Three Capos Murders

[chin_gigante]

I wanna gather all the information we have (plus sources) on who was present (out of the roughly a dozen wiseguys) on 5 May 1981 for the murders of Philip Giaccone, Alphonse Indelicato and Dominick Trinchera.

Joseph Massino
Gerlando Sciascia
Santo Giordano
Nicholas DiStefano
Joseph Zicarelli
Emmanuel Ragusa (shooter)
Vito Rizzuto (shooter)
Salvatore Vitale (shooter/ clean-up)
'Older New York wiseguy' (shooter)
Duane Leisenheimer (driver)
James Tartaglione (clean-up)
Dominick Napolitano (clean-up)
Benjamin Ruggiero (clean-up)
John Cersani (clean-up)
Philip Giaccone (victim)
Alphonse Indelicato (victim)
Dominick Trinchera (victim)
Frank Lino (witness)

Also mentioned in Donnie Brasco by Lefty as guys who were 'involved in the hits':

Nicholas Santora
Gerald Chilli
Robert Capasio
James Episcopia

[NYNighthawk]

it's amazing how many people in on the hit turned - Massino and Vitale come to mind first. I believe the only one active from this list is Nicky Santora.

[Pogo The Clown]

Santora died a few months ago.


Pogo

[JeremyTheJew]

i also believed (i could have maybe got this mixed up??) that the gotti crew was also in on clean up?

was that this hit or a diferent one i allways thought that was very odd tgo...

[DPG]

I believe in Five Families it says the Gotti crew got rid of the bodies, I could be mistaken though cause it's been years since I looked at the book.

[NYNighthawk]

They buried the three bodies in a lot near the Brooklyn/Queens border. When massino flipped he gave up the location.

[JeremyTheJew]

They buried the three bodies in a lot near the Brooklyn/Queens border. When massino flipped he gave up the location.

they as in gotti crew?

I believe in Five Families it says the Gotti crew got rid of the bodies, I could be mistaken though cause it's been years since I looked at the book.

i believe its stated elsewhere also...

as well as it was said to be a reason that the bonannos occasionally did hits for gotti, such as willy boy johnson

[AndyHaHa]

I’m pretty sure the carniglia brothers disposed of the bodies

[B.]

JD posted pieces from Massino's 302s or testimony where it was said that the unidentified old man on the hit team had the last name "Bonventre". He also identified Francesco Navarra as a participant in the hit and said that Santo Giordano was a captain (possibly acting) at the time, helping to run the family. Giordano acted as a host during the meeting, greeting the victims and leading them inside.

Navarra was a relative of Giordano, both of them being from Castellammare Del Golfo (CDG), so Navarra was likely brought into the hit by Giordano, who as a family leaders looks to have been a central part of the conspiracy. Based on this, I have a theory about who this "Bonventre" might have been:

- Giordano was accidentally shot during the murder and was said to have been taken to the Brooklyn apartment of his uncle Gaspare "Nino" Bonventre. There is a Gaspare Bonventre who shows up in some records, born in CDG before coming to Brooklyn, whose niece married a Fiordilino. Former Bonanno captain Giovanni Fiordilino was another relative of Navarra and Giordano, so it seems possible that this Gaspare Bonventre is the same one described as Giordano's uncle Gaspare "Nino".

- There was another Gaspare Bonventre around this age, a made member of the mafia in Castellamamre Del Golfo, who was said to have traveled between the US and Sicily and whose family had participated in "blood feuds". The Fiordilinos (and presumably the Navarras / Giordano) had ties to members of the CDG mafia, so it's not unreasonable to think that Giordano's uncle Gaspare was connected to the mafia there, possibly being the same Gaspare who shows up on lists as a CDG member.

- It's unclear where the info came from about Giordano going to Gaspare Bonventre's apartment after the shooting, though the "Sixth Family" book describes it in detail. Giordano was supposedly taken to Bonventre's apartment by the other "zips" at the murder scene, none of whom ever cooperated with LE to our knowledge. Giordano was interviewed by LE after going to the hospital where he gave misleading info about how he got shot. I can only assume that Giordano or someone else with him gave a false story about what brought them to his uncle Bonventre's apartment.

