by Peter Lance
3. Ibid., 1190.
4. Ibid., 1244.
5. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, opening statement of Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Weissmann, November 19, 1992, transcript, 37.
6. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, testimony of Harry Bonfiglio, transcript, 349.
7. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Montesano testimony.
8. Ibid.
9. Special Agents Jeffrey W. Tomlinson and Howard Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, May 29, 1993.
10. Selwyn Raab, “Mafia Reported to Be Seeking New Trash Sites,” New York Times, November 11, 1989.
11. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Montesano testimony, 1238.
12. Ibid., 1216.
13. Ibid., 1219–20.
14. Ibid., 1223.
15. Ibid., 1229.
16. Ibid.
17. Mary B. W. Tabor, “Man Accused as Colombo Chief Is Held in Slaying of Ex-Member,” New York Times, April 2, 1992.
18. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Weissmann opening statement, 47.
19. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, transcript, 2248.
20. Joseph Gambardello and Patricia Hurtado, “FBI Guilty: Jury Finds Feds Fueled a Mob War,”Newsday, July 1, 1995.
21. Gregory Scarpa Jr., sworn affidavit, U.S. penitentiary, Florence, Colorado, July 30, 2002.
22. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, testimony of Special Agent Joseph Fanning, December 10, 1992, transcript, 2555–57, 2567.
23. Ibid., 2567, and Government Exhibit 1100, 2449–50.
24. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Weissmann opening statement, 38.
25. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, testimony of Michael Maffatore, transcript, 230.
26. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Bonfiglio testimony, 470.
27. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, ruling of Jack B. Weinstein, transcript, 822–23.
28. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Maffatore testimony, 212–13.
29. Ibid., 267.
30. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Bonfiglio testimony, 391.
31. Andrew Orena insists that this location on Central Avenue was never the site of an Orena social club—that, in fact, it was the location of a Pontiac dealership he ran at the time. “It was a very high-end shopping area,” he said in an interview. “Ask yourself first whether my father who is the acting boss would be talking to a soldier about anything like a murder and whether he’d be doing it so openly and publicly and within earshot of bottom-feeders like Maffatore and Bonfiglio. It just never happened.” Author’s interview with Andrew Orena, January 13, 2012.
32. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Maffatore testimony, 151.
33. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Bonfiglio testimony, 334.
34. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Maffatore testimony, 154.
35. Ibid., 157.
CHAPTER 23: BRAINS, BUTCHER, AND BULL
1. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, testimony of Michael Maffatore, transcript, 297.
2. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, testimony of Harry Bonfiglio, transcript, 345.
3. Ibid., 343.
4. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo for Top Echelon (TE) informant designated “NY3461,” November 4, 1991.
5. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Maffatore testimony, 302.
6. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Bonfiglio testimony, 353.
7. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, testimony of Joseph Ambrosino, transcript, 856.
8. Ibid., 826–48; Special Agents Jeffrey W. Tomlinson and Howard Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, April 28, 1993.
9. Author’s interview with Flora Edwards, November 3, 2011.
10. U.S. v. Pasquale Amato, cross-examination of Diane Montesano, transcript, 1297.
11. Laurie Goodstein, “Gotti Convicted of 13 Crimes, May Face Life in Jail,” Washington Post, April 3, 1992.
12. Robert D. McFadden, “For Gotti Prosecutors, Hard Work and Breaks Pay Off in Conviction,” New York Times, April 3, 1992.
13. Jack B. Weinstein, judgment, memorandum, and order, U.S. v. Victor J. Orena and Pasquale Amato, March 10, 1997, 13.
14. Philip Carlo, The Butcher: Anatomy of a Mafia Psychopath (New York: William Morrow, 2009), 203, 251–53, 274.
15. Ibid., 293.
16. Ibid., 274.
17. Weinstein, judgment, memorandum, and order, March 10, 1997, 95–96.
18. Author’s interview with Andrew Orena, January 6, 2012.
19. Greg B. Smith, “Feds’ Superstar Turncoat Gets Tiny Prison Sentence,” New York Daily News, October 24, 2002.
20. John J. Goldman, “Gotti Accuser Sentenced to Five Years in Plea Deal: Mafia: Salvatore Gravano Is Rewarded for Testifying Against the Notorious Gambino Family Boss and Other Organized Crime Figures,” Los Angeles Times, September 27, 1994.
