They had a bad vibe

How about a little nostalgia trip back to 2002 courtesy of the NY Times:

Within weeks of the death of John J. Gotti and the indictment of his eldest brother, Peter, the new reputed chief of the Gambino crime family, federal prosecutors in Manhattan yesterday announced charges against 14 more people who they said were Gambino family members or associates.

The crimes listed in the indictments seemed familiar — murder, loan-sharking, extortion, robbery and bookmaking — and they served as a reminder, federal officials said, that the mob is not dead in the city, only trying to reshape itself in the face of constant pressure from law enforcement.

”Folks who think that organized crime is a thing of the past in New York are kidding themselves,” said James B. Comey, the United States attorney in Manhattan. ”These people are out there, and they are struggling to revive and to maintain these organized crime families.”

It must feel so bizarre to him to see the same kind of thing squatting in the White House.

The indictment also charged that members of the crime family played a role in the 1989 killing of Frederick Weiss, a businessman. The government previously attributed the killing to members of the New Jersey-based DeCavalcante crime family, which prosecutors said has long been associated with the Gambinos.

Mr. Comey alleged that John Gotti, who died on June 10 in a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Mo., had suspected that Mr. Weiss ”might be cooperating with the government,” and that members of both crime families ”killed Weiss as a favor to Gotti.”

Mr. Comey said Mr. Weiss was not, in fact, cooperating with the government.

”They didn’t require proof beyond a reasonable doubt or probable cause,” Kevin P. Donovan, the assistant director in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York office, said of the decision to kill Mr. Weiss.

They killed him, Mr. Donovan said, because ”they had a bad vibe.”

That too sounds very familiar.

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