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The Boston Globe
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March 27, 1990, Tuesday, City Edition
SECTION: METRO/REGION; Pg. 1 p.

LENGTH: 1804 words

HEADLINE: Indictments aimed at mob net Patriarca, 20 others;
Use of electronic surveillance aids federal probers in N.E. rackets case

BYLINE: By Elizabeth Neuffer, Globe Staff; John Ellement of the Globe staff contributed to this story.

BODY:
In what federal authorities called an "unprecedented assault" on the leadership of the New England Mafia, federal authorities have indicted alleged Mafia boss Raymond J. (Junior) Patriarca and 20 reputed members of the Patriarca crime family in three states on charges including racketeering, illegal gambling, extortion, drug trafficking and murder.

The indictments, unsealed yesterday, effectively accuse almost all of the Patriarca crime family's reputed top leaders, charging alleged Patriarca underboss Nicholas L. Bianco, consigliere, or adviser, Joseph A. (J.R) Russo and four of the organization's six reputed lieutenants with a pattern of crimes that span the past 15 years.

Authorities said the indictments reveal for the first time the innermost workings of the Mafia, or La Cosa Nostra, through the successful electronic surveillance of a Patriarca family induction ceremony.

Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and FBI Director William Sessions, at a news conference in Boston yesterday, described the charges as the most sweeping attack ever launched on a single organized crime family.

"The case is important in that it represents a stake in the heart of a major organized crime family from the boss on down,"' Thornburgh told reporters yesterday. "It establishes beyond doubt the existence of a secret clandestine operation that takes itself very seriously in terms of the illegal operations it carries out." Also speaking at the news conference yesterday were the US attorneys for Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Federal authorities said yesterday that the indictments resulted from five years worth of investigation that utilized federal undercover agents, electronic surveillance and cooperating witnesses.

Thomas A. Hughes, the director of the FBI in Boston, said in a later interview that the successful use of electronic surveillance by federal agents to reveal the workings of a Patriarca crime family induction ceremony will forever discredit the crime family in the eyes of the Mafia.

"They have made a monumental mistake," said Hughes, adding that Patriarca and others should consider themselves "in mortal danger" from other Mafia members because of the secrets they had unwittingly exposed.

Hughes added: "There is no doubt that this is the most widespread bringing of charges against a La Cosa Nostra family in history."

Scores of federal agents swept across Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut in a series of early morning raids yesterday, arresting key leaders of the Patriarca crime family and a host of associates. All but six of the 21 named in the indictments are under arrest, authorities said.

Among those arrested and charged from Massachusetts and Rhode Island yesterday were Patriarca, alleged capo, or lieutenant, Biagio DiGiacomo, and reputed soldiers Carmen A. Tortora and Antonio L. (Spucky) Spagnola. All were ordered detained by federal magistrates in US District Court in Boston yesterday.

New charges were also brought against reputed Mafia capos Vincent M. (The Animal) Ferrara, Robert F. (Bobby Russo) Carrozza and Joseph Russo. Indicted on a 57-count indictment in November, all have been detained in federal custody until their trial.

Still being sought by federal authorities in Massachusetts yesterday were reputed Mafia soldier Angelo (Sonny) Mercurio, indicted in November 1989. Mafia associate Pasquale (Patsy) Barone is serving a state prison sentence.

Also charged in a Connecticut indictment yesterday were reputed Mafia underboss Bianco, and reputed capo Matthew L. Guglielmetti, as well as eight other Mafia soldiers In Connecticut, federal authorities arrested reputed Mafia soldier Louis Failla, 62, of East Hartford, and reputed Mafia associate John E. Farrell, 52, of Manchester.

In total, there are 113 counts against the Patriarca crime family. They are contained in three indictments returned by federal grand juries last week and unsealed yesterday. Common to each indictment are the details of the induction ceremony.

According to the indictment, 17 members of the Patriarca family, including Patriarca and his top lieutenants, met in Medford to induct four new members. Those inducted received instructions concerning Mafia rules, and "agreed to kill individuals who would pose a threat to the organization."

