U.S. News

Mobster says family living in trailer park

Published: Jan. 10, 2013 at 6:55 PM

WEST CREEK, N.J., Jan. 10 (UPI) -- In an attempt avoid a lengthy sentence, a mafioso revealed in court papers his family lives in a New Jersey trailer park and receives food stamps.

Benjamin "The Claw" Castellazzo, 75, is set to be sentenced this month for extorting Brooklyn's La Quila construction company and The Square, a Staten Island pizzeria, the New York Daily News reported.

Castellazzo, high-ranking member of the Colombo crime family, faces an eight-year sentence for the charges but has pleaded with Judge Kiyo Matsumoto to give him a lesser sentence because of his financial situation.

"I have reflected on my life during the past two years. ... I am not proud of the life I have led," Castellazzo wrote to Matsumoto, adding he wants to end his days in the company of his wife, children and grandchildren.

Castellazzo, who has been jailed since 2010, said his family is living in a trailer park in West Creek, N.J., and his wife is collecting food stamps.

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