Deal With the Devil: The FBI's Secret Thirty-Year Relationship With a Mafia Killer
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48. Silverman interview, April 13, 2004.
49. Author’s interview with Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer, U.S. Army, November 28, 2005. An excerpt from the author’s book Triple Cross, detailing Col. Shaffer’s participation in Operation Able Danger can be accessed at http://peterlance.com/wordpress/?p=227.
CHAPTER 39: JUNIOR’S SECOND STING
1. Victor J. Orena and Pasquale Amato v. U.S. 2255, hearing before Judge Jack B. Weinstein, testimony of R. Lindley DeVecchio, May 20, 1996, transcript, 4.
2. Ibid., 5.
3. Selwyn Raab, “F.B.I. Agent Won’t Testify at Mafia Figure’s Hearing,” New York Times, May 18, 1996.
4. Tom Robbins and Jerry Capeci, “Judge Frees Canary’s Files,” New York Daily News, May 25, 1996.
5. Al Guarte, “Former FBI Agent to Bare His Links with Mafia Killer,” New York Post, January 12, 1997.
6. Selwyn Raab, “Ex-F.B.I. Official Is Pressured to Testify on Ties to Mobster,” New York Times, January 26, 1997.
7. Author’s interview with Larry Silverman, April 14, 2004.
8. James Barron, “Courthouse Gallery Honors Judge’s Passion for Art,” New York Times, September 29, 2010. “Judge Sifton, who died last year at age 74[,] . . . was the chief judge in Brooklyn from 1995 to 2000 and after he assumed senior status when he turned 65 in March 2000.”
9. Helen Peterson, “Three Mob War Convictions Tossed,” New York Daily News, February 20, 1997.
10. Lynette Holloway, “Conviction of 3 in Mob Overturned in Slayings,” New York Times, February 20, 1997.
11. U.S. v. Orena, transcript of direct examination of R. Lindley DeVecchio by Gerald Shargel, February 28, 1997.
12. Al Guarte, “FBI Big Shots Knew Mob Rat Killed His Rivals: ‘Mole,’” New York Post, March 1, 1997.
13. Author’s interview with Andrew Orena, January 13, 2012.
14. Helen Peterson, “Didn’t Leak to Mob, Retired G-Man Sez,” New York Daily News, March 1, 1997.
15. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena and Pasquale Amato, Jack B. Weinstein, judgment, memorandum, and order, March 10, 1997, 33.
16. Ibid., 55.
17. Author’s interview with Flora Edwards, January 13, 2012.
18. Weinstein, judgment, memorandum, and order, 72–73.
19. Jerry Capeci, “My Father Did It,” New York Daily News, September 28, 1998.
20. Jerry Capeci, “Mobster Gets 40-Year Term,” New York Daily News, May 9, 1999.
21. Indictment CR No. 86-00351, United States of American against Gregory Scarpa Jr., Grand Jury Charges for violation of 18, U.S. Code Sections 1029 (b)(2), 1029 (a)(1), (b)(1), 1029 (a)(3), (b)(1) and 1029 (e)(1), (2), (5). Signed by Reena Raggi, United States Attorney, Eastern District of New York, 1986.
22. Jerry Capeci, “I Spy,” New York Daily News, October 19, 1998.
23. U.S. v. Gregory Scarpa Jr., docket number 99-1312, decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
24. Ibid.
25. Author’s interview with Frank Scarpa, February 15, 2012.
26. Pasquale Amato and Victor Orena v. U.S., hearing before Judge Jack B. Weinstein, testimony of Gregory Scarpa Jr., January 7, 2004.
