Gangland Wire Blog

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Skyjacking Interrupted Actual Parachute In Part 4, convicted skyjacker Martin J. McNally (“Mac”) relates how a local St. Louis man is drinking at the Lambert Airport Mariott Inn lobby bar. The bar patrons are watching this skyjacker drama live on a television. A patron abruptly leaves the bar with a comment something like, “hold my […]

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The Hijacking Our D. B. Cooper copycat, Martin J. McNally, continues with his fascinating account of a real life skyjacking. He has selected Lambert Field in St. Louis and has arrived at the gate. Mac gets on the plane and takes his seat. This plane is a Boeing 727 arriving from New York and proceeding

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The Preparation In the first episode, Mac told how he heard about the successful skyjacking of D. B. Cooper and started his own skyjacking plan. In this second episode of our interview with convicted skyjacker, Martin J. McNally, we learn about how Mac selected his target airport and airline. He believed that any airline would

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Al Capone was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. He was a small time criminal and belonged to several different gangs including the powerful 5-Points Gang in lower Manhattan. He received his scar when he insulted a woman at a bar. Her brother, a gangster named Frank Gallucio, slashed Capone’s face. His

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Several months back, Aaron and I posted an episode telling about a 1972 D.B. Cooper copycat skyjacker named Martin J. McNally. In 1972, D. B. Cooper inspired McNally and several others to skyjack  passenger planes and use parachutes to escape. After posting this story, Martin McNally (“Mac”) was googling his own name and found my

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When Ed Tickel was installing F.B.I. wiretaps, he led a secret life as a burglar. He was the son of a respected FBI agent and well-liked by his coworkers. I found a report about this secret life in a book titled The Secrets of the FBI by investigative reporter Ronald Kessler. He was known as

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This show is about F.B.I. Black Bag operations and the men who do this. Without the skill of the “bag men” the important microphones would not have installed and the Mob control over the Tropicana and Stardust Casinos would never have been uncovered. In this episode, I tell about an FBI agent that went bad,

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In this episode, Tropicana Casino Skimming, Aaron and I talk about how KC boss Nick Civella used Joe Agosto to Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal infiltrate the Tropicana casino. I use the below actual wiretap audio to help tell the story. Nick Civella is concerned with the skimmers stealing and Civella wants a moratorium on all Tropicana

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In part 2, Aaron and I talk about the crime that our friend Schlecter, aka Joe Sharpino, did to get himself in witness protection.  A woman named Sally Papia came from Chicago to Milwaukee and opened a nice club called Sally’s Steak House. She was the girl friend of a Chicago Outfit guy named Frank