New York
Is This 73-Year-Old a Hit Man? He’s Got the Résumé.
![Is This 73-Year-Old a Hit Man? He’s Got the Résumé. Is This 73-Year-Old a Hit Man? He’s Got the Résumé.](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/00hitman-profile2-facebookJumbo.jpg)
George Bratsenis shuffled right into a New Jersey courtroom in shackles, an old-school hoodlum with thick glasses, white hair and a forearm tattoo.
Court docket is a well-known setting for Mr. Bratsenis, 73. So is jail. His Tarantino-esque odyssey spans not less than three states and Canada and contains the killing of a drug courier referred to as the Turk, ties to organized crime and a weird failed jailbreak bid.
He was in court docket now as a result of he had been implicated in a murder-for-hire case involving a veteran marketing campaign advisor that many in New Jersey’s political class suppose might develop into the state’s subsequent large public corruption scandal.
The advisor, Sean Caddle, had admitted to arranging the killing of an affiliate who was discovered fatally stabbed in his burning Jersey Metropolis residence in 2014, and he had named Mr. Bratsenis as his employed hit man.
Mr. Bratsenis’s court docket look, on Feb. 22, ended abruptly with out rationalization, deepening the thriller of his place within the scheme. Readability will in all probability come on Thursday, when, the U.S. lawyer’s workplace in New Jersey mentioned, he’s scheduled to enter a plea.
It’s a new chapter for Mr. Bratsenis, whose prison heyday lasted roughly from 1974 to 1985. In that point — based on interviews, court docket paperwork, different public information and newspaper articles — he racked up 10 convictions, many for felonies like housebreaking, armed theft and, as soon as, conspiracy to commit homicide. He took orders from Gambino crime household associates and was an enforcer for a infamous former police lieutenant in Connecticut.
“He’s a really unhealthy man,” mentioned Alan H. Nevas, who, because the U.S. lawyer in Connecticut within the Nineteen Eighties, gained convictions towards Mr. Bratsenis for financial institution theft and within the homicide conspiracy.
Mr. Bratsenis didn’t reply to an interview request despatched to him on the federal jail in Brooklyn the place he’s awaiting sentencing in a financial institution theft case. His lawyer declined to remark.
Born in Stamford, Conn., Mr. Bratsenis grew up with 5 sisters. (The one to whom he says he’s closest didn’t reply a cellphone message.) In a court docket submitting, he describes a childhood of walks to the park and Little League video games.
He says in the identical doc that he started consuming as a young person earlier than shifting to LSD, cocaine and heroin. He graduated from highschool in 1966 — “enjoys women, water snowboarding, baseball, looking and automobiles,” his yearbook says — after which joined the Marines. He was honorably discharged, has been married and divorced twice — the primary marriage lasted a couple of yr — and has 4 kids.
“I don’t need something to do with him or his household,” his second spouse, Patricia, mentioned in a phone interview. “I want him nothing however yuck.”
Mr. Bratsenis’s prison profession started when he returned house from serving his nation. His father had an exterminating enterprise, however George selected a special path.
An early arrest got here in October 1973, when he and three different males broke right into a seafood restaurant in Westport, Conn. A number of months later, he was arrested 800 miles away in Nova Scotia, Canada, on costs of robbing a bowling alley at gunpoint. He pleaded responsible to armed theft and acquired 90 days in jail.
Again in Stamford, the Gambino and Genovese crime households have been battling over management of the unlawful rackets. Mr. Bratsenis and his cronies “would hyperlink up with organized crime associates and do their bidding — robberies, burglaries, promoting medicine,” mentioned Capt. Richard Conklin of the Stamford police.
“Subcontractors,” Michael Docimo, a retired Stamford officer, known as them: “They’d do something for rent.”
Mr. Bratsenis was “type of a free cannon” with a “sure meanness,” Captain Conklin mentioned. At 6 foot 2 inches and over 200 kilos, he was additionally bodily intimidating — a high quality he used, Mr. Docimo mentioned, as “muscle” for Larry Hogan, a retired Stamford police lieutenant and longtime goal of regulation enforcement scrutiny over his suspected ties to the drug commerce and arranged crime. (Mr. Hogan was convicted in 1982 of attempting to purchase heroin from undercover federal brokers. The decision was reversed on enchantment.)