27. Ibid., 32, 55.
28. Ibid., 33.
29. Ibid., 56.
30. Greg B. Smith, “Family Wants Retrial for ‘Different’ Man,” New York Daily News, September 21, 2003.
31. John Marzulli, “Mobster’s Retrial Nixed,” New York Daily News, January 16, 2004.
32. Edna Fernandes, “Supermax Prison, the Alcatraz of the Rockies,” London Sunday Times, May 4, 2006.
33. Author’s interview with Gregory Scarpa Jr., March 28, 2012.
34. Stephen P. Dresch, “Report of Explosive Cache Secreted by Terry Lynn Nichols,” March 23, 2005; author’s interview with Angela Clemente, April 8, 2005.
35. Mark Sherman, “FBI Waited to Check Out Tip on Nichols,” Associated Press, April 14, 2005.
36. John Solomon, “Explosives Found in Former Home of Terry Nichols,” Associated Press, April 2, 2005.
37. Sherman, “FBI Waited to Check Out Tip.”
38. Clemente interview.
39. Shelly Murphy, “Miami Jury Convicts Connolly,” Boston Globe, November 7, 2008.
40. William LaForm, “Former Lynnfielder Connolly Ends Federal Sentence Next Week,” Lynnfield–North Reading Patch, June 24, 2011.
41. Shelly Murphy, “Judge Testifies Connolly Helped Decimate the Mafia,” Boston Globe, October 14, 2008.
42. Ibid.
43. Dan Kennedy, “O Brother, Where Art Thou? Making Sense of Bill Bulger’s Testimony and the Media Frenzy It Inspired,”Boston Phoenix, June 27, 2003.
44. “John B. Callahan,” profile, Boston Globe, September 17, 2008, http://www.boston.com/news/specials/whitey/articles/profile_of_john_callahan/.
45. Shelly Murphy, “Sides Make Case to Connolly Jurors,” Boston Globe, November 4, 2008.
46. Shelly Murphy, “Cases Disappear as FBI Looks Away,” Boston Globe, July 22, 1998.
47. Statement of Charles J. Hynes, press conference announcing indictments of DeVecchio, Sobel, and Sinagra, March 30, 2006.
48. Ibid.
49. Peter Lance, Cover Up: What the Government Is Still Hiding About the War on Terror (New York: ReganBooks, 2004), 1–128.
50. Special Agent Chris Favo, FBI 302 memo, February 6, 1994, 3.
51. Jonathan Dienst, “Brooklyn DA Opens Mob Leak Investigation,” WNBC.com, January 4, 2006.
52. Press release, “King’s County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes Announces Murder Indictment Against Retired FBI Agent and Two Mob Hit Men in Multiple Murder Cases,” March 30, 2006.
53. Ibid.
54. Ibid.; People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio and John Sinagra, indictment no. 6825/2005, unsealed March 30, 2006.
55. Carole E. Lee, “Who Is R. Lindley DeVecchio?” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, January 21, 2007.
56. “Kings County District Attorney” press release, March 30, 2006.
57. 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), 9–17.
58. William Rashbaum, “F.B.I. Colleagues Help Ex-Agent Post Bail,” New York Times, March 31, 2006.
59. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), statement before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Oversight Hearing, May 2, 2006.
60. Ibid.
61. Jerry Capeci, “Former Mob-Busting FBI Agent to Be Charged with Murder in Mafia Hits,” New York Sun, March 9, 2006.
62. Murray Weiss, “‘Mob’ Fed’s Filthy Lucre—FBI Agent Cashed in as Mafia Slay Mole: DA,” New York Post, March 30, 2006.
63. Nanci L. Katz, “G-Man Denies Errands for Mob,” New York Daily News, March 31, 2006.
64. Angela Mosconi, “Boss: Ex-Agent No Thug,” New York Daily News, April 16, 2006.
65. A PDF of the Friends of Lin DeVecchio website can be accessed at http://peterlance.com/Friends_of_Lin_Bail_Hearing_3_1_07.pdf.
