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Ohio Bat Attack Takes Strange Twist
Mammana has offered reward money in various high-profile crime cases in several states as well as in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba last year.
Last year, Mammana co-sponsored a gun buyback program in Philadelphia. The commission overseeing the Philadelphia school district this month honored Mammana for his philanthropic work.
  Philanthropist Joe Mammana, left, stands with Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro during a rally at the Rhodes State Office Tower, Thursday, March 16, 2006. Mammana, who is known for providing reward money to help catch culprits in high-profile criminal cases, is in the midst of an unsolved mystery himself. The head of a Columbus crime stoppers group says he was beaten up last weekend by a baseball bat-wielding attacker who told him to drop a lawsuit against Mammana over his alleged failure to pay up on one such reward. Mammana, said he had nothing to do with the attack. (AP Photo/Columbus Dispatch/Tom Dodge) (Tom Dodge - AP) 
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"You can't have vigilante justice, so the best thing is money, and the reward money seems to work," Mammana said. "When you throw a big amount of money at something, all of a sudden people come out of the woodwork with information."
But Richard Carter, executive director of Crime Stoppers International, warns against offering large rewards since they can spark multiple requests for payment, second thoughts by donors and allegations that prosecutors are paying for testimony, which can hurt chances of a conviction.
Mammana often pledges help to the Citizens Crime Commission of Delaware Valley in Philadelphia, and recently paid about $10,000 for information that helped solve a rape cast, said Santo Montecalvo, the group's vice president.
"I don't know where they're coming off in Ohio badmouthing the guy," Montecalvo said.
Mammana, 47, who owns Yardley Farms, a suburban Philadelphia company that supplies egg products used in the food industry, served time in jail in the 1990s for various crimes, including hitting his wife.
A feisty man given at times to bluster, he acknowledges his past but says it gave him a perspective that made him want to help people who've been hurt.
"What I did years ago just keeps coming back over and over and again," Mammana said. "I did my time in jail and I come home and I run a successful business and I move forward."
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On the Net:
Central Ohio Crime Stoppers: http:/
Yardley Farms: http:/
Crime Stoppers International: http:/
