I wonder if sal a. Was even a thought for boss. As call in the early 80tys he was closest to all top 3 guys. They thought so much of him they talked about everything in his car. Im sure the jag bug didn't help his cause some speculate he could get whacked for the jag bug. He.was on the street 2 years after all flipped plenty of time for Vic n gas whackem. There was a cool old capeci article about the luchese class of 1991 this is after all flipped I wish I could read it again . its about the 6 inductes and how fucked up shit happens to all them
Found it:
http://www.ipsn.org/characters/patriarca/Lucchese%20Class%20of%20%2791.htm
May 4, 1998
Lucchese Class of '91
By Jerry Capeci
Beaming with pride and looking as dapper as John Gotti, 13 mobsters joined hands in October 1991 and celebrated the induction of five new members into the Lucchese crime family.
There had been a formal Mafia blood oath, administered by consigliere Frank Lastorino, then these words spoken in unison: "We are brothers now, one family, one borghata."
Their boss was in federal prison, their underboss was on the run, but the five Class of 1991 grads were all smiles as they entered a life they thought was full of promise, glory and ill-gotten riches.
Within six years, however, each would wind up behind bars -- where one would die and another would become a prosecution witness.
The fall of the Class of '91 is symbolic of the mob's malaise today, its ranks infiltrated by mob turncoats and wiretaps, and its numbers shrunk by aggressive prosecutions.
Since 1990, the top three mobsters in four crime families have been convicted and sent to prison -- including Gotti, the boss of the Gambino family, and his Disheveled Don counterpart, Genovese boss Vincent (Chin) Gigante.
But the mob's downfall is about more than high-profile cases; it is about the scores of capos, soldiers and associates from all five clans who have been put behind bars, many for life.
Here's the lowdown on the rise and fall of the Class of '91 and their Lucchese comrades -- according to a review of court documents and interviews with numerous sources on both sides of the law.
Coronation night began with the soon-to-be mobsters -- Frank Gioia Jr., 24; Thomas (Fat Tommy) D'Ambrosia, 47; Joseph (Torty Jr.) Tortorello, 32; Gregory (Whitey) Cappello, 33, and Jody Calabrese, 36 -- waiting in a living room of a large home in Howard Beach, Queens.
In a finished basement, eight Lucchese mobsters sat around a table, where a knife and a picture of a saint rested.
Anthony BarattaLastorino headed the table, seconded by capos Salvatore Avellino, Anthony (Bowat) Baratta (left) and George (Georgie Goggles) Conte. Acting capos Richard (The Anthony TortorelloToupe) Pagliarulo and Anthony (Torty) Tortorello, (right) and mobsters Frank (Bones) Papagni and Thomas (Tommy Red) Anzellotto filled the other seats.
For the record, Baratta was D'Ambrosia's sponsor; Anthony Tortorello had recommended his son Richard PagliaruloJoseph; Pagliarulo (left) had proposed Cappello and Calabrese, and Conte was filling in for Gioia's sponsor, George (Georgie Neck) Zapolla, a fugitive at the time.
Joseph Tortorello was the first to be summoned downstairs. Replying to questions from Lastorino, he promised to love and honor the Lucchese family above his own.
One by one, the others followed, repeating the ritual.
Their trigger fingers pricked, all promised loyalty to the family and watched Lastorino burn tissue paper in their hands and say: "May you burn in hell like this if you betray us."
They didn't know their fates were already sealed.
Little Al D'ArcoA month earlier, Lucchese acting boss Alfonse (Little Al) D'Arco (left) began cooperating with the FBI, telling mob secrets about murders and racketeering schemes. The feds in Manhattan and Brooklyn had already empanelled grand juries, preparing for wide-ranging indictments. Finally, wired-up operatives for the Manhattan District Attorney's office were taping them in drug deals.
Inducted as a group, the Class of '91 celebrated at different restaurants with their sponsors later that night, and went their separate ways.
Tortorello ran a drug operation in lower Manhattan. D'Ambrosia ran a heroin ring in East Harlem and The Bronx. Cappello became a street thug. Calabrese did strong-arm work in the private carting industry. Gioia did double duty as a hitman and drug dealer.
As a whole, they earned hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Lucchese family, bringing riches on borrowed time.
By 1993, three had been arrested and ultimately sentenced to prison. By 1997, all had been arrested -- with one dying behind bars.
Thomas D'AmbrosiaJoseph TortorelloThe pitfalls varied; Tortorello (right) and D'Ambrosia (left) went down together after a four-year undercover drug probe by the Manhattan District Attorney.
Calabrese was nabbed for trying to kill a cohort in a dispute over garbage stops. He is awaiting trial.
Gioia, a hefty martial arts enthusiast, was arrested twice -- first in June, 1992, on a gun charge in Brooklyn, and then in 1993 on federal drug charges in Boston in a joint investigation with the Manhattan District Attorney for running a heroin pipeline from Manhattan to Boston.
But the strangest arrest arose from a quirk of circumstances that brought down Cappello on the Fourth of July in 1994.
Cappello, who was being sought by an FBI-NYPD task force on an extortion charge, came out of hiding to celebrate. He would later tell authorities that he assumed that any lawmen who knew him would be off for the holiday.
But because of crowd-control concerns near Coney Island, NYPD Detective John Kenna, a task force member, was pressed into uniform. He happened to spot a dead ringer for Cappello, then noticed the man had a crack pipe protruding from his back pocket.
Kenna collared the man, who turned out to be Cappello's younger brother, said FBI spokesman Jim Margolin.
Suddenly, Gregory Cappello, eyes wild with anger, ran up.
"What the hell are you doing with my brother?" he screamed at Kenna -- and was arrested himself.
As FBI agents took him into custody, Cappello moaned, "I lay low for months and come out for a few laughs on the Fourth of July 'cause I know you federal guys are off, and I get popped by a cop doing crowd control."
Cappello died last December in prison.
Today, the only living member of the Class of '91 not behind bars is D'Ambrosia, who was released in October after three years in prison.
George ZapollaGioia became the informer. In late 1994, he called the feds and offered his services. Sources said he learned from a jailhouse visitor that the Lucchese mobster who had driven him to his induction, Frank Papagni, was plotting to kill Gioia's father in a money dispute.
The feds moved quickly. On Jan. 3, 1995, FBI agents nabbed Zapolla, (right) Gioia's fugitive sponsor, at a public phone in Manhattan after a series of monitored calls and beeper messages from Gioia's father.
As for the rest of the attendees at the induction ceremony, all of them -- including the eight mobsters who welcomed the class into the family -- are in prison.
good for him. You seen his house? It's a fucking palace.
