Interesting old article....

The Year of the Rat

By JERRY CAPECI | December 30, 2004

Gang Land is normally not a devotee of the pejorative three-letter word that wiseguys and mob lawyers use to describe Mafia turncoats (we don't call them heroes, either). This year, though, there's no better way to underscore their importance to the feds than to declare 2004 The Year of the Rat.

Even before the year began, then acting Bonanno boss Anthony "Tony Green" Urso stressed the damage that defectors were inflicting, suggesting in a tape-recorded conversation that the mob would be better served by lifting its self-imposed ban against killing relatives of mobsters who cooperate with the FBI.

"It's gotta stop," a frustrated Urso declared during a September 13, 2003, discussion about turncoat underboss Salvatore Vitale: "Now this one's a rat, that one says, 'Well, f--- it, if he can do it, I can do it.' You tell them, 'Whoever turns, we'll wipe your family out.' If you take one kid - I hate to say it - and do what you gotta do, they'll f---ing think twice. How would Sal feel if I killed one of his kids?"

Urso's tape-recorded words were later played by federal prosecutors at the trial of Bonanno boss Joseph Massino, the so-called Last Don, who was convicted of seven mob murders and other racketeering charges. All told, using a bunch of mob associates and a dozen "made men" as witnesses at three trials, the feds managed to bring down the leaders of three families: Massino, Gambino boss Peter Gotti, and acting Luchese boss Louis "Louie Bagels" Daidone.

The turncoats included courtroom veterans like Luchese mobsters Alphonse "Little Al" D'Arco and Frank Gioia Jr. and newcomers like Gambino wiseguys Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo and Frank "Frankie Fapp" Fappiano.

Rather than confront other mob defectors, Colombo consigliere Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace and Genovese capo Louis Moscatiello chose to take plea deals instead of facing certain convictions at trial and even longer prison stretches than they bargained for (20 years for Cacace, seven for Moscatiello).

Along the way, especially during the holiday season, the feds send out messages to reinforce the proposition that mob defectors who please their law enforcement allies will be amply rewarded.

The feds behave in much the same manner as John Gotti acted when he was running things. The late Dapper Don liked to reward up-and-coming wannabes around Christmas time. Son Junior and Mikey Scars were "straightened out" at a special Christmas Eve induction in 1998.

Likewise, the feds this month showered Christmas gifts on at least three witnesses in their growing stable.

One day after Salvatore "Fat Sal" Mangiavillano ended his testimony about a Gambino family plot to kill turncoat Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano at Peter Gotti's trial in Manhattan Federal Court, a federal judge agreed with a request by the feds to release Fat Sal on bail.

Two weeks later, on December 17, Frank "Red" Scollo, who testified against Gotti at his labor racketeering trial in Brooklyn, got his Christmas present. A former International Longshoremen's Association vice president, Scollo served as a mob bagman on the Brooklyn and Staten Island docks for two decades. He received a "time served" sentence of one day in prison.

That same day, weeping Colombo soldier Joseph Campanella shed tears of joy when told he would have to serve just another seven months - for a total of 33 - as punishment for a gangster life of crime that included several murder conspiracies during the family's bloody war that left 12 dead in the early 1990s.

Federal prosecutors don't always wait until the traditional gift-giving sea son to bestow good cheer on a turncoat, especially when their efforts might encourage others to cooperate or, more importantly, soothe growing discontent and concern among those who have already signed on with the feds.

Take the case of Chris Paciello, the onetime mob-connected Miami club owner and Madonna pal who ran with a murderous gang of Bonanno wannabes in the early 1990s. Paciello, who initially agreed to take 30 years for charges that included his involvement in the murder of Staten Island housewife Judith Shemtov during a home-invasion robbery, was later sentenced to 10 years after deciding very late in the game to cooperate.

Paciello, who prison sources say "whines all the time," was not happy with the sentence and complained to his federal handlers. Working in his favor was a desire by prosecutors to use him as a witness next year at the bank robbery trial of two Gambino associates who are also implicated in the murder of an informer.

In addition, other Bonanno turncoats, including Vitale and Frank "Curly" Lino, who have many more dead bodies than Paciello on their mob resumes, also "expressed concern" about his double-digit sentence and questioned what was in store for them.

As a result, four assistant U.S. attorneys last September 10 appeared in court with Paciello and his high-priced attorney, Benjamin Brafman, to praise Paciello as a completely reformed hoodlum and petition Brooklyn Federal Judge Edward Korman to reconsider his sentence.

"How far down can you go in good conscience," said an obviously troubled Judge Korman. "How do I explain this to her [Shemtov's] daughter?" he asked rhetorically before bowing to the pressure and cutting Paciello's term to seven years, making him eligible for release in 2006.

Like the late Dapper Don, who sentenced soldier Louis DiBono to death for ignoring orders to show up and pay homage to Gotti, the feds also punish cooperating witnesses, even for relatively minor transgressions when it suits them - albeit with less extreme consequences than fell upon DiBono.

Take the case of turncoat Luchese soldier Vincent "Vinny Baldy" Salanardi, who held back information that his girlfriend, who was down and out last year after he began cooperating, had received $900 in three installments from a businessman who had been a loanshark customer of Salanardi's.

Despite the seemingly minor charge and a plausible explanation - Salanardi and the businessman had become partners in a car wash, and after he began cooperating his girlfriend kept bugging him for money, so he told her to ask the businessman for help - the feds have told him they're tearing up his cooperation agreement.

Unlike Paciello - or turncoat De-Cavalcante capo Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo, who withheld $1.7 million but whose testimony was needed last year to convict Genovese soldier Federico "Fritzi" Giovanelli - the feds don't need Vinny Baldy to help them win any convictions. More than 20 Salanardi co-defendants, including his father, girlfriend, and brother-in-law, all pleaded guilty when they learned he was cooperating.

While Vinny Baldy isn't expected to appear on the witness stand for the feds in 2005, dozens of others are, including Vitale, Lino, Paciello, Campanella, Fappiano, and DiLeonardo. Like 2004, next year is likely to be another Year of the Rat.


Tommy Shots: They want me running the family, don't they know I have a young wife?
Sal Vitale: (laughs) Tommy, jump in, the water's fine.