NYT: At Gotti Trial, Sliwa Tells of Stretching Truth for Attention

[kskiska]

As he has done countless times on his radio program, Curtis Sliwa told a jury yesterday how he had been ambushed in a cab rigged so the doors and windows would not open, then shot at least twice by hit men he believes were connected with John A. Gotti, the heir to the Gambino crime family.

But during cross-examination, defense lawyers focused on the past accounts of Mr. Sliwa, who admitted that he had fabricated at least five events — including another kidnapping — to get attention for the anticrime group he founded that later became known as the Guardian Angels. Referring to what he called hoaxes, Charles Carnesi, the lawyer for Mr. Gotti, asked, "That's something that you did quite often, interacting with the media?"

Mr. Sliwa replied: "Uh, yes, sir. To try to generate at the beginning for the group positive publicity, because we weren't getting any."

(snip)

The fabrications generally involved events in which Mr. Sliwa's followers, initially called the Magnificent 13 because there were 13 of them, carried out what he described as "good deeds." He or his troops claimed — falsely, Mr. Sliwa said yesterday — to have rescued a woman's purse with $300 in it from a purse snatcher, fended off a rapist, and foiled an assault on a subway platform. In the purse snatching, he said, his sister posed as the victim.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/nyregion/28gotti.html?_r=1&oref=login

[Mythsaje]

1. That's disgusting...

If they were actually doing good deeds, why try to fake it?

[Ben Ceremos]

2. For 20 years

I have been calling this guy a liar and finally the truth comes out. Curtis Sliwa is a filthy liar. I can legally say this in a public forum now that he has admitted it. No wonder he supports Booshco.

[MADem]

4. I always had the sense he was a bullshitter, too...but he sure worked

the spin machine, didn't he!

[davidinalameda]

3. why would anyone try to kill him

he's one of those legends in his own mind

[MrSlayer]

5. The Guardian Angles are nothing but thugs.

And Sliwa is a piece of shit liar. The Angles had a chapter here in Philly and I had some friends that were in it and all they did was beat on people for no reason. They would pick people out the crowds in center city and see who could deliver knock out punches with one shot, innocent people who did nothing. And this went on all the time. Eventually they were shut down for causing more harm than good.

[tenshi816]

8. Sliwa tried to bring the Guardian Angels to London

back in the 1980s. They were viewed first with great bemusement and then with great derision. Then they just disappeared, but no one noticed or commented on their absence. I guess they got tired of being either ignored or laughed at.

No one took them seriously from the beginning, and my feeling was that Curtis Sliwa wanted - needed - to be feted and admired.

[shanti]

6. omg, i KNEW he was not to be trusted

from first set eyes on him in the 80's. follow your intuition.

[MagickMuffin]

7. Is there any chance that he can be convicted for making false reports?

After all, he is admitting to fabricating crimes against himself when no crime occurred. I think jail could do him some good.

From the same article:

But in 1981, he said, he was kidnapped — for real — by men posing as police officers in Washington. He had gone there to meet with an Ohio congressman who wanted to create a Guardian Angels chapter in Cleveland, he said. Late one night, with only $4 in his pockets, he found himself forced to walk across the Potomac River to the suburban house where he was a guest, he said. In sight of the Lincoln Memorial, he said, he was abducted, put into a van, shocked with a cattle prod and burned with cigarettes.

His abductors, he said, used his necktie to bind him hand to feet, and tossed him into the muddy banks of the river. He said he did not file a formal police report because he was ridiculed by some people for not being able to defend himself.