Info on some 1960s murders

[B.]

The Chicken Coop Pit of Death
- An informant claimed that 7 bodies were buried in a cesspool/open pit in an abandoned chicken coop on Joe Celso's property in Jackson Township, NJ.

- One of these bodies was Nutley resident Angelo Sonnesso, aka Pietro Melito, who was killed in 1960 for his closeness to Eddie Smith, an FBN informant who was going to testify against Carmine Galante. The same informant said that Sonnessa met with Salvatore Brigulglio and Tommy Principe, who took him to the home of James "Jimmy Higgins" Palmieri in New Jersey. At the house, they were joined by Armand Faugno and Larry Dentico, and the men beat Sonnessa with a hammer and strangled him to death. He was then buried in Celso's pit.

- As a result of this information, the FBI searched Celso's pit and found skeletal remains on the property. There were fractured to the skull consistent with being beaten by a hammer and after a dental records comparison, the teeth were consistent with Sonnesso, as were hairs found at the scene.

- The murder was allegedly planned by Joseph Notaro, which is interesting as it notes that this murder was done in collaboration between three different families (Bonanno, Gambino Genovese).

- Celso was arrested following this discovery. A couple of months later, Joseph "Joe Casey" Juliano, who Celso was closely associated with, was found murdered in Hudson Bay, with the rumor being that Juliano was killed for providing information to the FBI about the location of the body in the chicken coop.

- Remains from other unidentified bodies were also found in Celso's pit. A pair of orthopedic shoes found were traced to Barney O'brien, an associate from Bayonne who went missing in 1962.

- The same informant mentioned above claimed that another body buried in the chicken coop was Anthony "Tony Bender" Strollo, who disappeared in 1962. His murder was supposedly carried out by Tommy Eboli, Dominick DeQuarto, and Giuseppe "Pepe" Sabato.

- Across the road from the pit, the FBI found a 55-gallon drum saturated with sulfuric acid. Inside the drum was dirt containing dentures and a hernia brace. The dentures and brace were traced to Kenneth Later,who the informant claimed was killed in 1963 by Harry Konigsberg and Joseph Stassi. Later had been involved in a narcotics operation between the US and Mexico and Stassi apparently didn't trust him.

The Death of Jimmy Jerome
- An informant stated that Vincent "Jimmy Jerome" Squillante was murdered, with his remains cut up and burned, then disposed of in a garbage dump owned by Frank Troiano in Hopewell Junction, NY.

- The informant believes Frank Troiano, Joseph Fiorello, Nick Rattenni, and Leo Troiano killed Squillante and/or handled the disposal of his body. The informant says he overheard conversations between Leo and Frank Troiano that suggested their involvement.

- The informant said that a month before Squillante's death, Squillante had met with Thomas Racine and Leo Troiano. Squillante informed Troiano that he could not pick up garbage at the Holiday Inn near Fishkill, NY, as it was owned by Squillante. Following this, the garbage from the Inn was picked up by Joe Fiorello. Troiano told the informant that he "could not argue" with Squillante, as he felt he would be killed if he did.

[B.]

This actually raised some questions for me about the death of Jimmy Squillante. Knowing his closeness to Anastasia and his alleged involvement in the Joe Scalise murder, I always assumed he was killed due to his closeness to the old regime. But looking at it now, more than a couple years had passed and the family had already stabilized under Gambino. This little bit I posted above doesn't answer any questions about the murder but it does point to it being related to the garbage business.

[Hailbritain]

Awesome info B , cheers

[AlexfromSouth]

This actually raised some questions for me about the death of Jimmy Squillante. Knowing his closeness to Anastasia and his alleged involvement in the Joe Scalise murder, I always assumed he was killed due to his closeness to the old regime. But looking at it now, more than a couple years had passed and the family had already stabilized under Gambino. This little bit I posted above doesn't answer any questions about the murder but it does point to it being related to the garbage business.

Also I thought Nino Gaggi killed Jimmy Jerome?