21. Selwyn Raab, “Singing for Your Sentence: How Will It Pay Off? Ex-Crime Underboss May Find Out Today What He Gets for Turning U.S. Witness,” New York Times, September 26, 1994.
22. Ibid.
23. Philip Carlo, Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mob Boss (New York: William Morrow, 2008), 284–85.
24. Selwyn Raab, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), 519.
25. Alan Feuer, “New Charges in Ecstasy Case Are Filed Against Gravano,” New York Times, December 15, 2000.
26. Carlo, Gaspipe, 292.
27. Anthony Casso, letter to the author, October 4, 2011.
28. Weinstein, judgment, memorandum, and order, March 10, 1997, 99.
29. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, rebuttal, John Gleeson, 3023.
30. Ibid.
31. Gregory Scarpa Jr., sworn affidavit, U.S. penitentiary, Florence, CO, July 30, 2002.
32. Pasquale Amato and Victor Orena v. U.S., transcript of hearing before the Honorable Jack B. Weinstein, January 7, 2004, 47–48.
33. Gregory Scarpa Jr. affidavit.
34. John Marzulli, “Mobster’s Retrial Nixed,” New York Daily News, January 16, 2004.
35. Weinstein, judgment, memorandum, and order, March 10, 1997.
36. Orena v. U.S., U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, memorandum and order of Jack B. Weinstein, January 15, 2004, http://ny.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20040115_0000018.ENY.htm/qx.
37. Ibid.
38. Helen Peterson, “Fed’s Set to Tattle,” New York Daily News, February 23, 1997.
39. Judge Jack B. Weinstein during a hearing in the case of U.S. v. Michael Sessa, CR-92-351, September 24, 2001, 20.
40. Author’s interview with Flora Edwards, April 27, 2004.
41. Author’s interview with Alan Futerfas, May 24, 2004.
CHAPTER 24: COUP D’ÉTAT
1. Victor Ehrenberg, From Solon to Socrates: Greek History and Civilization During the 6th and 5th Centuries B.C. (London & New York: Routledge, 2001), 46.
2. Jonathan Law and Elizabeth A. Martin, eds., Oxford Dictionary of Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
3. 18 United States Code Section 1111, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/usc_sec_18_00001111----000-.html.
4. New York Penal Code, sections 125.27 (Murder in the First Degree) and 125.25 (Murder in the Second Degree), http://ypdcrime.com/penal.law/article125.htm.
5. Ibid., section 125.13.
6. Ibid.
7. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, Supreme Court of New York, Kings County. Indictment No. 6825/2005, unsealed March 30, 2006.
8. Twenty-six if he also set up the murder of his nephew Gus Farace.
9. R. Lindley DeVecchio and Charles Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing : The Shocking Frame-up of a Mafia Crime Buster (New York: Berkley, 2011), 218.
10. “William Cutolo,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cutolo.
11. Special Agents Jeffrey W. Tomlinson and Howard Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, June 1, 1993.
12. Kevin Flynn, “Union Inquiry Looks at Charity’s Tie to Reputed Mobster,” New York Times, December 12, 1998.
13. Author’s interview with Victor M. Orena, February 7–10, 2007.
/> 14. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 152.
15. Ibid.
16. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI teletype, June 8, 1988, 3.
17. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, testimony of Carmine Sessa, October 25, 2007, transcript, 1359.
18. Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, May 10, 1993.
19. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, Sessa testimony, 1342.
20. Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, April 27, 1993.
21. Dave Goldiner, “A Mobster’s Trail of Bodies,” New York Daily News, September 29, 2000.
22. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, testimony of Joseph Ambrosino, 826–48; Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, April 28, 1993.
23. Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, 302 memo, April 28, 1993.
24. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo for Top Echelon (TE) informant designated “NY3461,” August 4, 1988.
25. Special Agents Lucian J. Gandolfo and Jeffrey Tomlinson, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, September 28, 1993.
