Thread: Suspect in mob boss hit flashes pro-Trump slogans on hand

Suspect in mob boss hit flashes pro-Trump slogans on hand


WAYNE PARRY
,Associated Press•March 18, 2019

TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — The man charged with killing the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family wrote pro-Donald Trump slogans on his hand and flashed them to journalists before a court hearing Monday.

Anthony Comello, 24, was arrested Saturday in New Jersey in the death of Francesco "Franky Boy" Cali last week in front of his Staten Island home.

While waiting for a court hearing to begin in Toms River, New Jersey, in which he agreed to be extradited to New York, Comello held up his left hand.

On it were scrawled pro-Trump slogans including "MAGA Forever," an abbreviation of Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again." It also read "United We Stand MAGA" and "Patriots In Charge." In the center of his palm he had drawn a large circle. It was not immediately clear why he had done so.

Comello's lawyer, Brian Neary, would not discuss the writing on his client's hand, nor would he say whether Comello maintains his innocence. Asked by reporters after the hearing what was on Comello's hand, Neary replied, "Handcuffs."


Anthony Comello displays writing on his hand during his extradition hearing in Toms River, N.J., Monday, March 18, 2019. New York City police say a suspect is in custody in the shooting death of the reputed Gambino crime family boss. Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea says 24-year-old Comello was arrested Saturday, March 16, 2019, in the death of Francesco Cali on Wednesday in front of his Staten Island home. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) More

He referred all other questions to Comello's Manhattan lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, who said in an emailed statement his client has been placed in protective custody due to "serious threats" that had been made against him, but gave no details of them. Ocean County officials could not immediately be reached after hours on Monday.

"Mr. Comello's family and friends simply cannot believe what they have been told," Gottlieb said.

"There is something very wrong here and we will get to the truth about what happened as quickly as possible."

The statement did not address the writing on Comello's hand, and a lawyer from Gottlieb's firm declined to comment further Monday evening.

Comello sat with a slight smile in the jury box of the courtroom Monday afternoon as dozens of reporters and photographers filed into the room.

When they were in place, Comello held up his left hand to display the writings as the click and whirr of camera lenses filled the room with sound.

During the hearing, Comello did not speak other than to say, "Yes, sir" to the judge to respond to several procedural questions.

Cali, 53, was shot to death last Wednesday by a gunman who may have crashed his truck into Cali's car to lure him outside. Police said Cali was shot 10 times.

Federal prosecutors referred to Cali in court filings in 2014 as the underboss of the Mafia's Gambino family, once one of the country's most powerful crime organizations. News accounts since 2015 said Cali had ascended to the top spot, though he was never charged with leading the gang. His only mob-related conviction came a decade ago, when he was sentenced to 16 months in prison in an extortion scheme involving a failed attempt to build a NASCAR track on Staten Island. He was released in 2009 and hasn't been in legal trouble since then.

Police have not yet said whether they believe Cali's murder was a mob hit or whether he was killed for some other motive.

The last Mafia boss to be rubbed out in New York City was Gambino don "Big Paul" Castellano, who was assassinated in 1985.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/suspect-m...195052183.html

"In the center of his palm he had drawn a large circle. It was not immediately clear why he had done so."

That was a Q for Qanon.

CONSPIRACY THEORY GROUP QAnon APPEARS AT TRUMP RALLY

Videos




10:2
Donald Trump's business links to the mob - BBC Newsnight

BBC Newsnight

YouTube - Mar 4, 2016


BBC Newsnight

Published on Mar 4, 2016

Donald Trump now looks like the front-runner to be the Republican candidate for the US presidency. One of his big appeals is his business success - and his claim that his wealth means he can't be bought and sold. But there's evidence which not only casts doubt on Trump's wealth claims - but also reveals his history of business relationships with figures connected to organised crime. John Sweeney reports. Newsnight is the BBC's flagship news and current affairs TV programme - with analysis, debate, exclusives, and robust interviews.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for highlights and bonus videos http://bbc.in/1iouM30 Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsnight for the latest updates on #newsnight Add us on Snapchat - our username is 'BBCNewsnight' And follow on Facebook for our best material, an early heads up on what's coming up, and to join in our debates https://www.facebook.com/bbcnewsnight

Is Mob Boss Murder Suspect Anthony Comello Just Nuts—or a QAnon Crazy?

