United States v Vincent Basciano and Patrick DeFilippo
US District Court EDNY
March 2006
Early life in the Bronx
- Dominick Cicale was born and grew up in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx
- His parents Dominick Cicale Sr and Linda got divorced when he was young and Cicale was not close with his father
- Cicale Sr was incarcerated from the time that Cicale was two years old until he was 11
- Cicale’s father did ‘all types of jobs’
- Cicale attended Monsignor Scanlan and Lehman High School before dropping out in the tenth grade
- Cicale would later attain his GED while in federal prison in the 1990s
- As a child, Cicale was not involved in organised crime, but his uncle Peter Cicale was an associate of the Lucchese family
- Growing up, Cicale was close to Anthony Baratta and Ernest Muscarella
- Cicale viewed Muscarella as a father figure and worked for him in an auto glass business
- Muscarella taught Cicale how to box and lift weights, and tried to keep him away from criminal activity
- Cicale was around Muscarella, but didn’t realise it at the time
- ‘I was a kid and I didn’t know I was an associate with the West Side.’
- At the age of 16, while drinking with a friend, Cicale tried to steal a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am to take it for a joyride in the neighbourhood
- Cicale was arrested and charged in state court, but the case was ultimately dismissed
- From the ages of 16 to 21, Cicale would periodically sell cocaine and marijuana
- ‘Anywhere from a quarter gram of coke to a kilo of coke and it would vary could be a couple thousand a week. […] Anywhere from a dime bag of marijuana to a pound and also could have been a couple hundred to a couple thousand a week.’
- During this period, Cicale got into fights, carried a gun, and got several tattoos
- He was arrested on a gun charge and once for resisting arrest but both cases were dismissed
Florida, drugs, and manslaughter
- Around 1987, Cicale moved to Pembroke Pines in Florida ‘just to get away from New York’
- Cicale wanted to ‘calm down’, and opened a few businesses but they didn’t work out
- Cicale continued to engage in criminal behaviour, including drug dealing
- ‘At that time I was robbing people of kilos of cocaine, half a kilo of cocaine. Whatever they would have, I would take it from them.’
- Cicale would take drugs without paying and on other occasions he would take money for drugs without providing any product
- In September 1988, Cicale was arrested for the murder of George Kehoe
- Kehoe was a drug dealer who had been robbed by some of Cicale’s friends who were visiting from New York
- Cicale wasn’t present when his friends robbed Kehoe, but was warned by Ernie Coralluzzo that Kehoe held him responsible
- Cicale Sr had introduced his son to Coralluzzo
- ‘My father’s friend informed me that George Kehoe was looking to kill me, that he held me responsible of the robbery that the guys robbed his cocaine and they were aware he had two pistols on him. So they told me, if I come, to come armed.’
- Cicale brought a .380 equipped with a suppressor to meet Kehoe in a motel
- At the motel, Cicale shot Kehoe to death
- The body was transported in the trunk of Cicale’s car to Palm Beach, where it was dumped in a canal
- Coralluzzo was involved in Kehoe’s murder and ended up cooperating with the state of Florida against Cicale
- While the Kehoe murder case was pending, Cicale was arrested again for armed robbery, but the case was dismissed
- Cicale ultimately pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to seven years in state prison
- Cicale was released after 17 months for good behaviour, only to be arrested again in 1991 on federal narcotics charges
- Cicale took the case to trial and was acquitted of possession of cocaine but convicted of conspiracy to distribute
- Cicale was sentenced to 121 months in federal prison and served almost nine years
Federal prison
- Cicale was incarcerated from 1991 to 1999
- While held at FCI Fairton in NJ, Cicale met Iris Serrano, a corrections officer
- Cicale started ‘fooling around’ with Serrano and later married her
- While held at FCI Allenwood, Cicale met and became close with Anthony Indelicato
- ‘When I arrived at Allenwood FCI, you start meeting individuals and after a time, some time goes by, people start talking, telling you who you’re staying with. That’s when I found out about Mr Indelicato and through conversation with him that he knew my uncle.’
- Cicale and Indelicato worked out, ate, and watched other inmates play basketball together
- Indelicato told Cicale that he was in prison because he killed Carmine Galante
- The last facility Cicale was held in prior to his release was FCI Estill in South Carolina
Release from prison
- Cicale was released to a halfway house in 1999
- In December of that year, Cicale moved in with his wife Iris in southern New Jersey
- Cicale was under supervised release restrictions, but violated them immediately
- Cicale contacted his uncle Peter Cicale and asked him to set up a meeting with Bruno Indelicato
- Just before Christmas, Cicale and his uncle Peter met Indelicato and Vincent Basciano for drinks at the Manhattan Grill
- Cicale did not know Basciano at the time
- ‘They asked me what I was doing, what I was up to, how I’d been, you know, you look good for just coming out of jail. Just basically normal talk. […] It ended, Indelicato gave me, it was either a pager number or a cell phone number. We left off goodbye, and that if I need him to contact him and to stay in touch with him.’
- After the meeting, Cicale’s uncle took him to Rao’s where they bumped into Basciano and Indelicato again
- Cicale didn’t know that Basciano and Indelicato were going to be at Rao’s
- Cicale spoke to Indelicato, who told him Basciano approved of the way he conducted himself
- Indelicato asked if Cicale wanted to be around him, and Cicale said yes
- From 1999 to 2001, Cicale primarily dealt with Indelicato, but this changed as he got closer to Basciano
- Indelicato was working in New Jersey at the time, and Cicale would drive out to meet him
- Cicale was working as a helper for the Local 7 tile fitters’ union in South Jersey
- Apart from violating his supervised release, the only criminal activity Cicale was involved in at the time was cheque fraud
- Cicale obtained five fraudulent cheques made out for values ranging from $100 to $5,000
- Cicale gave the cheques to Indelicato to see if he could cash them, but he was unsuccessful
Going on record with Basciano
- Sometime in 2000, Vinny Basciano asked if Cicale had any connections from when he was younger
- Cicale told Basciano that he was close with Ernie Muscarella
- ‘As a kid growing up, I didn’t realise that Ernie Muscarella was part of a crime family, and I didn’t know him in that capacity. I looked up to him as a father figure. […] Vincent Basciano approached Ernie Muscarella, and seeing if I was even around him, and if I was, if he would release me.’
- At the time, Muscarella was the acting boss of the Genovese family
- Muscarella confirmed that Cicale was around him as a kid and had no problem releasing him
- Muscarella knew Basciano and liked him
- At that point, Basciano put Cicale on record with him as an associate of the Bonanno family
- The Bonanno family was also known as the Massino family at the time
Basciano told Cicale, ‘Joe Massino felt that Joe Bonanno was a rat because he wrote a book about our secrets.’
