by B. » Fri Aug 18, 2017 12:24 am
Thanks to Stroccos for posting Cantarella's testimony. I went through and thought some of it would be relevant here:
- In the 1990s, Richard Cantarella asked Sal Vitale for permission to kill his uncle Al Embarrato because Embarrato had managed to escape jail time despite being one of the key players at the Post, and Cantarella felt this was because his uncle was an informant. Vitale gave him reluctant permission to kill Embarrato and told him he could go ahead but he didn't recommend it given Embarrato's advanced age. Vitale felt it wouldn't look good. Cantarella decided not to go through with it. Side note, but if it hasn't been posted before, Al Walker Embarrato was originally a Genovese associate and seems to have switched over around the Bonanno war or shortly after.
- In October 2002, Massino apparoached Cantarella in a restaurant and told him he wanted to kill Sal Vitale. Vitale had been arrested for money laundering and other activities on Long Island and Massino felt that Vitale was getting too many privileges from the prosecutor and judge despite the fact that he was fighting the case. Both Massino and Cantarella felt that Sal Vitale had begun cooperating and Cantarella volunteered to kill Vitale. Massino told Cantarella he didn't want his help, as he said that he (Massino) "wanted to pull the trigger" himself. Massino told Cantarella he was waiting for "one more piece of information" before going through with the murder.
- Cantarella said his induction ceremony (July 1990) was "very quick". Cantarella says "we all held hands, and I swore to secrecy, and given some of the rules, and I was appointed to a captain, and that was it." So sounds like some kind of expedited ceremony. I wonder if this was/is typical of the Bonannos? The induction ceremony was attended by Spero, Vitale, Lino, Embarrato, and Bobby Lino. Cantarella wasn't sure what Spero's exact position was at this time, just that Spero was helping run the family and he thought he was acting underboss.
- Cantarella says he was promoted "within a year" of being made and says "Vitale took me along with him and made me part of the administration." He says Sal was running the family and he acted as Vitale's driver and basically assistant. So by "promotion" to "part of the administration" I think he's saying he was assigned directly to Vitale.
- He says he was later promoted to acting captain of Frank Coppa's crew. He says acting captains are sometimes promoted if a captain goes on vacation, to the hospital, etc.
- Shortly after Massino was released from prison, Cantarella was on the phone with Vitale and Massino took the phone from Vitale and told Cantarella to meet him at Gargiulo's restaurant in Coney Island. Both men brought their wives, but Massino took Cantarella aside and began picking Cantarrella about Sal Vitale. Massino had "something on his mind about Sal" and "wanted to know anything that I could tell him". Cantarella had "nothing bad" to say about Vitale and "did nothing but brag about Sal". Any time Cantarella said something good about Sal, Massino took credit for it. For example, Cantarella pointed out that Sal had been running the family for Massino, but Massino said Sal "didn't do nothing" and only was able to run the family because of Massino's popularity. Massino was "down on Sal Vitale".
- Later, Cantarella says Massino started taking Vitale's "duties" away. For example, when Vitale was supposed to attend a meeting, Massino would send someone to go with him because he felt "Sal wasn't bringing back the proper stories". Massino also barred Vitale from Casablanca restaurant.
- Throughout the 90s, Cantarella met with Massino at least once or twice a week. In 1999, Massino promoted Cantarella to official captain and says his crew consisted of the following guys in the order and words he named them: Joe Torre, Perry Criscitelli, Joey Sabella, Joey D'Amico, Joe Indelicato, "Jersey Joe" (Bonanno), and Paul Cantarella.
- Perry Criscitelli was originally a Genovese associate under Albert Gallo and ran into issues with them because they were extorting him every month. Criscitelli was very wealthy from owning restaurants and loansharking and of course was heavily involved with the San Gennaro Feast. Cantarella says Criscitelli was also a relative of Al Embarrato. When Criscitelli ran into issues with the Genovese family, Embarrato had already retired to Virginia, so Cantarella attended a couple of sitdowns with Albert Gallo of the Genovese family on Criscitelli's behalf and eventually won the sitdown and took control of Criscitelli.
- Joe Torre made most of his money via Cantarella loaning him a large amount of money to shylock, which Torre then loaned out. Torre was also involved in "protection rackets". Gino Galestro started out as a foreman at the New York Post (which was controlled by the Bonannos) involved in loansharking. Canatarella later proposed Galestro and he was of course made.
