Reputed NYC Colombo mob boss Gioeli cleared of killing officer

  Tommy Gioeli   Arrested in NYC Mob Crackdown AP

By TOM HAYS, Associated Press 

NEW YORK (AP) — A reputed Mafia boss and a co-defendant were convicted Wednesday on racketeering charges. But in a blow to the government, they were acquitted of the most shocking crime in their federal case: the unsolved gangland slaying of an off-duty New York Police Department officer in 1997.

A jury delivered the mixed verdict for the defendants — Thomas “Tommy Guns” Gioeli, the reputed former boss of the Colombo crime family, and reputed mob soldier Dino “Little Dino” Saracino — on its fifth day of deliberations in federal court in Brooklyn.

Gioeli, 59, had been charged in a total of six murders, including that of Officer Ralph Dols, dating to the 1990s. Jurors found that he and Saracino were involved in murder plots but also concluded that prosecutors failed to prove they actually killed Dols or the others.

The two defendants smiled broadly and slapped their lawyers’ backs after the jury left the courtroom. Sentencing was set for Sept. 14. read more Associated Press