Coatesville and Philadelphia witness intimidation

Coatesville is just a tiny city but I think its crime and political corruption are so similar to Philadelphia.

I’m listening to:

Radio Times

Murder and Mayhem: The Kaboni Savage Trial with George Anastasia

June 5, 2013

Maybe I shouldn’t have been, but I was surprised by how close the Philly drug gangs are to the drug gangs in Coatesville and Chester County. 

The witness intimidation in Philadelphia is similar to Coatesville in Chester County. Witness intimidation is THE major problem with murders in Coatesville. District Attorney Tom Hogan is getting around it by using a grand jury to indict criminal defendants in certain circumstances, instead of going the traditional route of a preliminary hearing. In my experience normal court procedures in West Chester can be leaked to drug dealers in Coatesville.

But the links between drug gangs and politicians in Philadelphia really caught my attention. 

 “Formerly known as Clarence Fowler, he was convicted of murder in the 1970s, but that conviction was overturned on appeal. When he emerged from prison he had taken the name Shamsud-din Ali and quickly established himself as the leader of the Philadelphia Masjid, a dominant mosque in Southwest Philadelphia…But it is Ali, who was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to 87 months in prison on political corruption charges, who has dominated the discussions about politics and its links to the drug underworld in the ongoing trial. 

One drug dealer, complaining about tribute payments he had to make to Ali, said it best in a phone call picked up on an FBI wiretap during the drug investigation.  

"He's walking with kings while we're out here hustling," was the drug dealer's lament.” FROM: 

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013 

Murder, Mayhem And Philadelphia Politics 

By George Anastasia 

For Bigtrial.net

How much similar to Philly’s politics and drug gangstas is this:

“Daily Local News   

Pusher called "danger to community',   

Friday, September 10, 1976  

By BRUCE MOWDAY (Of the Local News Staff)   

Richard "Stretch" Legree of Coatesville, named as the number one drug pusher in Chester County by District Attorney William H. Lamb, was convicted last night of selling 145 bags of heroin to an undercover agent in January.”

Sometime in 2006 I told my uncle John, who at the time was registered as a Republican, "You know the Chair of Area 14 of the Chester County Republican Committee is Richard Legree", he said, "That can't be he's a drug dealer." Let's be clear I don't think that Richard Legree was a "drug dealer" but that is the impression that many, many people had of him.

When Richard Legree allegedly “ran” Coatesville the alleged threats were more subtle or maybe more Machiavellian and I think, definitely very well backed up.

A prominent Chester County attorney once told me that allegedly Richard Legree was in the room when 4 separate murders happened.

He played very well in the darkened Machiavellian corridors of Chester County politics and I believe he played the bottom feeder public officials of Chester County very well.  

Richard allegedly made himself comfortable in any West Chester Courthouse address, including the Chester County Clerk of Courts that would let him in.

As a State Constable he could transport a prisoner of his choosing on sometimes hour’s long rides.  

He had clout in the CCRC as the Chairperson of Area 14 of the Chester County Republican Committee.

And in Chester County the CCRC has most elected and appointed positions in Chester County locked in.

He could also legitimately travel almost anywhere in the USA as “Administrator of the Laborers’-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust.”

Such a charming man with good salesmanship; only I believe that the “sales closing” was not the end but the beginning.

From my view it was kind of “stick and carrot” approach with the carrot coming first. The stick was somehow cleverly built into the carrot and unsuspecting people only realized the stick was in there after they ate too deeply into the carrot to turn back, and he had you.

Another thing that caught my attention in "Murder and Mayhem the Kaboni Savage Trial" on Radio Times:

“It says something about the level of tolerance in the African American political circles that doesn’t exist or shouldn’t exist in any political circle. Now that’s not to say that mobsters don’t manipulate but (Joseph) Ligambi would be once or twice removed if he’s playing with Democratic committeemen down in South Philly. He’s not going to be audacious and be up front the way Shamsud-din was and the way he was able to successfully move around. And he did it. It’s fascinating…  

I did a big series in the Ace Capone Alton Coles Southwest Philly cocaine drug dealer. He was having stop the violence rallies where the Mayor and the Police Commissioner and the DA were showing up. And he was accepted even though if you talked on the streets everybody knew he was a gangster…I don’t know what the answer to this is but I think it’s something that out to be looked at.”

SEE MY POST:

THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2013

I justdon’t want to see any more City Council members that see nothing wrong withdealing drugs.

AND:

MONDAY, JUNE 15, 2009

A CLIMATE OF FEARBLANKETS COATESVILLE; that small town in Southern Italy with all the Mafiaproblems

Actually Coatesville is a small Pennsylvania town that I think has more in common with a Mafia controlled town in Italy than it does with its nearest neighbors.

SO MUCH LIKE COATESVILLE:

George Anastasia – Ace Capone

Police, Politics, Corruption: The Mixture Dangerous toFreedom and Justice [Hardcover]

Colonel Frank McKetta (Author)