- Luisi grew up around members of the Patriarca family in the North End of Boston
- From that time, he knew Joseph Russo, Vincent Ferrara, John Cincotti, Richard Gambale, Ilario Zannino, the Frizzis, and the Angiulos
- His father Robert Luisi Sr was a long-time associate but never got made
- Luisi’s parents divorced when he was two, and he didn’t grow up with his father
- Luisi didn’t have much contact with his father until he was a teenager
- Luisi left the Boston area for a while but returned around 1990 and started feeling his way around again
- At this time, Luisi began familiarising himself with the likes of Mark Rossetti and Jackie Salemme
- He opened a social club on Marginal Street in East Boston
- Luisi used the club to host poker and blackjack games for local gamblers
- Players at these card games included Darin Bufalino, the Rossettis, and Anthony Ciampi
- There was a circuit of games, and customers would move between Luisi’s club, Ciampi’s club on Bennington Street, and Stephen Rossetti’s club on Breed Street
- ‘We’d all visit each other’s clubs to keep each other busy’
- Mark Spisak served as the dealer in games at Ciampi and Luisi’s clubs
Cocaine:
- When Luisi returned to Boston he started dealing cocaine
- He initially sold small packages of an eighth or a quarter of a gram for $20
- Luisi started working with neighbourhood kids and became successful
- One night, Luisi met Michael Romano at Anthony Ciampi’s club
- Luisi knew Romano from the neighbourhood and began buying cocaine from him
- Luisi learned that Romano was being supplied from Alex Marino, a Cuban
- Luisi then reached out to Marino personally to deal directly with him
- Luisi bought 125 to 250 grams at a time from Marino and did so on several occasions
- Luisi had multiple suppliers and dealt directly with Colombian traffickers
- Once he obtained a brick from the Colombians, Luisi diluted it and turned it into two bricks
- He started generally selling kilograms but retained customers who would buy smaller amounts
- He would buy a kilo for $24,000, turn it into two, and sell each new kilo for $16,000
- In an average week he moved five to ten kilos, and this lasted for a few years
- Luisi made ‘a few million’ from dealing cocaine
- Luisi partnered with Stephen Rossetti in the cocaine business
- Timothy ‘Larry’ O’Toole ran Luisi’s lab and made deliveries
Enrico Ponzo:
- Luisi first became aware of Enrico Ponzo in the early 1990s
- They only interacted socially at the time, but Luisi learned that Ponzo did some muscle work and ran fireworks in the North End
- Fireworks were sold every year in the month leading up to the Fourth of July, and it was a lucrative racket
- Somebody would drive to New Hampshire, purchase the fireworks legally, and drive back to the North End
- Vincent Federico was the made member in charge of the operation at the time
- Luisi also observed Ponzo associating with loansharks Robert Paleo Sr and ‘Jesse James’ Tortorici
- Luisi grew up with Tortorici in the North End
- Luisi saw the influence that Ponzo had in the neighbourhood
- Luisi felt Ponzo would pose a threat to his own aspirations and wanted to get rid of him
- Luisi could not kill Ponzo at the time, however, because he was aligned with Federico
Attempted murder of Dante Mirabella:
- Luisi knew Dante Mirabella from the North End
- Luisi and Mirabella’s mothers grew up together, and Luisi was friends with Mirabella’s brother who passed away
- Mirabella was friends with Enrico Ponzo
- One day in the early 1990s, Jackie Gatarelli was playing a poker machine in a bar run by Luisi
- Ponzo felt Gatarelli was hogging machine and they ‘had some words’, but Luisi thought the incident was no big deal
- Later that night, Ponzo and Gatarelli saw each other again at the bar
- Mirabella was there with Ponzo and made ‘overtures towards Jackie like he was going to kill him’
- Gatarelli went home and came back with a gun
- Ponzo had left by this time, but Mirabella was standing outside
- While Luisi watched, Gatarelli struck Mirabella and shot at him
- Luisi ran out to drag Mirabella away because he didn’t want him to die in front of the bar
- Mirabella was still alive and yelling at Gatarelli to stop
- Gatarelli continued to shoot and Luisi pulled out a knife to try and stab Mirabella
