One day in October 1988, the police found the body of 28-year-old Victor Filocamo stuffed inside the trunk of a white B.M.W. parked on 73rd Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

At the time, investigators suspected that Mr. Filocamo was killed because of his ties to the underworld, and, over the last decade, three known mobsters pleaded guilty in the slaying. But yesterday, federal prosecutors announced that two additional men were responsible for the mob hit, and charged them in Federal District Court in Brooklyn with conspiracy to murder Mr. Filocamo.

The murder charges were part of a broad racketeering indictment against seven reputed members of the Luchese crime family, two of whom were accused of taking part in Mr. Filocamo's death more than a decade ago inside a mob-connected social club in Bensonhurst. The seven men were also charged with other crimes, from loan sharking to drug dealing to arson.

While the indictment charged the men, Joseph Tangorra, 51, and Joseph Truncale, 69, with participating in Mr. Filocamo's murder, it made no mention of a motive. But investigators said that Mr. Filocamo was killed because of suspicions that he was a government informer.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Cleaning Services
Housekeeping Services Near Me
Sponsored by Cleaning Services
See more

The indictment said Mr. Truncale and Mr. Tangorra were members of a Luchese family group known as the Bensonhurst Crew. It also said five other men -- Eugene Castelle, 40; Lester Ellis, 50; Robert Greenberg, 29; John Castellucci, 43; and Scott Gervasi, 36 -- were members of the group.

From 1987 to earlier this year, Mr. Tangorra, who is known in the underworld as Joey Flowers, and Mr. Castelle, who goes by the nickname Boopsie, supervised the Bensonhurst Crew as it ran illegal gambling dens and loan-sharking businesses throughout southern Brooklyn, the indictment said. The crew has also been accused of attempted murder.

SIGN UP FOR THE NEW YORK TODAY NEWSLETTER: Each morning, get the latest on New York businesses, arts, sports, dining, style and more.
Sign Up
Investigators have said that Mr. Tangorra's crew was once led by a Luchese captain named George Zappola, who was known to mobsters and federal agents as Georgie Neck. Mr. Zappola is serving a 22-year sentence in a federal prison in Brooklyn where, four years ago, he attempted an unusual scheme to perpetuate his family name. Hoping to have a grown child waiting for him when he got out of prison, Mr. Zappola arranged to have his sperm smuggled out of the Metropolitan Detention Center in 1996 with the help of a corrupt prison guard, court papers show. Although the sperm was eventually sent to a Manhattan fertility clinic, where it was frozen for future use, the woman who was to carry Mr. Zappola's child changed her mind about being artificially inseminated and cooperated with federal agents long enough to derail the plan.

Mr. Tangorra is facing separate state charges in Manhattan, where he was accused in September of bribery, bid-rigging and other racketeering schemes that investigators said siphoned millions of dollars from construction projects in the last two years. The state indictment, which named several union officials, contractors and other reputed mobsters, was the most significant case focusing on organized crime's role in the construction industry in a decade, the authorities said.

ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
The Children''s Trust
This Organization Provides Parent Programs, Children's Book Clubs and More in Miami
Sponsored by The Children''s Trust
See more

All seven men in the current federal case pleaded not guilty yesterday and are scheduled to appear for bail hearings on Monday.
Their lawyers were dismissive of the government's accusations.

''If these defendants represent a high level of organized crime figures,'' said one defense lawyer who spoke on the condition that he not be named, ''then America is safe.''


A March 1986 raid on DiBernardo's office seized alleged "child pornography and financial records." As "a result of the Postal Inspectors seizures [a federal prosecutor] is attempting to indict DiBernardo on child pornography violations" according to an FBI memo dated May 20, 1986.
Thousands of pages of FBI Files that document his involvement in Child Porn
https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/star-distributors-ltd-46454/
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/0...s-Miporn-investigation-of/7758361252800/
https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1526052/united-states-v-dibernardo/