Federal authorities have used the ceremony to establish that the Mafia is an "enterprise" and have then charged the defendants with committing various crimes through "a pattern of racketeering." Those elements are necessary to charge the men with the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO.

Patriarca is charged in only one of the three indictments. The 65-count indictment also charges reputed Mafia consigliere, or adviser, Joseph Russo, reputed Mafia capos Ferrara, Carrozza, Dennis D. (Champagne) Lepore, alleged Mafia soldiers Tortora, and Mercurio and reputed Mafia associate Barone.

The indictment supersedes charges brought against Ferrara, Russo, Carrozza, Mercurio and Lepore in November 1989. In that indictment, they were accused of committing extortion, murder, robbery and narcotics trafficking through a pattern of racketeering. This indictment additionally accuses them of their role in the Mafia induction ceremony.

New to the indictment are the charges against Patriarca, Barone and Tortora. Patriarca is accused of crossing state lines to facilitate illegal gambling and the distribution of narcotics, and extortion from 1985 to 1989.

Tortora is accused of extorting money from debtors. In 1980, the indictment charges, Tortora threatened to split open the head of one debtor, Paul Alexander, or slit his throat if he failed to make weekly interest payment.

In addition to other charges, Barone is accused of three murders, including shooting and killing Vincent James Limoli Jr. in a drug dispute. According to the indictment, he told one man, Walter Jordan, that by committing murders he would "move up in the Mafia" with Ferrara.

The 152-page indictment also provides interesting insight into the structure of the Mafia and reveals how the family met periodically to arrange its distribution of power between Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In particular, the indictment indicates that the family regrouped to discuss its power structure in the wake of the 1989 assassination of underboss William Grasso.

The indictment also indicates the Patriarca crime family suffered from dissension between Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

As long ago as 1981, the organized crime family was holding meetings for the "purposes of receiving instructions concerning the line of authority and reporting with the Patriarca Family between Massachusetts and Rhode Island."

Those problems had not been resolved by 1989, the indictment indicates. Then, Connecticut Patriarca family members Louis R. Failla and Gaetano J. Milano objected to the instructions that they were to take problems they had to reputed capo Matthew L. Guglielmetti, saying that they wanted to see the family's consigliere, Russo.

"'Who in the . . . are they to tell us we can't go directly to Boston to see the Consigliere!" Failli is quoted in the indictment as saying.

At US District Court in Boston yesterday, both Patriarca and Tortora made an inital appearance before US Magistrate Lawrence P. Cohen.

Patriarca's attorney, John F. Cicilline, said in an interview outside the courtroom that Patriarca was suffering from cancer of the urinary tract and had to have period treatments "at a hospital in Massachusetts."

Tortora, speaking through his attorney, Alan Chapman, said he lives in Brockton, is married with two children and works in his wife's video rental store in Dorchester.

The second, 37-count indictment unsealed yesterday charges reputed Mafia capo DiGiacomo, and reputed soldiers Vincent C. (Dee Dee) Gioacchini, and Spagnola with crimes including racketeering, illegal gambling, extortion and the distribution of narcotics.

Authorities said the indictment sprang from a FBI investigation that stretched from 1983 to 1987. All three are charged with extorting thousands of dollars from debtors to whom they had extended credit. Spagnolo and Digiacomo are also accused of carrying out a stolen credit card scheme from 1986 to 1987.

According to the indictment, DiGiacomo in 1986 bragged about his illegal gambling businesses to Ferrara, saying "I got a hundred people working for me."

Further eroding the belief that the Mafia is not involved in drug trafficking, both DiGiacomo and Spagnolo are accused of conspiring to and distributing cocaine from 1985 to 1987. Spagnolo is also accused of conspiring to distribute marijuana.

At US District Court in Boston yesterday, Spagnolo and DiGiacomo both pleaded not guilty to the charges in front of US Magistrate Joyce London Alexander.

