Connecticut career criminal pleads guilty to a political murder-for-hire

George Bratsenis, a serial bank robber from Stamford and one-time strong arm man for the mob, will likely spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty in federal court Thursday to taking thousands of dollars for carrying out a political murder-for-hire in New Jersey.

Bratsenis, 73, admitted he took what federal prosecutors described as “thousands of dollars in cash” from well-known New Jersey political operative Sean Caddle in return for killing Michael Galdieri, another political operator who had worked with Caddle in the past.

New Jersey authorities, who have been building the murder case for months, have been silent about a motive. And Bratsenis, balding with close cropped white hair and a matching beard, revealed nothing new Thursday.

He appeared in court in Newark through a video connection from the prison where he is being held and answered, simply “Yes, your honor” when asked repeatedly if he understood the legal ramifications of admitting to a murder. When it was over, he told U.S. District Judge John Vasquez, “You all have a nice day. Take it easy.”

In response to questions from the prosecution, Bratsenis admitted that he traveled from Connecticut to New Jersey where he met Caddle on April 20, 2014 and agreed to the murder. Two days later, he acknowledged that he and Bomani Africa, a bank robbery partner from Philadelphia who he met in a New Jersey prison, returned to New Jersey, where they stabbed Galdleri to death in his Jersey City apartment and lit it on fire.

He said Caddle paid him the day after the murder at a diner in Elizabeth, N.J., and he later split the fee with Africa.

Caddle and Africa pleaded guilty to the murder for hire conspiracy, Caddle last year and Africa earlier this year.

“This defendant conspired in the ultimate crime — murder for money,” FBI Newark Special Agent in Charge George M. Crouch Jr. said in a release. “Those who devalue life — whether out of greed or animus — need to know that the FBI is dedicated to keeping our citizens safe, and nothing will stop us from accomplishing that mission. When you break the law, you will be brought to justice no matter how long it takes.”

Bratsenis, who has spent most of his life in prison on convictions for crimes that include bank robbery and murder, was told Thursday he could spend the rest of it there because he faces a sentence of mandatory life when he returns to court for sentencing on Aug. 2.

Bratsenis built a notorious criminal resume in the 1970s and ‘80s, after graduating from Stamford High School in 1966 and fighting as a tunnel rat in Vietnam while serving in the U.S. Marine Corp. from 1968 to 1972.

After the military, Bratsenis began doing strong arm work for the Gambino crime family, which was a criminal force in the southwest corner of the state and had penetrated the Stamford Police Department, according to federal prosecutors and others.

In 1984, he was charged in a conspiracy with then Stamford police Lt. Lawrence Hogan to murder drug dealer David “the Turk” Avnayim.

Bratsenis often partnered with Louis “Trigger Lou” Sclafani, another mob-connected hoodlum — until Sclafani joined the federal witness protection program and turned on him, the prosecutors and other lawyers said. Sclafani was relocated, made millions of dollars in the trash industry and was named “man of the year” in the new city where he was settled, according to two lawyers who remained in contact with him.

Sclafani was a key government witness against Bratsenis at a 1980s trial when Bratsenis was charged with a variety of felonies, including bank robbery and the conspiracy to kill “the Turk.” Under cross examination, Sclafani conceded he would not hesitate to lie under oath if he could save himself. Bratsenis was convicted anyway and sentenced to decades in prison.

After serving his Connecticut sentence, Bretsanis was transferred to a New Jersey prison to serve time there for crimes committed there. Genesis of the murder-for-hire could lie in the New Jersey prison.

He was confined for more than three years with Caddle’s brother, James Caddle, at the Northern State Prison in Newark, according to state corrections department records. James Caddle was in prison on kidnapping, burglary and robbery convictions.

Bratsenis and Africa also met in the New Jersey prison system, according to the Connecticut records. Africa, 61, formerly known as Baxter Randolf Keys, is from Philadelphia.

“Bratsenis was incarcerated for a bank robbery conviction and Africa was incarcerated for a robbery conviction,” a 2016 prosecution memo filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Haven says. “From 1999 through 2006, Bratsenis and Africa were both assigned to Block 2C, eight cells apart in cells 32 and 40.”

It was while they were together in prison that Bratsenis and Africa agreed to “rob banks together” when they got out, according to the memo.

Bratsenis and Africa pulled two bank jobs in Fairfield County in 2014, after they were released. Galdieri’s murder took place between the two.

Bratsenis was arrested after the second bank robbery when local police learned that a white pick-up truck spotted by a bank robbery suspect was owned by his sister. When questioned, she acknowledged owning the truck, but said it was being driven by her brother George, who had recently been released from prison after serving 27 years for bank robberies.

The police spotted Bratsenis driving the truck, pulled him over and searched it. Among other things, they found a mask used in one of the bank robberies, a half dozen hundred dollar bills, and a long-blade butcher’s knife.