ARCHINA WANTED BY MOB, COPS SAY
Toronto police say he's regarded as a stool
pigeon
BY CAILIN BROWN
October 28, 1993
The chances of Frank J. Archina Jr. making his way back to Canada
are pretty slim because most people he knew there would consider him a "pigeon,"
as in stool pigeon, according to Metro Toronto police.
Not only did Archina, known as Archino in Canada,
talk to the press after his release from prison, he also appeared on a television show
about organized crime, called "Connections," broadcast by the
Canadian Broadcasting Co.
The CBC has refused to release copies of the program because of
litigation related to it.
"He came through as a pigeon in the press," said Metro
Toronto Inspector Bob Strathdee, who worked extensively on the case. He said Archina
shouldn't come back to Canada.
Archina, the fugitive former business agent of Laborers Local 452
in Troy, disappeared from the Capital Region in early September after the
New Jersey-based International Laborers Union of North America found that money was
missing from savings and pension accounts.
Shortly after that internal investigation, the FBI began its probe
and the U.S. attorney's office issued a warrant for Archina's arrest on charges that he
embezzled $570,000 from the union.
Metro staff Inspector Ron Sandelli said that
although Archina's face was obscured when he appeared in "Connections," police
officials knew it was him.
During the television program, Archina talked about getting sworn
into the mob.
"He wasn't a very bright individual. He was as thick as a
brick," Sandelli said. "I'm surprised he would steal this kind of money from a
union. I wouldn't want him looking after my union funds."
The FBI has not approached Toronto police in connection with the
Archina investigation, although his name is on their wanted list.
Strathdee said he was investigating an unrelated counterfeiting
operation in 1976 when Archina and his partner at the time, George Leo Mickley of Albany,
stopped at a Toronto car dealership under surveillance.
In a telephone interview Wednesday, Strathdee gave this account of
his encounter with Archina:
Toronto constables stopped the car with Archina and Mickley in it
for a routine traffic check and noticed hotel keys on the car seat, although the men said
they were not staying in Toronto.
Strathdee went to the hotel, and while he was questioning them
there, the two men admitted that they were in Toronto to do a "kneecapping."
A .38-caliber pistol was hidden in the spare tire
along with directions to the home of Tony Commisso, a real estate salesman Archina and
Mickley said they intended to shoot. The directions and a note were handwritten by Domenic
Racco, Commisso's brother-in-law and a Toronto mobster who was at the time serving a
10-year sentence for attempted murder. Racco himself was shot dead in Toronto in 1983.
Racco's request for a revenge shooting of Commisso never
materialized because Archina and Mickley confessed their involvement in the plot.
"This was 'The Gang That Couldn't Shoot
Straight,'" Strathdee said of Archina and Mickley. "They might take a shot at
the guy, and end up shooting his dog."
Both Mickley and Archina were imprisoned for conviction of
conspiracy to wound. They also served time for refusing to talk at Racco's trial in
connection with the same conspiracy.
Mickley, who now lives in Feura Bush, declined to comment.
Sandelli, who worked with Strathdee on the Archina case, confirmed
Wednesday that there is a warrant for Archina's arrest on the Troy embezzlement charges in
the Toronto police computer system, but he said the FBI has not been in direct contact
with his agency.
Sandelli said Archina was spending time with
big-time criminals. Archina's cousin Domenic Racco is the son of Mike Racco.
"If we ever had a godfather in this city at
any time," Sandelli said, it was Mike Racco, and Domenic Racco was his "heir
apparent."
Prison records confirm that Archina regularly visited Domenic
Racco in prison.
"While (Archina) was in jail, he agreed to cooperate with the
police," Sandelli said, but when Archina got up to testify in
Racco's trial, he clammed up.
Sandelli said he watched Racco put his fingers
to his lips to quiet Archina when he took the stand.
Carl Fillichio, a Laborers spokesman in New Jersey, denied reports
that the Justice Department is investigating the union nationally.
Barbara Lazarus, special assistant to the U.S. attorney in
Chicago, where reports have originated, would not confirm or deny an investigation. She
said her offices have no records of an investigation of Frank Archina.