A Brooklyn man was shot and killed in his family's restaurant late Friday in an incident that the police said might have been mob-related.
The police identified the man as Rocco Rubino, 28 years old, of 2339 Jerome Avenue in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn. They said he had an arrest record, including a 1980 conviction on a weapons charge.
Yesterday's killing was the latest in a series of possibly gang-related slayings that have puzzled police investigators. Since the beginning of the year, the violent deaths of at least 10 men in Brooklyn have had the markings of gangland murders.
Those who were killed were associated with either the Colombo or Bonanno crime familes, and some knew each other. The police described them as low-level operators involved in various criminal activities ranging from narcotics to credit-card fraud.
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The United States Attorney for the Eastern District, Andrew J. Maloney, and some other officials speculated that at least some of the killings seemed to indicate a lapse in discipline resulting from the recent convictions of many senior mob figures.
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Mr. Rubino had been renovating a rear portion of the family restaurant, Rubino's Crab House at 2003 Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay, when shortly after 11 P.M. one or more gunmen entered, shot him several times in his chest, and then fled, the police said. A passer-by notified the police, who said there were no signs of forced entry into the restaurant.
The police said they believed Mr. Rubino was a low-level member of an organized crime family.
No weapons were recovered and the motive has not been determined, the police said. As of late yesterday afternoon, they were unable to determine the caliber of the weapon used.
Mr. Rubino's body was picked up late yesterday afternoon, more than 14 hours after the shooting.
Suzanne Halpin, a spokeswoman for the Health and Hospitals Corporation, said she did not know the specific reasons for the delay, though she noted that the agency has only one morgue wagon in the borough, and it is often tied up for long periods.
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An employee of Joe's Clam Bar, near the Rubino restaurant, said that the family had lived in the Sheepshead Bay area for many years, and that Mr. Rubino was well liked.
Mr. Rubino was convicted of a felony in 1980 for attempted criminal possession of a weapon. He received a five-year probation, the police said. He was also convicted the same year of a misdemeanor, possession of marijuana, and was fined $250. In 1977, he pleaded guilty and was convicted of harassment, the police said.
Two people - one of them a woman storing laundry in a hallway closet in her home - were killed during a gangland attempt to assassinate a convicted pornographer and Mafia member last night on a quiet, residential side street in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn, the police said.
A third person was seriously wounded by men firing shotguns from at least one car as it passed 431 Lake Street, off Avenue W, a police spokesman said.
That man, Joseph Peraino Sr., who was convicted in Miami on Dec. 6 of six counts of interstate shipments of pornography, was the target of the gunmen, according to other law enforcement officials familiar with the case. Linked to Crime Family
Mr. Peraino, who is in his 50's, is listed by the Justice Department as a ''made'' member of the Mafia crime family of Joseph Colombo.
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The slain woman was identified as Veronica Zuraw, 52 years old, who was in her Lake Street home at 8 P.M. when shotgun pellets fired at the two men in front of her house went through the bottom part of her white front door and hit her, said Detective Sgt. Anthony J. Marra, as he stood outside the three-story brick building later.
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Detective Marra said Mrs. Zuraw and her husband, Louis, had recently moved into the second floor apartment in the three family detached building. The couple were finishing their laundry when the shooting occurred.
''He was folding the laundry; she went to put some things in the closet; he heard shots; and she fell,'' said the detective. The man killed outside Mrs. Zuraw's home was identified by the police as Joseph Peraino Jr., 30, the son of the man said to be the target of the assassination attempt. Mr. Peraino was hit several times as he apparently tried to run from the gunmen and seek shelter in the Zuraw apartment.
Joseph Peraino Sr. was hit at least once in the buttocks, the police said. He was taken to Coney Island Hospital, where he was listed in serious condition.
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Law enforcement officials said this was not the first attempt on the life of Joseph Sr. in New York City in recent months and added that he was wounded in at least one of the previous attempts.
Both men were found on the concrete patio outside the second floor entrance to the apartments, the detective said. ''We don't know whether they were running away from their attackers or going visiting,'' said the detective in a comment about the father an d son being on the second floor patio.
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He added that Mr. Zuraw said that the Perainos were unknown to him and his wife. The police spokesman, Sgt. Leroy Barr, said there was no reason to connect the Zuraws to the Perainos. Buckshot Penetrates Door
Detective Marra said that it was ''the angle of trajectory'' that caused the shotgun blasts to enter the bottom of the Zuraws' front door and yet strike Mrs. Zuraw in the head. The buckshot left a pattern of holes in the bottom half of the door. And the detective said several spent shells were found in front of the building.
