Copyright 2003 Boston Herald Inc.  
The Boston Herald
December 5, 2003 Friday ALL EDITIONS
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 008

LENGTH: 638 words

HEADLINE: Fed wiretaps detail vicious N.E. mob power feud

BYLINE: By J. M. LAWRENCE

BODY:
Rising Boston Mafia soldiers left dead fish for mob associates during an internal war in 2000 under New England godfather Luigi "Louie" Manocchio's watch, according to records unsealed yesterday revealing the entire mob hierarchy.

"They got him and me at the same time. Threw a (expletive) fish in his (expletive) hallway," longtime footsoldier Vincent "Dee Dee" Gioacchini complained, according to wiretaps.

Manocchio, the aged old-world godfather based in Providence, leads a noxious, unhappy Mafia family with Alexander "Sonny Boy" Rizzo, pushing 90 years old, as the Boston underboss, according to a state police 78-page affidavit. Rizzo is out of jail after serving five years for racketeering with a group of Patriarca crime family members nicknamed, "The Oldfellas."

At the underboss' right hand is Boston capo Carmen DiNunzio, Det. Lt. John Tutungian told a federal magistrate yesterday. DiNunzio runs a cheese shop in the North End.

Tutungian and federal prosecutors revealed portions of wiretaps in a bid to keep Gioacchini, convicted killer Frederick "The Neighbor" Simone and Francis White behind bars on a new racketeering indictment.

The wiretaps reveal Gioacchini, 51, and Simone, 53, ready to kill to protect their territory from a power grab by Anthony "Spucky" Spagnolo and his men, whom they feared included Hell's Angels. They blame Spagnolo for the dead fish and for threatening Gioacchini's wife.

Simone also laments that his old prison buddy Joseph Salvati, 71, who's been driving him around since Simone lost his license, could get hurt.

"Joe, here's poor Joe," Simone said on Oct. 28, 2000. "Did 30 (expletive) years. Said, 'I don't give a (expletive), Freddie.' He said, 'I'm right here and that's the way it is.' He comes and picks me up . . . every day."

Salvati was wrongly convicted of a 1965 mob murder and did 30 years in prison before his sentence was commuted in '97.

Gioacchini and Simone banded together to fight Spagnolo and called on Mafia leadership to give them some respect. The men can be heard vowing to kill to save themselves.

"I don't give a (expletive). I ain't gonna get shot. I'd rather get judged by 12 (jurors) than carried by six (pallbearers)," Simone said on Oct. 21, 2000. Simone has been an LCN (La Cosa Nostra) member for 30 years, according to the affidavit.

Gioacchini, who was convicted of rackeetering in 1991, said, "I'll annihilate everybody. Now, now, now, now you got my back up against the wall."

When Rhode Island capo Matthew L. Guglielmetti Jr. comes to meet with them to smooth out the rift, Simone and Gioacchini are ready to whack him if they don't like his answers, according to investigators.

"I'll (expletive) bang shoot him right here. That's on my dead father and mother. That's it. I don't give a (expletive). I did 15, 18 in my life I'll do another 15," Simone says, referring to his sentence for hogtying and killing a mob associate in 1981.

But Guglielmetti commiserates with them on the rise of some Mafia members promoted just for their long years of service. "So now, I mean it's like, ah, a whore in the neighborhood - you know you stand here long enough we'll use her," Guglielmetti said.

Simone allegedly eventually reached out to the Springfield mob for extra help. LCN Capo Adolfo Bruno of the New York-based Genovese crime family met with Simone, Gioacchini and White in the North End that fall to help broker some peace, according to the affidavit. Bruno was assassinated last month in Springfield.

Eventually Guglielmetti tells the men that Spagnolo would back off. "Gioacchini and Simone were able to arrange this resolution because the LCN leadership respected these two Soldiers who had done a lot of 'work' for the LCN," according to the affidavit.

Caption: MANOCCHIO: R.I.-based New England mob godfather