John Gotti was the most famous gangsta since Al Capone. He brutally murdered his way to become head of the most powerful crime family in America. Mafia’s Greatest Hits: John Gotti
The assassination of Paul Castellano was one of the most dramatic hits in Mafia history. ibid.
In 1973 Gotti was given the opportunity to join the most powerful of the five Mafia crime families in New York: the Gambinos. ibid.
Gotti began to nurture a growing hatred for Paul Castellano. ibid.
The Gambinos: In the shadowy world of organised crime the Gambino family stood out. One of five crime families in New York in the 1930s it ranked at the top with the Genovese family in size and wealth. The Gambinos
Like Capone, John Gotti was a gangster straight from central casting right down to the way he talked ... It was brutality that got John Gotti to the top of the Gambino crime syndicate in 1985. ibid.
Carlo Gambino put the family on the map during his reign from 1957 to 1976. ibid.
As soon as Castellano stepped from his Limousine Gotti’s men gunned him down. ibid.
Gambino family finances were already on the decline as a result of the crackdown on Mob activities in the mid-80s. Gotti’s lack of business sense only made matters worse. Whatever success the Family had was largely due to Gotti’s senior adviser Salvatore Sammy ‘the Bull’ Gravano. ibid.
When Gotti and Gravano heard the tapes they knew they were in trouble. Gravano realised he could be implicated in nineteen mob hits. That’s when he did the unthinkable: he ratted on his boss. ibid.
Castellano was an imposing figure of a man, a contrast to the diminutive Gambino, and a Godfather who carefully cultivated the image of a business man. Mafia Empire: Vow of Silence, 2006
In the United States the principle target of the FBI was John Gotti – a new style of Mafia, whose court victories made him seem invincible. Mafia Empire – Vendetta
The murder of Castellano and his chauffeur on the streets of New York was the most sensational Mafia execution since the 1950s, and the brazen murder heralded the reign of a new Mafia boss – John Gotti. ibid.
It is 1986 and the fortunes of the five families of the American Mob are changing rapidly. Inside the American Mob s1e5: Rise and Fall of Gotti, 2013
The hit on Castellano was not sanctioned by the Commission. ibid.
CASTLE, LAURA: Faking It: Tears of a Crime TV -
Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, August 2020: ‘Laura Castle was incredibly deceptive. And incredibly deceitful.’ Faking It: Tears of a Crime s7e5: A Disgrace to the Uniform, DiscoveryPlus 2023
Laura Castle and her husband Scott had persuaded social services in Cumbria that they were suitable to be considered as adoptive parents … ibid.
CASTOR, STACEY: Crime Stories: Woeful Widow TV -
48-year-old David owned his own heating and ventilation company. The business was in debt ... His father had recently died ... According to Stacey, David had been depressed and acting strangely. Crime Stories: Woeful Widow – Stacey Castor
One of the strangest cases of their careers. ibid.
Police still wondered what motivated Stacey to poison her own family. ibid.
CASTREE, RONALD: Weird Island online - BBC online - Guardian online - Real Crime with Mark Austin TV - Truly Criminal: The Murder of Lesley Molseed 2021 - Forensics: Catching the Killer TV -
The identity of 11-year-old Lesley Molseed’s murderer was not ascertained until 22 years after her body was found near Rishworth Moor. But for 16 of those 22 years, an innocent man slept behind bars for the crime. The victim of what is often described as Britain’s worst miscarriage of justice, Stefan Kiszko, lived for barely a year following the overturning of his conviction and never got to see the conviction of the real killer in 2007.
Shockingly, the evidence that proved his innocence was known to the police at the time of his conviction. As a sufferer of hypogonadism, Kiszko could never produce the sperm heads that were found in the ejaculate on Lesley’s clothing. Nonetheless, Kiszko was found guilty on the strength of a confession made after hours of questioning and without a solictor being present. Other alleged pieces of ‘evidence’ brought against Kiszko included his idiosyncratic hobby of writing down the registration numbers of cars he saw and allegations made by four local girls that he had exposed himself to them. Only after his conviction was quashed would the girls admit to having falsely concocted the claims – but even though would not apologise to him. Weird Island online article
It is one of Britain’s most notorious miscarriages of justice.
Stefan Kiszko served 16 years in prison for the murder and sexual assault of schoolgirl Lesley Molseed – a crime he did not commit.
He was freed on appeal in 1992, when new evidence proved he could not have killed her. He died the following year from a heart attack, aged 41.
His mother Charlotte, who campaigned relentlessly to prove his innocence, died just months after him. BBC online article 12th November 2007
There is an understatement on the gravestone that marks the burial place in Rochdale cemetery of Charlotte Kiszko and her son, Stefan. ‘A loving wife and a very devoted mother,’ reads the inscription commemorating Mrs Kiszko.
No one could possibly have been more devoted than Charlotte Kiszko, who campaigned tirelessly for 16 years to prove the innocence of her son, Stefan, convicted, after a bungled police investigation, of the murder of 11-year-old Lesley Molseed in 1975. This week, many years after both she and her son were buried in the vast old cemetery, a man has been charged with the murder.
It is 30 years since Stefan Kiszko, an Inland Revenue clerk with the mental and emotional age of a 12-year-old, was found guilty, and 13 since he died after a brief taste of freedom. His mother died a few months later. Could a case as shocking happen today?
The man who helped to prove Kiszko’s innocence, and who acted as his mother’s ally, believes we are now just as much in danger of ignoring equally egregious miscarriages of justice.
‘In the current climate more miscarriages will take place,’ said Campbell Malone, the solicitor who took over the case and saw it through its successful appeal. ‘It is nonsense to suggest miscarriages of justice are less likely to happen now. We are more at risk – the climate is just as bad as it was in the 1970s when you had all the Irish cases. I am profoundly gloomy about the situation.’ Guardian online article Duncan Campbell 11th November 2006
The murder of eleven-year-old Lesley Molseed casts a long shadow. It was an horrific crime that destroyed three families. And it played on the mind of one man for more than thirty years. Real Crime with Mark Austin s7e4: The Thirty Year Secret, ITV 2006
A flawed police investigation that led to one of Britain’s most infamous miscarriages of justice. ibid.
‘She’d been stabbed twelve times.’ ibid. rozzer
As a social misfit Kiszko was an easy target for local suspicions. ibid.
Castree was arrested and pleaded guilty a week later. But despite the seriousness of the offence [child indecent assault & gross indecency] the punishment was shockingly lenient. 1976: £25 fine. ibid.
Kiszko vehemently denied any involvement in the murder. ibid.
His mother Charlotte refused to give up hope and waged a one-woman campaign. ibid.
Castree: A catalogue of abuse … ‘he was totally weird in the bedroom department.’ ibid.