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''We heard sounds like firecrackers,'' said Ann Virgilio, a neighbor of the Zuraws in the same small detached building. Mrs. Virgilio said the Zuraws were ''very quiet people'' who had just moved into the neighborhood and had not even had time to put up curtains.
She described the Lake Street neighborhood of small brick buildings and family homes with lawns and trees as ''quiet, except for when the kids light off firecrackers.''
According to law enforcement officials and court records, Joseph Pe raino Sr. has a long history of involvement with organized crime. Along with a brother, Anthony, Mr. Peraino has been described in court papers as one of the major figures invo lved in the production and distribution of hard-core pronography. Linked to 'Deep Throat'
The two brothers have been identified as providing the initial financing for the movie ''Deep Throat,'' which has grossed more than $25 million. The brothers are said to have collected much of the profits from the distribution of that film.
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In May 1977, Joseph Peraino Sr. was convicted in Federal Court in Memphis of obscenity in connection with ''Deep Throat.'' His conviction a month ago in a Federal Court in Miami resulted from a nationwide sweep by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of its undercover operation known as Miporn, for Miami pornography.
Besides the six convictions for transportation of pornography, Mr. Peraino was also convicted in Miami of conspiracy to transport obscene films across state lines.
He faces a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison and $40,000 in fines on those seven charges when sentenced sometime this year.
Two brothers were shot to death in a barrage of gunfire late last night as they sat in their Queens cafe in what the police said may have been an ''organized crime-related execution.'' A third man was wounded.
The brothers, identified by the police as Joseph Licata of 2 North Drive, Whitestone, Queens, and 28-year-old Andrew Licata of 71-27 67th Place, in the Glendale section, were found inside Licata's, which they owned, at 63-59 Forest Avenue in a quiet part of a residential and commercial section of Ridgewood. The police identified the wounded man as Salvatore Cuchiara, 26. He was shot in one leg. Mr. Cuchiara was said to be in good condition in Wyckoff Hospital.
Sgt. Raymond O'Donnell said investigators believe the shooting might be connected to Tuesday's execution-style slaying of a convicted narcotics dealer, Micahel Papa, and his wife, Carla Anna. The two were found in their Queens home, in which the police found drug paraphenalia.
The police said Mr. Papa was a nephew of the slain Vincent C. Papa, a major drug dealer who was linked to the theft in 1972 of $70 million worth of drugs from the New York City Police Department's property clerk's office. The drugs had been seized in the so-called French connection case.
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Sgt. O'Donnell did not say how the killing of the Licata brothers might be connected to the slaying of the Papas. Shortly after the shooting last night, teams of detectives converged on the scene. The plate glass windows of the cafe were shattered by what one officer on the scene said was ''heavy artillery.'' Investigators said a shotgun and a pistol were used to kill the two brothers.
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According to Officer John Clifford, the two brothers were inside the cafe when suddenly one or more men opened fire on them through the glass door and front window. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene.
''They were wise guys,'' said Sergeant O'Donnell, using a slang term for organized crime figures. ''They have these little feuds.'' The body of one of the victims lay in the entryway to the cafe, , covered with a bloody white cloth. A second body lay in a patio behind the cafe.
Licata's is a small establishment on the ground floor of a twostory building of brick and wood. Above the shop are several apartments. Inside the cafe last night a few tables and chairs could be seen.
In a dining room connected to the cafe, some playing cards were scattered over one of the tables. The cafe was roped off by the police immediately after the shooting as more than a hundred neighbors crowded around the scene.
Several informers provided information leading to a major racketeering indictment that accused an organized- crime group of 25 murders, according to court documents.
The documents are complaints that police officers submitted for the arrest of some of the 21 defendants named in the indictment, which was unsealed March 30 in Federal District Court in Manhattan. The arrest complaints, which became available on Friday, referred to at least four informers.
Paul Castellano, identified by the authorities as the boss of the Gambino crime family, is the main defendant. The indictment attributed the 25 murders and many other crimes to a ''crew'' headed by Mr. Castellano.
Mr. Castellano, who is 68 years old and lives on Staten Island, has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is free on $2 million bail while awaiting trial. Most of the other defendants also pleaded not guilty and remained free on bail. One Informer Named
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The only informer identified by name in the court documents is James Fratianno, described as ''formerly a high- ranking member of La Cosa Nostra,'' who has testified against many organized-crime figures.
