- Philly Irish mob leader John Berkery dies at 91
- K&A Gang boss linked to gambling, drugs, racketeering
- Fugitive years ended with arrest at Newark International Airport
John Carlyle Berkery, a longtime Irish mob figure once labeled Philadelphia’s “Public Enemy No. 1” and an early boss of the K&A Gang, has died at 91, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. His family declined to provide details, the paper reported.
Berkery was most closely associated with the K&A crew, a North Philadelphia outfit that grew from burglary jobs into a sprawling network involved in methamphetamine trafficking and illegal gambling.
Under his leadership in the 1960s and 1970s, the gang became a key cog in underground betting operations, bookmaking schemes, and labor racketeering that connected Philadelphia’s Irish mobsters with Italian organized crime families, motorcycle gangs, and Dixie Mafia figures.
Pottsville Heist
Berkery first hit the headlines in 1959 after the so-called Pottsville Heist, when industrialist John B. Rich’s home was robbed.
Authorities alleged nearly half a million dollars was stolen, although Rich later told a court the losses were a fraction of that amount.
Two men connected to the case were later murdered, and while Berkery was investigated as a suspect, he was not charged. He was convicted in the burglary but successfully appealed and was not retried.
By the early 1960s, police were calling Berkery the city’s top criminal target. Through the next two decades, he forged ties with Philadelphia mob boss Angelo Bruno and Bruno lieutenant Frank Sindon, who was godfather to Berkery’s child. Those connections gave him access to bigger rackets, including gambling enterprises that crossed neighborhood lines and union shops.
On the Lam
In 1982, federal prosecutors indicted Berkery alongside nearly 40 others in a conspiracy that involved the production of methamphetamine. The charges alleged proceeds were laundered through illegal gambling and other rackets.
Before agents could arrest him, Berkery slipped out of the country, beginning a five-year run as a fugitive. He moved between Ireland, England, the Bahamas, and several US states, relying on forged passports and pseudonyms.
The chase ended in June 1987 when federal agents seized him at Newark International Airport. He was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Two years later, he won a new trial when the US Court of Appeals cited flaws in jury instructions. Berkery had filed the appeal pro se, sharpening his reputation as a jailhouse lawyer. Rather than risk a new trial, he took a plea deal.
Legal Eagle
In his later years, Berkery worked as a paralegal and fought to control how his underworld story was told. He sued author Allen Hornblum over depictions of the K&A Gang, but courts dismissed his claims.
Hornblum told The Inquirer that Berkery was both audacious and skilled at surviving in a world where many peers ended up murdered or serving life terms.
The Inquirer obituary also highlighted Berkery’s brash correspondence while on the run. He wrote letters to federal authorities complaining about the weather in Ireland and floating his own terms for surrender – a glimpse into a personality that combined criminal calculation with swagger and showmanship.
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