NEW YORK -- Frank 'Funzi' Tieri, the reputed boss of the Genovese crime family, was convicted Friday on charges he headed the secret national crime syndicate known as La Cosa Nostra -- the first defendant to be convicted on such charges.
A U.S. District Court jury in Manhattan found Tieri guilty of using his position as a Mafia chief to take part in racketeering activities and to authorize a 'hit' on a California man who owed the mob money.
Tieri, 76, of Brooklyn's Bath Beach section, took the verdict without emotion while seated in his wheelchair. He had tried to have his trial postponed indefinitely because of illness.
The jury of eight women and four men deliberated for 11 hours before reaching a verdict, finding Tieri innocent of only a tax evasion charge lodged against him.
The defendant, a small, stooped man with a bandage over his left eye because of recent surgery, faces up to 20 years in prison at his sentencing Jan. 6.
Judge Thomas Griesa, who presided at the trial, rejected a motion by prosecutor Nathaniel Akerman, who asked that Tieri be remanded to prison immediately because he poses 'a continued danger to the community.'
Tieri's lawyer, Jay Goldberg, said he would appeal.
Griesa allowed the defendant to return home in $75,000 bail but ordered him not to associate with or contact any organized crime families or engage in any activities involving organized crime.
The eight-woman, four-man jury deliberated 11 hours before returning the verdict.
Tieri was acquitted of a tax evasion charge.
Tieri, who came to the United States from Milan as a youth, had one previous conviction -- for robbery in 1922.
Prosecution witnesses, including admitted mob hit man Aladena Fratianno and mobster Joseph Cantalupo, testified that Tieri took part in extortion, a scheme to defraud the Korvettes department store chain and a skimming operation that led to the collapse of the Westchester Premier Theater in Tarrytown, N.Y.
The defense contended the prosecution witnesses were 'totally immoral' criminals who made up stories about Tieri in exchenge for leniency.
The trial's most dramatic moments came during Fratianno's appearance. Nicknamed 'Jimmy the Weasel,' Fratianno admitted he took part in 10 gangland murders and was for a time the boss of the Los Angeles 'family' before becoming a government informer after his arrest.
'I killed him, sir,' Fratianno replied, when asked about one of the victims. 'I shot him.'
Fratianno, who said he spent about two years in prison for his crimes, testified he was with Tieri and others in a coffee shop in Manhattan's Little Italy section when they discussed the fate of Joseph Ullo, who had balked at paying back a mob loan.
'I vote hit,' Fratianno quoted Tieri as saying about the Los Angeles resident, who is now in prison.
'He put his hands thumbs down on the table,' the witness said about Tieri, who is known to his close associates as 'The Old Man.'
Fratianno told a hushed courtroom about the inner workings of the crime syndicate and how there are 20 Cosa Nostra families in major cities from coast to coast.
Tieri, as head of the largest family -- one of five in the New York area -- was, he said, the successor to the late Carlo Gambino as 'boss of all bosses.'
Tieri, who came to the United States from Milan as a youth, had one previous conviction -- for robbery in 1922.
Prosecution witnesses, including admitted mob hit man Aladena Fratianno and mobster Joseph Cantalupo, testified that Tieri took part in extortion, a scheme to defraud the Korvettes department store chain and a skimming operation that led to the collapse of the Westchester Premier Theater in Tarrytown, N.Y.
The defense contended that the prosecution witnesses were 'totally immoral' criminals who made up stories about Tieri in exchenge for leniency.
The trial's most dramatic moments came during Fratianno's appearance. Nicknamed 'Jimmy the Weasel,' Fratianno admitted he took part in 10 gangland murders and was for a time the boss of the Los Angeles 'family' before becoming a government informer after his arrest.
'I killed him, sir,' Fratianno replied, when asked about one of the victims. 'I shot him.'
Fratianno, who said he spent about two years in prison for his crimes, testified he was with Tieri and others in a coffee shop in Manhattan's Little Italy section when they discussed the fate of Joseph Ullo, who had balked at paying back a mob loan.
'I vote hit,' Fratianno quoted Tieri as saying about the Los Angeles resident, who is now in prison.
'He put his hands thumbs down on the table,' the witness said about Tieri, who is known to his close associates as 'The Old Man.'
Fratianno told a hushed courtroom about the inner workings of the crime syndicate and how there are 20 Cosa Nostra families in major cities from coast to coast.
Tieri, as head of the largest family -- one of five in the New York area -- was, he said, the successor to the late Carlo Gambino as 'boss of all bosses.'
