The Nation - News from Aug. 26, 1988

A federal jury in Newark, N.J., retired for the night after its first day of deliberating the fate of 20 reputed members of the Lucchese organized crime family in what is believed to be the nation’s longest federal criminal trial. The jury in the 21-month-old trial faced a vast array of materials, including more than 40,000 pages of transcripts. U.S. District Judge Harold A. Ackerman spent Wednesday reading instructions to the jury, which must decide 77 charges. The suspects, believed to be virtually the entire New Jersey Lucchese family membership, are charged with operating a criminal organization involving drug dealing, gambling, credit card fraud and loan-sharking.