- Massino's identification of the old man on the hit team as "FNU Bonventre" put a lightbulb in my head. It seems likely to me that Giordano, as a lead conspirator who probably recruited Navarra, also recruited this "FNU Bonventre" given that it's a CDG name related to Giordano.

- It seems too coincidental that there was an old man named "Bonventre" on the hit team and that they would end up at Gaspare "Nino" Bonventre's apartment after Giordano was wounded. It's my hunch that the "old man" on the hit team was in fact Giordano's uncle Gaspare "Nino" Bonventre and that he was involved in transporting Giordano from the murder scene to his apartment. If it was Giordano who told LE about going to the apartment, he likely told him that Gaspare was already at the apartment so as not to potentially connect him to the scene of the shooting. If the uncle Gaspare "Nino" Bonventre is indeed the same Gaspare who was a CDG mafioso with some connection to "blood feuds", it would make even more sense why his nephew would recruit him for a hit team despite his age.

[Extortion]

Crazy that they needed this many people to be involved.

[chin_gigante]

That's a great addition B, thanks.

[thekiduknow]

I believe in Five Families it says the Gotti crew got rid of the bodies, I could be mistaken though cause it's been years since I looked at the book.

Its also in the Joey Massino book "King of the Godfathers", and that the Gotti's messed up since they found Indelicatio's body three weeks later

[RONALD]

Where can i find the post from JD, about the 302 from Massino...B? thanks

[chin_gigante]

I’ve come up with an updated list of participants based on additions from this thread and the following sources:

Donnie Brasco (Joseph Pistone & Richard Woodley)
Five Families (Selwyn Raab)
King of the Godfathers (Anthony DeStefano)
The Sixth Family (Lee Lamothe & Adrian Humphreys)
Testimony and debriefings of Joseph Massino and Salvatore Vitale

It has been established that there were approximately a dozen guys present inside the club at the time of the ambush:

Gaspare Bonventre (shooter; thanks to B.)
Nicholas DiStefano
Philip Giaccone (victim)
Santo Giordano
Alphonse Indelicato (victim)
Frank Lino (witness)
Joseph Massino
Francesco Navarra
Emanuel Ragusa (shooter)
Vito Rizzuto (shooter)
Gerlando Sciascia
Dominick Trinchera (victim)
Salvatore Vitale (shooter)
Joseph Zicarelli
+1 other Zip

Lino, recounting the event, identified the guys there as the three victims, Massino, Sciascia, the unwitting DiStefano and Zicarelli, Giordano and a couple of other Zips he didn’t know. Navarra would be one of those Zips, leaving only one other participant at the scene unidentified.

Assisted by Vitale, the clean-up/ getaway crew:

John Cersani
Duane Leisenheimer (lookout; drove DiStefano and Zicarelli from the scene)
Dominick Napolitano
Benjamin Ruggiero
James Tartaglione (driven back to the scene to assist in the clean-up by Vitale)
+2 other associates of Napolitano

The Gambino disposal crew:

John Carneglia
Gene Gotti
Angelo Ruggiero

In Donnie Brasco, Lefty Ruggiero is recorded as telling Pistone that these individuals were, ‘In on the hits.’ The four could be split between the two that helped with the clean-up team and the two guys Sonny Black had sit with Al Walker Embarrato at the Motion Lounge until word came through that the hits had gone down:

Robert Capasio (identified by Pistone as Bobby Capazzio)
Gerald Chilli (apparently told Lefty that Bruno Indelicato was nearby so was most likely part of the clean-up crew)
James Episcopia
Nicholas Santora

Other participants:

Anthony Rabito (provided the apartment for Lefty to lay low at after the hits)

The only participant I think we still need to identify is the other Zip at the club who was there with Giordano and Navarra.

[B.]

I wouldn't write that it was definitively Gaspare Bonventre... would hate to see that get repeated as fact. It is just my own educated speculation. JD had him as "FNU Bonventre" which seems accurate enough given it came from Massino, though you're welcome to include "possibly Gaspare Bonventre" or something if you like that theory.

Good list overall, always interested in this murder even after all of the attention it's received.