Shanks for nothin’!
A mobster who lost 200 pounds for an alleged prison escape attempt was found not guilty of those charges Friday — but was convicted of more serious counts that could send him to prison for life.
Christopher Londonio, a reputed Lucchese crime family soldier who graced The Post’s front page with the headline “Veal Shank Redemption” in October, was acquitted on the charge of attempted escape.
But a jury still found Londonio, Matthew Madonna, Steve Crea, and Terrence Caldwell guilty on various other charges, including conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering for the 2013 execution of notorious Purple Gang leader Michael Meldish. All four men face life behind bars at sentencing.
Londonio’s defense attorney John Meringolo said he intends to appeal.
Federal prosecutors accused Londonio of plotting to escape Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center while awaiting trial — stockpiling dental floss and bedsheets to help break out of his eighth-floor cell.
He also shed 200 pounds from his giant 350-pound frame so he could shimmy out the window — but his attorney claimed “terrible conditions” inside the lockup were the reason for his client’s dramatic weight loss.
Meringolo also told jurors last Tuesday that stockpiling sheets was not a crime after authorities found 17 bedsheets wadded under the mobster’s bunk bed in 2017.
During the six-week trial, jurors also heard evidence that Madonna, who was acting street boss at the time, ordered Meldish murdered after he refused to repay a $150,000 gambling loan.
Prosecutors said Londonio, a friend of Meldish’s, lured him out of the house and then drove Caldwell to the scene — where he was shot in the back of the head.