Former Mob Hitman Describes Power Drill Torture
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former Philadelphia mob hitman and enforcer John Veasey.
Former Philadelphia mob hitman and enforcer John Veasey knows his way around power tools and heavy equipment.
But these days instead of using a drill to torture people, he's become a real handyman around his big home thousands of miles from his hometown of Philadelphia.
"I work with [power tools] now, unlike before," he told MyFoxPhilly from an undisclosed location.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Veasey drives fast cars and motorcycles, even flies in jets after recent success as the manager of five local car dealerships, but it wasn't always this way.
Veasey made a name for himself back in the 1990s with his fists, his gun and sheer terror when he came calling to pick up the mob's protection money.
"I had a street sweeper and an Uzi," he says. I threw two rolls of quarters down and I said call some more people. I got too many bullets."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The 47 year old Veasey mesmerized a federal jury during the racketeering trial of mob boss John Stanfa back in 1995. That's when he confessed to two murders and to using a power drill to torture a man who threatened to kill him, a mob associate named Joe Fudge.
"He's out to kill me, telling everybody on the street he's gonna kill me," Veasey says.
"I put the drill in his hair, like this and it pulled out big clumps. And then I start drilling his knees. I did his elbows first. Then I did his hips. Then I did his knees and the drill bit broke. I was really mad about that."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Veasey's testimony was so real, so raw, it took down Stanfa who went to prison for five life terms. Another 30 wiseguys also went to jail.
Veasey says his mob days are behind him/ He's got a new life, a new wife, children to take care of and success. He looks back at his life in the mob this way.
"I'm saying that you can change. You don't have to wait to get indicted to do it. I think if anybody walked away from the life, the feds would probably leave them out of the indictment, but how often does that happen."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But ever the wiseguy, Veasey still likes to take a few jabs at the local mob.
"Youse ain't Goodfellas, you're not Mafia , you're not La Cosa Nostra. I don't even think you're a street gang personally"
Veasey is quite aware that another round of mob indictments is on the way and he thinks his one-time, his fellow wiseguys should wise up.
"Being in the mafia there is no risk. You know you're going down. There's no going up. They're coming after you and they're not gonna stop. "
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}As for his future, Veasey claims he has no plans to return to Philadelphia or his mob lifestyle.
He says he owes it to his family to stay straight. He also owes it to his brother Billy, who convinced him to turn his life around, then lost his own life at the hands of two mob assassins the day John Veasey was to take the stand against the mob.
"They might of thought they killed him. But they didn't. He's still here. And everything I accomplish is through him.," Veasey says.
"Every single thing is for him , in some way with him. And one day I'll get to the cemetery and put flowers there properly.
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