- A distinction is made between Cantarella's "quick" ceremony and a "formal induction" and Cantarella is asked if he ever participated in a "formal" ceremony. Cantarella says that his son Paul, Joey Sabella, Joe Torre, Criscitelli, and "somebody that Vinny (Basciano) proposed" were made in formal ceremony, but Cantarella believes "that's it". At a "formal ceremony", the boss (Massino) attends and it's a "long, drawn out thing", where they "read the riot act, the rules, what you got to live by and on and on." He says they also lock hands "in secrecy" for this.
- He says no "props" were used in induction ceremonies, interestingly. This is because Joe Massino felt that at this point in the existence of Cosa Nostra and with all of the scrutiny on them, it was a concern that LE would "break into the house" and it would be better to simply find a group of guys with "no gun, no knife, no picture of a saint on the table" and no indication a ceremony was happening.
- Cantarella was promoted to the committee by Massino in 2001. Massino said the reason for the committe was because Vitale was under house arrest and he needed help running the family. The other members of the committee were Joe Cammarano Sr. and Tony Urso, who were both captains. Cantarella had four or five captains reporting to him.
- When names are passed out to other families to be made, Cantarella says that if they don't hear anything back "within a two week period" they know that they can make the proposed members.
- When Cantarella met Basciano he (Basciano) was an associate of Patty DeFilippo and he believes DiFilippo later proposed Basciano. Joey D'Amico told Cantarella that he believed Basciano had previously been on record with Dominick Trinchera. Massino didn't trust Basciano because he didn't know where he earned his money and he was "too quick" and "hardheaded". Basciano came to Casablanca every other Saturday, so Massino planned it so that he and Cantarella wouldn't be there on the days Basciano came. This was before Basciano was promoted to captain.
- When Massino first decided to promote Basciano to captain, he told Cantarella that one person he would assign to him was Bruno Indelicato because he wanted to keep a close eye on them together.
- Massino liked to have "long conversations" after Casablanca closed at night and would have a guy play guitar and sing while Massino and the "fellows" hung out. Canatarella was first introduced to Bruno Indelicato one night when Indelicato and Basciano dropped by to hang out at one of these after hours sessions at Casablanca. On this night Indelicato told Cantarella that his cousin belong to him (Indelicato) and not his uncle, and he wanted Cantarella's help in getting the cousin under Bruno so that the cousin could be made. This is obviously in reference to Allie Indelicato, who JD has told us about, and the reason Bruno would have approached Cantarella is because as mentioned earlier JB Indelicato was in his crew. Indelicato said he was not supposed to be at Casablanca due to being on parole; he had been told "not to come around".
- Cantarella says Massino was very angry with Basciano around 2000 or 2001 for committing a murder without permission. Basciano was a soldier at the time.
- After Basciano's promotion to captain, an induction ceremony was held at Cantarella's home where Basciano sponsored someone named Anthony. This ceremony was attended by Massino, Cantarella, Graziano, Basciano, and the Anthony being sponsored. At this induction ceremony, Cantarella had a discussion with Basciano about what a guy should have to do in order to qualify for membership and Basciano was of the opinion that a guy should need to commit a murder to be made. Cantarella and Massino disagreed and this is when Massino said his "it takes all kinds of meat to make a good soup" line that's been mentioned in a few places.
- After the Gerlando Sciascia murder, Basciano approached Massino and volunteered to help find out who killed him and Massino responded by saying "All I said is to keep your ears open, don't ask no questions." Cantarella says that Sciascia had been close friends with Patty DeFilippo and Basciano. It has been mentioned before that Massino wiped out a loan DeFilippo owed as a reward for the Sciascia murder. The language Cantarella is a little bit confusing, but what's clear is there was a loan involving Sciascia, DeFilippo, and Basciano, and after the Sciascia murder Massino said that DeFilippo didn't have to pay back the loan but that Basciano did have to pay it. Apparently DeFilippo was broke anyway.
- A bug was apparently placed in Manny Guaragna's car for "a year" according to LE who approached Guaragna. This created a scare in the family and word passed to Guaragna's capo DeFilippo who told Massino. Massino told Cantarella and said "this" wasn't talked about while making a gun gesture with his hand.
