Valachi, Joe ‘the Rat’ p1 - Vale, Felix p1 - Vass, Jonathan p1 - Vickers, Darren p1 - Villegas, Daniel p1 - Villegas, Tony p1 - Virk, Reena p2 - Vitkovic, Frank p2 -
VALACHI, JOE ‘the RAT’: Mobsters TV - Mafia’s Greatest Hits TV -
He worked for years as a foot soldier in the New York Mafia. Then he revealed its secrets to the nation. Mobsters s1e9: Joseph the Rat Valachi, FYI 2007
His performance was mesmorising. ibid.
‘What do I get out of it? Nothing but misery.’ ibid. Valachi
Between 1919 and 1923 the gang burglarized hundreds of New York businesses. ibid.
Joe Valachi: hit-man for the Mob. The first man to break omerta – the Mafia’s code of silence. Valachi was the first to give the world the phrase ‘La Cosa Nostra’. Valachi was the first to reveal the names of the bosses and their soldiers; he explained the Mafia’s structure, their rituals and secrets. Valachi was the first to expose their bloody history of killings and executions and knew where the bodies were. Mafia’s Greatest Hits s1e10: Joe Valachi, AHC 2012
Kennedy had huge concerns about Valachi’s credibility. ibid.
According to the Justice Department he had at least 33 murders under his belt. And was also now singing for his life. How could anyone be sure Valachi was telling the truth? ibid.
VALE, FELIX: People Magazine Investigates TV -
We learnt about three families whose lives became intertwined when they realised they each have a loved one who either died or disappeared after falling in love with the same man. People Magazine Investigates s3e5: Gone Girls, ID 2018
Louisiana 1960: Felix remains adamant that Mary’s [Horton-Vail] drowning remains an accident. ibid.
VALENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE: see MORAN, BUGS
VASS, JONATHAN: Stalked to Death: Countdown to Murder TV - Mail online -
She was a young nurse, a new mum, in her prime of life; he was an ambulance technician, but he was living a life of deceit. When he raped Jane Clough in front of their baby she went to the police – he swore revenge. As Jane Clough walked to work to begin her nightshift, Jonathan Vass stalked her every move waiting to pounce. Stalked to Death: Countdown to Murder, Channel 5 2013
Jonathan Vass stabbed Jane seventy-one times, then to make sure she was dead, cut her throat. After he had killed Jane, he went after her family. ibid.
On May 12th 2012 they succeeded: Jane’s Law allows rape victims to challenge a Judge’s bail decisions. ibid.
A former ambulance worker who stabbed the mother of his child to death after she filed rape charges against him was yesterday sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in jail.
Jonathan Vass, 30, killed his ex-girlfriend, A&E nurse Jane Clough, 26, in a frenzied knife attack in the car park of the hospital where she worked in July.
He had earlier been freed on bail after she had accused him of repeatedly raping her at their home while she was pregnant with his daughter. Mail online article 15th October 2010
VENABLES, JON: see BULGER, JAMES
VERSACE, GIANNI murder: see CUNANAN, ANDREW
VICKERS, DARREN: Real Crime TV - Faking It: Tears of a Crime TV -
Manchester’s biggest police investigation since the Moors murders. May bank holiday weekend schoolboy Jamie Lavis goes missing … he went out to play but didn’t come back. Real Crime [with Mark Austin] s2e3: Crocodile Tears, ITV 2002
A crucial witness came forward … Darren Vickers lived round the corner from the Lavis family and he quickly joined in the search for Jamie. ibid.
But Vickers’ frequent media appeals were about to backfire. Two teenagers who had seen him on television reported that he had tried to lead them into some woods late at night. The police then focused their search for Jamie in that area. ibid.
He killed their child then moved in on the family. The bus driver who hijacked the search for an eight-year-old boy … The judge described his actions as truly wicked. He killed their son, now he was manipulating the family. The leader and incredibly the lodger. On a May bank holiday in 1997 passengers on a Manchester bus noticed something unusual – a small boy alone being allowed by the driver to do anything he liked. The boy is Jamie Lavis, eight years old; the driver, Darren Vickers. Faking It: Tears of a Crime s3e5: Darren Vickers, Discovery 2020
‘How does he [Vickers] know that he was the last person to see Jamie alive?’ ibid. Kerry Daynes, psychologist
It was his TV experiences that would seal his fate. ibid.
VILLEGAS, DANIEL: A Fatal Confession: Keith Morrison Investigates TV -
A once convicted murderer who claims he was forced to confess to a crime he didn’t commit will go before a jury again. A Fatal Confession: Keith Morrison Investigates, ID 2020, news report, ID 2020
Villegas was only 16 years old when he confessed to killing two teenagers in a 1993 drive-by-shooting in El Paso, Texas. ibid.
Alfonso Marquez: he had a reputation as a tough successful investigator known for getting killers to confess. ibid.
Texas law allows police to speak to minors without a lawyer or guardian present. ibid.
2011: I went to visit him – he had been locked up for 16 years by then. ibid.
The interrogation began just before midnight and went on for hours. ibid.
Daniel Villegas [on appeal] walked out into the light of day. ibid.