Mr. Bratsenis’s main companion was Louis Sclafani (he known as himself Set off Lou). From 1979 to 1983, court docket information present, they went on a whirlwind of crime: financial institution jobs in Connecticut; grand theft arrests in Florida; jewellery retailer heists and gun and drug convictions throughout New Jersey.
In 1980, the bullet-riddled physique of David Avnayim, a.ok.a. the Turk, was present in a automobile trunk close to Mr. Hogan’s house. 4 years later, Mr. Bratsenis, Mr. Sclafani and Mr. Hogan have been charged within the killing. Mr. Hogan died earlier than trial. Mr. Sclafani cooperated. Mr. Bratsenis pleaded responsible to a homicide conspiracy cost.
David Golub, a lawyer who represented Mr. Hogan, mentioned in an interview that he had learn concerning the homicide that Mr. Bratsenis was now implicated in.
“Is that this about George Bratsenis rearing his ugly head?” Mr. Golub mentioned when he answered the cellphone, including: “If he’s out of jail greater than a day, it’s a fluke.”
Mr. Bratsenis’s spree resulted in 1983 when he was arrested and charged in one of many jewellery retailer robberies in New Jersey. Earlier than his trial there, he was convicted of robbing two Stamford banks. (Mr. Sclafani cooperated once more.) He acquired 30 years in federal jail for the robberies and 10 to twenty years, to be served concurrently, for the Turk’s homicide.
Subsequent got here the New Jersey trial for the jewellery retailer thefts. Prosecutors mentioned they adopted a typical sample: Mr. Bratsenis and his associates would scout locations to rob. Then they’d set fires elsewhere to distract the authorities.
The trial was a spectacle. Mr. Sclafani, testifying once more as a federally protected witness, was delivered to court docket below the watch of rooftop snipers guarding towards a focused killing.
Then there was Mr. Bratsenis’s escape plot.
Whereas he was in jail awaiting trial, certainly one of his sisters smuggled him a balloon stuffed with a nausea-inducing drug that he stored in his rectum for weeks. He deliberate to make himself sick by ingesting the drug the day the trial began, prompting a visit to a hospital. There, armed males would assist him flee.
The scheme crumbled due to a jailhouse informer and an spy who recorded Mr. Bratsenis’s sister discussing it. The trial proceeded, and he was convicted.
“Now, I’ve at all times mentioned this in passing sentence, that it’s tough to say whether or not a person will commit one other offense,” the choose mentioned in ordering him to spend a minimal of 25 years in state jail. “However primarily based on this defendant’s earlier historical past, his perspective, there’s no query.”
Prescient phrases. Mr. Bratsenis wound up serving 25 years altogether — 9 in federal jail and 16 in state custody — earlier than being paroled in 2010.
Then, on Sept. 29, 2014, he was arrested in Trumbull, Conn., and charged in a financial institution theft there. A second man, Bomani Africa, was additionally charged. Mr. Africa pleaded responsible and acknowledged that he and Mr. Bratsenis had stolen a automobile that they used of their getaway after which set ablaze.
The case acquired little discover till January, when Mr. Caddle, the marketing campaign advisor, pleaded responsible to arranging the homicide of Michael Galdieri, 52, and paying Mr. Bratsenis hundreds of {dollars} in money for the job. Mr. Africa pleaded responsible to participating and mentioned Mr. Bratsenis had recruited him.
Prosecutors say — and Mr. Africa, 61, has acknowledged — that he and Mr. Bratsenis met in a New Jersey jail the place they have been on the identical cell block for a number of years and made plans to commit crimes collectively after being launched.
Mr. Bratsenis’s hyperlink to Mr. Caddle is fuzzier. Mr. Caddle’s brother, James Caddle Jr., is one chance. He, too, spent a number of years in the identical jail as Mr. Bratsenis. He’s useless, and it isn’t clear whether or not they met.