- Cicale told Basciano about his involvement in the George Kehoe murder, his narcotics conviction, and that he was married to a former corrections officer
- Around this time, Cicale found out there was an inaccurate rumour that he was an informant
- Basciano took Cicale to meet Vincent Badalamenti, who had heard this rumour
- Cicale couldn’t remember if Badalamenti’s nickname was Vinny TV or Anthony TV
- Basciano got Cicale to back up, but told Badalamenti that if anyone in the neighbourhood called Cicale a rat, they (Basciano and Cicale) would ‘fuck them up’When Vinny brought me over to Anthony TV, Vinny turned around and told me, he says, ‘Anthony TV don’t want to meet you because he says you’re a rat.’ At that point I started going at Anthony TV. Anthony TV at that point was backing up and told Vinny Basciano, ‘Vinny, tell him who I am.’ […] Basically saying that he was a member of organised crime and I couldn’t put my hand on him.
- Basciano told Cicale, ‘If anybody does call you a rat, and you do nothing about it, you can’t be around me.’
- Michael ‘Hippy’ Zanfardino had put the bad wire on Cicale
- When they were kids, Cicale robbed Zanfardino so there was bad blood between them
Frank Santoro
- Cicale first became aware of Frank Santoro in early February 2001
- ‘I met Anthony Indelicato out in Jersey by his job. […] He told me there was a situation, and it involved Vinny Basciano’s son.’
- Indelicato told Cicale someone might have to be killed and asked if Cicale would be willing to participate
- Cicale agreed and Indelicato said, ‘That’s good. It would show your loyalty.’
- Cicale then had more conversations with Basciano and Indelicato about the situation
- Basciano told Cicale that Frank Santoro was looking to kidnap one of his sons
- Joseph ‘Joe Monk’ Filippone, a junkie from Pelham Bay connected to the Genovese family, had told Basciano about Santoro’s plan
- Basciano didn’t know Santoro or his family, so they had to find out where he lived
- Basciano told Cicale that Santoro was a junkie
- ‘My father is also a junkie, and I suggested to him, “Well, let me check with my father. Maybe he has a line on him on where he lives.” And during that conversation I left. I went to go speak to my father.’
- Cicale found out about his father’s drug problem when he came home from prison in 1999
- At the time, Cicale Sr was living in his mother’s garage, and Cicale would see other junkies coming and going from the location
- In addition to using heroin, Cicale Sr sold drugs with Joe Filippone
- Cicale spoke to his father, who told him Santoro lived in Pelham Bay and had a dog
- Cicale didn’t tell his father why he needed to know where Santoro lived
- Cicale brought that information back to Basciano and Indelicato
- During these conversations, Basciano talked about who would be involved in the hit and Cicale volunteered to be a shooter
- Basciano asked if Cicale was sure, and he said yes
Looking for Santoro in Pelham Bay
- The first attempt to find Santoro took place on 14 February 2001
- ‘It was Valentine’s Day, my ex-wife had a fit I was leaving her.’
- Cicale met up with Basciano and Indelicato at Deborah Kalb’s apartment on East 194th Street
- Cicale grew up with Kalb and now she was Basciano’s girlfriend
- When Cicale arrived, he said hello to Kalb before going into the bathroom with Basciano and Indelicato
- Basciano chose the bathroom because he felt the government wouldn’t place listening devices in there
- Basciano had a pistol grip shotgun and gave Cicale either a .357 or a .38 revolver
- Basciano said, ‘We’re going to go and look for this Frank Santoro. When we find him, we’re going to leave him in the street.’
- The three of them left the apartment and headed down the block to Wilkerson Park where Anthony Donato and John Tancredi were waiting
- Basciano told Cicale that he and Donato came up together and had been involved in the numbers business for approximately 20 years
- Donato had been working as a clerk in a numbers operation and got Basciano a job in the office
- Cicale may have met Tancredi a couple of times prior to the murder but didn’t know him
- Basciano had asked Tancredi to participate and told Cicale he was loyal and tough
- Basciano told Cicale that Tancredi was in the military and had been involved in Operation Desert StormMr Basciano informed me at one of his number locations John and Joey DiMarco, they were working there one night and somebody tried robbing them, came in with a gun. John grabbed the gun from the guy. They went on the floor, tussling, the gun might have gone off, Joey DiMarco had locked himself in the office but John showed his loyalty and that he was capable. Mr Basciano felt confident with him.
- Tancredi had heart problems and later died as a result
- ‘He had a funeral in Sisto funeral parlour in Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. When they laid him out, they laid him out in his military uniform.’
- The plan was for Donato to serve as Basciano and Cicale’s driver, while Indelicato and Tancredi operated crash cars
- Tancredi was using an old-model, red Honda
- Donato was using his personal gold Acura RL and put another license plate over his own to prevent any eyewitnesses getting his plate number
- Donato gave Indelicato a walkie-talkie so they could communicate
- Indelicato was driving a burgundy Durango belonging to Robin Burke
- Indelicato had married Burke’s sister Cathy while he was in federal prison
- Indelicato, Cathy, Robin, their mother, and Robin’s daughter lived in a two-family house in Howard Beach
- After gathering at Wilkerson Park, the hit team drove around Pelham Bay for a few hours looking for Santoro
- Basciano started to get frustrated because they didn’t know exactly where Santoro lived
- Basciano was also conscious that they were circling blocks, so if someone got suspicious and called it in, they could be pulled over with weapons in the car
- They went back to Wilkerson Park and Basciano told everyone he’d be in touch with them
- Indelicato drove Basciano and Cicale back to Debbie Kalb’s place, where they had another discussion in the bathroom
- ‘[Basciano] took my gun and he said, “This is ridiculous.” He’s going to find out exactly where this guy lives and he will get in contact with me in the next few days.’
- After the failed attempt, Cicale went back home to South Jersey
Spotting Santoro in Throggs Neck
- Basciano got in touch with Cicale the next night
- Cicale met Basciano and Indelicato at Debbie Kalb’s apartment and they had another discussion in the bathroom
- ‘[Basciano] told me my father didn’t know what he was talking about; that Frank Santoro didn’t live in Pelham Bay, he lived in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx.’
- Basciano didn’t mention how he found out Santoro lived in Throggs Neck
- Cicale Sr had however been correct that Santoro owned a dog
- ‘He said we’re going to circle the block he lives on, he didn’t know the exact house, but when we see him, we’re going to leave him in the street.’