- Mirabella managed to run up to Hanover Street and Luisi didn’t want to chase him because it would be too busy
Tensions in Boston:
- When asked about the hierarchy of the Patriarca family in 1989, Luisi identifies Joseph Russo, Vincent Ferrara, Robert Carrozza, and Biagio DiGiacomo as the captains running Boston
- There was ‘confusion’ over the boss position stemming from when Raymond Patriarca Jr took over the family
- The Boston faction didn’t think Patriarca Jr was worthy of the title, and they didn’t like Frank Salemme pushing his way to the top either
- When Salemme became the boss, he tried to exert more control
- Luisi, his father, and the Rossettis were loyal to Salemme
- Stephen Rossetti was proposed for membership by Jackie Salemme, while Mark Rossetti was proposed and inducted by Luigi Manocchio
- ‘[Mark] was made before all of us’
- Mark’s father Ralph was also a made member
- The Salemme faction began grabbing street tax payments that were previously going to the imprisoned Boston faction
- Anyone engaging in any illegal activity had to pay these ‘rents’
- By 1994 there were multiple criminal factions on the streetIf you were a bookmaker and I came across you, I might want $500 or $1,000 a month from you. And if you paid me, you were with me. I protected you, and you could stay in action. If you didn’t…I’d cause you problems.
- Paul DeCologero had a faction operating out of Woburn, Massachusetts
- Vincent ‘Gigi Portalla’ Marino ‘had a bunch of men’ in his own faction, but Luisi wasn’t sure exactly who
- Another faction was headed up by Anthony Ciampi and Michael Romano
- The Ciampi/Romano faction included John Patti, Mark Spisak, and Sean Cote
- Ciampi went to see Luisi several times worrying that the Salemme faction would shake him down
- Luisi tried to assure Ciampi that, because of their friendship, nobody was looking to extort him or his father Louis ‘Jumbo’ Ciampi
- It was also discovered that Michael Romano had been in contact with the incarcerated Robert Carrozza
The murder of Richie Devlin:
- In March 1994 Richard Devlin, a close friend and associate of Stephen Rossetti, was murdered
- After Devlin was killed, Jumbo Ciampi reached out to Luisi
- Worried for his son’s safety, Jumbo wanted Luisi to speak with Jackie Salemme and prevent retaliation
- When Frank Salemme went on the lam, he left his brother in charge as the captain in Boston and Luigi Manocchio as the underboss in Rhode Island
- The Salemme faction looked to Jackie Salemme to approve their activities or to get word through to his brother
- After speaking with Jackie, Luisi was driven by Larry O’Toole to meet with Jumbo at a doughnut shop
- At the doughnut shop, Luisi talked with Michael Romano and Jumbo and Anthony Ciampi
- Speaking to Anthony Ciampi one-on-one, Luisi asked how the Devlin murder happened
- Ciampi stated that he bought a gun after catching Devlin, Stephen Rossetti, and Richard Gillis scoping out his club in a van
- Ciampi and Mark Spisak drove around until they found Devlin, Rossetti, and Gillis getting into a car
- Pulling up alongside, Ciampi opened fire and killed Devlin
- Luisi said he would try to calm the situation down, but Ciampi stated he had ‘a lot of people behind [him]’
- While Luisi was talking to Ciampi, Larry O’Toole spotted Spisak in the car park outside the doughnut shop
- Spisak spoke to O’Toole and expressed concerns over what he had been dragged into by Ciampi
- Spisak stopped dealing cards in Luisi’s club after the Devlin shooting
- Despite these attempts at preventing retaliation, Stephen Rossetti could not be dissuaded from avenging his friend’s death
The murder of Mikey Romano Jr:
- After the Devlin murder, the Portalla, DeCologero, and Ciampi/Romano factions came together
- While Luisi had been friendly with the Rossettis, he didn’t go all in with the Salemme faction until after the Devlin murder
- Luisi was friends with Mark Rossetti, who was in prison at the time, and felt he owed it to him to help Stephen
- The pro- and anti-Salemme factions started looking to kill each other
- When they went out ‘hunting’, they brought police scanners and walkie talkies
- The walkie talkies were used so they could communicate with each other and pick up what the other faction was discussing
