JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.

Monday, September 03, 2012

GRISELDA BLANCO REPORTED MURDERED!

UPDATE: The BBC has confirmed that Blanco was assassinated. 

BREAKING. Griselda Blanco, the self described godmother of cocaine, and a woman who rained drugs and death on Miami throughout the 1970's and 1980's has been reported murdered in Medellin, Colombia. This news report is somewhat disjointed, so we will try and get some confirmation. 

The history of Miami includes many characters, some good, some bad. Griselda Blanco, as bad as she was, occupies a place in this town's history. Her murder, if she was indeed killed, does little to assuage  the wide swath of death and destruction she wrought in our town. 

Blanco's story was the centerpiece of director Billy Corbin's Cocaine Cowboys documentary.  If you new ASAs and PDs want to know the history of where you're working, Cocaine Cowboys is a good place to start. 

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Medellin has two "l's" Rump.

Rumpole said...

Your point being?

Anonymous said...

I remember in the mid-1970s and early '80s, when natives, carpetbagging Yankees with crime connections up North, Mariel Cubans, Colombians and even the former president of Panama decided to transform Miami into the cocaine capital of the world. The Mutiny Club- the theme rooms, the champagne, the Kingpins who introduced us to all the fabulous looking women. The good ole days. G-d I miss old Miami.

Rumpole said...

It was an exciting time, true enough. But don't forget the innocent people killed during those times. Griselda Blanco ordered the hit of a man, and his two year old son who was in the car was killed as well. May she rot in hell. She was one evil bitch. I hope she suffered at the end.

old timer said...

I met her once at a party. she shook my hand. My blood ran cold.

Anonymous said...

Rump tweeting up a storm about this Something about it has him in a frenzy.

birther said...


Romney's mention of his father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, reminded us that the elder Romney ran for president himself in 1968. And given all the attention that was paid in 2008 to Sen. John McCain's birth in Panama (where his Navy officer father was stationed) and to the never-ending "birther" conspiracy theories about President Obama, it seemed worthwhile to look back again at the issue of why George Romney could run for president if he wasn't born in the U.S.

As with McCain's situation, the key fact was that George Romney's parents were U.S. citizens. And, as Mitt Romney explained in a 2006 appearance on C-SPAN, his father "required no naturalization to become a citizen because his parents were citizens. He in fact was a natural-born American citizen."

That view dovetails with a 2011 Congressional Research Service paper about Article II, Section I of the Constitution, and the requirement that:

"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."

According to the CRS paper:

"The weight of legal and historical authority indicates that the term 'natural born' citizen would mean a person who is entitled to U.S. citizenship 'by birth' or 'at birth,' either by being born 'in' the United States and under its jurisdiction, even those born to alien parents; by being born abroad to U.S. citizen-parents; or by being born in other situations meeting legal requirements for U.S. citizenship 'at birth.' Such term, however, would not include a person who was not a U.S. citizen by birth or at birth, and who was thus born an 'alien' required to go through the legal process of 'naturalization' to become a U.S. citizen."

Anonymous said...

Max Marmelstein-- the stoolie who ruined it all.

Anonymous said...

nathan diamond was her old lawyer...i wonder what he is thinking?

Anonymous said...

Jim DeFede's tweet to Billy Corben:
Hey @BillyCorben how long do we wait before we start the unfounded rumor Griselda faked her death and is back in Miami? #cocainecowboys

DS said...

Here is the link to Ovalle's story in the Herald

“Cocaine godmother” Griselda Blanco gunned down in Colombia .

Griselda Blanco was believed to have ordered dozens of vicious drug-related slayings in the 1970s and 80s, and was convicted of the murder of a 2-year-old in Miami.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/03/2983362/cocaine-godmother-griselda-blanco.html#storylink=cpy

Rumpole said...

It that's Max Mermelstein you are referring to- 11:17 pm. And if it wasn't him, it would have been someone else.

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...


THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

DATELINE CHARLOTTE .....

T-63 days and counting until Election Day......

In exactly nine weeks, our citizens will go to the polls to elect a President of the United States. Will BHO get a second term or will Willard Mitt Romney become our nation's 45th President?

The NYT 538 has Obama with 308 electoral votes to 230 for Romney.

The Huffington Post has Obama with 231 and Romney with 191. They call the 116 remaining as tossup with eight states in the tossup column:

Colorado
Iowa
Wisconsin
Michigan
Ohio
Virginia
North Carolina
Florida

The DNC begins their party in Charlotte tonight. Three nights of speeches with Obama pulling another Colorado rocky mountIn high as he tries to repeat what he brought to the convention in 2008. This time, though, he will speak from inside the Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers with a seating capacity of nearly 74,000

Tune in tonight for your Keynote address. A great story indeed. Twin brothers Joaquin Castro and Julian Castro will take the podium tonight followed by First Lady Michelle Obama.

Joaquin, 38 years old, is a Texas State Representative currently running as a US House Candidate in Texas.

His brother, the Keynote Speaker, is Julian, the current Mayor of San Antonio. Both brothers attended Stanford University and Harvard Law School.

Enjoy your Tuesday evening DNC.

Captain Out .....

Anonymous said...

Rumpole-- Max Mermelstein ruined everything.

Anonymous said...

Great Blog post Rumpy. I know you were right in the middle of those wars with us in the 70's and 80's. Those were amazing times. Lots of hard fought trials. Lots of fun. Lots of fees. Great time to be a lawyer.

Rumpole said...

Well said. I look back on those days very fondly. The trials were a blast and we won a whole bunch.

Fake louie casuso said...

I'll say this about her. She always paid up front and in cash.

Fake Kenny W said...

Zipped over to Coopenhagen for Sunday dinner at Norma. Just the best restaurant in the world. Nice to see chef Redzepi The reindeer moss with mushroom powser followed by crispy pork skin with current juice and pickled quail eggs with a side of sorrel sause was just the thing.

Max said...

Everyone says I ruined it. Well, If I didn't take the deal I would still be in. I'd be until the 3rd of never. I'm gonna do life for that evil bitch? No way jose. With all that yayo I flew in for them, you know what they gave me when I got pinched? 22K. Said it was enough for a good attorney to get me off. Then wanted me to hire some yahoo who was ready to plead me without cooperation. Yeah. Like you guys would have all done the time. Not.

Anonymous said...

Max turned into rat and brought it all to a crashing halt and disappeared. In 1986, he had fled the cartel's $3 million bounty.
He finally was "victimized" by his nationality and betrayed by his co-workers. (Dude, what did you think was gonna happen?) So he turned informant.He did all of 2 1/2 years in lockup, often in fairly comfortable conditions. (In some states, street dealers do a hard 10-20 still today.)
He bought his way out of the consequences of his actions by ratting on everyone and went into witness protection.

Real Fake Former Judge said...

I had her in traffic court once. Gave her the max in traffic school and a 1K fine which was unheard of in those days. She knew better than to mess with me.

Anonymous said...

Grisela, was a ruthless evil person. I was very young when I first knew about her because she had a family friend kidnapped and killed because she owed him money, yes she owed him, not the other way around.

Unfortunately her son Michael has no shame or is just stupid. He is doing the same dirty drug business his mother was except at a much smaller scale. I think he should be going to trial soon.