- They left the apartment at approximately 7.30pm to 8pm and Indelicato drove them to meet Donato and Tancredi at Wilkerson Park
- Donato gave Indelicato the walkie-talkie and once again covered the Acura’s licence plate
- Basciano told Indelicato and Tancredi to just follow Donato’s car
- Neither Indelicato nor Tancredi knew the neighbourhood, so Donato led the way with directions from Basciano
- Basciano sat up front with Donato while Cicale sat in the back
- Basciano wore a baseball cap, and Cicale may have also worn a hat
- Cicale was wearing gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, but Basciano wasn’t
- Neither of them wore a mask
- They drove around Throggs Neck for about an hour to an hour and a half
- While circling the block Santoro lived on, Donato spotted someone exiting a house with a Doberman
- After the murder, Cicale learned that Basciano owned three three-family homes on Pennyfield AvenueIt’s like a four-way corner or five-way, five intersections on the corner of Pennyfield and the Throgs Neck Expressway we were sitting. Anthony Indelicato was parked down the block from Frank Santoro’s house. The gentleman, John, I’m not sure if he was parked by the overpass or by one of the other corners, but he was also right around that area.
- There was a traffic light on the corner, and Donato pulled over just before it on Pennyfield
- From where they were positioned, Donato and Basciano could look across an empty lot on the corner and see Santoro walking his dog on the service road of the Throgs Neck Expressway
- Cicale however could not see Santoro from the backseat of the car
- ‘The corner is like V-shaped. That’s how they were able to see him without making the turn.’
- Santoro had stopped to talk to someone who was sitting in a car
- Cicale suggested shooting both of them, but Basciano told him to wait
- Later on, Basciano found out the man Santoro was talking to was Genovese family associate George Coumoutsos
- Cicale had grown up with Coumoutsos
- Donato wanted to leave and try again another night, but Basciano refused to call it off
- As they were parked, Bonanno associate Larry Weinstein approached the vehicle to say hello to Basciano and Donato
- After saying hello, Basciano told Weinstein to get away from the car
- Cicale hadn’t met Weinstein yet, but later found out he lived down the block
- Weinstein left and after a minute or two, Basciano and Donato saw Coumoutsos drive away as well
- Donato turned on his lights, waited for the traffic light to turn green, and turned the corner onto the Throgs Neck Expressway, pulling up about five to ten feet from where Santoro was walking
- Cicale’s revolver held five rounds and he fired all of them at Santoro’s headAt that moment I jumped out of the back seat of the car, it was a four-door car. I said, “Excuse me”, as he turned around, I started firing shots at his head. After about the second shot, second or third shot, Vinny Basciano was standing next to me outside the car, shooting, firing the shotgun. After I exhausted all my rounds, Vinny Basciano was still firing. At one point Frank Santoro hit the ground. The last shot from Vinny Basciano’s gun, he hit Frank Santoro when Frank Santoro was already on the ground. Then after that, we jumped back into the car.
- Basciano shot at Santoro’s upper body about four or five times, with the last two shots fired after Cicale’s gun was empty
- Cicale thought the last shot hit Santoro in the groin and he saw the body jump up off the ground
- Basciano struck himself on the chin from the recoil from the last shot
The empty lot on Schurz Avenue
- Following the shooting, Donato headed down the Throgs Neck Expressway and turned right onto Harding Avenue
- As they drove off, Cicale noticed a cop car on the highway that had pulled another vehicle over
- Indelicato followed them west until they got about halfway down Harding, at which point Basciano and Cicale switched to his car
- Donato took off the extra plate and left the scene
- At Basciano’s direction, Indelicato drove the shooters further down Harding before heading to Schurz AvenueWe changed cars because if there was an eyewitness somebody seen the shooting, they would have saw us entering that type of vehicle, when we went around the corner. By us switching vehicles, there was a call to the police, to 911, they happen to pull Anthony Donato over, he would be by himself and we would be in a different vehicle with the guns.
- ‘Mr Indelicato was laughing because he said all he seen was the Doberman Pinscher leashed running past him.’
- There was an empty lot on Schurz between Robinson and Davis Avenues, which Cicale later found out belonged to a corporation owned by Basciano
- They pulled up, Basciano asked for Cicale’s gun, and wrapped it in a rag or a shirt
- Basciano took the gun into the lot, which was overgrown, and came back without it
- ‘It was a big piece of land. It had a mound of dirt, a burnt car there, people were using it for like a junk yard.’
- Cicale didn’t know exactly what Basciano did with the gun, but assumed he threw it into the East River
- Basciano got back into the truck and told Indelicato to drive straight for about ten blocks until they reached Basciano’s house at 146 Revere Avenue, just off Schurz
- Basciano got out and laid the shotgun down on the ground by the garage
- Later, Basciano talked about how he was thinking of keeping the weapon
- ‘I told him just get rid of it, God forbids with the shell casing, there’s some type of ballistics, it’s not worth it.’
- Cicale doesn’t know what Basciano ultimately did with the shotgun
- Indelicato drove back to Debbie Kalb’s apartment on East 194th Street, where the three of them had another conversation in the bathroom
- ‘They congratulated me on making my bones and how I acted; that there was no hesitation. Vinny Basciano stated I missed with the first or second shot and I was saying no, no, I hit him. Anthony Indelicato said, “No, he hit him, I seen him hit him in the head.”’
- Basciano instructed both of them never to discuss the murder again
- ‘This never happened. I don’t care who asks you, it never happened. It wasn’t us. We forget about it, like it never existed, it never happened.’
- Sometime after the Santoro murder, Basciano gave Cicale advice about shooting
- ‘He said never hesitate, hesitation kills. If somebody else who you’re going to kill is going to have a gun and he said, “Shoot to the chest, aim for the chest.”’
- In another conversation years later, Basciano told Cicale he thought that every round from the revolver missed Santoro
- After being arrested in 2005, Cicale received discovery material that involved Santoro’s autopsy
The aftermath of the Santoro murderI told Mr Basciano in his ear, I whispered, I said, ‘I think I did hit him because from the autopsy report I seen that Frank Santoro was shot in the head and from the ballistics, from the autopsy report, they – all the shots in the body, there was pellets and in the head shot there was no pellets.’ So I told him I said I think I did get him in the head.
- After the murder took place, Joe Massino asked Basciano for an explanation
- ‘Vincent Basciano then explained to him he didn’t have time to bring it to Patty DeFilippo’s attention nor Joe Massino’s attention, that this guy was looking to kidnap his son, and it could have happened any minute. So, he had to react and he told him that I proved myself and it was with Anthony Indelicato.’
