfield MA mayor and state Parole Board member, testified this week that the FBI repeatedly withheld evidence that several men convicted of murder were actually innocent, according to a story by Dan Ring of the Springfield Republican.

"The FBI knew all along they were not guilty," Albano, 56, said in U.S. District Court in Boston on Tuesday.

Albano's testimony in the $100 million lawsuit brought against the government by Peter Limone, Joseph Salvati and the families of Louis Greco and Henry Tameleo echoed that of former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, who testified last week. The four men were convicted in 1968 of the 1965 murder of Edward "Teddy" Deegan. The conviction was based in large part on testimony that has since been proven false. Greco and Tameleo spent the remainder of their lives behind bars for a crime they did not commit. Limone and Salvati were finally released in 2001, after FBI documentation in the case was revealed.

While a new member of the Parole Board in the 1980s, the matter of commuting the sentences of Limone, Salvati and Greco came before the board. (Tameleo had died in prison in 1984.) Albano said he asked the FBI for information, but was not provided with an important report. He ultimately and unsuccessfully voted for commutation.

After leaving the witness stand, Albano told reporters that FBI agents attempted to persuade him against voting for the commutation of the sentences. "They... said it probably would not bode well for me if I wanted to remain in public life, that this would not be a good vote for me."

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Brazil sends Alite home to U.S.

The Brazilian government turned reputed Gambino Crime Family bigshot John Edward Alite, 44, over to U.S. law enforcement agents earlier today, according to a story on CNN.

The agents immediately brought Alite back to the United States. He faces a list of racket-related charges in connection with a Gambino family branch that operated in the Tampa, Florida, region.

Four men, believed to be Alite's underworld accomplices, were convicted in November in Tampa. Alite was fighting extradition from Brazil at the time of that trial.

The four - Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio, Steven Catalano, Kevin M. McMahon and Terry L. Scaglione - are to be sentenced in March. Trucchio and Catalano face possible life prison sentences. McMahon and Scaglione could be jailed up to 20 years.

One member of Gambino crew in Tampa, Michael Malone, earlier pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against his former associates.

Earlier this month, the November jury verdict was called into question, as one juror claimed that she was pressured into voting guilty and that she observed improper behavior by some jurors.

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