66. Shelly Murphy, “‘Donnie Brasco’ Refuses to Testify in Connolly Trial,” Boston Globe, October 15, 2008. When the trial judge denied Pistone’s demand that photographers not be allowed to take pictures of his testimony, he withdrew his offer. As Globe reporter Murphy wrote, “His photo is all over the Internet, most recently on a blog promoting his alleged efforts to solve the 1990 theft of $300 million worth of artwork from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. But today, Joseph D. Pistone refused to take the witness stand at the state murder trial of his longtime friend, former FBI Agent John J. Connolly Jr., because the judge rejected his request for an order prohibiting the media from filming or photographing him as he testified.” Pistone’s undoctored photo was also published in the photo section of DeVecchio’s book We’re Going to Win This Thing (photo section, p. 4).
67. Alan Feuer, “In Role Reversal, Ex-F.B.I. Agents Align Themselves with Defendant,” New York Times, September 11, 2006.
68. “Court Battle to
Revoke Bail of Reputed Mob Boss Continues,” Associated Press, May 3, 1986, https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=166510.
69. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 16.
70. Fredric Dannen, “The G-Man and the Hit Man,” New Yorker, December 16, 1996.
71. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 168.
72. Lee, “Who Is R. Lindley DeVecchio?”
73. Michael Brick, “Agent Accused in Mob Murders Seeks Immunity,” New York Times, April 11, 2006.
74. Author’s interview with Ellen Resnick, February 21, 2012.
75. Addendum: Criminal Investigative Division, April 8, 1987, requesting additional authority for payment to Gregory Scarpa Sr. It describes broadly the “services” the informant provided in three major investigations identified as “Shooting Star,” “Gambino Family,” and “Starquest.”
CHAPTER 40: THE COVER UP VIRUS
1. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, case no. 06-CR-235 (FB), memorandum and order of Frederic Block, January 9, 2007, 5, http://www.peterlance.com/Grancio_Block_DeVecchio_decision-1_9_07.pdf.
2. Ibid., 7.
3. Colorado v. Symes, 286 U.S. 510 (1932).
4. Block, memorandum and order, January 9, 2007, 21.
5. Michael Brick, “From Jail Cell, a Convict Challenges a Prosecutor,” New York Times, March 16, 2006.
6. Ibid.
7. A. G. Sulzberger, “Facing Misconduct Claims, Brooklyn Prosecutor Agrees to Free Man Held 15 Years,” New York Times, June 8, 2010; Len Levitt, “Mike Mad, Joe Worse,” New York Confidential, June 7, 2010; Tom Robbins, “Jabbar Collins to Go Free on 1994 Murder Rap as Judge Scores Brooklyn DA,” Village Voice, June 8, 2010.
8. Alex Ginsberg, “Canary Set to Peck at DeVecchio,” New York Post, February 2, 2007.
9. Author’s interview with Tommy Dades, November 12, 2007.
10. Jerry Capeci, “In FBI Murder Trial, Some Missteps and One Big Relief,” New York Sun, March 22, 2007.
11. Dades interview.
12. “Dades Facing Murder Charges,” New York Post, March 15, 2007.
13. Ibid.
14. Capeci, “In FBI Murder Trial, Some Missteps.”
15. Heidi Singer and Alex Ginsberg, “Mob-Busting Prober Quits Brooklyn DA,” New York Post, May 25, 2007.
16. Larry Celona, “DA Boots Prober-Turned-Mob-Sweetie,” New York Post, February 19, 2007.
17. Ibid.
18. Bradley Hope, “DA’s Office Gets a Warning over Office’s Ethics Procedures,” New York Sun, February 20, 2007.
19. “Former ‘Radical’ Judge Presides over Former FBI Agent’s Trial,” Associated Press, October 2, 2007.
20. Capeci, “In FBI Murder Trial, Some Missteps.”
21. Kastigar v. U.S., 406 U.S. 441 (1972).
22. Oliver North v. Lawrence E. Walsh, “Independent Counsel,” 881 F2d 1088, U.S. Court of Appeals, July 25, 1989; Gerald S. Greenberg, ed., Historical Encyclopedia of U.S. Independent Counsel Investigations (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000).