- Basciano at that point was a member of DeFilippo’s crew
- ‘Mr Basciano was a soldier and Patty DeFilippo was the dugiene [sic.], that means his crew.’
- After the murder, Basciano wanted to propose Cicale and Anthony Donato for membership
- Cicale felt he didn’t need to be made as long as he had Basciano and Indelicato backing him
- Basciano reminded Cicale that he and Indelicato may not be around forever, which convinced Cicale to accept the proposal
- Cicale’s marriage to Iris Serrano could have threatened his induction, but he had broken up with her and moved back to the Bronx
- Basciano told Cicale he would let Massino know that he was getting a divorce and no longer living with a former corrections officer
- Cicale and Donato’s names were submitted for membership, and they were initially accepted
- However, Massino was later alerted that Cicale had just come home from a narcotics case
- There was a five-year moratorium in place for anyone with a drug conviction before they could get straightened out
- As a result, Donato could be inducted but Cicale couldn’t
- Basciano told Cicale when Donato was made
- Basciano also made it known that Massino had promoted him to an official captain
Looking for Donnie
- Shortly after Donato’s induction and Basciano’s promotion, Cicale was asked to find Dominick ‘Donnie’ Martino
- Martino was a junkie connected to the Genovese family through a brother who was a member
- Martino had thrown a punch at Donato outside Basciano’s social club on Westchester Avenue in Pelham Bay
- Cicale believed Martino’s comment about not being thanked was related to the Santoro murder and that Martino had provided some information to BascianoAnthony Donato and Donnie, they were crossing paths. I don’t know who was entering and who was exiting the social club. As they were passing by each other, Anthony Donato said hello to Donnie. Donnie responded, ‘What’s the matter? Your friend can’t say thank you?’ Anthony Donato told him, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Donnie responded, ‘You know what I’m talking about.’ And Anthony Donato said, ‘No, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ And at that time, Donnie threw a punch at Anthony.
- Basciano told Cicale, ‘This guy’s crazy, why would we go thank him?’
- Basciano wanted to kill Martino for putting his hands on a member and instructed Cicale to find him
- Cicale was told to wait by the train station at Buhre and Westchester Avenues
- Martino worked construction and would be coming home from 3pm to 4pm heading from the train to his house on Mayflower Avenue
- Cicale didn’t know what Martino looked like, but Basciano told him he’d look like a junkie and wear shorts and work boots
- The plan was to pull up alongside Martino on a motorcycle and shoot him
- Basciano owned a motorcycle that was registered under Cicale’s mother’s name
- Cicale would be the driver and Donato would get off the bike and shoot Martino
- Basciano wanted Donato to be the shooter because they had been involved in several pieces of work together and Donato hadn’t been a shooter before
- Cicale waited at Buhre Avenue but didn’t find Martino
- Later, Basciano told Cicale that Joe Massino nixed the plot because Martino was related to a member of the Genovese family
- Donato had only recently been inducted, so Massino asked if Martino knew that he was made
- Basciano said no, so Massino refused to give permission
- Massino told Basciano that Martino would probably apologise
- Basciano told Cicale, ‘If this guy doesn’t wind up apologising we’ll sneak him.’
- Cicale later learned that his cousins Anthony and Nancy Pipolo were related to Martino
- ‘Diane Pipolo is my cousin Nancy Pipolo’s cousin, and she was married to Donnie.’
Moving back to the Bronx
- Cicale started spending more time in the Bronx after his uncle Peter died in 2000
- Cicale went to the Bronx to bid on tile jobs and also to get away from his wife as their marriage deteriorated
- ‘My cousin Nancy Pipolo worked at Dick Gidron Ford. She was a special financing manager. I would go there because she would type up all my proposals for my jobs, and while I was waiting there a few times I would page Mr Basciano to that number and he would call me back sometimes at that number, in the Ford dealership.’
- Cicale was arrested on a domestic violence offence in March 2001, accused of putting a knife to his wife’s neck and threatening to kill her
- His wife ultimately dropped the charges against Cicale, and the case was dismissed
- Cicale left her and moved into his mother’s house in the Bronx for a few months
- After moving into the city, Cicale became a partner in a car wash and invested $3,500 in the business
- The car wash failed and Cicale lost his money
- Cicale and his cousin Thomas Orzo then moved into a house on Schurz Avenue owned by Carmella Tocco, Basciano’s mother-in-law
- Cicale moved out of Tocco’s house to live with his pregnant girlfriend Lynette Ayuso
- Cicale’s mother purchased a house on Outlook Avenue in the Country Club section of the Bronx for her son and Ayuso to live in
- Ayuso wanted to get married so their child would be legitimate, but Iris Serrano refused to give Cicale a divorce when she found out about the pregnancy
- Serrano was saddled with debt after Cicale left because of credit card charges they had accrued
- Serrano co-signed for a couple of credit cards prior to Cicale’s release from prison to establish his credit
- Cicale was being represented by a lawyer called Peter from Thomas Lee’s office
- Cicale grew up with Lee, who was also close to Basciano
- Cicale instructed his lawyer to let Serrano know that he would not pay the $30,000 he had agreed for the credit card debt unless she granted him a divorce
- Serrano ended up going bankrupt over the debt
- ‘Periodically I was giving her money even after the bankruptcy. I gave her money. […] The last amount of money I gave her I paid for her mother’s funeral.’
- Cicale and Ayuso’s daughter was born in May 2002 and Cicale asked Basciano to serve as godfather at the baptism in September
- Ayuso took their daughter and moved out after about six months, leaving Cicale by himself
- Cicale’s mother sold the Country Club house and bought one on Robinson Avenue
- Cicale moved into the Robinson Avenue property by himself for about six months until his current (at the time of his testimony) fiancée moved in with him
- Cicale and his fiancée then moved to Fish Avenue when Cicale started a construction project on the Robinson Avenue property
Vinny and Dominick
- Cicale reported to Basciano from 2000 until Basciano’s arrest in 2004
- Prior to the Frank Santoro murder, Cicale only saw Basciano about ten to 15 times and wasn’t involved in criminal activity with him
- Most of these meetings were social occasions
- When Cicale and his wife would visit Atlantic City, they got help making their arrangements from Taylor Breton, a gambler who was close to Basciano
- After moving to the Bronx, Cicale saw Basciano every day and often met with him at Spoto’s restaurant on Tremont Avenue
- ‘We’d hang out. We’d eat. We’d go out together. Play basketball together, lift weights, play racquetball.’