One other supply of intrigue is the admission by Mr. Caddle, who managed an online of darkish cash nonprofits and tremendous PACs, that he has been cooperating with the F.B.I. in what his lawyer known as a “main investigation.” It’s unclear the place his cooperation may lead.
The main points of Mr. Galdieri’s homicide prompted the son of a outstanding New Jersey couple whose September 2014 deaths stay unsolved to hunt an investigation right into a doable connection between the instances.
In a letter to regulation enforcement authorities, the son, Mark Sheridan, wrote that, like Mr. Galdieri, his dad and mom, John and Joyce Sheridan, who have been discovered useless of their house, had been stabbed and {that a} fireplace had been set close by.
No proof linking the deaths has emerged, and the federal and state authorities have declined to remark.
Mr. Bratsenis, who has been in jail since being arrested within the financial institution theft, is to be sentenced in that case subsequent month — greater than three years after his responsible plea. He has written to federal officers to complain concerning the prolonged wait and the circumstances through which he has been held.
“At occasions, I used to be so upset I forgot the place I used to be,” he wrote to a high jail official final March concerning the “inhumane” Metropolitan Correctional Heart in Manhattan. “I mentioned to myself: ‘Self, this isn’t the nice U.S.A.’”
In a court docket submitting, his lawyer, Charles Kurmay, sought a lenient sentence, citing Mr. Bratsenis’s prostate most cancers and superior age.
“He would love to have the ability to not die whereas in jail,” he wrote.
Tracey Tully contributed reporting. Kirsten Noyes contributed analysis.
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
New York
Senator Menendez’s Resignation Letter
![Senator Menendez’s Resignation Letter Senator Menendez’s Resignation Letter](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/23/doc-4ddf28bf-7055-4adb-bc76-b-promo/doc-4ddf28bf-7055-4adb-bc76-b-promo-facebookJumbo.png)
ROBERT MENENDEZ
NEW JERSEY
COMMITTEES:
BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN
AFFAIRS
FINANCE
FOREIGN RELATIONS
The Honorable Phil Murphy
Governor of New Jersey
Office of the Governor
Trenton, N.J. 08625
Dear Governor Murphy,
United States Senate
WASHINGTON, DC 20510-3005
July 23, 2024
528 SENATE HART OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON, DC 20510
(202) 224-4744
210 HUDSON STREET
HARBORSIDE 3, SUITE #1000
JERSEY CITY, NJ 07311
(973) 645-3030
208 WHITE HORSE PIKE
SUITE 18-19
BARRINGTON, NJ 08007
(856) 757-5353
This is to advise you that I will be resigning from my office as the United States Senator from
New Jersey, effective on the close of business on August 20, 2024.
This will give time for my staff to transition to other possibilities, transfer constituent files that
are pending, allow for an orderly process to choose an interim replacement, and for me to close
out my Senate affairs.
While I fully intend to appeal the jury’s verdict, all the way and including to the Supreme Court,
I do not want the Senate to be involved in a lengthy process that will detract from its important
work. Furthermore, I cannot preserve my rights upon a successful appeal, because factual matters
before the ethics committee are not privileged. This is evidenced by the Committee’s Staff
Director and Chief Counsel being called to testify at my trial.
I am proud of the many accomplishments I’ve had on behalf of New Jersey, such as leading the
federal effort for Superstorm Sandy recovery, preserving and funding Gateway and leading the
federal efforts to help save our hospitals, State and municipalities, as well as New Jersey families
through a once in a century COVID pandemic. These successes led you, Governor, to call me the
“Indispensable Senator.”
I thank the citizens of New Jersey for the extraordinary privilege of representing them in the
United States Senate.
Sincerely,
Pabet Menang.
Robert Menendez
United States Senator
New Jersey
cc: The Honorable Kamala Harris, President of the Senate
The Honorable Ann Berry, Secretary of the Senate
New York
How Well Do You Know Literary Brooklyn?