26. Author’s interview with Vic Orena Jr., February 7, 2007.
27. “Ninety-weight” is the English translation of the Mafia slang term for a “big shot,” i.e., pezza novante, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pezzonovante.
28. Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, May 16, 1993; Arnold H. Lubasch, “Prosecutors Tell of Colombo Family Murder Plot,” New York Times, September 1, 1991.
29. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo, June 13, 1989.
30. DeVecchio, teletype, June 8, 1988, 3.
31. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, Sessa testimony, 1372.
32. Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, May 28, 1993.
33. Author’s interview with Flora Edwards, January 13, 2012.
34. John Kroger, Convictions (New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008), 135.
35. Supervisory Special Agents Kevin Donovan and Robert J. O’Brien, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, September 1, 1994, 3.
36. Ibid.
37. Author’s interview with Andrew Orena, January 13, 2012.
38. DeVecchio, 209 memo, August 1, 1989.
39. DeVecchio, 209 memo, November 16, 1989.
40. DeVecchio, 209 memo, December 26, 1989.
41. FBI wiretap transcript, Wimpy Boys social club, tape 42, April 7, 1986, and tape 52, April 18, 1986.
42. Author’s interview with John Orena, February 7, 2008.
43. DeVecchio, 209 memo, June 12, 1990.
44. Frederick B. Lacey, “Opinion of the Independent Administrator,” August 20, 1990, http://irbcases.wrlc.org/bitstream/handle/38989/c01m37qvx/gwu_ibt_irb_case_00106_ia.pdf?sequence=1.
45. FBI addendum, Criminal Investigative Division, September 16, 1991.
46. Andrew Orena interview, January 13, 2012.
47. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, Sessa testimony, 1390.
48. Ibid., 1385.
49. Ibid., 1392–93.
50. R. Lindley DeVecchio, teletype from FBI New York Office to director, FBI, March 8, 1989, 5.
51. Ibid., 6.
52. Edwards interview, January 13, 2012.
53. Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, April 7–May 10, 1993.
54. DeVecchio, 209 memo, June 5, 1991.
55. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Ambrosino testimony, 886.
56. Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, April 7–May 10, 1993.
57. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Ambrosino testimony, 849.
58. Ibid., 885.
59. Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, May 13, 1993.
60. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, Sessa testimony, 1397; Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, 302 memo, May 16, 1993: “SESSA and the others realized they had to kill ORENA before ORENA killed SESSA.”
CHAPTER 25: PEARL HARBOR
1. U.S. v. Victor Orena, testimony of Joseph Ambrosino, transcript, 886–87.
2. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, testimony of Carmine Sessa, October 25, 2007, transcript, 1401.
3. U.S. v. Victor Orena, Ambrosino testimony.
4. Ibid., 888.
5. U.S. v. Victor Orena, opening statement of Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Weissmann, November 19, 1992, transcript, 43.
6. Special Agents Jeffrey W. Tomlinson and Howard Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, April 7–May 10, 1993, 2.
7. Greg B. Smith, “Family Wants Retrial for ‘Different Man,’” New York Daily News, September 21, 2003.
8. Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, April 7–May 10, 1993, 2.
9. Author’s interview with Victor M. Orena, February 8, 2007.
10. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, Sessa testimony, 1399.
11. Author’s interview with John Orena, February 7–8, 2007.
12. Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, April 7–May 10, 1993, 3.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid., 2–3.
15. Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, May 13, 1993.
16. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, Weissmann opening statement, transcript, 43.
17. Victor M. Orena interview.
18. John Orena interview, February 7–8, 2007.
19. U.S. v. Victor Orena, Ambrosino testimony, 896–97.
20. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo for Top Echelon (TE) informant designated “NY3461,” August 1991, 3.
21. R. Lindley DeVecchio, 209 memo, July 8–August 13, 1991.
22. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, testimony of Larry Mazza, October 18, 2007, transcript, 792.
23. Ibid., 782–83.
24. John Orena interview.
25. Curtis Sliwa, interview with R. Lindley DeVecchio, WNYM Radio, May 10, 2011.
26. Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, May 17, 1993.