[Ivan]

This actually raised some questions for me about the death of Jimmy Squillante. Knowing his closeness to Anastasia and his alleged involvement in the Joe Scalise murder, I always assumed he was killed due to his closeness to the old regime. But looking at it now, more than a couple years had passed and the family had already stabilized under Gambino. This little bit I posted above doesn't answer any questions about the murder but it does point to it being related to the garbage business.

Also I thought Nino Gaggi killed Jimmy Jerome?

If I remember correctly, Gaggi said "we killed him", so by "we" he could have just been referring to Gambinos in general, of which he was a part, and not himself doing the hit in particular.

[B.]

I can't remember what all Murder Machine says about it offhand, but I remember it implying it was revenge for the Joe Scalise murder and that Gaggi was involved due to his closeness to the Scalises. Murder Machine is entertaining and I think it's got a lot of great stuff on the DeMeo crew, but I wouldn't trust it completely when it comes to historical info or the random asides Gaggi supposedly told his nephew.

Still, it doesn't mean that Gaggi wasn't involved somehow. The informant wasn't sure if these men killed him or only disposed of the body, so someone else could have done the shooting.

I had always assumed Squillante was killed by the Gambino regime to eliminate the last of the Anastasia faction, but close to three years had passed and it sounds like he was having some disputes related to the garbage business. Maybe HK or JD have some other info about his murder.

[The Greek]

GREAT post!

[HairyKnuckles]

I can't remember what all Murder Machine says about it offhand, but I remember it implying it was revenge for the Joe Scalise murder and that Gaggi was involved due to his closeness to the Scalises. Murder Machine is entertaining and I think it's got a lot of great stuff on the DeMeo crew, but I wouldn't trust it completely when it comes to historical info or the random asides Gaggi supposedly told his nephew.

Still, it doesn't mean that Gaggi wasn't involved somehow. The informant wasn't sure if these men killed him or only disposed of the body, so someone else could have done the shooting.

I had always assumed Squillante was killed by the Gambino regime to eliminate the last of the Anastasia faction, but close to three years had passed and it sounds like he was having some disputes related to the garbage business. Maybe HK or JD have some other info about his murder.

I have seen that document on the Squillante murder and I think it was Konigsberg who was the CI. I don´t have any additional info on it, perhaps JD has? To me, it doesn´t look like Squillante was killed due to a "house cleaning", but because him being unable to adapt to the new regime and to the new pecking order. It´s possible that Squillante simply didn´t accept his demotion and/or his rackets taken away from him, which some info seems to suggest happened. I think his garbage rackets for example went to others like Biondo and Jimmy Failla after his conviction. He was however freed in 1959 (or granted a new trial, if I remember correctly) and this could have resulted in him demanding his rackets back. Pure speculation from my part of course.

Murder Machine says that this was the hit Gaggi made his bones and was his ticket into becoming made. But this doesn´t make any sense because the books were closed at the time. Gaggi could have been involved with Squillante´s murder somehow though. I´m not ready to rule his involvement out completely.

[B.]

I didn't realize Squillante had been demoted prior to his murder, though it makes sense. Based on the context, with him telling other men not to take certain spots and those men feeling threatened, seems possible he was trying to throw his weight around the garbage industry again without the approval of the Gambino leadership.

That's right, Murder Machine says Gaggi was made in the early 1960s. No clue where they would have gotten that info. Gaggi would have been made in the mid-1950s.

[HairyKnuckles]

I didn't realize Squillante had been demoted prior to his murder

Just to clarify...I´m not sure he was demoted, but he was not listed as a skipper on charts made by the FBI (later in the 1960s) showing the captains of the five Families in 1960. But those charts were not fully accurate, so I´m not sure.

[B.]

Some other semi-relevant info:

- Informant "Jim Carra" (Alfonso Attardi) claimed that it was Squillante who carried out the murder of Vincent Mangano. He says Squillante lured Mangano to a home in Huntington or Babylon, LI, where Mangano was killed and later "ground up in a garbage truck."