23. Lawrence E. Walsh, Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997).
24. Capeci, “In FBI Murder Trial, Some Missteps.”
25. William Rashbaum, “F.B.I. Colleagues Help Ex-Agent Post Bail,” New York Times, March 31, 2006.
26. Alex Ginsberg, “Mob-Hit Case Is in Peril,” New York Post, May 7, 2007.
27. Sworn affidavit of Detective Tommy Dades (ret.), February 26, 2007.
28. Ginsberg, “Mob-Hit Case Is in Peril.”
29. Michael Brick, “Long Hidden, Stories Clash over Killing Tied to the Mob,” New York Times, May 17, 2007.
30. Austin Fenner and Alex Ginsberg, “DeVecchio Cop Tryst Bombshell,” New York Post, May 18, 2007.
31. Michael Brick, “At Murder Trial, Prosecutors Doubt Police and Each Other,” New York Times, May 30, 2007.
32. Alex Ginsberg, “Mob-Case Judge Gives DA a Whack,” New York Post, May 30, 2007.
33. Charles Sweeney, “Two Mob-Related Murder Cases on Rocks,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 4, 2007.
34. Alex Ginsberg, “‘Mob-Fed’ Defendant Passes on Plea,” New York Post, June 8, 2007.
35. Alex Ginsberg, “Slay Rap KO’d in ‘Mob-Fed’ Shocker: Judge Blasts ‘Too Late’ Cops and Brooklyn DA,” New York Post, June 12, 2007.
36. Scott Shifrel, “Beats Slay Rap in ‘Last of DeVecchio Debacle,’” New York Daily News, June 13, 2008.
37. Jerry Capeci, “Mob Scion May Bolster Turncoat Case,” New York Sun, June 28, 2007.
38. Download from http://www.peterlance.com/Peter_Lance/GREG_JR_MURAD.html.
39. Christopher Mattiace, e-mail to Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, March 1, 2007.
40. Author’s interview with FBI Special Agent James Whalen (ret.), March 1, 2007.
41. Download from http://www.peterlance.com/Peter_Lance/DeVecchios_legal_fees.html.
42. William Sherman, “You Pay G-Man’s Legal Bills,” New York Daily News, March 6, 2007.
43. 28 C.F.R. 50.15(a) and 50.16.
44. Letter and answers to questions posed to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, to Senator Patrick J. Leahy, chairman, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, from Brian A. Benczkowski, principal deputy assistant attorney general, January 25, 2008, 72.
45. Letter dated July 21, 2010, from Ronald Welch, assistant attorney general, to John Conyers Jr., chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, Office of the Inspector General and the Office of Professional Responsibility for the Department of Justice; “An Investigation into the Removal of the U.S. Attorney in 2006,” unclassified report on the President’s Surveillance Program, July 10, 2009, prepared by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense, Department of Transportation, CIA, National Security Agency, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
46. Nina Totenberg, “Report: Ex-AG Gonzales Mishandled Classified Info,” National Public Radio, September 2, 2008.
47. “A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Use of National Security Letters,” U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, retrieved April 12, 2007, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Gonzales-cite_ref-usdoj_42-0.
48. “Bush Ally Gonzales Resigns Post,” BBC.com, August 27, 2007; “Republican Support for Attorney General Erodes,” MSNBC.com, March 25, 2007.
49. Ibid.
50. Author’s interview with Flora Edwards, January 13, 2012.
51. “Trial Starts for ‘Mafia Cops’ Accused of Murder,” Associated Press, March 13, 2006; “Prosecutor: Cops Went on Decades-Long Crime Spree at Bidding of Mobsters,” Associated Press, published on MSNBC.com, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10958649/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/trial-starts-mafia-cops-accused-murder/#.T3Im2I60dJ8.
