Conviction in mob murder at Staten Island's Kreischer Mansion

By Jeff Harrell - Staten Island Advance

Monday October 27, 2008

A reputed hitman for the Bonanno crime family was convicted this afternoon of the grisly murder of a man on the grounds of the historic Kreischer Mansion in Staten Island's Charleston neighborhood.

Joseph (Joe Black) Young, 30, faces mandatory life in prison after he was found guilty of murder in aid of racketeering today at Brooklyn Federal Court.

He returns to court Jan. 27 for sentencing in front of U.S. District Judge Allyne R. Ross.

Federal prosecutors said Young, then a caretaker at the mansion, was paid $8,000 in 2005 to kill Bonanno associate and Midland Beach resident Robert McKelvey, and lured his victim to the Kreischer Mansion where he attempted to strangle him.

McKelvey broke free and tried to run off, but Young ran after him, tackled him to the ground and repeatedly stabbed him with a knife.

For good measure, Young dragged McKelvey to a nearby pond and drowned him, prosecutors alleged.

Young and three other mobsters used hacksaws to chop McKelvey's body to pieces, then burned those pieces in the mansion's furnace.

Born in Florida and raised in New Jersey, Young got his start with the Bonannos assigned to a Staten Island-crew headed up by Bonanno soldier Gino Galestro through his job as a bouncer at Tottenville restaurant Fresca's on the Bay.

In addition to the McKelvey murder, Young was convicted of the January 2006 arson of a home in Grant City, and several other crimes, including the gunpoint robbery of an illegal massage parlor in New Jersey and transporting guns with scratched-out serial numbers from Pennsylvania to New York.

The mansion -- which sits on a secluded hilltop, with a no-trespassing sign near its locked gates -- has its own stories to tell, even before the murder.

Balthasar Kreischer, a wealthy 19th-century brick manufacturer, built twin mansions for his sons, Edward and Charles, on the top of the hill at 4500 Arthur Kill Rd. in 1885, overlooking a neighborhood that was then called Kreischerville.

In 1886, though, the patriarch died. A few years later, his brick factory burned to the ground and was rebuilt.

In 1894, Edward Kreischer shot himself in the head at the factory, reportedly because of trouble with employees. His weeping, distraught wife is among the ghosts people claim to hear at the mansion, even though theirs was the one that burned down.

By 1899, the final member of the family had retired and the once-thriving business passed out of the family and eventually closed.

During World War I, when just about anything German became taboo, the name of the neighborhood was changed to Charleston, and most traces of the family disappeared, including large stone tablets at a nearby church that publicly thanked Kreischers for their work in the community.

In 1996, the mansion became a restaurant, and patrons would regularly talk of strange happenings and supernatural experiences.

Mob suspect Joseph Young admits to chopping body up, but not killing

By John Marzulli - Daily News

Monday, October 20th 2008

This accused mob hit man's a real cutup.

Testifying in his own defense, Bonanno crime family associate Joseph (Joe Black) Young admitted he dismembered and incinerated the corpse of a gangland slaying victim - but he pinned the actual murder on someone else.

Young acknowledged Monday participating in virtually every crime charged in the racketeering indictment, including arson, robbery, assault and a drive-by shooting. "I committed the crimes in this case because I'm an irresponsible person," Young, 29, said. "Completely and totally. I have no excuse."

He denied, however, stabbing and drowning victim Robert McKelvey at the Kreischer Mansion in Staten Island where the defendant was employed as the caretaker.

Instead, he blamed mob soldier Michael (Sonny) Maggio for the killing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Winston Chan's methodical cross-examination dissected the multiple roles Young played at the same time he was an up-and-coming enforcer for Bonanno soldier Gino Galestro's crew.

Young, who was drummed out of the Marines after two months, admitted dressing in a Marine sergeant's dress uniform for a traffic court appearance.

The prosecutor saved the best question for last. "What did you list your occupation as on your MySpace page?" Chan asked.

"Uh, Death," Young responded.

The victim, Robert McKelvey.

Joseph Young, inset, was convicted of murdering Robert McKelvey on the grounds of the Kreischer Mansion in Charleston.