Ralph Blumenthal - Last Days of the Sicilians

Copyright 1988 by Ralph Blumenthal

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Times Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Blumenthal, Ralph.

Last days of the Sicilians.
Bibliography: p.
1. MafiaUnited StatesCase Studies. 2. Organized
crimeUnited StatesCase studies. 3. Organized crime
investigationUnited StatesCase studies. 4. Drug
trafficUnited StatesCase studies. 5. United
States. Federal Bureau of Investigation. I. Title.
HV6446.B58 1988 364.106073 87-49597
eISBN: 978-0-307-81546-0

v3.1

To Annie

At daybreak on April 9, 1984, a heavily armed force of more than four hundred federal and local law enforcement agents burst into pizzerias, cafs, country homes, and apartments from the Midwest to Long Island. The raids were the culmination of the largest, most complex criminal investigation ever undertaken by the FBI and cut off the billion-dollar heroin pipeline that came to be known as the Pizza Connection. Equally significant, the case exposed a secret franchise of the Sicilian Mafia in America. The revelation caught even the nations leading organized crime experts by surprise. Who were these obscure Sicilian pizza men and bakers and contractors operating here independently of their American mob counterparts while masterminding a flow of heroin into the United States and an outflow of literally tons of cash to Switzerland? An unintentionally macabre headline over a story I wrote for The New York Times evoked the confusion:

UNKNOWN ARM OF SICILIAN MAFIA
REPORTEDLY DISCOVERED IN THE U.S.

This is the true story of how that arm was uncovered and what it meant.

I could not have gathered and told this story without a great deal of help. When I began my research in 1985, I asked the FBI for access to the supervisors and agents most responsible for the case. William D. Baker, then the bureaus assistant director for congressional and public affairs, granted that access with no restrictions, although many of the interviews had to await the conclusion of the trial in March 1987. No one played a larger role in explaining the case and providing access to sources than Thomas L. Sheer, the bureaus criminal director, and later assistant director in charge, in New York. His insights and candor were invaluable aids, and he offered his help without any assurance that the outcome would be to his liking. He also opened the door to interviews with many other protagonists: Charlie Rooney and Carmine Russo, Bob Paquette, Frank Storey, Lew Schiliro, Tom Vinton, Jim Kallstrom, Bob Gilmore, Pat Luzio, Lou Caprino, Mike Slattery, Denis Collins, John Mauzey, Randy Prillaman, Jerry Cox, and dozens of others. Joe Valiquette helped make the arrangements. Joe Pistone, aka Donnie Brasco, the bureaus man inside the mob, provided guidance on his part in the story. The case was the product of hundreds of agents who exemplified the bureaus dictum of Wenot I. But short of publishing a telephone directory, there is no feasible way of acknowledging them all or weaving all their contributions into the narrative.

Needless to say, none of the agents or their superiors or any of the others I interviewed is responsible in any way for my conclusions. They may, understandably, have completely different perspectives.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, also granted me numerous interviews and access to his prosecutors after the case ended. His efficient deputy Dennison Young made many of the arrangements. Louis Freeh, the chief prosecutor, whom many consider the investigative mastermind of the case, generously shared his insights, as did his associates Richard A. Martin and Robert Bucknam. Special Deputy U.S. Marshal Domenico Mimmo Buda helped with court records, as did Carol Weiss and Janet LaForgia of the U.S. attorneys office. In Brooklyn Charles Rose, Mark Summers, and Reena Raggi graciously provided parts of the story, as did former U.S. Attorney Raymond Dearie, although Messrs. Dearie and Rose in particular were not at all in agreement with the way the case unfolded.

Thomas Cash, operations supervisor of the Drug Enforcement Agency in Washington, and Thomas Kelly, deputy DEA administrator, were extraordinarily helpful in describing the narcotics aspects of the investigation and making their experts available. Intelligence analyst Mona Ewell was a particularly invaluable source of information on the multitude of players and their interrelationships. She carries more information in her head than many other experts do in their libraries. Frank Panessa spoke movingly and often comically of the perils of undercover work inside the mob. The former DEA and CIA agent Thomas Tripodi was a rich source of information on the events leading up to the Pizza Connection case. DEA agents Anthony Petrucci and Mario Sessa patiently explained intricacies of the Sicilian Mafia and the role of Tommaso Buscetta.

Michael Fahy, operations supervisor of the Customs Service in New York, and Customs agent Thomas Loreto offered a behind-the-scenes look at key episodes in the case. In the New York Police Department, the encyclopedic Jack Clark was, well, encyclopedic, Joseph Polly highlighted the new cooperation between the NYPD and FBI, and James Mulally provided snapshots of the battles in the trenches.

Pino Arlacchi, a former member of Italys Anti-Mafia Commission and probably that countrys shrewdest analyst of the Mafia, taught me to see the criminal phenomenon in economic terms, so lucidly expressed in his classic treatise Mafia Business. He is a wise and brave man, and he has become a good friend. Sociologists Jane and Peter Schneider of Fordham University have also written some of the best accounts of the roots of the Sicilian Mafia. I am indebted to them and their work. Taking on the Mafia in Italy has been a deadly undertaking for many courageous officials and journalists. I salute them. Magistrates Giusto Sciacchitano and Paulo Borsellino in Palermo and police chief Alessandro Panza in Rome took time from their busy schedules to brief me on developments in Italy. Daniele Billitteri, an unbullyable reporter on the Giornale di Sicilia, guided me around the locations in Palermo that figured in the Pizza Connection story. I was also shown around Sicily by a gifted interpreter who let me see that this ancient island of temples and treasures is far more than the home of the Mafia. For reasons she will know, I shall not name her but convey here my deepest gratitude. I had the good fortune to have a similarly accomplished interpreter and translator in New York, but she, too, must remain anonymous. My interviews in Italy were expertly arranged by Cristina Fioravanti of the Times Rome bureau.

Throughout the long course of the trial I also had discussions with lawyers representing many of the defendants. From them I gleaned much useful information and many important documents. I am sure I will make their lives much easier by not mentioning them by name, although I am nonetheless grateful for their help.

With all my information, this still would not have become a book without the encouragement and guidance of Jonathan Segal, vice-president and editorial director of Times Books, and Julian Bach, my agent. Their keen judgments and enthusiasm carried the long project over some rough spots. Ruth Fecych applied her most professional editing skills to the manuscript, Pearl Hanig was a scrupulous copy editor, and Beth Pearson diligently oversaw the editorial production. My good friend Stephen R. Conn read the manuscript and offered many valuable suggestions, as did my