- During this time, Cicale learned more about the activities of the Bonanno family, including the borgata’s involvement in the New York Post
- At one point, Joseph D’Amico approached Basciano to see if he was interested in the contract to do bodywork on the Post’s delivery trucks
- Basciano never ended up getting the contract
- Basciano also told Cicale that the family controlled the Feast of San Gennaro
- ‘We get kickbacks from the garbage and electrical, and also the soda, the soda. Whoever sells soda we get kickbacks from them, and also, we set stands up in the feast locations where people get their spots.’
- Basciano told Cicale that he got involved in the Bonanno family through Dominick Trinchera
- ‘They were close with one another. He always used to be with him.’
- Prior to Cicale knowing him, Basciano had owned a beauty salon (Hello Gorgeous), a restaurant, B&V Video (‘Butchie and Vinny’), and a Blimpie franchise
- When Cicale knew him, Basciano was involved in construction and a movie company
- Basciano’s partners in the movie business were Bruno Indelicato and ‘Frank Avia’
- When they started seeing each other every day, Cicale got involved in more criminal activity including gambling, loan sharking, burglary, robbery, extortion, and narcotics
- During this time, Cicale was involved in ‘numerous’ fights and assaults, including the assault of an individual named Eric over a gambling debt
- Basciano, Vincent Basciano Jr, Anthony Donato, Anthony Aiello, Nicholas Pisciotti, and Giuseppe Gambina were among those also involved in these assaults
- Cicale collected money for Basciano’s loan sharking business as well as extortion money from the Via Oreto restaurant in Manhattan
- John Tancredi accompanied Cicale to collect the shake down money
- Shortly after the Santoro murder, Cicale also got involved in marijuana and ecstasy
- Cicale worked with Basciano and Indelicato in the drug business
- Cicale also frequently acted as Basciano’s driver
- Basciano had three Lincoln Navigators (one grey, one black, one white)
- Two of the Lincolns were registered to Basciano’s mother-in-law, and the other was registered to a woman called Simona
- Basciano also used a Mercedes that was registered under his wife’s name
- One night, Basciano was driving Cicale’s car to Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut when they were pulled over and received a ticket for speeding
- ‘I woke up about half hour. We were in Connecticut on the highway and as I woke up, all of a sudden, comes – siren – lights came on. And we were in a high speed chase.’
- Basciano was conscious of surveillance and would always check his mirrors
- Basciano and Cicale would meet several individuals including Anthony Urso, Joseph Cammarano Sr, Joseph Cammarano Jr, Louis DeCicco, Jerome Asaro, Giacomo Bonventre, Patrick DeFilippo, Michael Mancuso, and Joseph SammartinoHe told me I should listen to 1010 a lot, listen to news channels, because music can dull the senses. You get involved in the music and you don’t pay attention about your surroundings. And he would advise me if I seen any tails on me while I was driving and I was on the highway, pull over on the service road of the highway, let the cars pass you. Slow up, speed down. Just do evasive manoeuvres.
- Cicale knew Sammartino to be an acting captain in the family
- Early on in his time on the street, Cicale would use prepaid phones registered under a fake name to set up meetings with peopleWhen I would drive him to meet an individual, I would say 90 percent of the time the individual was already waiting for Mr Basciano, either in a restaurant or a parking lot. Half the times you didn’t see what they were driving because their cars weren’t parked right outside where we were meeting them. They would be parked blocks away.
- However, Basciano wouldn’t speak on the phone and instead they arranged meetings through a coded pager system
- They switched up the codes and changed pagers every three or four months
- Cicale kept a master list of pager codes in his house and a smaller list on him at all times
- Cicale identified people on the list by nicknames in case law enforcement ever seized it
- Indelicato’s nickname on the list was CoCo
- ‘That’s what we called him, CoCo, because he was nutty.’
- Basciano’s nickname on the list was Din because of his youngest son
- Basciano had four sons with his wife Angela and a baby boy with Debbie Kalb
- Basciano wanted Kalb’s son to call him Vin instead of dad in case Basciano ever ran into them when he was with his wife
- The boy however couldn’t pronounce Vin and called him Din
- Basciano and Indelicato discovered that Kalb’s apartment was under FBI surveillance around late 2001/ early 2002
- Technicians had been in the apartment to install a dish and got pulled over by agents as they left
- ‘They were questioned who was in the house. Their response was a guy Anthony. And Vinny Basciano told Bruno – Anthony Indelicato, “See, you are lucky. I saved you. I call you Anthony, I don’t call you Bruno. If I would have been calling you Bruno like everybody else does you would have been getting violated today.”’
Numbers
- Basciano had a ‘pretty big’ numbers operation, with seven or eight locations spread across Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx
- Basciano also had a share of a couple of locations belonging to his brother-in-law Gennaro ‘Butchie’ Tocco
- In addition, Basciano received money from another numbers operation run by Larry Weinstein
- Weinstein was on record with Basciano, though Cicale serviced him
- Basciano’s operation brought in $100,000 in bets per week, with profits of around $10,000
- Cicale believed the winning numbers came from the racetrack
- When Cicale was living in Carmella Tocco’s house on Schurz Avenue, he learned that Vincent Basciano Jr was involved in the operation and laid off big bets to other offices
- Tommy Lee was assigned to represent clerks who got arrested for their involvement in Basciano’s numbers business
- Basciano told Cicale he was so insulated from the day-to-day of the operation that he wasn’t afraid of getting arrested
- Basciano would only be pinched for numbers if someone ratted on him
- When Cicale was first put on record with Basciano, the operation was run by Anthony Donato
- Basciano would meet Donato at the end of the day to collect his money and discuss the business
- Basciano and Donato would meet in the parking lot of an ice rink where Donato’s kids played hockey
- Donato stopped running the operation when he got involved in construction
- Basciano’s brother Richard was a clerk for the operation and ran it for about six months
- A guy called Greg who was part of the operation was close with Richard Basciano and grew up with him
- Alan Handler ran the operation at one time, but Basciano took it away from him because ‘the monies weren’t coming in the way they should’
- For the last 18 months leading up to Cicale’s 2005 arrest, the operation was run by Basciano’s brother Thomas
- During this period, Cicale met Thomas Basciano at 9am every Wednesday to make sure everything was okay and collect $5,400 for Basciano
- Other individuals involved in the operation included John Tancredi, Joseph DiMarco, and Tony Hands [Anthony Basile?]