![How Well Do You Know Literary Brooklyn? How Well Do You Know Literary Brooklyn?](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/22/books/review/22Quiz-Brooklyn/22Quiz-Brooklyn-facebookJumbo.jpg)
A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself. This week’s literary geography quiz celebrates Brooklyn and novels set around the bustling borough. To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. Links to the books will be listed at the end of the quiz if you’d like to do further reading.
New York
See How Your Subway Service May Suffer Without Congestion Pricing
![See How Your Subway Service May Suffer Without Congestion Pricing See How Your Subway Service May Suffer Without Congestion Pricing](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/10/multimedia/2024-06-28-subway-projects-index/2024-06-28-subway-projects-index-facebookJumbo-v4.png)
After Gov. Kathy Hochul halted New York City’s congestion pricing program last month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority cut $16.5 billion worth of planned upgrades to the city’s vast transit network, mostly to account for the loss of funding that was tied to revenue from the toll.
Source: Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Notes: The chart shows the $28.5 billion in uncommitted funds in the M.T.A.’s 2020-24 capital program; an additional $27 billion had already been committed.
The impact of the congestion pricing suspension on the M.T.A.’s funds for capital projects
Projects were cut from each part of New York City’s transit system, which is the largest in North America and is used by millions of people every day. The projects included elevator and ramp installations that would make subway stations accessible for people with disabilities, structural repairs to aging infrastructure and upgrades to 1930s-era signals that regularly cause delays.
Here are some of the subway projects the authority says it has shelved:
The cuts announced by the M.T.A. — the state agency that runs the subway, bus and commuter rail lines — will also affect transit outside the subway system. The authority has postponed the purchase of more than 250 electric buses and charging infrastructure at bus depots, as well as upgrades to regional rails and a ramp reconstruction on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
The $12 billion remaining in the M.T.A.’s capital funds will be spent on projects the authority considers the most urgent, like track replacements and repairs to power substations. It will also replace some of the “least reliable” subway and railway cars, the authority said in a report.
All told, there are 92 subway stations that will not get planned improvements, including 22 stations that will not get new elevators or ramps; 10 that will not get upgrades like structural repairs, platform replacements and new barriers between platforms and tracks; and 71 that will not get upgrades to their public announcement systems.
Below is a list of the subway stations where upgrades have been put on hold, based on what the M.T.A. has detailed so far:
Projects on hold at 41 stations in Brooklyn:
Union St R
- upgrade to public announcement system
4 Av-9 St R
- upgrade to public announcement system
36 St D N R
- upgrade to public announcement system
59 St N R
- upgrade to public announcement system
Bergen St F G
- upgrade to public announcement system
15 St-Prospect Park F G
- upgrade to public announcement system
Church Av F G
- upgrade to public announcement system
Avenue X F
- upgrade to public announcement system
Neptune Av F
- upgrade to public announcement system
- elevator or ramp installation
- platform or waiting area replacement
Jay St-MetroTech A C F
- upgrade to public announcement system
Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts A C G
- upgrade to public announcement system
- elevator or ramp installation
Franklin Av C
- upgrade to public announcement system
Nostrand Av A C
- upgrade to public announcement system
- elevator or ramp installation
Utica Av A C
- upgrade to public announcement system
Euclid Av A C
- upgrade to public announcement system
7 Av B Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
Kings Hwy B Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
Avenue U Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
Neck Rd Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
Sheepshead Bay B Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
Brighton Beach B Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
Ocean Pkwy Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
W 8 St-NY Aquarium F Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
Jefferson St L
- elevator or ramp installation
Nevins St 2 3 4 5
- platform or waiting area replacement
Crescent St J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Norwood Av J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Cleveland St J
