Some people I meet doubt the existence of Gyula Tamas Zubovicz, aka Dracula, who headed (actually as he is “un-dead” he still heads) the Dracula Crime Family of the Hungarian Mafia (see my past blog postings on Tales of the Castle Dracula). A friend recently stumbled on this old article which demonstrates Dracula’s existence:
Seattle Post Intelligencer
FBI NABS ‘HUNGARIAN MAFIA’ SUSPECT IN SEATTLE
By Steve Miletich P-I Reporter
SATURDAY, July 1, 1989
Section: News, Page: A8
A man described as a member of the “Hungarian Mafia” was arrested by FBI agents in Seattle yesterday on a charge of possessing altered checks believed stolen from a Wall Street investment firm last year.
Gyula Tamas Zubovics, 43 ((age)), was identified in an FBI complaint as a “confirmed member of the Hungarian National Front, which is known by the FBI as the Hungarian Mafia.”
The identification was made by the FBI’s Foreign Counter-Intelligence Division, the complaint said.
A prosecutor in Los Angeles, where Zubovics is due to stand trial for possession of explosives, said the Hungarian Mafia is a loosely knit criminal group made up of people of Hungarian descent.
Among the items FBI agents found in Zubovics’ briefcase was a paperback instruction manual for profession killers entitled “Hit Man.”
Zubovics, who moved to Des Moines from Los Angeles several months ago, was arrested at the Sheraton Hotel in Seattle at about 11 a.m. yesterday and brought before a federal magistrate.
According to the FBI complaint, Zubovics met with an undercover agent to discuss the sale of three altered checks. Authorities believe the checks may be from a group of 92 blank checks stolen from the Shearson Lehman Hutton Corp.’s New York office in June and October 1988.
Twenty-one of the checks have shown up at various banks in this country and around the world, with an average cash amount of $250,000, the complaint said.
Shearson entered a stop-payment on the numbered checks, which are drawn on the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York, the complaint said.
Zubovics, dark-haired and stocky, came to the FBI’s attention in Seattle on Wednesday when a business associate contacted agents, saying he was fearful for his life, according to the complaint.
The associate, also Hungarian, told the FBI he has known Zubovics for six years and that they had engaged in business transactions, the complaint said.
The associate said Zubovics threatened to kill him if he didn’t go to Los Angeles to cash three stolen checks, according to the complaint.
The three checks given to the FBI by the associate, in amounts of $27,000, $38,000 and $19,000, appear to be among those stolen in the New York thefts, the complaint said. The numbers on the checks had been altered to avoid the stop-payment order.
The associate said Zubovics told him he wanted to raise enough cash to flee the country and avoid his trial in Los Angeles.
On Thursday, the associate placed a telephone call to Zubovics that was recorded by the FBI, the complaint said.
During the conversation, which was in Hungarian, Zubovics indicated he was willing to sell the three checks to a buyer in Seattle, the complaint said. A meeting was arranged yesterday between Zubovics and an FBI agent posing as a buyer.
During the meeting, Zubovics told the agent he had three altered checks stolen from a bank in New York and that “there were more where these came from,” the complaint said.
In a brief appearance before U.S. Magistrate Philip Sweigert late yesterday afternoon, Zubovics, a Hungarian national, was ordered held without bail pending a detention hearing Wednesday.
Zubovics is charged in Los Angeles County Superior Court with conspiracy and reckless and malicious possession of explosives stemming from the acquisition of 200 pounds of explosive gel in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Aug. 21, 1985.
A co-defendant, xxxxxxxx, was convicted June 19 of the possession charge.
Zubovics was previously tried in the case, but a jury deadlocked 9-3 in favor of conviction, said John Spence, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney.
A date for a new trial was to be set on July 13, Spence said.
Spence said Zubovics is accused of hiring xxxxx and a third man, Gregory James Bartole, to pick up the explosives. Bartole, who has testified as a state’s witness, is serving a federal prison term for a 1986 counter- feiting conviction in Seattle, he said.
Spence said the explosives apparently were obtained to help Zubovics “intimidate” people, including a Las Vegas man with access to a casino safe.
The “Hit Man” book, subtitled “A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors,” was found in a briefcase Zubovics was carrying with him yesterday. Written by Rex Feral, a self-described professional killer, the book details methods for carrying out assassinations.
