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From Newsday

Brutal slaying behind massive mob probe

BY ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO | anthony.destefano@newsday.com
February 9, 2008

The brutal 1981 slaying of three Bonanno crime family captains could lead to more charges in the big mob investigation which on Thursday resulted in the arrest of scores of Gambino crime family members and associates.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have told Judge Nicholas Garaufis that their investigation, which resulted in the arrest of the reputed leadership of the Gambino family and numerous captains and soldiers, is focusing in part on the 1981 slayings.

Court papers show the Gambino investigation has spread to include the bloody Bonanno war. This could spell more trouble for a number of high-ranking reputed Gambino family members who are already in prison, notably Gene Gotti, the brother of the late crime boss John Gotti. Gene Gotti, 61, is currently serving a prison sentence for narcotics trafficking and won't be freed until 2018.

The records also said that securities fraud charges -- a small part of the Gambino indictment -- stem from a giant Wall Street boiler room operation prosecuted in 2001.

A vicious struggle for power in the Bonanno clan led to the murders at a Brooklyn social club of captains Dominick Trinchera, Philip Giaccone and Alphonse Indelicato on May 5, 1981. They were ambushed inside the club by a faction led by former Bonanno boss Joseph Massino, who eventually took over control of the family. The club used for the slayings once run by Salvatore Gravano, the former underboss to John Gotti. Massino was convicted in July 2004 of the three murders during his federal racketeering trial.

Cooperating witnesses, notably former Bonanno underboss Salvatore Vitale, have told investigators and have testified in court that Gene Gotti and others helped dispose of the bodies in a vacant lot on Ruby Street near Ozone Park. The bodies were driven in a van to a location on Cross Bay Boulevard in Howard Beach and then taken to the lot. In October 2004, acting on information from Massino, who was cooperating with authorities, the FBI dug up the bodies of Giaccone and Trinchera. Indelicato's corpse was found a few weeks after his slaying in the same lot.

The Gambino investigation has already led to the arrest of acting boss John D'Amico, 71, acting underboss Domenico Cefalu and consigliere Joseph Corozzo. Friday in Brooklyn, U.S. Magistrate-Judge Kiyo Matsumoto ordered a thin and gray haired D'Amico held without bail, saying he was too much of a danger to the public to be let free. Cefalu and Corozzo are also being held without bail, as are several other reputed captains and soldiers.

The giant Gambino case has been assigned to Garaufis, who handled many Bonanno cases. In special papers filed with the court, prosecutors asked Garaufis to take the case because it related not only to acts in Massino's old trial but also a major securities fraud on his docket.

The securities case stemmed from a "boiler room" scheme which prosecutors said led to $100 million in losses involving five brokerage firms in New York, including First United Equities Corporation. The scheme ran from 1994 to 2001 and is said by prosecutors to have involved high-pressure sales tactics to run up the price of stocks in which the defendants held undisclosed ownership. The stocks were then dumped by the defendants when they reached high prices, cheating other investors, according to the indictment.

The latest Gambino indictment accuses reputed Gambino captain Charles Carneglia and reputed captain Leonard DiMaria with securities fraud conspiracy stemming from the 2001 stock fraud prosecution, according to court records. DiMaria and Carneglia are accused of plotting to commit securities fraud in the sale of three stocks from November 1995 to March 1996, according to the indictment.

Related topic galleries: Murder, New York, Fraud, FBI, Prisons, Police, Organized Crime

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