How five friends cracked the case of their friend's 1966 murder and discovered he had been killed by Florida mobsters

[dack2001]

Interesting article and connection to the Trafficante group.

Friends of a teen who was kidnapped and murdered in 1966 have investigated the disappearance of Danny Goldman who was 17 at the time
Paul Novack and his colleagues formed a volunteer investigative team and re-opened Danny's cold case
The group began a relentless search for answers along with the Miami-Dade Police Department's Cold Case Unit
Danny Goldman was kidnapped from his home and dumped in the ocean
The group and detectives concluded Danny was killed in retaliation because his father exposed a criminal enterprise at the Miami bank where he worked
After years of looking through the evidence, investigators discovered the kidnapper was George Defeis, who was affiliated with Trafficante organization
By JAMES GORDON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 02:26 EDT, 19 April 2022 | UPDATED: 02:44 EDT, 19 April 2022

A new report details how five friends solved the mystery surrounding their teenage friend's 1966 disappearance, 56 years after it happened - and discovered that he had been murdered by mobsters and dumped into the Atlantic Ocean near Miami.

Danny Goldman was 17 when he was kidnapped from the family home in Surfside, Florida while he slept.

An armed assailant came in through a door which was unlocked, tied up his parents and held him for a $10,000 ransom.

After taking their only son away, the kidnapper then demanded $25,000 from his parents in exchange for Danny, who he tied up with rope and tape and bundled into his car.

The vehicle was found abandoned days later and Danny was never seen again.

Despite the intervening decades, the childhood friends continued to think about the case and over the course of about 10 years managed to gather enough evidence and background information that Florida authorities also joined in the investigation.

A letter from Danny's mother, Sally, spurred the friends into digging deeper into his disappearance and subsequent murder, according to a new account of the story in People Magazine.

'The letter expresses her hope that Danny will never be forgotten,' Paul Novack, a lawyer and also former mayor of Surfside, told the outlet.

'It says that she hopes that if people keep the memory alive, that hopefully one day somebody will hear something or see something and will have some answers.'

'When you pick up this oily copy in her own handwriting, a public plea all those years ago, it hit home,' Novack said.

The letter was given to one of Danny's friends, Joe Graubart.

'Danny was her only child, her true love. I don't think she was ever the same after he was gone,' Joe said.

'I feel sad, that two lives were lost. Sally's life and Danny's. Danny was kidnapped and murdered, and Sally Goldman's life was kidnapped and somewhat murdered along with him.'

The fivesome looked into every aspect of their friend Danny's disappearance. The letter effectively exonerated his mom, Sally.

Novak then got Joe to help, alongside Joe's older brother David and friends Anthony Blate and Harvey Lisker.

Danny was kidnapped by George Defeis, pictured, before being taken out on a boat with fellow mobster Joe 'Chicken' Cacciatore where he was killed and thrown overboard into Atlantic Ocean
Danny was kidnapped by George Defeis, pictured, before being taken out on a boat with fellow mobster Joe 'Chicken' Cacciatore where he was killed and thrown overboard into Atlantic Ocean

The five set about looking at tens of thousands of pages of documents. They also interviewed people and trawled through archives.

'Basically, our decision was that it would be completely wrong for Danny to be forgotten,' Novack explained.

'How does a 17-year-old get taken out of his family home at 5 in the morning, and then years later it's just almost like it didn't happen, and he didn't happen? Danny didn't have brothers or sisters and his parents were gone. We decided it wasn't going to go down like that.'

After spending the best part of a decade following up leads, the group then brought their evidence to the Miami-Dade Police Cold Case Department.

Their findings suggested that Danny's killing was linked to the mob and that he was kidnapped by George Defeis before being taken out on a boat with fellow mobster Joe 'Chicken' Cacciatore, where he was killed and thrown overboard into Atlantic Ocean.

The mobsters allegedly went after Danny in response to the actions of his father, Aaron, who worked at Miami's Five Points Bank.

'I was able to find out that this particular man who was the kidnapper lived in New York at the time and was a patient at these community clinics at the time. He had access to the one type of unique glove that was found on the floor in the Goldman house,' explained Paul Novack

Aaron had been following up with authorities about questionable loans and possible illegal activities at the bank just weeks before Danny vanished, launching a federal investigation.

Aaron may not have even known that associates of union boss Jimmy Hoffa and notorious mobster Santo Trafficante had been using the bank to launder money.

Novack managed to draw a connection with Defeis, who was also known to be associated with the Trafficante organization, and in turn to the kidnapping.

Part of a rubber glove was left at the Goldman's home which was linked to a clinic in Brooklyn where Defeis was a patient.

It was the only place in the country that used the same gloves which had been manufactured in Canada.

'I was able to find out that this particular man who was the kidnapper lived in New York at the time and was a patient at these community clinics at the time. He had access to the one type of unique glove that was found on the floor in the Goldman house,' explained Novack to NBC6.

'We did it for Danny, and I wish his mother would [have been] alive to know that we did it for him,' said he former friend David.