Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company  
The Boston Globe
December 5, 2003, Friday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: METRO/REGION; Pg. B11

LENGTH: 799 words

HEADLINE: WIRETAP TAPES PORTRAY FEARS OF MOB RIVALS

BYLINE: By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff

BODY:
Some things never change. While waves of New England mobsters have gone to prison in the past two decades, done in by their own bugged conversations, they're still talking. And investigators are still listening.

"He's gone, believe me," said reputed mob soldier Frederick Simone, about an unknown target in a conversation secretly recorded by the Massachusetts State Police on Oct. 29, 2000, and disclosed yesterday during a bail hearing in federal court.

   "I'm gonna hit him with a [expletive] bat on his legs," Simone was quoted as saying. "He's gonna be all busted up. I don't even want to kill him. I just want to put him in a cast."

It was a conversation that was rather ironic, in that it occurred exactly 11 years to the day after the FBI bugged a Mafia induction ceremony in Medford. Ultimately, tapes of that Oct. 29, 1989, gathering of 21 Mafiosi from throughout New England helped convict many of Simone's friends, including Vincent "Dee Dee" Gioacchini, a reputed soldier.

Yesterday, it became evident from an affidavit unsealed in US District Court in Boston that new tapes from conversations wiretapped by the State Police have provided the bulk of evidence used to indict Simone, Gioacchini, and their associate, Francis White, earlier this week on federal racketeering, loansharking, and extortion charges.

Excerpts from the tapes, which are included in the affidavit, describe a brewing mob war, with Gioacchini, White, and Simone carrying guns as they feared being ambushed by rivals who tried to intimidate them by leaving dead fish around. That message, which Simone was overheard complaining about, was right out of television's "The Sopranos."

The affidavit alleges that in October 2000, what was left of New England's Patriarca crime family was led by: the boss, Luigi "Louie" Manocchio of Rhode Island; the underboss, Alexander "Sonny Boy" Rizzo of Revere; capos Carmen DiNunzio and Mark Rossetti of Boston and Matthew L. Guglielmetti Jr. of Rhode Island; and, now deceased, the consigliere, Rocco "Shaky" Argenti.

Gioacchini, 51, of East Boston, and Simone, 53, of Wakefield, are identified in the affidavit as mob soldiers. White, 59, of East Boston, is described as a longtime mob associate.

Federal prosecutors filed the affidavit by Detective Lieutenant John Tutungian of the State Police yesterday during a hearing that has been continued until Monday on whether White should be jailed without bail until his trial. Simone and Gioacchini already are jailed pending hearings.

Simone had been released from state prison in 1998 after serving 11 years for plotting to carry out a 1981 gangland murder. Gioacchini was released from federal prison in November 1994 after serving four years for racketeering and drug dealing. In that case, an undercover FBI agent had captured conversation about criminal exploits.

Although Antonio "Spucky" Spagnolo had been convicted with Gioacchini in that racketeering and drug dealing case, the affidavit unsealed yesterday says new tapes reveal that a rift had developed between the pair.

During an Oct. 21, 2000, conversation taped by State Police, Gioacchini complained that Spagnolo had put a crew together. Gioacchini then told him, "You ain't with us, you ain't entitled to nothing. We'll put you on a shelf."

After Spagnolo was released from federal prison in February 1999, he ordered bookies who had been paying tribute to Gioacchini to start paying him instead, according to the affidavit.

Fearing that rival mobsters were gunning for him, Gioacchini said that if he caught anyone tailing him, "I'll quit [expletive] work and I'll devote my time to the [expletive] street and I'll annihilate everybody."

Simone was recorded saying, "You don't want guys like us acting paranoid."

Yet even while he feared he might be ambushed, Simone enlisted Joseph Salvati as his driver. Salvati had been released in 1997 after serving 30 years in prison for a 1965 gangland murder he didn't commit. During an Oct. 28, 2000, conversation detailed in the affidavit, Simone said Salvati told him, "I don't give a [expletive], Freddie . . . I'm right here, and that's the way it is."

Earlier this week, after it was disclosed that Salvati had also been overheard on the wiretaps, his attorney, Victor Garo, said Salvati became friends with Simone when they were in prison together and drove him around for a few months when Simone lost his license for drunken driving. Salvati hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing.

The affidavit says Gioacchini and Simone enlisted Guglielmetti, the Rhode Island capo, to help patch up their rift with Spagnolo. Guglielmetti allegedly arranged for Gioacchini and Simone to bypass the Boston faction of the mob and report directly to the hierarchy in Rhode Island.