Freezing up on a hit

[Amershire_Ed]

Gene Borrello said in his most recent interview that someone he was with froze up and couldn’t pull the trigger while they were trying to shoot this guy. So he, as the backup shooter, had to start shooting because the primary shooter froze up.

I was curious if there are any other known stories of wiseguys losing their nerve and not being able to follow through with a piece of work? Or if there were any guys clipped because they got too nervous to pull the trigger?

[Heathen]

In the D'Arco book there's a story of a guy freezing up, same the Calabrese Jr book

[bert]

It had to have happened a few times over the years. Valachi claimed Sally Shields froze up once. I like to keep in mind that these rats like Borrello are always the brave ones in their stories.

[baldo]

Wasn’t it rumored Ciro Terranova was so nervous during the Masseria bit that he couldn’t even drive the car? This put a big dent in his rep apparently. Not sure if true or not.

[bert]

Gene Borrello said in his most recent interview

Is he going to try and surpass Alite in interviews? Micheal Franzese is another one, they are addicted to doing these interviews. Alite is the most obnoxious.

[Pogo The Clown]

Yes Valachi talked about it in his book.


Pogo

[chin_gigante]

If I'm remembering correctly, Vinnie Artuso was a shooter in the Paul Castellano murder but never fired his gun. There's conflicting stories as to whether it jammed or if he froze up

[Amershire_Ed]

Rudy Marfeo and Anthony Melei were killed on the orders of Raymond Patriarca in 1968. There were 2 shooters—Bobby Fairbrothers and Red Kelly. One of the homicide detectives said Fairbrothers was so nervous he shot his shotgun into the floor and didn’t hit anyone. And Kelly shot and killed both Marfeo and Melei.

[Hired_Goonz]

Didn't Vitale essentially "freeze up" when he let Lino waltz out of the club? He had one job and it was to watch that door.

[Bklyn21]

If I'm remembering correctly, Vinnie Artuso was a shooter in the Paul Castellano murder but never fired his gun. There's conflicting stories as to whether it jammed or if he froze up

Weren't his nicknames Vinny Jam and Vinny Freeze lol

[johnny_scootch]

Didn't Vitale essentially "freeze up" when he let Lino waltz out of the club? He had one job and it was to watch that door.

I remember reading he had a machine gun that night and he accidentally let a few rounds go. Luckily he didn’t hit anyone, he was definitely nervous.

[Adam]

Fratianno says Charlie Battaglia froze up in the Two Tony's hit and didn't start shooting until after Fratianno had killed them and only fired after Fratianno yelled at him. But it's Fratianno. Fits with every other story he tells where he's the only one who knew how to do anything.

[Southshore88]

I thought I read Demeo froze after shooting Rosenberg once. He didn’t kill him, so one of the Gemini Twins finished him off?

[TwoPiece]

In the D'Arco book there's a story of a guy freezing up, same the Calabrese Jr book

in d'arco's book they mention pete chiodo botching a hit because he didn't load the gun correctly

[bronx]

correct two ,it was joe martinelli