- Massino told Cantarella that DeFilippo was not an earner and he got his money from Basciano and Anthony Nicole, described as a bookmaker.
- Later, Massino told Cantarella he had Sciascia murdered because "he spoke about one of his captains", who he identified as Graziano. Sciascia had apparently said, "if I were boss, I wouldn't have Tony Graziano as one of my captains" and Massino took it personally. Massino ordered all members to go to his wake even though there is a "rule that if we kill somebody, we don't go to the wake." This is because Massino wanted it to appear to be an outside murder.
- Someone else named Anthony was on record with the Genovese family and laster transferred to be under Graziano and was later made.
- Peter Calabrese was originally one of the three men Massino wanted to put on a committee to run the family in case anything happened to him (Massino).
- A member whose name Cantarella can't remember, only that he went by "initials", proposed Mikey Box for membership. Massino asked Cantarella for his opinion on Mikey Box and Cantarella said he had a problem with him years earlier and they initially nixed his name for membership. There were a number of "big sitdowns" involving "quite a few people", including Vitale, Graziano, Frank Coppa, Paul Cantarella, Joe Torre, and the other guys. Mikey Box was eventually inducted as a member.
- He identifies a photo of someone named "John Michael" or "Michael John" who he says is a soldier under Patty DeFilippo. Could this be "Johnny Joe" and he just confused part of the nickname?
- Cantarella claimed he made "half a million dollars" in organized crime over 30 years. Curious if he's including his legit/semi-legit interests like the parking lots.
- Cantarella met with his uncle Embarrato after a meeting Embarrato had with his captain, where he was told that Tony Mirra was to be killed because Massino believed he was a rat. While Cantarella knew in advance that there was a contract on Mirra, he did not know when the hit was taking place and was randomly asked to drive a car by his uncle and when he saw Joe D'Amico leave a building only then did he know he was participating in the Mirra hit.
- As mentioned earlier, Massino was concerned about where Basciano was getting his money and told Cantarella he wanted to get Basciano involved with other sources of insome. He apparently worked with Basciano on some construction projects. The government claimed this was residential development.
- Paul Cantarella was inducted in 1996 and placed with Frank Coppa. When his father became an official captain in 1999 Paul was placed in that crew.
Thanks to Stroccos for posting Cantarella's testimony. I went through and thought some of it would be relevant here:
- In the 1990s, Richard Cantarella asked Sal Vitale for permission to kill his uncle Al Embarrato because Embarrato had managed to escape jail time despite being one of the key players at the Post, and Cantarella felt this was because his uncle was an informant. Vitale gave him reluctant permission to kill Embarrato and told him he could go ahead but he didn't recommend it given Embarrato's advanced age. Vitale felt it wouldn't look good. Cantarella decided not to go through with it. Side note, but if it hasn't been posted before, Al Walker Embarrato was originally a Genovese associate and seems to have switched over around the Bonanno war or shortly after.
- In October 2002, Massino apparoached Cantarella in a restaurant and told him he wanted to kill Sal Vitale. Vitale had been arrested for money laundering and other activities on Long Island and Massino felt that Vitale was getting too many privileges from the prosecutor and judge despite the fact that he was fighting the case. Both Massino and Cantarella felt that Sal Vitale had begun cooperating and Cantarella volunteered to kill Vitale. Massino told Cantarella he didn't want his help, as he said that he (Massino) "wanted to pull the trigger" himself. Massino told Cantarella he was waiting for "one more piece of information" before going through with the murder.
- Cantarella said his induction ceremony (July 1990) was "very quick". Cantarella says "we all held hands, and I swore to secrecy, and given some of the rules, and I was appointed to a captain, and that was it." So sounds like some kind of expedited ceremony. I wonder if this was/is typical of the Bonannos? The induction ceremony was attended by Spero, Vitale, Lino, Embarrato, and Bobby Lino. Cantarella wasn't sure what Spero's exact position was at this time, just that Spero was helping run the family and he thought he was acting underboss.
- Cantarella says he was promoted "within a year" of being made and says "Vitale took me along with him and made me part of the administration." He says Sal was running the family and he acted as Vitale's driver and basically assistant. So by "promotion" to "part of the administration" I think he's saying he was assigned directly to Vitale.
- He says he was later promoted to acting captain of Frank Coppa's crew. He says acting captains are sometimes promoted if a captain goes on vacation, to the hospital, etc.
