Deal With the Devil: The FBI's Secret Thirty-Year Relationship With a Mafia Killer
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9. Stutman and Esposito, Dead on Delivery, 266.
10. Gregory Scarpa v. Victory Memorial Hospital and Dr. Angelito L. Sebollena, transcripts of the depositions of Gregory Scarpa, August 12, 1991, 27, and May 11, 1992, 16.
11. Jonathan Dienst and Shimon Prokupecz, “Mob Members with Ties to 1989 DEA Killing Arrested on Drug Charges,” WNBC New York, August 11, 2011.
12. U.S. v. Victor M. Orena, testimony of Joseph Ambrosino, November 30, 1992, 806, 881, 887–88, 903.
13. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, testimony of Carmine Sessa, October 25, 2007, transcript, 1490–91.
14. Supervisory Special Agents R. Patrick Welch and Robert J. O’Brien, FBI 302 memo re: Joey Ambrosino, May 24, 1994.
15. Anthony Casso, letter to the author, December 22, 2011.
16. Author’s interview with Little Linda Schiro, December 4, 2011.
17. Krajicek, “Mob Man Scarpa.”
18. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo for Top Echelon (TE) informant designated “NY3461,” January 20, 1990.
19. Author’s interview with DEA Special Agent Michael Levine (ret.), October 8, 2011.
20. U.S. v. Larry Sessa, defendant Gregory Scarpa Jr., defendant-appellant, No. 1363, Docket 96-1631, United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. Argued January 14, 1997, decided September 9, 1997. 125 F.3d 68. http://openjurist.org/125/f3d/68/united-states-v-sessa.
21. Todd S. Purdum, “Reputed Mob Figure Fatally Shot in Brooklyn Club,” New York Times, January 16, 1987.
22. Todd S. Purdum, “Puzzle of Gangland-Style Killings Eludes Brooklyn Police,” New York Times, October 10, 1987.
23. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo for Top Echelon (TE) informant designated “NY3461,” March 28, 1989, 5.
24. Robert D. McFadden, “8 Charged with Mafia Drug Plot Including Murders and Extortion,” New York Times, November 13, 1987. The Times piece, which reports that the group charged was “led by Gregory Scarpa Jr.,” goes on to state that “a complaint by United States Attorney Andrew J. Maloney accused the defendants of ‘a pattern of racketeering’ in which ‘each committed at least two acts.’ Among the crimes cited were the murders of Peter Crupi, found shot in Brooklyn Aug. 2, 1985, and of Albert Nacha, found shot on Staten Island Dec. 10, 1985, and beatings and other violence over the last three years.”
25. “The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Compliance with Attorney General’s Investigative Rules,” U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, September 2005, 6–7; 1982 Final Report of the Senate Select Committee to Study Undercover Activities, at 523 (Civiletti Informant Guidelines section F.2).
26. 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), 123.
27. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, Sessa testimony, 1410.
CHAPTER 21: RUMBLINGS OF WAR
1. Supervisory Special Agents Timothy B. Kilund and Kevin P. Donovan, FBI 302 memo re: interview with Judge I. Leo Glasser, August 16, 1994.
2. Jack B. Weinstein, judgment, memorandum, and order, Victor J. Orena v. United States, March 1, 1997, 29.
3. Ibid., 30.
4. Ibid., 34.
5. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena et al., superseding indictment, 1992, paragraph 22.
6. Arnold H. Lubasch, “Acting Crime Boss Is Convicted of Murder and Racketeering,” New York Times, December 22, 1992. This piece was typical, reporting that “although Mr. Persico selected Mr. Orena as acting boss in 1989, they soon began feuding and Mr. Persico was said to want his son, Alphonse, to take over as boss next year.”
7. Jerry Capeci, “Colombos Set to Play Family Feud,” New York Daily News, September 3, 1991.
8. Special Agent Chris Favo, FBI 302 memo, February 6, 1994, 2. “Over the length of the war I began to withhold information concerning Gregory Scarpa or what could not be leaked to the media because I believe SSA DeVecchio was leaking information to both Scarpa and Jerry Capece [sic].”
9. Weinstein, judgment, memorandum, and order, March 1, 1997, 24.
10. Gregory Scarpa Jr., sworn affidavit, U.S Penitentiary, Florence, CO, July 30, 2002, 3–4.
11. Weinstein, judgment, memorandum, and order, March 1, 1997, 99.
12. Jack B. Weinstein, memorandum and order, Orena v. United States, January 15, 2004.
13. Jack B. Weinstein, judgment, memorandum, and order, Victor J. Orena v. United States, March 10, 1997, 9. “To date, the United States Attorney’s Office, with the critical assistance of the F.B.I. and the New York City Police Department, has prosecuted seventy-five Colombo Family members. Forty of those prosecuted were Persicos, and the rest Orenas. These figures do not include New York State’s prosecutions of Colombo Family members.”