- Luisi began plotting to kill Enrico Ponzo, who ended up with the rival faction
- Jesse James Tortorici and Mark Regnetta had been to visit Vincent Federico in prison and came back with a message giving Luisi the okay to kill Ponzo
- Luisi could not go out and look for Ponzo himself because he was at home in a cast for eight weeks after breaking his back in a boating accident
- Luisi and Stephen Rossetti took a speedboat on the water in the summer of 1994 because they were looking to ambush Michael Romano at his boat
- They only found Michael Romano Jr on the boat, so they turned back
- Romano Jr sold cocaine for Luisi, and Luisi wasn’t looking to kill him
- A wake from another boat caused Luisi to fall and fracture two vertebrae
- Luisi continued to direct his criminal activities from home
- While Luisi was still in his cast, Michael Romano Jr was murdered in September 1994
- On the night Romano Jr was killed, Luisi was told about it over the phone by Frank Salona (a relative of the Romanos through marriage)
- Shortly after, Stephen Rossetti came to Luisi’s house and explained what happened
- Rossetti, Joseph Souza, and David Clark were looking to kill Ponzo when they spotted him with Romano Jr and Robert Paleo Jr
- They opened fire, thinking they hit Ponzo, when they really shot Romano
- Rossetti returned to the crime scene later with a VHS camera and filmed Ponzo and Paleo being interviewed by the police
- Rossetti showed Luisi the tape, but Luisi doesn’t know what happened to the recording afterwards
- A grief-stricken Romano Sr called Luisi and said he thought nobody wanted to go after each other’s children
- Luisi offered to meet with Romano after the funeral, but Romano never called him back
- After the wake, Frank Salona came to warn Luisi that the rival faction had decided to kill him too
- The faction held a meeting at the wake where Romano blamed Salemme, Rossetti, and Luisi for everything that happened
The murder of Joe Souza:
- Joseph Souza was an associate of the Rossettis and became a friend of Luisi’s
- In October 1994 Souza called Luisi from a payphone across the street from Ralph Rossetti’s social club on Bennington Street
- Souza had seen a lot of activity at Anthony Ciampi’s club on the same street and wanted to investigate
- Luisi advised Souza to wait until later so they could go together with Stephen Rossetti
- A few hours later, Stephen Rossetti called Luisi to see if he had spoken with Souza
- Luisi told Rossetti about his conversation with Souza
- Rossetti explained that he couldn’t find Souza and the street was full of police cars and ambulances
- They later found out Souza had been killed by the rival faction
The murder of Robert Luisi Sr:
- There were a lot of tensions and competition between Luisi and his father
- Robert Sr was attempting to muscle his son out of the North End
- While Luisi was recovering from his back injury in 1994, his driver Sonny was shot by Robert Sr
- Robert Sr later tried to put a hit on Luisi
- In November 1995 Luisi heard about an incident involving his father, Vincent Perez, and Damian Clemente
- Perez was one of the first guys Luisi got into business with when he returned to Boston in the early 1990s
- Luisi and Perez were involved in cocaine, card games, and bookmaking
- Perez told Luisi that he and Clemente had beaten up a cousin of Roman Luisi
- Roman was the son of Robert Sr from his second marriage
- The cousin was bragging about his connections to Robert Sr
- Robert Sr and Roman were harassing Clemente, who was fearful of them
- Luisi knew there would be retaliation for what Perez and Clemente did
- Luisi told them to protect themselves but that he didn’t want his father’s blood on his hands
- Luisi’s cousin Richard Sarro called him saying he wanted to talk to Roman and calm the situation down
- Luisi told Perez and Clemente that Sarro was trying to straighten it out
- Robert Sr had a conversation with Luisi about how it was going to come down to him or ‘them’
- Robert Sr asked if Luisi would be with him, but Luisi said he never would be
- The following day, Perez and Damion and Anthony Clemente shot and killed Robert Sr, Roman, Anthony Sarro, and Anthony Pelosi at the 99 Restaurant
