Copyright 1991 The Hartford Courant Company  
Hartford Courant (Connecticut)
June 28, 1991, A Edition
SECTION: CONNECTICUT; Pg. B1

LENGTH: 986 words

HEADLINE: Mobsters' musings on tape;
Leaderless mob soldiers blurted musings into microphone

BYLINE: EDMUND MAHONY; Courant Staff Writer

BODY:
The summer of 1989 was one of deep distress for the Connecticut crew of the Patriarca crime family. Family underboss William "The Wild Guy" Grasso of New Haven had been murdered. Mob factions in Boston and Providence were feuding. And the Connecticut crew -- leaderless -- was caught in the middle.

So it was with some trepidation that the men the FBI describes as the crew's five sworn members, or soldiers, approached a Mystic motel Aug. 10 to meet with an emissary from mob headquarters in Providence.

The man from Providence, Matthew Guglielmetti,
Four of its members were already suspected by mobsters in Providence of what they were ultimately indicted for: plotting and carrying out Grasso's assassination. 36 "Who knows what we're going to walk into over there today?" Louis Failla said to Gaetano Milano, as he piloted his midnight-blue Cadillac toward Mystic. FBI agents had installed a tiny transmitter in the car, and a van trailing the Cadillac was recording the conversation.

"No," Milano replied. "I'm not worried about that."

Failla agreed.

"Not this," he said. "Too many people involved. They won't. They'll never cowboy us today. Later on, maybe."

They never discussed what might happen after the meeting.

The men piled out of their cars to meet with Guglielmetti at the Mystic Ramada Inn, and later piled back in, grousing about what happened inside the hotel. Failla and Milano rode in the Cadillac along with reputed mob associate John Taddei of New Haven, who had been waiting outside.

When the engine turned over, Milano said -- nervously -- that he heard an odd noise..

"That this car?" Failla asked. He heard it too.

The tiny FBI transmitter beamed a quiet beeping sound to the eavesdropping agents.

"Stereo?" Taddei asked. "The radio?"

"Holy [expletive]," Milano said.

"Something here," Failla croaked. "Any lights flashing? ... If this is a [expletive] bomb, we better get out of this car."

"Get the [expletive] out," Taddei shouted. He sounded truly anxious. "I'll stay here and get. ... How the [expletive] would I know? Whose car is this?"

"Mine," Failla said.

"You're asking me?" Taddei wanted to know.

"Hey you know what, Louie," Milano shouted. "They knew we were coming alone. They knew we were coming alone. They probably [unintelligible word] a place to [expletive] blow it up."

"Something, something trying to tell me I need something," Failla said. "What do I need, [expletive] air in my tires?"

"Pull back. Pull back," Taddei said. "It ain't telling you nothing. Pull back."

There is one school of thought among agents assigned to the investigation -- which contributed to the racketeering indictments of 21 reputed Patriarca Family members and associates in March 1990 -- that a temporary malfunction in their transmitter caused the beeping..

Eight of those indicted, including reputed mob boss Nicholas Bianco of Providence, are being tried on racketeering charges in U.S. District Court in Hartford. The recording of events in Failla's car is one of dozens introduced as evidence at the trial.

In any event, the car never blew up. And because of Failla's habit of using it to ferry his associates, it continued to be a treasure trove of information for investigators.

When Failla and his passengers calmed down and headed home toward Old Saybrook on I-95, the trailing agents listened to them rehash the Mystic meeting and events leading to it.

Different members of the Connecticut crew had been jockeying to replace Grasso. Milano was the choice of those in Failla's car. But Guglielmetti reported that the mob's boss at the time, Raymond "Junior" Patriarca, had decreed no one from Connecticut would get the job. Guglielmetti said the job would become his.

Furthermore, the Connecticut crew had been told that all profits from their rackets had to be sent to Providence. Providence would decide how much would be returned for the crew to live on.

The Connecticut men were incensed, and talked about enlisting the mob's Boston faction in an attempt to work out a better deal.

"It's all [expletive] politics and crime," Failla said.

The arrangement never improved. The Providence and Boston factions made peace, and Guglielmetti continued to be capo, or captain, of the Connecticut crew until the indictments, evidence at the trial suggests.

In fact, it wasn't long after the Mystic meeting that the microphone in Failla's car picked up talk about a huge mob birthday party planned for Aug. 29 at Lombardo's Restaurant in East Boston. While chatting one day with mob dice and card cheat John "Fast Jack" Farrell, Failla said the party was an attempt to ease "the [expletive] dissension that's goin' on."

FBI agents videotaped most of the Connecticut crew entering and leaving the party for family Consiglieri Joseph "J.R." Russo's father. Failla and Farrell drove up together -- in the Cadillac. As they pulled onto the highway, Farrell told his pal that his wife suspected he was "hangin' around with them [expletive] gangsters."

Between sips of beer, the men talked about what they expected to find at the party, like a couple of schoolgirls going to their first dance. They talked about who would attend -- "All mustaches. Captains. All of Boston," Failla said -- and what everyone would be wearing. Farrell was a little concerned he'd be mistaken for an FBI agent.

"I look like a fed, don't I Louie?" he asked.

"Sure you do," Failla replied.

"Guys don't know me," Farrell said.

Forget about it, Failla replied. They looked great.

"We'd give John Gotti and his [expletive] crew competition today. Us dressin' up."

Gotti, Boss of New York's Gambino crime family, is known as The Dapper Don because of the $ 2,000 suits he wears to court appearances.