The third indictment, returned in Hartford, charges reputed underboss Nicholas Bianco, reputed capo Guglielmetti, and a host of soldiers and associates with crimes including racketeering, conspiracy to murder, loan-sharking, illegal gambling and wire fraud.
 
A 'BAPTISM' COMPLETE WITH THE CUTTING OF TRIGGER FINGERS

LAST OCT. 29, ACCORDING TO THE INDICTMENTS RELEASED YESTERDAY, AN FBI BUG PICKED UP A SECRET CEREMONY AT WHICH RAYMOND J. PATRIARCA PRESIDED OVER THE INDUCTION OF CARMEN A. TORTORA, VINCENT FEDERICO, RICHARD J.E. FLORAMO AND ROBERT P. DELUCA INTO THE "FAMILY." THE RITUAL WAS ATTENDED BY 17 MEMBERS OF THE PATRIARCA ORGANIZATION FROM MASSACHUSETTS, CONNECTICUT AND RHODE ISLAND.

BIAGIO DIGIACOMO FORMALLY OPENED THE CEREMONY, WHICH TOOK PLACE AT A HOUSE IN MEDFORD, BY SAYING IN ITALIAN, "IN HONOR OF THE FAMILY, THE FAMILY IS OPEN."

HE TOLD TORTORA, "CARMEN, WE'RE GOING TO BAPTIZE YOU AGAIN. YOU WERE BAPTIZED WHEN YOU WERE A BABY, YOUR PARENTS DID IT, BUT NOW THIS TIME WE'RE GOING TO BAPTIZE YOU."

THEN, IN ITALIAN, DIGIACOMO ADMINISTERED THE FOLLOWING OATHS TO THE FOUR INDUCTEES:

"I WANT TO ENTER INTO THIS ORGANIZATION TO PROTECT MY FAMILY AND TO PROTECT MY FRIENDS. I SWEAR NOT TO DIVULGE THIS SECRET AND TO OBEY, WITH LOVE AND OMERTA," A REFERENCE TO A CODE OF SILENCE.

EACH INDUCTEE'S TRIGGER FINGER WAS THEN CUT TO DRAW BLOOD TO USE IN THE RITUAL. A HOLY CARD WITH THE IMAGE OF THE PATRON SAINT OF THE PATRIARCA FAMILY WAS THEN BURNED AS DIGIACOMO CONTINUED WITH THE SECOND OATH, AGAIN IN ITALIAN.

"AS BURNS THIS SAINT, SO WILL BURN MY SOUL. I ENTER ALIVE INTO THIS ORGANIZATION AND LEAVE IT DEAD."

AFTER THE OATHS, DIGIACOMO TOLD THE FOUR NEW "SOLDIERS," "WE GET IN ALIVE IN THIS ORGANIZATION AND THE ONLY WAY WE'RE GOING TO GET OUT IS DEAD NO MATTER WHAT. IT'S NO HOPE, NO JESUS, NO MADONNA, NOBODY CAN HELP US IF WE EVER GIVE UP THIS SECRET TO ANYBODY, ANY KINDS OF FRIENDS OF MINE, LET'S SAY. THIS THING THAT CANNOT BE EXPOSED."


GRAPHIC: PHOTO, RAYMOND (JUNIOR) PATRIARCA IS ESCORTED INTO FEDERAL COURT IN BOSTON BEFORE HIS ARRAIGNMENT. GLOBE STAFF PHOTO / GEORGE RIZER
1. LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS ESCORT ANTONIO L. (SPUCKY) SPAGNOLA INTO FEDERAL COURT IN BOSTON YESTERDAY. 2. REPUTED MAFIA CAPO BIAGIO DIGIACOMO SMILES BEFORE HIS COURT APPEARANCE YESTERDAY. 3. CARMEN A. TORTORA IS LED TO THE COURTHOUSE. GLOBE STAFF PHOTOS / GEORGE RIZER