CITY PAPER: TV News Babe Alycia Lane Has New Friends in the Mafia

source www.citypaper.net

January 9, 2008

Deposed local-TV-news babe Alycia Lane has some newfound friends and fans in the mafia. "Tell Alycia, welcome to the criminal enterprise. She doesn't want to cover us; she wants to be one of us," says Ruth Ann Seccio, former mistress of mob-boss-turned-rat Ralph Natale. In fact, Seccio thinks more highly of Lane since she was arrested last month for allegedly slugging a female New York City police officer.

Lane visited Merlino at the Hudson County prison in South Kearny, N.J., in December 2003. There, the charismatic 40-year-old mob boss was awaiting trial for the 1996 murder of Joseph Sodano, a member of the local mob's North Jersey faction. Merlino told friends that Lane's arrival at the prison was the highlight of visiting day. She had to go through a metal detector and into a large waiting room where 70 prisoners sat in cubicles behind thick Plexiglas windows. As would be expected, the head-turner stopped prisoners' conversations midsentence as they paused to stare. Merlino and Lane had a friendly chat and he promised to consider doing an interview with her after the trial. (Merlino was eventually found not guilty of ordering the Sodano hit; he'll remain in federal custody in Marion, Ill. on other charges until 2011, according to the inmate locator on the Bureau of Prison's Web site.)

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