Bensonhurst Mobster Dino Saracino, Accused Of Killing Sheepshead Cop, Sentenced To 50 Years In Prison
Colombo family mobster Dino Saracino, one of three men accused and acquitted of killing off-duty NYPD cop Ralph Dols outside his Sheepshead Bay home, was sentenced earlier this week to 50 years in prison for a racketeering conspiracy that spanned from 1991 through 2008.
In May 2012, according to the Justice Department, a jury convicted Saracino of a racketeering conspiracy, including two murder conspiracies, spanning nearly two decades. The jury also convicted Saracino of conspiring to make extortionate extensions of credit, witness tampering, and obstructing an official proceeding.
The New York Post reports:
Crime family soldier Dino Saracino, 41, was acquitted in 2012 of the slaying of officer Ralph Dols but was convicted of several other criminal charges that allowed Judge Brian Cogan to level the stiff term.
Saracino was accused of the slaying along with Colombo street boss Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli on orders from then family boss Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace.
Prosecutors said Cacace wanted Dols dead because he married his ex-wife. In a stunning verdict, both Gioeli and Saracino skated on that killing and several others.
In a separate murder trial against Cacace, Colombo associate-turned-rat Dino Calabro detailed the 1997 hit on Dols, saying he and Saracino carried it out. Unable to try them again for the killing, prosecutors pressed on with their extortion charges, winning a sentence that is likely to keep Saracino behind bars for the rest of his life. During the sentencing, the judge wrote that the “government had proved by clear and convincing evidence that Saracino had participated in the 1995 murder of Richard Greaves, a Colombo family associate; the 1997 murder of New York City Police Officer Ralph Dols; and the 1999 murder of Colombo Family underboss William ‘Wild Bill’ Cutolo.”
“Dino Saracino was a member of one of the most lethal and feared crews of criminals in La Cosa Nostra [or Colombo family],” said United States Attorney Loretta Lynch. “His ruthless adherence to the mafia’s code of violence may have earned him a position as a soldier in the Colombo Family but today’s sentence ensures that he will pay for his crimes with years in prison.”
Saracino also owned a house in Bensonhurst on 76th Street, where he allegedly killed Colombo family associate Richard Greaves in 1995 with a bullet to the back of the head. Then-underboss William (Wild Bill) Cutolo was allegedly taken out in the basement four years later.
An FBI photo of the basement shows post-it notes on the walls and floor where investigators sprayed a chemical to detect blood but came up empty.
When the FBI tried to find traces of blood in the basement, they couldn’t find anything. According to the Daily News, that may be because Saracino “re-did the whole basement” after the murders by replacing all of the material in “the dungeon,” Saracino’s reference to the basement.