Boà ¡ko Radonjià(, ; 17 May 194331 March 2011) was a Serbian mobster, former leader of the Westies, a predominantly Irish-American gang based in New York's Hell's Kitchen.
Radonjiàwas born in 1943 in Uà ¾ice. Boà ¡ko's father, Dragomir, a teacher, was captured and executed during World War II by the Partisans for belonging to the Chetniks led by general Draà ¾a MihailoviÃÂ.
In his late twenties, RadonjiÃÂ fled the country and immigrated to the United States in 1970. He used his friendship with Red Star Belgrade footballer Milovan ÃÂoriÃÂ to sneak onto the team bus headed for Graz, which allowed him to get across the border.
Once in America, RadonjiÃÂ settled in Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. He also joined the Serbian Homeland Liberation Movement (SOPO), an anti-communist and terrorist organization headed by Nikola Kavaja. Sharing royalist and anti-communist views, the two men became lifelong friends.
Already known to Yugoslav state security UDBA, RadonjiÃÂ's activities began to be monitored even more closely by its agents. In 1975, RadonjiÃÂ took part in a bombing at the Yugoslav mission to the United Nations in which no one was hurt. In 1978, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in the 1975 bombing of a Yugoslavian consul's home and for plotting to bomb a Yugoslav social club, both in Chicago.
Upon his release in 1982, RadonjiÃÂ moved back to New York's West Side and began working as a minor associate of Jimmy Coonan. He seized control of the gang following the imprisonment of many of the Westies leadership during the late 1980s. Under his leadership, he was able to reestablish the Westies' former working relationship with the Gambino crime family under John Gotti, and was involved in the jury tampering during Gotti's original 1986 trial for racketeering. One of the jurors, George Pape, did not disclose that he was a friend of RadonjiÃÂ during jury selection. After he was empanelled, he let it be known that he was willing to sell his vote to help acquit Gotti. Gambino capo and future underboss Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano paid Pape $60,000 to guarantee at least a hung jury. Pape was convicted (United States v. Randonjich) in November 1992 of jury-tampering charges and sentenced to three years in prison. All charges against RadonjiÃÂ were dismissed in May 2000.
Since 1990, RadonjiÃÂ had already spent a sizeable amount of time in Serbia, mostly dividing his time between Belgrade where he owned a night club named Lotos in Zmaj Jovina Street and Mount Zlatibor where he owned a casino named Palisade and where he also later built a casino named Club Boss.
Though based in the Balkans, RadonjiÃÂ frequently travelled abroad, especially to Caribbean and South American destinations. During one such trip in late December 1999 after almost a decade spent in the former Yugoslavia, RadonjiÃÂ was arrested by U.S. custom officials in Miami, Florida. He had been flagged by a customs agent who ran variations of his name and found a warrant from federal court in the New York borough of Brooklyn.
He had been indicted in 1992 for giving a $60,000 bribe to a juror in the 1987 racketeering murder trial of John Gotti, and thus was held without bail as a wanted fugitive. The charges against RadonjiÃÂ were dropped after the key witness in his case, Gravano, was arrested for drug related offenses. Gravano had been the Gambinos' intermediary between RadonjiÃÂ and the corrupt juror, Pape. However, the case against RadonjiÃÂ was based almost entirely on Gravano's testimony, and Gravano's arrest made prosecutors believe his testimony would not be credible.
RadonjiÃÂ was freed in March 2001. He immediately left the United States and went back to the former Yugoslavia. In subsequent interviews RadonjiÃÂ claimed the FBI had ulterior motives for persecuting and harassing him:
During spring 2003, following the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran ÃÂinÃÂiÃÂ, RadonjiÃÂ was arrested and questioned as part of Operation Sablja, a wide-sweeping police action initiated by the Serbian authorities under the state of emergency. After spending three days in prison, RadonjiÃÂ was released. He died following a brief illness in Belgrade, Serbia on 31 March 2011.