- DiMarco was a clerk at one of Basciano’s locations was also involved in narcotics
- Tony Hands told Cicale about his involvement in numbers when they were both detained in MDC Brooklyn
- Tony Hands had three locations until Basciano took them away after a falling out
- Tony Hands then opened a spot about two blocks away from Basciano’s
- Basciano sent guys round to beat Tony Hands up
- Tony Hands tried to escape through a broken window and ended up needing over 100 stiches in his arm
Video poker machines
- Basciano had a very large and profitable joker poker machine business, raking in $300,000 to $500,000 a year
- Basciano’s machines took quarters, dollar bills, five-dollar bills, ten-dollar bills, and twenty-dollar bills
- Gamblers would play a machine for credit and go to the bartender at the location to cash out
- If the bartender didn’t know the gambler, or thought they might be law enforcement, he’d tell them the machine was for entertainment only
- Sylvester Zottola serviced all of Basciano’s machines
- ‘Whatever location Mr Basciano has, Sally Daz gets the video games, the jukebox and the pool table. That’s what he gets to keep for himself, the legitimate part of it.’
- Zottola was a Lucchese family associate, but he was very close with Basciano
- Zottola owned the property on East 194th Street where Debbie Kalb lived
- In addition to Zottola, those involved in Basciano’s video poker business included Alan Handler, Butchie Tocco, Larry Weinstein, and Tony Hands
- Anyone in the family involved in video poker had to kick up 10% of their earnings from their machines
- ‘There was a rule. You had to kick ten percent up to the boss.’
- Basciano gave Joe Massino anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 a month
- On a couple of occasions, Cicale accompanied Basciano to the CasaBlanca restaurant to drop off joker poker money, though he never met Massino
- Basciano told Cicale that Michael Mancuso, Patty DeFilippo, Nicholas Santora, and the Navarra brothers also had joker poker businesses
- After Cicale’s 2005 arrest, Baldassare Amato told him that he and Massino had been partners in a joker poker business
- Basciano had four machines in Rumors Bar off the Bruckner Expressway, a machine in Frenchy’s Bar off Tremont Avenue, another in a bar across the street from Frenchy’s, as well as one in Zero’s Cabs, Vivienne’s Bar, and Basciano’s social club
- The machine in Basciano’s social club made him about $15,000 a month
- The location used to be split with Pasquale Falcetti, who Cicale knew to be a soldier in the Genovese family
- Basciano’s uncle ran the club and would sometimes hand his nephew’s end to Cicale
- ‘Periodically, I would stop by just to check to see if everything is okay in the club. If Vinny Basciano didn’t see him, he would have an envelope for me from the machine.’
- Cicale’s role in the video poker business was to pick up money and settle disputes
- Sometime in 2004, Cicale was sent to one of Basciano’s numbers locations to settle a dispute
- There was a poker machine there, but somebody had unplugged it and claimed the spot as their own
- Cicale plugged Basciano’s machine back in, then threatened the guy with Anthony Aiello and Joey Gambina
- ‘I told him if he ever goes back into that location they’ll never find him again.’
- Another dispute arose at the bar across the street from Frenchy’s
- The bar had closed for renovations and Lucchese soldier Dominick Capelli tried to claim it
- Cicale met with Capelli twice to resolve the dispute, the first taking place before Basciano’s arrest and the second meeting after
- Cicale informed Capelli that Basciano already had a machine in the bar and the spot belonged to the Bonanno family
- Capelli’s captain had instructed him to claim the location, so Cicale asked if he was able to make a decision on the spot
- Capelli said yes and conceded the location, claiming not to have been aware of Basciano’s machine
- Cicale found three joker poker locations of his own during his time on the street
- Basciano had told Cicale if he secured new locations he’d receive half of the revenue
- Cicale secured locations in an Albanian bar by the Grand Concourse, Café Sueno on Havemeyer Avenue, and in Skippy’s Car Wash
- Cicale put one machine in each location and got them from Zottola
- Cicale got his car washed at Skippy’s and found out the location had poker machines
- The machines belonged to the owner, but he wasn’t around anyone
- Cicale did some inquiring and found out the owner was close to Colombo soldier Dennis Delucia
- Cicale sent some guys to the car wash to try and muscle the owner, which prompted him to run to Delucia for help
- The owner then officially went on record with Delucia, who in return agreed to split the proceeds of the machines with Cicale
- However, at an engagement party thrown for Cicale, Basciano told Delucia he could keep the location for himself
- Basciano also gave away the spot at the Albanian bar
- Over the course of two years, Cicale made $3,000 from the machine at Café Sueno
Getting set up in construction
- Basciano got Cicale a couple of jobs in construction when he was a tile fitter
- Cicale never got paid on the first occasion, but he did on the second job, which was a bigger project
- Cicale wanted to give Basciano a cut of the money he earned from the second job, but Basciano refused it
- ‘He told me keep it to get on my feet.’
- When Cicale moved back to the Bronx, he borrowed money from relatives to get set up in the construction business
- Cicale’s paternal grandmother refinanced her house on the condition that he pay her back
- Cicale’s grandmother however couldn’t get another mortgage because of her age, so the deed on her house was signed over to Cicale’s mother who became the primary guarantor on the loan
- In total, Cicale obtained about $285,000 in funds from the mortgage and a line of credit
- After receiving the money, Cicale gave $50,000 to Basciano for a construction project he was working on with Anthony Donato
- Cicale also loaned $80,000 (which was later repaid) to Vincent Basciano Jr for a project they were working on
- The rest of the funds went into another project on Bruner Avenue
- Robert Van Zandt Jr facilitated the mortgage and the line of credit through Van Zandt Agency
- ‘He has a mortgage company, title company, insurance company, real estate company and also he gets investors in and pays them nine percent on their money.’
- Van Zandt was Basciano’s ‘money guy’ and would find investors for their construction projects
- Basciano had a third of all the construction companies Van Zandt was involved in
- In addition to securing financing, Cicale and Van Zandt bought a stolen bobcat
- ‘Somebody came out to a job site one day to sell a bobcat, which is a heavy – it is a machine used on a construction job. I laid out the money, six thousand dollars, I gave him the cash. Robert Van Zandt then wrote out a cheque to me for a bobcat in the memo for that – for the six thousand dollars I laid out.’
- Cicale made the mortgage and loan payments as well as taking care of the taxes
- However, after Cicale’s arrest his paternal aunt sued his mother on his grandmother’s behalf over the refinancing
- ‘My grandmother didn’t want to inform my aunt about what went on because my aunt would have had a fit because she was doing something for me. I was the pet of the family.’