- Luisi denies that he sanctioned his father’s murder
- Richard Sarro was injured in the shooting, and Luisi recruited him for his crew in the aftermath
- Shortly after the murders at the 99 Restaurant, Luisi believes he saw the ghosts of his father and his half-brother
The murder of Charlie Pappas:
- David Turner had robbed a woman’s house for over $100,000 in jewellery
- The woman saw Turner’s face during the robbery and identified him to the police
- Charles Pappas, an accomplice of Turner, also agreed to cooperate in the case
- The woman who identified Turner to the police was in a relationship with a bookmaker
- Luisi and Robert Guarente went to see the bookmaker and told him to get his girlfriend to retract her statement
- The woman didn’t take back what she said, so Luisi, Turner, and Stephen Rossetti went to see the bookmaker again
- The bookmaker was concerned because of the value of the stolen jewellery, so Luisi threatened him by asking how much his life was worth
- The bookmaker got scared and left
- Pappas was killed by Rossetti and Turner in November 1995
- Luisi was supposed to be at the murder but wasn’t
- Rossetti and Turner knew that Pappas would visit his girlfriend at her house, so they waited there and killed him when he turned up
- After Pappas was killed, the victim of the robbery backed out and refused to testify against Turner
Marijuana:
- Mark Rossetti had a large drug dealing business and got marijuana from Arizona
- Stephen Rossetti was involved in getting the marijuana from Arizona before he was made
- Rossetti was partners with Charles Guarino, who was a cousin of and sold marijuana to Gigi Portalla
- Luisi took his crew to Arizona in January 1996 for the Super Bowl
The murder of Vinnie the Pig:
- The Salemme faction had been looking to kill Richard DeVincent for a while because he was aligned with the rival group
- DeVincent reached out to Robert Guarente to get him to join their faction
- However, Guarente was Stephen Rossetti’s uncle
- ‘Nobody was aware’ of this relationship because Guarente and Rossetti were estranged
- After being approached by DeVincent, Guarente got in touch with Rossetti
- Rossetti thought it would be a good opportunity to ingratiate Guarente with the rival faction so he could get close to and kill Anthony Ciampi
- Ciampi proved hard to get to, so Rossetti, Guarente, and Luisi decided instead to kill DeVincent
- Rossetti and Guarente killed DeVincent in April 1996 and told Luisi about it
The murder of Beansy DiPrizio:
- Jackie Salemme came to see Luisi one day and said his brother wanted Luisi to kill Anthony DiPrizio
- Luisi agreed and didn’t ask why Salemme wanted DiPrizio dead
- Luisi had known DiPrizio from the North End
- Having recently been released from prison, DiPrizio was trying to open an after-hours place on Fleet Street and was around the rival faction
- Luisi tried a few times to kill DiPrizio himself but couldn’t do it, so he turned to Frank Rossi, a friend of his who had come home from prison
- After getting out, Rossi started operating in Winter Hill with Alfred Sapochetti and Tommy Caruso’s crew
- DiPrizio had tried to recruit Rossi to join the rival faction
- Knowing this, Luisi asked Rossi to set DiPrizio up for him
- Rossi agreed and Luisi gave him a gun
- The plan was for Rossi to lure DiPrizio somewhere so Luisi could come and kill him
- However, Rossi got the opportunity to kill DiPrizio himself in January 1997
- Rossi visited Luisi at a coffee shop he had on Mass Avenue to tell him DiPrizio was dead
Proposed for membership:
- After key players in the rival faction were arrested in April 1997, Luisi fell out with Mark Rossetti
- Rossetti had been in and out of prison throughout the entire war
- Luisi was proposed to be inducted into the family, but he didn’t want to be ‘with Mark or under Mark’ because everyone knew that Rossetti was a heroin addict
- Once Luisi started fighting with Mark Rossetti, it became clear there was ‘no way’ the Patriarca family would induct himI’m out there, I have power, I got a crew, I’m making money. Why would I want to put myself under this man’s authority? Because if I do that, my cosa nostra, I have to answer to him. And I wasn’t going to answer to a junkie. And that was the bottom line.
