May 26, 1963 - An arrogant, Nazi-minded tough guy, arrested for roughing up a detective during a melee at a Yorkville hate rally yesterday, loudmouthed his way into more trouble today in Manhattan Criminal Court. Still garbed in his Nazi-like storm trooper uniform, Louis Mostaccio, 34, was arraigned before Judge Manuel A. Gomez on a felonious assault charge stemming from an attack with a flagstaff on Detective John Keeney, 32, of the Manhattan North burglary squad. As Mostaccio was brought in from the pen, his right arm suddenly shot out in a Hitler-type salute toward his “fuehrer.” The “fuehrer,” James A. Madole, 35, director of the neo-Nazi National Renaissance Party (NRP), was sitting in the spectator section. Madole (pictured right at an NRP rally) stood up, smilingly acknowledged the salute, but did not return it. Gomez heard the charge and held the prisoner on $2,500 bail for a hearing June 4. Startled at the amount of bail, Mostaccio protested. Speaking of Detective Keeney, he said: “I didn’t know he was a policeman. I thought he was a Jewish war veteran coming at me from the right. I went to the aid of my leader. I thought he was going to be attacked by the Jews.” Gomez asked: “Are you a member of the Nazi Party?” “I am a member of the National Renaissance Party, and I’m proud of it,” the paunchy prisoner replied. The judge then noted that police records showed Mostaccio had been arrested twice before, once in 1944 for illegally wearing a U.S. Army uniform while in civil defense, and a second time in 1950 when he was accused and later acquitted on a morals charge. After Mostaccio had spoken his piece, Gomez said he was raising the bail to $10,000. As Mostaccio was being led out, the judge remarked to the court clerk: “Now we will get back to the more decent type of criminal.” After the court session, Keeney, still wearing a bandage on his right hand, told newsmen: “If he thought I was a Jewish war veteran, I am proud of it. I’m an Irish war veteran. My partner, Detective Tobias Stegman, is a Jewish war veteran.” Keeney’s brother was killed by the Nazis in World War II.
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