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According to the arrest complaint against Anthony F. Gaggi, a defendant in the racketeering indictment, Mr. Fratianno provided information about an extortionate loan that Mr. Gaggi had made to the Westchester Premier Theater in Tarrytown, which went bankrupt amid fraud charges involving organized crime.
''He was told by persons associated with the management of the theater that Anthony Gaggi, also known as Nino, had loaned approximately $200,000 to the organization,'' the complaint said of Mr. Fratianno.
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Another informer was identified only as C-2, referring to a ''cooperating witness.'' The complaint described the informer as a former member of the crime crew, which Mr. Gaggi was accused of supervising for Mr. Castellano. 1980 Slaying Recalled
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In 1980, the informer and two other members of the crew, identified as Roy DeMeo and Richard DiNome, ''tracked down and murdered'' Patrick Penny, a witness against Mr. Gaggi in a Brooklyn murder case, the complaint asserted. It noted that both Mr. DeMeo and Mr. DiNome were later slain.
An informer identified as CW-1 provided information about the purchase of guns in Florida for the crew in New York, according to the arrest complaint against ''the defendant Edward J. Rendini, also known as Fast Eddie.''
From 1979 through 1982, the complaint said, Mr. Rendini ''supplied and sold firearms on a regular and repeating basis to CW-1 and at least 10 individuals for use in the commission of felonies, such as murders, thefts, loan- sharking and drug trafficking.''
Mr. Rendini was said to have ''provided quantities of handguns (including .380 Barettas), machine guns and silencers.'' Slaying of Witness Cited
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Another defendant, Joseph C. Testa Jr., was accused of taking part in the 1975 murder of a witness named Andrei Katz in Queens. The complaint against Mr. Testa said Mr. Katz had agreed to give the authorities information about car thefts by Chris Harvey Rosenberg, identified as a member of the crew, and others.
Mr. Rosenberg was slain in 1979, the complaint added. It said two informers, one of them a woman, had provided information about the slaying of Mr. Rosenberg, whose bullet-riddled body was found in a car in Brooklyn.
Walter S. Mack Jr., the Federal prosecutor in charge of the racketeering case, declined to specify how many informers were in the case or name any of them. Other law-enforcement authorities said a key informer was Vito Arena, described as a Long Island man cooperating since his arrest on theft charges almost two years ago.
One of the defendants, Joseph Guglielmo, has been missing since Federal agents searched his Brooklyn home a few weeks ago.
Two more suspects were arrested yesterday in the murder of a police detective and the wounding of his partner in Queens on Tuesday night, the police said.
A man identified by the police as Steven Maltese, 52 years old, of 1720 Greene Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens, near the Brooklyn border, turned himself in at his lawyer's Manhattan office at 2:05 P.M. yesterday because ''he knew we were looking for him,'' said the Deputy Commissioner for Public Information, Alice T. McGillion.
Three hours later the police arrested another man, identified as Carmine Gualtieri, 55, at his home at 147-33 71st Road in Flushing, Queens, according to a Police Department spokesman, Lieut. Edwin LeSchack, who said, ''The investigation led to this guy.''
The two men were charged with second-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a deadly weapon, he said. Shot Twice in the Face
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Authorities yesterday said the detective who was wounded, Kathleen Burke, had identified herself as a police officer when she came upon the three men who were holding her partner, Detective Anthony J. Venditti, against the wall of a diner-style restaurant.
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The men shot Detective Venditti twice in the face at point-blank range, wheeled and fired at Detective Burke, then shot Detective Venditti two more times.
State law reserves the charge of first-degree murder, which is punishable by death, to the killing of a police officer or prison guard while the officer or guard is performing his duty, or to provable premeditated murder. The second-degree murder charges indicate that investigators were uncertain whether the suspects knew Detective Venditti was a police officer.
Shortly after the shooting, the police arrested Frederick Giovannielo of Queens and charged him with second-degree murder. Authorities said he was a member of the Genovese organized-crime family.
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Last night the police would not say whether either of the two new suspects had links to organized crime. An Unwritten Rule
The two suspects were held at the 104th Precinct station house in Ridgewood until shortly after midnight when they were moved to the central booking facility at the Queens Criminal Court House in Kew Gardens.
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If the assailants knew that their victims were police officers, some experts said, the shootings may be a case of organized crime breaching the conventions that have existed between it and law enforcement agents.
