The Young Traficant

[rpannier]

As Jim Traficant attempts a comeback congressional bid -- after serving more than seven years in prison on corruption charges -- David Grann notes in his new book, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, that Traficant's history is actually "much more sordid and disturbing than many realize, in ways that extend well beyond his conviction in 2002."

"Traficant emerged out of perhaps the last truly mobbed-up county in America, a place in Ohio's Mahoning Valley where people were often murdered or disappeared, and where, until an F.B.I. sting in the nineteen-nineties, the Mafia controlled virtually every aspect of society. In 1982, even before Traficant began his congressional career, he was indicted for allegedly taking more than a hundred thousand dollars in bribes during his campaign for county sheriff."

In fact, Grann found a transcript of a tape recording in which Traficant was caught scheming with the Mob. He "acknowledged receiving bribes, and indicated that, in return, he would use the sheriff's office to protect the Mafia's rackets."

On the tape, Traficant assured his benefactors that he was a "loyal fucker," and if any of his sheriff's deputies betrayed them "they'll fuckin' come up swimming in Mahoning River."


Read more: http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/03/08/the_young_traficant.html#ixzz0hew0rGUQ