The fact that whomever was able to get those articles "REDACTED"
Points to OAKHAMS theory being?

Murders Remind Buffalo of the Mafia
Buffalo Special Edition News
September 24, 2008
By: Charles Ravington

BUFFALO, NY – On April 3, 2007, Monty Masimi was found murdered in his car with multiple bullet wounds in his back and head. While Buffalo Homicide Detectives arrested a suspected killer this month, the drug-related murder of Masimi provides a glimpse into the bloody history of Buffalo’s Mafia and the troubling times that organized crime in Western New York is certain to face.

Salvatore “Sammy” Vacanti, 24, of Tonawanda, was arrested this September and pled not guilty after authorities charged him as the triggerman in the ’07 drug-slaying of Masimi outside Jacobi’s Restaurant on Kenmore. The 17-month investigation has ignited rumors on Buffalo’s streets that authorities want to strike a major blow to narcotics distribution organizations in the Buffalo-Niagara area and their links to whatever remains of Buffalo’s once powerful Mafia Family.

No, Masimi and Vacanti were never a part of the Mafia. They both, however, were known drug dealers operating in the violent criminal trade traditionally controlled by the Mafia. While the ‘grand old days’ of the mob are long gone, authorities are currently looking into a series of unsolved murders in order to bring charges against whatever Mafia element still exists in Western New York.

In June of 2004, the F.B.I. announced intensions of linking a string of underworld murders to the leaders of organized crime in Buffalo. In February of ’07, Mayor Byron W. Brown and Buffalo Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson joined the investigation by having the police DNA lab look into clues remaining from murders more than 25 years ago. The man whom the F.B.I. alleges has been the mob boss since the early ‘80s, Joseph E. Todaro Sr., was the prime suspect in the 1965 murder of Charles Gerass. In ’74, mob captain John Cammilleri was murdered on the West Side on Rhode Island street on his way to the wake of Frank ‘Blaze’ LoTempio. The same year, Albert Billiteri Jr., the son of a top loan shark in the crew of captain John Cammilleri, was also murdered. Billiteri Jr. was allegedly dealing drugs and had robbed a mob associates mother. His alleged killer, Faustino Novino, was attacked a few years later by Mafia enforcers John C. Sacco, the Sicurella brothers, Joe Todaro Jr (the alleged current underboss) and Lenny Falzone (the alleged current consiglieri). This information came from Novino himself, who eventually became an informant against his mob attackers.

These ‘ancient’ murders and a dozen more have been linked to the remnants of Buffalo’s Mafia. Police looked into drug-related murders like William Esposito (’76), Peter Piccolo (’79), Robert Warner (’81), Joseph SanFratello (’85), Alan Levine (’86), Michael Ress (’90), Paul Gembella (’92), and Michael Baldi (’93). Other past murders of Mafia members and informants being examined include Frank D’Angelo (’74), Sam Rizzo (’77), Joseph Vera (’77), Billy Sciolino (’80), Carl Rizzo (’80), and Big Al Monaco (’84), among others.

Police make arrest in 2007 homicide
The Buffalo News
13 Sep 2008
By T.J. Pignataro

Salvatore M. Vacanti
A Town of Tonawanda man has been charged in the targeted shooting last year of another man outside of a Kenmore Avenue pizzeria.

Salvatore M. Vacanti, 24, of Colvin Boulevard was arraigned Thursday afternoon in Buffalo City Court on charges of seconddegree murder for allegedly shooting 44-year-old Monty V. Massimi as he left Jacobi’s Restaurant and Pizzeria, 914 Kenmore, on April 3, 2007.

Buffalo police provided few official details about the slaying following Vacanti’s arrest.

“It was a 17-month investigation that culminated in the arrest of Mr. Vacanti,” said Dennis J. Richards, chief of detectives. Richards added that Massimi’s death “was not a random act of violence” and that “Massimi was, in fact, the intended target of the shooter.”

While police stayed tightlipped, the shooting has generated heavy interest on an Internet blog about the murder.

The blog was launched just days after Massimi was killed and was still active late Friday. Posts have been rife with innuendo from those claiming to know about the murder.

Nearly 2,200 items have been posted to the blog since its inception and several mentioned Vacanti as being involved in the murder months ago.
“Some cases take time,” explained Richards. “Some cases aren’t solved overnight, but they’re not forgotten.”

Massimi, who had lived in Lockport and also had a Buffalo address, was shot several times in the head and upper body after leaving Jacobi’s about 9:30 p.m. that night. At the time, police said Massimi was found with one leg out of a car and the door open.

Police then were working to determine whether Massimi might have been lured out to his car before he was shot.
Both subjects were known to police in varying degrees.

Massimi, who served nearly 15 years on first-degree robbery and weapons charges, was released on parole in April 2005, according to state corrections records. He was charged after two employees were shot at in a 1989 Niagara Street food-store robbery.

Vacanti was previously convicted of disorderly conduct in 2002, according to court records.

He was was arrested Thursday by Buffalo homicide detectives Mark J. Lauber, Mark J. Vaughn and William C. Donovan and was taken to the Erie County Holding Center.