''There's an etiquette between law-enforcement officers and the mob,'' said Robert G. Blakey, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame and a former Federal prosecutor who specialized in organized-crime cases.
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''The mob knows in its heart that if they actually attacked law enforcement directly and law enforcement responded in kind, the mob would be wiped out,'' he said. ''But its not a code. It's better to describe it as a practice that is often breached.''
Professor Blakey said it was his guess that the gunmen ''did not know who the cops were.'' He added, ''The fact they they went back and shot him again is an indication they wanted to kill him.''
However, he went on to cite cases in which the customary etiquette had been violated.
In 1963, six men related to Carmine Lombardozzi, a reputed leader of organized crime, were charged with beating F.B.I. Agent John P. Foley, who was on assignment at a Lombardozzi family funeral in a Roman Catholic church in Brooklyn. The agent was hospitalized with a fractured skull and a concussion.
According to Mr. Blakey, ''thereafter a series of guys from the Lombardozzi family ended up beaten up in ash cans.''
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Ultimately, he said, the head of the family assured authorities ''it wouldn't happen again and everything went back to normal.''
Ronald Goldstock, head of the New York State Organized Crime Task Force, agreed with Professor Blakey. ''By and large, organized crime has restricted themselves from attacking law enforcement, and the reason has not been out of any great sense of love or respect.''
Mr. Maltese surrendered to the police outside 950 Third Avenue where the law firm representing him, Zerin & Cooper, has its office, Lieutenant LeSchack said.
Detective Burke was listed in satisfactory condition yesterday at Bellevue Hospital, recovering from a wound to her left shoulder. Meanwhile, the Detectives Endowment Association said that a funeral mass for Detective Vendetti would take place tomorrow at St. Mel's Roman Catholic Church in Flushing, Queens. He will be buried in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, N.Y.
Robert DiBernardo, a reputed captain in the Gambino crime family and a key target of a Federal investigation into child pornography, is missing, authorities said yesterday.
The Nassau County police have issued a nationwide bulletin for information about Mr. DiBernardo, who is said to have been a close associate of the slain Gambino crime boss, Paul Castellano.
Mr. Castellano and a key aide, Thomas Bilotti, were shot to death outside a midtown Manhattan restaurant on Dec. 16. According to law-enforcement officials, the killings cleared the way for John Gotti of Howard Beach, Queens, who is now in prison awaiting trial, to assume leadership of the Gambino family. They said Mr. DiBernardo also was close to Frank DeCicco, a Castellano lieutenant who was killed in a bomb blast in Brooklyn on April 13.
Last Seen June 5
Detective Sgt. Eugene Flamm, commanding officer of the Nassau County department's missing persons squad, said Mr. DiBernardo, of 1101 Harbor Road, Hewlett Harbor, L.I., left his office at 418 Broome Street in lower Manhattan at about 2 P.M. on Thursday, June 5. He was last seen by his business partner, Ted Rothstein, the sergeant said.
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Mr. DiBernardo and Mr. Rothstein are officers of Star Distributors, a company that Federal prosecutors are investigating for involvement in child pornography. A search warrant was executed at the company's office by postal inspectors on March 7, according to an assistant United States attorney in Manhattan, Harold E. Heiss. He declined to discuss the case in detail. But authorities said business records and literature were seized.
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A woman who answered the phone at Star Distributors yesterday said Mr. Rothstein was not available and that she could not answer any questions.
The director of the New York State Organized Crime Task Force, Ronald Goldstock, said Mr. DiBernardo held ''an important position in the Gambino organization and was believed responsible for criminal activities that brought in large amounts of money.'' The police and Federal authorities said that he held the rank of captainand that he had become increasingly active in aspects of the construction industry in recent years.
When Mr. DiBernardo left his office on June 5, Sergeant Flamm said, he got into his gray 1986 Mercedes Benz and drove away. ''At about a quarter of three, he called his family on the car telephone and discussed a dinner date that they had that evening,'' the sergeant said. The family never heard from him again, he said.
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The next day, the family made numerous phone calls trying to locate Mr. DiBernardo, the sergeant said. Then, at about 9:30 P.M. on Saturday, June 7, the family called the Nassau County police to report him missing.
Mr. DiBernardo, described as 6 feet tall and 160 pounds with graying blond hair, has two sons and two daughters.
''According to the family,'' the sergeant said, ''he was a routine person who leaves work at the same time each day and comes home at the same time. He always keeps in touch.''