- Cicale, his mother, and his grandmother had signed for the mortgage together in Van Zandt’s office
- A week later, they had to sign for the line of credit
- ‘I signed my mother’s name on the line of credit. She was aware of it. And I had taken the papers to my grandmother for her to sign. She signed one of the documents.’
- Cicale took the documents to Van Zandt’s office only to find there was another document his grandmother had to sign
- Cicale got Van Zandt’s wife Kimmarie to sign for his grandmother on the last document, saying she was aware of what was happening
- Cicale’s grandmother only lived five minutes away from Van Zandt’s office, but he didn’t feel like taking the document back to her
Construction projects
- In addition to the financing from his grandmother, Cicale funded his construction projects by borrowing money from his uncle and two of his cousins
- Cicale also found ‘investors’ for his projects
- After coming up with the money for the jobs, Cicale would occasionally visit the sites with Vincent Basciano Jr to make sure everything was going okayQ An investor would be somebody that would have a piece of the equity in the transaction, would they not, sir?
[…]
A What I consider an investor, somebody who lends money, whether they be partners to purchase a piece of property or to lend money, hard money. I consider them an investor.
- Basciano Sr never did any work on Cicale’s projects but received a third of the money
- Cicale estimates he gave Basciano ‘close to a million dollars’ in total from his legitimate and illegitimate businesses
- Basciano did however have his own construction projects with Robert Van Zandt and Anthony Donato, and worked on a job on Schurz Avenue
- Cicale and Basciano Jr were partners on a project on East 217th Street
- Basciano Jr occasionally went to the project to work
- On a Bruner Avenue project, Cicale was partners with Basciano Jr and Angela Basciano, who was on paper for her husband
- On that job, Cicale was using a contractor called Harold Lane who he had a dispute with in the past
- Basciano told Cicale not to hurt Lane, but take him to court instead
- Cicale and Basciano Jr ended up throwing Lane off the Bruner Avenue project
- Cicale had another project to build houses off the New England Thruway through the company AAL Development Corp
- ‘Al Faella’, Angela Basciano, and Lynette Ayuso were the three partners on that project
- Basciano was on paper on her husband’s behalf, and Ayuso was on paper on Cicale’s behalf
- ‘With that project, we were going to keep some of the houses and let the rents pay the mortgage and we were going to get a little income for the females.’
- Cicale ended up getting involved in arson as a result of the New England Thruway job
- After Faella did this, Cicale was involved in torching some of his trucksWe had purchased a piece of property and part of the purchase, there was a valuable piece and then there was this rock. Al Faella felt that it was a – the job was too expensive for us to do. He wanted out of the deal and we already acquired a million one for a construction loan, to put up five houses after the rock was removed.
So he wanted out of the deal. We told him he could take the valuable piece of the property at the discount price we received it for, for purchasing that rock. So he did. After we closed that, he bought the valuable piece of the property, then we went to the bank to get the construction monies from the draws and he wouldn’t release it under his name. So the bank wound up pulling the construction loan from us and left us with a piece of property with a rock on it with no funding.
- The arson also ended up costing Cicale and Basciano some extortion money from another investor
- One of the investors Cicale found was Mark Stagg, who loaned him close to $700,000
- Stagg made out they money in the form of two loans to A&N Tile Inc
- Cicale’s cousin Nancy Pipolo owned A&N on paper, but the money went to Cicale and Basciano
- Cicale paid back the money with interest over the course of a little more than a year
- Basciano felt Stagg should be made to kick up because of the amount of money he was making
- Stagg was ‘on his own’, but Cicale had been getting involved to settle disputes he had with some Albanians
- ‘God forbid anybody got arrested because of people going into this and we stuck up for him, then we look like jerks, because this guy is making tonnes of money and we’re over here settling beefs for him.’
- Basciano instructed Cicale to shake down Stagg for $100,000 at Christmas and also to collect $5,000 for every house he built upon completion
- Basciano however told Cicale to back off before any money could be collected because they found out the FBI had questioned Stagg relating to the arson that took place on the New England Thruway job
- ‘He felt that he would tell the FBI that we were extort – we were looking to extort him at the time.’
Solicitation to murder ‘Patty Boy’, Lynette Ayuso, and Sal Vitale
- About a year after the Frank Santoro murder, an individual called ‘Patty Boy’ slapped Cicale’s father
- Cicale Sr and Patty Boy used drugs together
- Cicale was angry when he found about this, as he perceived it as an insult
- Cicale wanted to kill Patty Boy over the incident and got the okay from Basciano
- Cicale didn’t know if Basciano got permission from the administration to kill Patty Boy
- Basciano instructed Anthony Donato and either John Tancredi or a guy called Lou to assist Cicale
- Lou worked for Alan Handler in one of Basciano’s numbers locations
- Lou also had some guys from Yonkers carry out a home invasion with Cicale and Basciano’s knowledge
- The murder never ended up taking placeQ It was your idea to find this Patty Boy and torture him, was it?
A Yes, sir, it was.
Q And you actually wanted to find Patty Boy and set him on fire, correct?
A That’s incorrect.
Q What were you going to do with him when you tortured him?
A I was probably looking to kill him, not torture him.
- In late 2002, Lynette Ayuso informed Basciano’s wife about his illegitimate child
- Basciano wanted to kill Ayuso outside her house over this and asked Cicale’s permission three times
- ‘He was very, very upset with her. He called her every name in the book. He said that she’s not our class, she’s not up to our par, that he wanted to kill her. […] He kept on asking me a few times. In the beginning I would say no, no, no, no. Finally, I got upset with him and I told him, “No, nothing better happen to her.”’
- A few months prior, Basciano served as godfather to Cicale and Ayuso’s daughter
- At some point before Joe Massino’s arrest, Basciano asked Cicale to be involved in another murder
- ‘He says, “There’s going to be a piece – there might be a piece of work for the family. I want you to handle it.” I told him no problem.’
- Basciano didn’t say who the potential victim was, and no attempt was ever made
- Before Basciano could move, both Massino and Salvatore Vitale were indicted
- After the arrests, Basciano told Cicale that the potential target was Vitale
- Basciano felt the murder should have been done
- ‘If Joe Massino would have listened to Vinny Basciano, Sal Vitale would have never been around to testify against Joe Massino.’
- Cicale never met Vitale
The aftermath of Massino’s arrest
- Cicale went to the CasaBlanca restaurant more frequently following Massino’s arrest
- ‘To pay homage to the place. Vinny Basciano wants to be consistent, continued to go to Joe Massino’s restaurant.’
