You might have missed what’s been going on in the “Joe Duffel Bag” - “Son of Sal” Serial Killing Case — Because it’s been chugging along on a local track in the Brooklyn Courts
Salvatore Perrone representing himself doesn’t understand why he isn’t getting the evidence he needs to prove his innocence
It’s been almost a year since, Salvatore Perrone, pleaded not guilty to three murders of a clothing store owner in Bay Ridge, a Bensonhurst and a clothes merchant in the Lefferts Gardens section of Flatbush. As we reported on this blog, most of that time was used up by some nasty sparring between the Acting Supreme Court Justice Alan Marrus, who is sitting on this case, and the accused. Some of that involved Salvatore Perrone’s dissatisfaction with his “appointed counsel” – a former disgraced Judge and disbarred attorney from the Bronx with a history connected to the Judge on the case; and the rest involving Perrone’s repeatedly frustrated attempts to get cellphone maps and other records, and MTA video surveillance tapes, all to prove his alibi. Ultimately, Marrus gave-in to Perrone by letting him represent himself, but not appointing substitute counsel, instead designating a legal “advisor.”
Almost from the outset, the judicial handling of this case has been neither efficient, nor fair or just. Clearly, Acting Justice Marrus’ obvious and often-expressed animus against Salvatore Perrone during the conduct of the early stages of the proceedings has put the Court’s handling of the case into serious question.
If you followed the early intense reporting on this case, especially from Thanksgiving through Christmas and the New Year last year, you’d probably remember that the press first referred to Sal Perrone as “Joe Duffel Bag,” because what looked like his image carrying a duffel bag had appeared on video surveillance tapes in the area of one of the killings; then later on as “Son of Sal,” because, Perrone was viewed by his neighbors as a sort of strange 64 year old semi-reclusive character who lived in the incompletely or bizarrely “renovated” house across the street from Clove Lake Park in Staten Island. After a very problematic couple of days in police custody, and a very odd pattern of evidence gathering, Perrone allegedly made incriminating statements and/or admitted to having killed and/or being involved in the killing of the three merchants while working for the CIA and/or the “Italian CIA.” According to some reports, on the night of the last cold-blooded killing, Mr. Perrone supposedly went dancing with friends at the Hughes Council Knights of Columbus in Dyker Heights – now, that really is cold, if Perrone actually did the evil deed with which he has been charged earlier that evening !
Many political people are apparently heavily invested in a “GUILTY” Salvatore Perrone, including politicos as diverse as: Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, State Senators Martin Golden and Eric Adams (now Borough President Elect) and City Councilman Jumaane Williams; and that Perone did it all during a “spree” from August through November in 2012. Interestingly, even a second line local political personality was quoted in a recent hit piece on Sal Perrone, the Brooklyn Conservative Party Vice Chairperson, who is also the President of the Dyker Heights Civic Association, >>> Fran Vella-Marone <<< (See “John Doe Duffel Bag: A Killer in Bay Ridge” by Stephen Henderson, 10/29/13, The BrooklynInk
[http://thebrooklynink.com/2013/10/29/52912-john-doe-duffel-bag-a-killer-in-bay-ridge/]). In the BrooklynInk article by Stephen Henderson, Ms. Vella-Marone was identified only as the “chair of District 10’s Police and Public Safety Committee....”
Remember, Sal Perrone looks nothing like the suspect sought for the earliest killing in Bay Ridge in the summer of 2012. The police sketch posted all over that neighborhood and later in Bensonhurst definitely looks more like any clean-shaven younger African-American male than it does the mustached later middle-aged Italian-American Sal Perrone. Even after the last killing in Flatbush, there were at least two others in whom the police had greater interest for several days. The entire “Joe Duffel Bag” scenario and the “Son of Sal” buzz was generated after Perrone was in custody; and several days after the Flatbush killing, a duffel bag containing virtually all the physical evidence was recovered at the apartment of a Russian "girlfriend" of Perrone's in Flatbush apparently without a warrant.
I've been following this case from the begining.
ReplyDeleteIt shows the danger of pols having press conferences on criminal cases.
Maybe with the new DA Sal will get Justice.
Good reporting Gale
Hynes and Golden are framing a guy just so they can have a Press Conference ?
ReplyDeleteI can't believe it !! There's gambling in Atlantic City?
REPLY & BACKFILL: THE “FOCUS – FOCUS – FOCUS” EDITION
DeleteI have never stated nor do I imply that any of the politically motivated operators mentioned in the post above have "framed" anybody.
What I am saying is that various politicos and reporters in various mediums, but especially those associated with the print dailies, are heavily invested in a "rail road," stampede or rush to judgment in this case. Since late November 2012, that has meant painting a neatly framed portrait of Salvatore Perrone as a desperate man who failed in his business pursuits and family relations, a delusional anti-social loner, a manic party guy well-known among a local dancing set and, though completely crazed, a dispassionate and extremely efficient serial killer. Commissioner Kelly and the police worked those various angles very hard in the press. On top of that is a corrupted and dysfunctional criminal justice system, personified in the long-sitting Judge Alan Marrus and the court appointed counsel who was properly rejected by the defendant Perrone. Every aspect of this case is tattered and frayed; and any competent and well-motivated criminal defense counsel could pull on several threads to start it unraveling.
Those who might think that they are certain of the guilt of Salvatore Perrone, should look into the case of Timothy John Evans who was convicted in post-war London of murdering his wife and unborn child. A very analytic book about that case and other cases connected to it, “Ten Rillington Place” was written by Ludovic Kennedy; and brought to life on the screen by Richard Fleischer starring Richard Attenborough and John Hurt in a movie with the similar name, “10 Rillington Place.” Evans was executed in 1950, but later formally pardoned in 1966 because his conviction was an obvious miscarriage of justice.
For those who think that the closest they want to get to British-style mysteries and turnabout is Alfred Hitchcock, there is a somewhat similar 1950s real life movie by the master himself, “The Wrong Man,” about the Queens case of Manny Balestrero. That story also mentions a Brooklyn attorney, who was a partner to Balestrero’s lawyer, and who lived very very close to where I am at this moment, Ray McKaba.
Ray McKaba and Hitchcock.
ReplyDeleteMakes perfect sense.
Wasn't McKaba once the Brooklyn GOP Law Chairman, who was disbarred after he made a small fortune for himself in Brooklyn property and a beautiful horse farm in Wyndom near the Irish Alps?
DeleteBACKFILL: NEXT SCHEDULED COURT DATE FOR SAL PERRONE --- JANUARY 17, 2014
ReplyDeleteStill without competent legal counsel; and still in Part 35 in front of Alan Marrus, Acting Justice and "Joe Duffel Bag" Rail Road Conductor --- WHOOOOOOO ! WHOOOOOOOOH !!!