I would live to say I never feared any man, but that would be a lie, because there was one I did fear, John Joseph (Mad Dog) Sullivan. (for those of you who have been asking me for some specifics on my activities in the 70s and 80s, this is about as specific as it is going to get)
I knew Sully well. I had sold him hardware and washed some money for him in the past. This guy was an amicable monster. He had a quick wit, a sense of humor but would kill you at the drop of a hat and in the early 80s I found myself on the opposite sides of a dispute that had already amassed a body count
I remember I was sitting in Rosies Restaurant on Lafayette street in Utica NY waiting for someone who wanted to buy a .38 snub nose I had for sale. Another friend of mine walked in and sat down at the counter next to me. He looked pale and sick.
“Sully is here” he said to me. I said nothing except, “shit”
We already knew he had whacked John Fiorino in Rochester the day before, what we didn’t know was that his driver had already ratted him out and that he was on the run, or why he was in town, or that that some time that same day he would rob a marine midland bank in East Utica.
Almost all the Buffalo loyalists in that town as well as surrounding places, literally "went to the mattresses". He had been with the Rochester separatists and had ties to the Colombos and we thought he was in town to settle some scores and no one felt safe.
I planted myself in a “safe house” on Catherine street with a Baretta AR-70. I would not know until later he had parked his car less then two blocks away from where I was staying, (behind Whiteys for those who know the area) and he was on the lam staying upstairs to an import company owned by a Colombo associate less then a mile away.
We has all gone nose to know with Colombo and NE Pennsylvania guys for the past two years and were brazen and without fear, yet this one guy sent us scrambling.
The FBI says they believe he whacked around 30 people, I think that estimate is low.
In the end, he was arrested outside of Utica without incident, and some of us were never so glad to hear about an arrest in our lives
He was found NOT guilty of the bank robbery, but Guilty of three counts of homicide and three counts of “depraved indifference for human life”, and was essentially given 6 life sentences, 3 and 3 running concurrently.