27. Selwyn Raab, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), 335.
28. Author’s interview with Andrew Orena, January 13, 2012.
29. DeVecchio, 209 memo, October 9, 1991.
30. Ibid.
31. “FBI: Gotti Missed Date with Draft Board,” Associated Press, March 28, 2004.
32. DeVecchio, 209 memo, October 9, 1991.
33. DeVecchio, 209 memo, November 4, 1991.
34. Ibid.
35. Interview with Victor M. Orena. In 1996, after being cleared in a 1995 racketeering trial, Victor M. Orena was serving four years for loan sharking. He was offered a chance to get out of prison by the Feds if he pleaded guilty to new charges that he tampered with a jury and conspired to murder Leale. (Helen Peterson, “Five-State Ban’s Part of Plea Deal,” New York Daily News, March 17, 1996.) “My brother was looking at many more years behind bars or a chance at freedom,” says Andrew Orena. “So he took the plea. But the Feds made it clear that if he hadn’t admitted to something in relation to Jack Leale they’d have thrown away the key. That’s how important it was for them to blame that murder on the Orenas.”
36. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, testimony of Linda Schiro, October 29, 2007, transcript, 1662–63.
37. Linda Schiro interview, I Married a Mobster, Investigation Discovery Channel, airdate December 3, 2011.
38. Special Agents Jeffrey W. Tomlinson and Howard Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Larry Mazza, April 28, 1994, 6.
39. Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, May 17, 1993, 1–2.
40. Special Agent Chris Favo, FBI 302 memo, November 16, 1995. Supervisory Special Agents R. Patrick Welch and Richard L. Lambert, 5.
41. Special Agents Maryann Walker-Goldman and Christopher Favo, FBI 302 memo re: Larry Mazza, February 7, 1994. While Mazza also stated, per that 302, that Scarpa received information from a “source from the ORENA faction,” most of that FBI debriefing, including details that federal prosecutors later sugges
ted DeVecchio had leaked, came from the source Mazza identified as the “Girlfriend.” That particular 302 memo became infamous as “the Girlfriend 302” when defense lawyers argued that it had been withheld by Assistant U.S. Attorney Valerie Caproni. For more on other leaks see: Letter from Assistant U.S. Attorney Ellen Corcella to defense counsel in U.S. v. Victor M. Orena et al., May 8, 1995, listing eight possible disclosures of FBI intelligence by SSA DeVecchio to Gregory Scarpa Sr. See Chapter 37, page 410.
42. DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo, November 18, 1991.
43. Schiro, I Married a Mobster.
CHAPTER 26: GO OUT AND KILL SOMEBODY
1. U.S. v. Victor Orena, testimony of Joseph Ambrosino, transcript, 910–12.
2. Ibid.
3. Special Agents Jeffrey W. Tomlinson and Howard Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, May 17, 1993.
4. Ibid.
5. George James, “Killing in Brooklyn Social Club Is Linked to Mob Power Struggle,” New York Times, December 6, 1991.
6. Anne Murray and Karen Phillips, “Wrong Man Killed in Mob War: Cops,” New York Post, December 4, 1991.
7. Tomlinson and Leadbetter, 302 memo, May 17, 1993.
8. U.S. v. Victor Orena, Ambrosino testimony, 902.
9. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo for Top Echelon (TE) informant designated “NY3461,” November 25, 1991.
10. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, testimony of Carmine Sessa, October 25, 2007, transcript, 1426.
11. Richard Stratton, “The Grim Reaper’s Girlfriend,” Penthouse, August 1, 1996.
12. Ibid.
13. U.S. v. Victor Orena, Ambrosino testimony, 908.
14. Jerry Capeci, “I Spy,” New York Daily News, October 19, 1998.
15. U.S. v. Victor Orena, Ambrosino testimony.
16. Jack B. Weinstein, judgment, memorandum, and order, U.S. v. Victor J. Orena and Pasquale Amato, March 10, 1997, 30–31.
17. Author’s interview with former attorney for Gregory Scarpa, January 10, 2012.
18. Tomlinson and Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, January 26, 1994, 1.
19. Supervisory Special Agents Kevin P. Donovan and Robert J. O’Brien, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, September 14, 1994.
20. Special Agents David M. Parker and Robert J. O’Brien, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, April 18, 1994, 6.