- upgrade to public announcement system
Van Siclen Av J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Alabama Av J
- upgrade to public announcement system
Chauncey St J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Halsey St J
- upgrade to public announcement system
Gates Av J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Kosciuszko St J
- upgrade to public announcement system
Myrtle Av J M Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Flushing Av J M
- upgrade to public announcement system
Lorimer St J M
- upgrade to public announcement system
Hewes St J M
- upgrade to public announcement system
Marcy Av J M Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Kings Hwy N
- elevator or ramp installation
18 Av D
- elevator or ramp installation
Projects on hold at 9 stations in the Bronx:
Norwood-205 St D
- upgrade to public announcement system
Bedford Park Blvd B D
- upgrade to public announcement system
Kingsbridge Rd B D
- upgrade to public announcement system
Fordham Rd B D
- upgrade to public announcement system
Tremont Av B D
- upgrade to public announcement system
161 St-Yankee Stadium B D
- upgrade to public announcement system
Wakefield-241 St 2
- elevator or ramp installation
Brook Av 6
- elevator or ramp installation
- repairs for structural or aesthetic issues
3 Av-138 St 6
- elevator or ramp installation
- repairs for structural or aesthetic issues
Projects on hold at 27 stations in Manhattan:
Roosevelt Island F
- upgrade to public announcement system
Lexington Av/63 St F Q
- upgrade to public announcement system
47-50 Sts-Rockefeller Ctr B D F M
- upgrade to public announcement system
42 St-Bryant Pk B D F M
- upgrade to public announcement system
- elevator or ramp installation
34 St-Herald Sq B D F M
- upgrade to public announcement system
Broadway-Lafayette St B D F M
- upgrade to public announcement system
2 Av F
- upgrade to public announcement system
Delancey St-Essex St F
- upgrade to public announcement system
- elevator or ramp installation
East Broadway F
- upgrade to public announcement system
190 St A
- repairs for structural or aesthetic issues
145 St A C B D
- elevator or ramp installation
W 4 St-Wash Sq A C E
- upgrade to public announcement system
Canal St A C E
- upgrade to public announcement system
Chambers St A C
- upgrade to public announcement system
World Trade Center E
- upgrade to public announcement system
Lexington Av/59 St N R W
- elevator or ramp installation
168 St 1
- elevator or ramp installation
3 Av L
- new fencing between platform and track
5 Av 7
- elevator or ramp installation
Times Sq-42 St 7
- new fencing between platform and track
Delancey St-Essex St J M Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
- elevator or ramp installation
Canal St J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Chambers St J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
- repairs for structural or aesthetic issues
Broad St J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
110 St 6
- elevator or ramp installation
59 St 4 5 6
- elevator or ramp installation
7 Av B D E
- elevator or ramp installation
Projects on hold at 14 stations in Queens:
21 St-Queensbridge F
- upgrade to public announcement system
111 St J
- upgrade to public announcement system
75 St-Elderts Ln J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Ozone Park-Lefferts Blvd A
- upgrade to public announcement system
Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer E J Z
- upgrade to public announcement system
Sutphin Blvd-Archer Av-JFK Airport E J Z
- new fencing between platform and track
Jamaica-Van Wyck E
- upgrade to public announcement system
Parsons Blvd F
- elevator or ramp installation
Sutphin Blvd F
- upgrade to public announcement system
Briarwood E F
- elevator or ramp installation
- repairs for structural or aesthetic issues
Howard Beach-JFK Airport A
- upgrade to public announcement system
Broad Channel A S
- upgrade to public announcement system
Far Rockaway-Mott Av A
- upgrade to public announcement system
Rockaway Park-Beach 116 St A S
- upgrade to public announcement system
Projects on hold at 1 station in Staten Island:
Clifton SIR
- elevator or ramp installation
-
Midwest1 week ago
Michigan rep posts video response to Stephen Colbert's joke about his RNC speech: 'Touché'
-
News1 week ago
Video: Young Republicans on Why Their Party Isn’t Reaching Gen Z (And What They Can Do About It)
-
News1 week ago
RNC speakers want to separate the president from the person to show softer side of Trump
-
News1 week ago
Video: J.D. Vance Accepts Vice-Presidential Nomination
-
Politics1 week ago
Fox News Politics: The Call is Coming from Inside the House
-
World1 week ago
Civilians try to pick up daily life in Ukraine's East
-
World1 week ago
Trump to take RNC stage for first speech since assassination attempt
-
World1 week ago
Freshers' week in Strasbourg for new EU lawmakers