Mafia Snitch Claims Grandparents' Ghosts Cued Him To Turn On The Mob

[EnolaGaia]

Here's an organized crime story with two notably Fortean twists. The first is that this guy turned state's evidence against the Lucchese crime family - allegedly prompted to do so by a sign from his dead grandparents. The second is that a defense attorney is claiming the snitch's revelations about supernatural intervention provide grounds for dismissing the convictions his testimony supported.

'Ghosts of my grandparents told me to inform FBI on mafia buddies' says ex-gangster

Mafia supergrass John Pennisi claims a message from beyond the grave convinced him to walk into the FBI's headquarters and ask to join the witness protection scheme

A former Mafia ‘made man’ claims that he started informing on his Lucchese crime family colleagues after a supernatural intervention from his dead grandparents.

John Pennisi says that after he suspected he had been marked for death by mob bosses, he asked for advice on what to do next by praying and meditating on a photo of the couple.

As he did so, Pennisi claims, everything in the house started "shaking and rattling". ...

"And that," he says, "was my sign to go.”

The following day, Pennisi walked into the FBI’s Manhattan headquarters and told agents he needed protection and wanted to cooperate. ...

Pennisi's testimony proved devastating for the Luccheses. But now Anthony DiPietro, the defence attorney for Lucchese family captain Steven “Stevie Wonder” Crea, says evidence about the supernatural message should have been heard in open court.

Crea was sentenced to life imprisonment along with a $400,000 fine and the confiscation of $1 million, largely on Pennisi’s evidence.

“Had these materials, and many other things now revealed by Pennisi, been properly disclosed by the government, no grand jury or trial jury would ever credit his tales,” DiPietro told the New York Post. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/ghosts-grandparents-told-inform-fbi-24250786

 

[Mikefule]

I may be wrong, but I strongly suspect that in a predominantly Roman Catholic country, if a Mafia member had said that he had prayed for salvation and guidance and "God had told him" to hand himself over and give evidence, the defence attorney would not have risked presenting that argument.

"A ghost told me." Unreliable weirdo.

"The Holy ghost told me." What a touching story of redemption.

I'm not knocking any religion here, but highlighting the inconsistency of social attitudes to beliefs. Some irrational beliefs are considered respectable, others are not.

As an atheist, I think that "voices from the grave" and "divine guidance" and various other things are just your conscience at work — but interpreted as coming from an outside source in a way that is consistent with whatever beliefs or superstitions you hold. If I am correct, then the law should give equal credit to the person whose conscience speaks to them in a form that seems to be a ghost, an angel, or a shape in the clouds.

In any proper legal system, the witness's evidence is cross examined for consistency and tested against checkable facts such as dates, times, phone data and so on. The evidence either stacks up or it doesn't. The fact that the witness believes in ghosts — like more than half of the people who have ever lived —is irrelevant.