52. Transcript of conference call among Anthony Casso, Lou Eppolito, Stephen Caracappa, Bettina Schein, and Rae Downes Koshetz, March 30, 2006.
53. Ibid., 14.
54. “NYPD ‘Mafia Cops’ Convicted of Murders,” Associated Press, April 7, 2006.
55. Jonathan Dienst, “Brooklyn DA Opens Mob Leak Investigation,” WNBC.com, January 4, 2006.
56. Rashbaum, “F.B.I. Colleagues Help Ex-Agent Post Bail.”
57. John Marzulli, “2 Cops Who Killed for Mafia: Feds Say Retired Detective Pals Are Linked to at Least 8 Murders,” New York Daily News, March 9, 2005.
58. Ed Bradley, “Ex-Mob Boss Points a Finger,” 60 Minutes, CBS News, April 11, 2005.
59. Michael Fleming, “Wolf, NBC Universal calling ‘Cops,’” Variety, April 17, 2007.
60. William Oldham, The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia (New York: Scribner, 2006); Greg B. Smith, Mob Cops: The Shocking Rise and Fall of New York’s “Mafia Cops” (New York: Berkley, 2006); Jimmy Breslin, The Good Rat: A True Story (New York: Ecco, 2008); Tommy Dades and Mike Vecchione with David Fisher, Friends of the Family: The Inside Story of the Mafia Cops Case (New York: William Morrow, 2009).
&nb
sp; 61. Michael Fleming, “Col Corners Corrupt Cops,” Variety, April 21, 2005.
62. Ibid.
63. Dades, Vecchione, and Fisher, Friends of the Family.
64. Friends of Lin DeVecchio website, March 1, 2007. Download from http://peterlance.com/Friends_of_Lin_Motives_3_1_07.pdf.
65. Ibid.
66. John Marzulli, “Tell-All Risks Mob Cop Case: Assistant DA’s Book May Cut Trial Options,” New York Daily News, July 11, 2006.
67. Ibid.
68. Alan Feuer, “Judge Acquits 2 Ex-Detectives in Mob Killings,” New York Times, July 1, 2006.
69. E-mail to author from Andy Kurins, June 14, 2006.
70. Author’s interview with Noel Downey, March 30, 2006.
71. Grover memorandum, January 29, 2007, 38.
72. People of the State of New York v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, affidavit in opposition to remand, Douglas Grover, June 23, 2006.
73. Ibid., 16.
74. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, subpoena duces tecum served on Peter Lance June 23, 2007, dated June 12, 2007, by Mark A. Bederow, Thompson Hine, LLP, attorney for the defendant. Download from http://peterlance.com/Kastigar_DeVecchio%27s_subpoena_of_PL.pdf.
75. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, pretrial hearing, statement of Douglas Grover, April 20, 2007, 21.
76. Ibid., 25–26, 21.
77. People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio, memorandum of law, Douglas Grover, January 29, 2007.
78. Peter Lance, Cover Up: What the Government Is Still Hiding About the War on Terror (New York: ReganBooks, 2004), 84.
79. Bill Moushey, “Switching Sides,” Post-Gazette, December 1, 1998.
80. Lance, Cover Up, 87, citing Fredric Dannen, “The G-Man and the Hit Man,” New Yorker, December 16, 1996.
81. Linda Stasi, “Show’s Finale Fires ‘Blanks,’” New York Post, June 11, 2007: “With his wife and the giggling tykes looking on, Phil [Leotardo] gets out, looks back and is then shot at point-blank range by Tony’s guy. . . . Ironically, when Harris gets word of the hit, he sputters, ‘We’re gonna win this one,’ quoting a real-life alleged dirty fed, Lindley DeVecchio.”
82. Author’s interview with Flora Edwards, November 3, 2011.
83. “Ex-Newser Fights FBI-Mole Case Subpoena,” New York Daily News, August 2, 2007.