- Shortly after Massino was released from prison, Cantarella was on the phone with Vitale and Massino took the phone from Vitale and told Cantarella to meet him at Gargiulo's restaurant in Coney Island. Both men brought their wives, but Massino took Cantarella aside and began picking Cantarrella about Sal Vitale. Massino had "something on his mind about Sal" and "wanted to know anything that I could tell him". Cantarella had "nothing bad" to say about Vitale and "did nothing but brag about Sal". Any time Cantarella said something good about Sal, Massino took credit for it. For example, Cantarella pointed out that Sal had been running the family for Massino, but Massino said Sal "didn't do nothing" and only was able to run the family because of Massino's popularity. Massino was "down on Sal Vitale".
- Later, Cantarella says Massino started taking Vitale's "duties" away. For example, when Vitale was supposed to attend a meeting, Massino would send someone to go with him because he felt "Sal wasn't bringing back the proper stories". Massino also barred Vitale from Casablanca restaurant.
- Throughout the 90s, Cantarella met with Massino at least once or twice a week. In 1999, Massino promoted Cantarella to official captain and says his crew consisted of the following guys in the order and words he named them: Joe Torre, Perry Criscitelli, Joey Sabella, Joey D'Amico, Joe Indelicato, "Jersey Joe" (Bonanno), and Paul Cantarella.
- Perry Criscitelli was originally a Genovese associate under Albert Gallo and ran into issues with them because they were extorting him every month. Criscitelli was very wealthy from owning restaurants and loansharking and of course was heavily involved with the San Gennaro Feast. Cantarella says Criscitelli was also a relative of Al Embarrato. When Criscitelli ran into issues with the Genovese family, Embarrato had already retired to Virginia, so Cantarella attended a couple of sitdowns with Albert Gallo of the Genovese family on Criscitelli's behalf and eventually won the sitdown and took control of Criscitelli.
- Joe Torre made most of his money via Cantarella loaning him a large amount of money to shylock, which Torre then loaned out. Torre was also involved in "protection rackets". Gino Galestro started out as a foreman at the New York Post (which was controlled by the Bonannos) involved in loansharking. Canatarella later proposed Galestro and he was of course made.
- A distinction is made between Cantarella's "quick" ceremony and a "formal induction" and Cantarella is asked if he ever participated in a "formal" ceremony. Cantarella says that his son Paul, Joey Sabella, Joe Torre, Criscitelli, and "somebody that Vinny (Basciano) proposed" were made in formal ceremony, but Cantarella believes "that's it". At a "formal ceremony", the boss (Massino) attends and it's a "long, drawn out thing", where they "read the riot act, the rules, what you got to live by and on and on." He says they also lock hands "in secrecy" for this.
- He says no "props" were used in induction ceremonies, interestingly. This is because Joe Massino felt that at this point in the existence of Cosa Nostra and with all of the scrutiny on them, it was a concern that LE would "break into the house" and it would be better to simply find a group of guys with "no gun, no knife, no picture of a saint on the table" and no indication a ceremony was happening.
- Cantarella was promoted to the committee by Massino in 2001. Massino said the reason for the committe was because Vitale was under house arrest and he needed help running the family. The other members of the committee were Joe Cammarano Sr. and Tony Urso, who were both captains. Cantarella had four or five captains reporting to him.
- When names are passed out to other families to be made, Cantarella says that if they don't hear anything back "within a two week period" they know that they can make the proposed members.
- When Cantarella met Basciano he (Basciano) was an associate of Patty DeFilippo and he believes DiFilippo later proposed Basciano. Joey D'Amico told Cantarella that he believed Basciano had previously been on record with Dominick Trinchera. Massino didn't trust Basciano because he didn't know where he earned his money and he was "too quick" and "hardheaded". Basciano came to Casablanca every other Saturday, so Massino planned it so that he and Cantarella wouldn't be there on the days Basciano came. This was before Basciano was promoted to captain.
- When Massino first decided to promote Basciano to captain, he told Cantarella that one person he would assign to him was Bruno Indelicato because he wanted to keep a close eye on them together.
