Did anyone see this from CosaNostra news?
Thursday, October 2, 2014
How Sonny Black Scammed the Bonanno Family
Sonny Black in front of Santo Trafficante.
In 1986, at the age of 71, Santo Trafficante faced the most formidable indictment of his life.
The reason, briefly, was former Bonanno capo Anthony "Sonny Black" Napolitano.
Operation Coldwater, which ran from 1979 to 1981, was the FBI's attempt to infiltrate the Mafia then infesting Florida's Gulf Coast, though from its inception, the real goal of the secret op was much more targeted in nature.
The Feds wanted Santo Trafficante on a platter, period.
At the time he was considered The Godfather of most of Florida, and that he'd deemed it open territory for the Northern Mafia families, as long as he gave his approval. He'd also get a percentage of their ill-gotten gains from the territory.
After all attempts to flip his men failed and infiltration had proved impossible, the FBI hit upon the idea of creating a juicy asset--an illegal gambling den, right in Trafficante's backyard--that was designed from the start to attract one of the major Mafia families.
Sonny Black wanted to move to Holiday, Florida.
King's Court, it was christened, and it was located on the much-trafficked U.S. Route 19 in the town of Holiday, Florida, which was 40 miles northwest of Tampa and part of Pasco County, which was then in the process of transitioning into a bustling resort/retirement community.
King's Court was set up to run as a private club unopen to the general public. (This allowed the agents to avoid the need for a liquor license). Someone could join as a member for $25, and bring in his own liquor and pay for ice and soft-drink setups.
A staff was actually hired to work there. Bartenders, waitresses, even a piano player worked at the club, never knowing they had unwittingly joined an FBI secret operation.
Five undercover agents pretended to be mob wannabes from the North. They hung out in the club, acting like they worked there while also keeping an eye open for any opportunities that might arise. "Tony Rossi" was the owner of the fake illegal gambling den (his real name was Special Agent Edgar S. Robb).
To further create a criminal mystique about the place, the agents ran illegal card games in a back room, with "the house" getting a cut. Small-time hoods mostly from New York and Chicago began drifting into the club.
Soon enough low-level ties were established with the Gambino and Luchese families in New York and the Outfit in Chicago. (A captain in the local sheriff's office even showed up for payoffs.)
Fast forward a year. Despite all the bullshit talk from these Northern and Midwest tough guys to get Trafficante involved to ramp up the club's action, nothing significant had happened. Trafficante didn't know the club existed, as far as the Feds knew.
In an attempt to stir the pot, the FBI decided to utilize an "asset" it had developed in New York. His name was Donnie Brasco and yes, much of this is told in Special Agent Joseph Pistone's book. But there is a key piece of the story that is missing. Rather it's not missing; it's mistold.
Toward the end of 1980 it looked like the FBI was going to snag a Bonanno capo: Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano took an interest in King's Court.
Sonny Black, whose standing in the Mafia was substantial, made several trips down to Holiday in 1980 and 1981, as he prepared to take personal charge of the club and whatever additional rackets could be spun off it. The untapped opportunities proved to be so tempting to the crafty Mafioso that he even said on a wiretap he was considering departing his place in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to live down in Florida.
And as the story goes, he needed the nod from Trafficante.
So he went and thoughtfully purchased a greeting card that conveyed a double message about "good friends" and slipped $1,000 cash into it. He even inscribed a touching expression of sentiment: "From my family to your family."
Sonny Black was staying at the Best Western Tahitian Motor Lodge in Holiday, room number 161. On Jan. 17, 1981, Trafficante himself walked into the motel room (which had been bugged well in advance by the FBI).
We are told that in that room at that meeting, Sonny Black handed over the card and cash and a grateful Trafficante accepted it, then departed, having given the capo the okay to proceed with his plans.
Napolitano was later overheard reporting that the "Old Man" had agreed to a one-third cut from the club's "Las Vegas Nights," and that Trafficante also had agreed to supply the dealers and pitmen. Sonny Black also noted that a second payoff of $2,000 was handed over to Trafficante.
Trafficante, by accepting payment from Sonny Black for approval to launch a mobbed up gambling operation, opened himself up to major RICO statutes, for which he was later indicted, as noted previously in the story.
Frank Ragano made a career defending Trafficante in court.
Enter Frank Ragano, the defense attorney and angel on Trafficante's shoulder who'd saved the mob boss's ass from the frier more than once (and spent the last years of his life haunted by the work he'd done for the powerful Cosa Nostra bosses).