- Basciano continued to drop off joker poker money as well as war chest contributions he collected
- Massino operated a loan sharking business and had outstanding loans on the street at the time of his arrest
- Peter Calabrese and ‘Joe Marsala’ both owed Massino money
- Marsala was an associate who was around Massino and had been lent $50,000
- After Massino’s arrest, he wanted the principal on the money returned
- Basciano loaned Marsala $50,000 to pay Massino back
- Basciano then took over the loan and charged Marsala one point
- Basciano also took a financial interest in Massino’s criminal case, offering lawyer David Breitbart a $100,000 bonus for an acquittal
- In the meantime, Basciano told Cicale that Tony Urso and Joe Cammarano Sr were running the family on the street
- Cicale knew Urso as the acting boss of the family and Cammarano as the acting underboss
- Cicale would drive Basciano to meetings with Urso
- Basciano and Urso met in the parking lots of supermarkets and diners
- Later, as a member, Cicale was privy to a conversation between Basciano and Urso about the Gerlando Sciascia murder case
- Basciano told Cicale that he loved Sciascia and had borrowed money from him
- Urso was worried about being indicted because he gave Sal Vitale the gun that was used on the hit
- It was also mentioned that Jerry Asaro may have a headache since he disposed of the murder car
- ‘They had murdered George Sciascia in Johnny Joe’s vehicle, and they tried cleaning up the blood, but there was too much blood in the vehicle, and they had given the vehicle to Jerry Asaro to dispose of – to get rid of.’
- They also discussed how ‘John the Jeweller’ Chiazzese was either told by Sciascia or had a note detailing who he was supposed to meet the night he was killed
- ‘There was a discussion that John the Jeweller was on the wraps, that if the feds would question him he would not tell the feds that he was going to meet Patty DeFilippo. […] Also Vinny Basciano informed, he, Tony Urso that Michael Mancuso had John the Jeweller taken care of if he was questioned by law enforcement.’
- Michael Mancuso was ‘elevated in the Bonanno family’ after DeFilippo was arrested for the Sciascia murder
- Basciano stated that he thought DeFilippo and John Spirito could beat the case by pinning it on Giovanni and Pietro Ligammari
Patty DeFilippoThere was two gentlemen who were – I think the father was a soldier in the Bonanno crime family, him and his son, the Ligammaris. They had hung themselves shortly after George Sciascia was killed. […] They could use the excuse that the Ligammaris feared for their life because it might have looked like they killed George Sciascia.
- Basciano first introduced Cicale to Patty DeFilippo in the parking lot of the Lehman Diner sometime in 2000
- Basciano was a member of DeFilippo’s decina at the time
- ‘The only conversations I had with Patty DeFilippo were hello, how are you doing, how have you been and that was it.’
- Cicale didn’t see a lot of DeFilippo in his time on the street
- ‘He didn’t even recognise me when he seen me at MDC.’
- DeFilippo lived on Continental Avenue in Pelham Bay and previously above the York Grill in Manhattan
- He operated a social club on Waterbury Avenue in the Bronx and drove a white Cadillac DeVille
- Other members of DeFilippo’s crew included Anthony Frascone, Pasquale Maiorino, Salvatore Maiorino, Michael Mancuso, Salvatore Montagna, and John Spirito
- Cicale never met Frascone but later found out he and DeFilippo were close
- ‘When I was in jail I heard that [DeFilippo] was close with Anthony Nicole.’
- Basciano told Cicale that DeFilippo was close with John Spirito and Sal Vitale
- Cicale frequently saw DeFilippo and Spirito together, noting they were tight the same way he was with Basciano
- Cicale didn’t know how close DeFilippo was to Emanuel Guaragna
- ‘When I was straightened out, Manny wasn’t around that much. Have I seen them together much, no, I have not.’
- Basciano told Cicale never to let DeFilippo set up a piece of work because he didn’t know what he was doing
- Basciano told Cicale that in 1985 he, DeFilippo, and Anthony Donato were involved in the attempted murder of David Nunez
- After the shooting, the hit team was pulled over about 20 blocks away by a cop car
- They pulled over, Donato and Basciano got out, but DeFilippo was stuck in the back because the child locks were on
- Basciano tossed his gun and was caught by the police climbing a fence
- Basciano felt there should have been another car for them to get into
- Sometime in 2003, Basciano started having conversations about killing DeFilippo
- ‘Mr Basciano told me that Patty DeFilippo tried to get Mr Basciano and Anthony Donato killed.’
- DeFilippo tried to get Donato in trouble by telling Joe Massino that he had killed somebody only for Massino to find out it wasn’t true
- DeFilippo wanted Basciano dead over something to do with money
- Bruno Indelicato was also involved in these discussions about killing DeFilippo
- ‘[Basciano] said if we kill Mr Patrick DeFilippo that I would have to make sure he was dead, and if he was with Johnny Joe, Johnny Joe has to go also. […] Because if Patty DeFilippo or Johnny Joe, or whoever he was with, survived, that would mean our demise, that we could get killed.’
- The first plan was to snatch DeFilippo off the street and make him disappear
- Basciano ultimately decided that wouldn’t work because DeFilippo ‘weighed too much’, though Cicale insisted he could handle it
- The plot to kill DeFilippo was not sanctioned by the administration at that time
- After Massino was arrested, Basciano sent word through Tommy Lee that he wanted to ‘jocko’ DeFilippo
- Basciano told Cicale that jocko meant kill, but Lee didn’t know this
- Massino denied the request, but Basciano still wanted to kill DeFilippo on the sneak
- Another plan was concocted to take a burgundy Chevy Impala registered to Lynette Ayuso and make it look like a detective’s vehicle
- ‘We had all the windows blacked out. The front windshield had a light tint on it. We put lights on the front and back of the car, blinking lights as a cop car would have, and we also put sirens in the car and also a microphone system.’
- The work on the vehicle was done in Howard Beach with Indelicato’s help
- The plan was to use the vehicle to get DeFilippo to pull over and then kill him
- ‘I was going to get on the loudspeaker in the car, tell the driver please exit the vehicle. When he stepped out when Patty DeFilippo stepped out of the car, put your head on the hood of the car. Then I was to proceed to come outside of my vehicle and then shoot him.’
- DeFilippo and Spirito was arrested before any attempt could be made
- Cicale then brought the car to a garage to remove the lights and get it serviced so it could go back on the road
- After Cicale was arrested, Basciano reiterated the order to kill DeFilippo at a co-defendant meeting
- ‘As we were walking, he had informed me, he said, “When you beat your case and if Patty’s out there” – and I says, “I know, I know, I know”, I cut him off after that.’