14. United States v. Michael Sessa, transcript of criminal motion before the Honorable Jack B. Weinstein, September 24, 2001, 20.
15. Author’s interview with former attorney for Vic Orena, January 3, 2012.
16. Ibid.
17. Dennis Hevesi, “7 Found Not Guilty in Plot Tied to a Mob Family Feud,” New York Times, July 1, 1995.
18. Joseph Gambardello and Patricia Hurtado, “Brooklyn Jury Acquits 7 Accused in Mob War: Jurors Blame FBI Agent for Fueling Feud Through Former Islander,” Staten Island Advance, July 1, 1995; Greg B. Smith, “7 Cleared in B’Klyn Mob Case: Jurors Fault FBI,” New York Daily News, July 1, 1995; Al Guarte, “Wiseguys Acquitted in Colombo Murders,” New York Post, July 1, 1995.
19. Author’s interview with Andrew Orena, Victor M. Orena, and John Orena, February 7–10, 2007.
20. “Lincoln Hall Building Begun,” New York Times, December 12, 1951.
21. Selwyn Raab, Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005), 333.
22. 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), 198.
23. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo for Top Echelon (TE) informant designated “NY3461,” June 1988.
24. Selwyn Raab, “Mafia-Aided Scheme Evades Millions in Gas Taxes,” New York Times, February 6, 1989.
25. Roy Rowan, “The 50 Biggest Mafia Bosses,” Fortune, November 10, 1986.
26. United States v. Victor Orena, CR-92-351, testimony of Kenneth A. Geller, December 8, 1992, transcript, 1756.
27. Ibid., 1851.
28. Ibid., 1885.
29. Ibid.;United States v. Victor Orena, opening statement of Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Weissmann, November 19, 1992, 34.
30. United States v. Victor Orena, cross-examination of Kenneth A. Geller, November 19, 1992, transcript, 2040.
31. Orena brothers interview.
32. Special Agents Jeffrey W. Tomlinson and Howard Leadbetter II, FBI 302 memo re: Carmine Sessa, May 18, 1993.
33. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, testimony of Joseph Ambrosino, November 30, 1992, transcript, 876–80.
34. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI Newark Office, to assistant director, FBI, August 8, 1967.
35. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI Newark Office, to assistant director, FBI, March 10, 1970.
36. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI. Subject: Gregory Scarpa. Top Echelon Criminal Informant Program, New York Division, September 2, 1971.
37. Memo from special agent in charge, FBI New York Office, to director, FBI. Subject: Gregory Scarpa. Top Echelon Criminal Informant Program, New York Division, July 25, 1972.
38. Addendum: Criminal Investigative Division, April 8, 1987, memorializing an April 3, 1987, teletype requesting payment for “captioned source,” for supplying “extremely singular information which led to 17 Title III intercepts and 50 reauthorizations forming the basis for the prosecution of the Colombo family”; U.S. v. Carmine Persico, No. 84 Cr.809 (JFK), opinion of Judge John F. Keenan denying motions to dismiss, http://www.ipsn.org/court_cases/us_v_persico_1986-09-25.htm.
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br /> 39. FBI 209 memo, June 17, 1994.
40. Author’s interview with Flora Edwards, November 3, 2011.
41. Arnold H. Lubasch, “Persico, His Son and 6 Others Get Long Terms as Colombo Gangsters,” New York Times, November 18, 1986.
42. Arnold H. Lubasch, “Judge Sentences 8 Mafia Leaders to Prison Terms,” New York Times, January 14, 1987.
43. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo for Top Echelon (TE) informant designated “NY3461,” December 15, 1986.
44. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena et al., superseding indictment, 1992, paragraph 10.
45. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo, February 10, 1987.
46. “Alphonse Persico, 61, Is Dead: Leader of Colombo Crime Family,” New York Times, September 13, 1989.
47. Leonard Buder, “Colombo Figure Given 25 Years on ’80 Charge,” New York Times, December 19, 1987.
48. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo, July 17, 1987.
49. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo, December 3, 1987.
50. R. Lindley DeVecchio, FBI 209 memo, April 8, 1988.
51. Raab, Five Families, 333.
52. Author’s interview with Andrew Orena, September 21, 2011.
53. Raab, Five Families.
54. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 198.
CHAPTER 22: DEATH BY WIRE
1. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, testimony of Joseph Ambrosino, November 30, 1992, transcript, 856.
2. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena, testimony of Diane Montesano, December 2, 1992, transcript, 1167–69; 1246.
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.