- This then prompted Luisi to look to get made through New York and later Philadelphia
- Luisi maintains it was his ambition to form his own family
Carmen DiNunzio:
- Carmen DiNunzio grew up in Boston but took off with his brother Anthony because they owed money to Vincent Gioacchini, Anthony Spagnolo, Joseph Russo’s crew, and ‘all those guys on Maverick Square’
- The DiNunzio brothers returned to Boston after spending some time in prison
- Mark Rossetti liked the DiNunzios and wanted Luisi to help them
- After his falling out with the Rossettis, Luisi wanted to kill Carmen
- In the end, Luisi decided against killing DiNunzioCarmen was trying to fill that slot. Carmen was trying to come up, you know. But I kept knocking him down because to me, you know, he hasn’t worthy even to be with us. Every time I gave him money – he was a mess, the kid. We opened a restaurant for him, the kid couldn’t do anything right in my eyes.
Spirituality:
- Luisi claims to have had a ‘spiritual encounter’ on 27 March 1998 that resulted in him becoming born-again
- Luisi had been drinking alcohol and eating cocaine prior to and throughout this incidentI was in a room with a demonic being for about eight hours…I realised that there was good and evil, and there was a God and a devil. From that day on, I was on a quest to find out why this happened to me and find the truth about God.
- Luisi called his mother for help, who arrived with relatives and a pastor
- Luisi lied to them that he hadn’t been doing drugs
- They had communion and threw out everything Luisi ‘felt’ the devil had touched
- They threw out one of his son’s stuffed animals that ‘showed’ Luisi the face of the murdered Richard DeVincent
- Luisi originally believed this was an alcohol or drug-induced hallucination, but claims the ‘demonic activity’ continued later in his life
- Luisi claims his mother also had spiritual experiences
Induction:
- Luisi was inducted into the Philadelphia family after his spiritual awakening but claims he was in ‘too deep’ to back out
- Luisi says he wanted to make sure his crew was safe and that everything he put together would stay together
- When asked if a picture of a saint was burned during his ceremony, he says, ‘We don’t do that in our family’
- Luisi tried to get inducted into the Gambino family, but they said they ‘couldn’t’ do that
- Luisi then wound up with the Philadelphia family and Joseph Merlino inducted him
- Luisi’s cocaine business was shrinking by the time he got straightened out
- He spoke with Merlino and George Borgesi and decided there was too much heat in drugs
- Luisi also ran some bookmaking and had a significant loan sharking business
Cooperation:
- Luisi began cooperating with law enforcement following his federal indictment in June 1999
- His deal would resolve pending federal action against him in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania
- It was also agreed on the state level that Luisi would not be charged with the murder of Anthony DiPrizio on the condition that he had not been the shooter
- Luisi’s family was offered a place in the Witness Security Program, but they instead opted for a lump-sum relocation payment
- Luisi proffered with law enforcement and testified before a Massachusetts federal grand jury, but the deal fell apart before he could testify in Philadelphia
- Luisi sent several letters to the judge in which he accused his law enforcement handlers of unprofessional conduct
- Luisi maintains that the accusations he made against his handlers were true
- In these letters, Luisi also made several demands including bail, money, the return of seized property, a 60-month sentence, and financial information about other informants including Larry O’Toole and Richard Gillis
- The Assistant US Attorney on the case regarded this as a breach of Luisi’s plea agreement and refused to write a 5K1 letter on his behalf
- Luisi revoked his guilty plea and took the original indictment to trial, where he was convicted
- After being released from prison, he entered the WSP ‘as part of [his] initial agreement to cooperate’
- Per his WSP deal, Luisi agreed to testify against Enrico Ponzo and was granted immunity for any crimes discussed in his testimony
- Luisi could still be prosecuted for anything not covered in his testimony or if he committed perjury