Ragano had some 25,000 pages of discovery material to wade through when he swooped in to take over the case following Trafficante's personal appeal to him.
Only four days before the jury was slated to be chosen, Ragano decided to focus on only the most important evidence against Trafficante, the exact touchpoints tying Santo to criminal activity that enabled the prosecutors to indict him.
"From a fast-scanning I noticed a remarkable fact: there was a vital omission from the prosecution's case," he told Selwyn Raab in Mob Lawyer: Including the Inside Account of Who Killed Jimmy Hoffa and JFK.
The FBI's only evidence of any payoffs came solely from Sonny Black. None of the agents had ever seen a payoff, none of the agents had ever caught Santo mentioning a payoff. Something stank, and Ragano knew it immediately.
He said he next visited Trafficante and confronted the mob boss with some blunt questions: Had he accepted a $1,000 payoff from Sonny Black? Had he accepted a single red cent from Sonny Black?
"No, no," Santo replied. "Sonny Black tried to give it to me but I wouldn't take it. I didn't trust him or like him. He was stupid."
Santo claimed he'd only met with Sonny Black because his "good friends"--top Mafiosi in New York--had vouched for him. Santo distrusted the New York mobster, calling him "impetuous and avaricious." He didn't like the way Sonny Black had bragged about having the Pasco County Sheriff's Office in his pocket.
Santo further told Ragano that he had advised Sonny Black to go into legitimate business--bingo, in fact, was so profitable that there was no reason to even get involved with anything illegal, Santo said he advised Sonny.
Sounds like deep bullshit, I know, and it sounded like bullshit to Ragano too. Yet Ragano also knew Trafficante intimately. "How often had I heard him warn people about being greedy and accepting money too readily from people whose trustworthiness was not firmly established?"
Trafficante was so concerned about bugs as well that he rarely ever said a single incriminating word, even to close associates in hotel rooms or restaurants.
I know, still sounds like bullshit. But I wouldn't have crafted that headline at the top if I wasn't convinced.
Ragano found the transcript from the bug in Sonny Black's motel room. The bugged motel room. He found the pages on which were transcribed every word spoken in that room during Trafficante's visit with the New York Mafioso. He read it and smiled.
Ragano next faced a tactical issue. He couldn't have the indictment thrown out. He couldn't stop the trial. So how could he squash the agents' testimony regarding the payoff, of which there was no evidence. Aside from that one meeting, Santo was never caught in a single photo or frame of film nor was his voice caught on any additional tape, aside from the wiretap in Sonny Black's room during the single meeting he claimed he had.
He waited three weeks into trial, until "Tony Rossi" was testifying. He waited until the proceedings reached the point at which mention of the payoff was imminent. Fearing the jury would believe any testimony from an FBI agent out of inherent faith in the government, he knew he had to shut Rossi down before he could mention anything about a payoff.
Ragano promptly stood up and requested a sidebar with the judge. The prosecutor joined him at the side of the judge's bench, the one farthest from the jury.
"Your honor, the prosecutor is about to perpetuate a fraud on the jury and the court. Let me show your honor the transcript of what actually occurred when the defendant, Santo Trafficante, was offered $1,000," Ragano said, and handed over the pages.
They read:
NAPOLITANO: Santo, this is from the club over here, from us and the club and--
TRAFFICANTE: Ah, forget about it.
NAPOLITANO: I didn't sign it or nothin'. So-
TRAFFICANTE: Forget about it.
NAPOLITANO: Please, do me a favor. Now, see, uh--
TRAFFICANTE: Forget about it.
NAPOLITANO: Awright, well then, then just read the card, I mean it's a beautiful card.
TRAFFICANTE: Huh! Nah, I'll tell ya [unintelligible].
NAPOLITANO: Come on.
TRAFFICANTE: Take care of yourself.
After reading the transcript, the judge "fixed his gaze on" the prosecutor and ordered him to change his line of questioning.
Several days later, the prosecutor acknowledged at a hearing the nonexistence of any evidence whatsoever to prove that Santo had done anything to advance a Mafia enterprise. The judge granted a motion for acquittal.
Sonny Black pocketed the $1,000 and lied to his cohorts, including Joe Pistone/Donnie Brasco, who repeats this in his book to this very day, about Trafficante accepting it.
http://www.cosanostranews.com/2014/10/how-sonny-black-scammed-bonanno-family.html#more
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