- Massino liked to have "long conversations" after Casablanca closed at night and would have a guy play guitar and sing while Massino and the "fellows" hung out. Canatarella was first introduced to Bruno Indelicato one night when Indelicato and Basciano dropped by to hang out at one of these after hours sessions at Casablanca. On this night Indelicato told Cantarella that his cousin belong to him (Indelicato) and not his uncle, and he wanted Cantarella's help in getting the cousin under Bruno so that the cousin could be made. This is obviously in reference to Allie Indelicato, who JD has told us about, and the reason Bruno would have approached Cantarella is because as mentioned earlier JB Indelicato was in his crew. Indelicato said he was not supposed to be at Casablanca due to being on parole; he had been told "not to come around".
- Cantarella says Massino was very angry with Basciano around 2000 or 2001 for committing a murder without permission. Basciano was a soldier at the time.
- After Basciano's promotion to captain, an induction ceremony was held at Cantarella's home where Basciano sponsored someone named Anthony. This ceremony was attended by Massino, Cantarella, Graziano, Basciano, and the Anthony being sponsored. At this induction ceremony, Cantarella had a discussion with Basciano about what a guy should have to do in order to qualify for membership and Basciano was of the opinion that a guy should need to commit a murder to be made. Cantarella and Massino disagreed and this is when Massino said his "it takes all kinds of meat to make a good soup" line that's been mentioned in a few places.
- After the Gerlando Sciascia murder, Basciano approached Massino and volunteered to help find out who killed him and Massino responded by saying "All I said is to keep your ears open, don't ask no questions." Cantarella says that Sciascia had been close friends with Patty DeFilippo and Basciano. It has been mentioned before that Massino wiped out a loan DeFilippo owed as a reward for the Sciascia murder. The language Cantarella is a little bit confusing, but what's clear is there was a loan involving Sciascia, DeFilippo, and Basciano, and after the Sciascia murder Massino said that DeFilippo didn't have to pay back the loan but that Basciano did have to pay it. Apparently DeFilippo was broke anyway.
- A bug was apparently placed in Manny Guaragna's car for "a year" according to LE who approached Guaragna. This created a scare in the family and word passed to Guaragna's capo DeFilippo who told Massino. Massino told Cantarella and said "this" wasn't talked about while making a gun gesture with his hand.
- Massino told Cantarella that DeFilippo was not an earner and he got his money from Basciano and Anthony Nicole, described as a bookmaker.
- Later, Massino told Cantarella he had Sciascia murdered because "he spoke about one of his captains", who he identified as Graziano. Sciascia had apparently said, "if I were boss, I wouldn't have Tony Graziano as one of my captains" and Massino took it personally. Massino ordered all members to go to his wake even though there is a "rule that if we kill somebody, we don't go to the wake." This is because Massino wanted it to appear to be an outside murder.
- Someone else named Anthony was on record with the Genovese family and laster transferred to be under Graziano and was later made.
- Peter Calabrese was originally one of the three men Massino wanted to put on a committee to run the family in case anything happened to him (Massino).
- A member whose name Cantarella can't remember, only that he went by "initials", proposed Mikey Box for membership. Massino asked Cantarella for his opinion on Mikey Box and Cantarella said he had a problem with him years earlier and they initially nixed his name for membership. There were a number of "big sitdowns" involving "quite a few people", including Vitale, Graziano, Frank Coppa, Paul Cantarella, Joe Torre, and the other guys. Mikey Box was eventually inducted as a member.
- He identifies a photo of someone named "John Michael" or "Michael John" who he says is a soldier under Patty DeFilippo. Could this be "Johnny Joe" and he just confused part of the nickname?
- Cantarella claimed he made "half a million dollars" in organized crime over 30 years. Curious if he's including his legit/semi-legit interests like the parking lots.
- Cantarella met with his uncle Embarrato after a meeting Embarrato had with his captain, where he was told that Tony Mirra was to be killed because Massino believed he was a rat. While Cantarella knew in advance that there was a contract on Mirra, he did not know when the hit was taking place and was randomly asked to drive a car by his uncle and when he saw Joe D'Amico leave a building only then did he know he was participating in the Mirra hit.
- As mentioned earlier, Massino was concerned about where Basciano was getting his money and told Cantarella he wanted to get Basciano involved with other sources of insome. He apparently worked with Basciano on some construction projects. The government claimed this was residential development.
- Paul Cantarella was inducted in 1996 and placed with Frank Coppa. When his father became an official captain in 1999 Paul was placed in that crew.