He showed in court with scribbles on his hand, including the Q symbol and “Patriots in charge.”

Michael Daly
03.18.19 7:06 PM ET


OPINION
Seth Wenig/AP

When he raised his manacled left hand in a New Jersey courtroom on Monday afternoon, the 24-year-old accused of gunning down the boss of the Gambino crime family revealed that he had scribbled the QAnon symbol on the palm, along with some right-wing watchwords.

“MAGA forever… UNITED WE STAND… Patriots in charge.”

Has the QAnon fixation been extended from the Clintons to the Gambinos?

With his ballpoint pen scribblings, Anthony Comello seemed to affirm the opinion of three NYPD detectives who had independently described the Staten Island resident with the very same word after his arrest over the weekend.

“Nuts.”

The only question seems to be how nuts.

• AND YOU THOUGHT PIZZAGATE WAS NUTS
  
  QAnon: The Craziest Theory of the Trump Era, Explained
  
  
  Will Sommer
  
  
  

Maybe Comello is a Staten Island variation on the QAnon believers who imagine that a series of anonymous clues posted online since late 2017 prove that Trump is engaging in a secret war against the deep state and high-ranking pedophiles in the global elite. Your basic QAnon whacko blames a wide variety of targets for the world’s ills, including the media, the federal bureaucracy, the Democratic Party, and Hollywood.

But a Staten Island QAnon paranoid seeking to do battle with a permanent elite might very well include the Mafia.

That could be particularly true if he had an interest in dating the niece of the Gambino crime family boss and had been told to stay away.

If Comello is a QAnon kook, he wouldn’t be the first believer to turn violent.

Last year, an armed QAnon believer allegedly shut down a road near the Hoover Dam with an improvised armored truck.

In January, another QAnon believer allegedly committed fratricide with a 4-foot sword because he was convinced his brother was a lizard.

Comello stands accused of shooting Mafia boss Frank Cali 10 times in front of his Staten Island home while his wife and niece sat inside at an interrupted family diner.

Comello was arrested early Saturday morning at his parents’ house in New Jersey. He had been identified by fingerprints he left at the crime scene and he had been traced from there by his cell phone. License plate readers recorded his pickup truck crossing into New Jersey. The pickup truck was in his parents’ garage when he was taken into custody. He had on the same coat and sneakers the gunman was wearing the a surveillance video of the shooting. He is said to have made incriminating statements.

• KEEP YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER
  
  
  Fingerprints Lead NYPD to Arrest in Gambino Mob Boss Murder
  
  
  Michael Daly,
  
  Pervaiz Shallwani
  
  
  
  
• But what remained unclear was the motive. One theory was that Comello became enraged when Cali forbade him from dating his niece. Another theory was that Comello is a drug user and pushers may have put him up to killing Cali.

And then there was this QAnon craziness at Monday’s hearing. One cop joked that this MAGA stood not for Make America Great Again but Make Another Gambino Appointment.

Comello waived extradition and is scheduled to be arraigned on murder charges in Staten Island next Monday. His declared allegiance to QAnon is not exactly a guarantee of personal safety in the New York City jails.

Nor is being accused of killing a mob boss.

“Because of serious threats, he has been placed in protective custody, where he will remain while this case in pending,” the accused killer's attorney, Robert Gottlieb, reported in a statement.

Gottlieb repeated an earlier assertion.

“Mr. Comello’s family and friends simply cannot believe what they had been told.”

Gottlieb added, “There Is something very wrong here and we will get to the truth of what happened as soon as possible.”

By one report, Comello has tried to say that he was acting in self-defense. Those who have seen surveillance video of the fatal encounter say that Cali posed no manifest threat and in fact had his back to Comello when he was gunned down. The video is said to show Comello then standing over the sprawled Cali and firing numerous times.

The gunman in the video holds the gun in right hand, the same one that Comello apparently used to write on his palm and offered evidence that he is indeed a nut of whatever kind.

The last mob hit in New York involved a wise guy who was whacked while buying coffee at a McDonald’s.[

But a QAnon rubout of a mob boss?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/anthon...zy-about-qanon