- It's not totally clear if this also came from "Carra", but one theory on the Frank Scalise murder is that Scalise had given Anastasia $32,000 as a down payment for a narcotics shipment from Charlie Luciano in Naples. It says Anastasia kept the money and passed on 32k in counterfeit cash to Luciano. When Luciano sent word to Anastasia that the money was counterfeit, Anastasia blamed Scalise and agreed to have him murdered. The article then says that word spread about Anastasia's treachery which is why he was killed. Unless this info comes from "Carra', I wouldn't put much stock into it. A lot of random theories about the Scalise/Anastasia murders and it's hard to know what's what.

- "Carra" claimed that Joe Biondo was one of Anastasia's murderers (obviously he was involved in the conspiracy, but not a shooter). He says Biondo had been deposed of his "third in command" position and with Anastasia dead, was able to get his "old job" back under Gambino. This fits, as he was a consigliere pre-1950s and later underboss after Anastasia died.

- Another murder "Carra" talks about is of Charlie LaGiapa "Carra's" partner in a narcotics operation. While "Carra" was sentenced to 12 years after they got busted, LaGiapa was apparently able to bribe himself out of the charges. He asked to borrow 10k for the bribe, but apparently it only cost him 5k so he kept the other half as profit. LaGiapa's superiors tracked him down to California where he disappeared and was "ground up".


Other random info on "Carra"/Attardi:
- Was sponsored into the Sicilian mafia by Giuseppe Indelicato, from his village. I assume this is one of the Indelicatos who would be an influential part of the D'Aquila/Gambino family.

- Says he became an informant simply because he couldn't handle prison and would prefer a life in hiding over prison time. Some nice refreshing honesty from an informant/witness for once as to why they flipped.

- Claimed that a phrase the mafia used to say about informants/witnesses was, "May he die of throat cancer!" Carra/Attardi ended up getting throat cancer and was forced to talk with an electronic voice box in his later years.

[HairyKnuckles]

The Carra article is extremely confusing. I´m not dissing it completely but it seems to me that Carra told the reporter (was it Jack Anderson?) very lttle and Anderson took the liberty and filled in the blanks. For example:

""Carra belonged to the smallest (about 400 members) of the five Mafia families in the New York City area"

- Wasn´t the Gambinos actually regarded as the biggest Family at that time?

""He heard his boss, Salvatore D'Aguila, pronounce the death sentence on Carra's patron, Accusie Dimino. Six years later, D'Aguila was murdered by his own underboss, Salvatore Mambrao, who himself became the first victim of another gang war declared by Salvatore Maranzano."

- Mambrao? Is it possible that Attardi is talking about Mineo here? Confusing, didn´t this info originally come from Gentile? I think so.

"Carra was in the thick of the street warfare. "I was one of about 50 men," he said, "that had been marked to be killed by the Maranzano gunmen." Then in 1929, the top gang leaders held a peace conference in Atlantic City, divided up the territories and put the Mafia on a more businesslike basis."

- Sounds like macho bravado to me. According to both Bonanno and Valachi, the Maranzano forces only targeted the top guys in Masseria´s group. And when did the Castellammarese war begin? In 1928?

"Under the terms of the Atlantic City peace conference, gangsters were forbidden to gun down one another without cause. However, the cunning Anastasia had a plan. Carrying a concealed microphone, he called upon Mangano in his Brooklyn office and carefully guided the discussion. The conversation was recorded by some of Anastasia's guys who were sitting in Anastasia's car," reported Carra. The Murder, Inc. chieftain [sounds to me Anderson had just read Turkus´ book on the Murder Inc gang] then took parts of Mangano's conversation out of context, re-recorded them and presented them to the top Mafia leaders. Fooled, they issued a contract for Mangano's death."

- Does this sound plausible? Really?

"Anastasia used equal ingenuity to get rid of another rival, Frank Scalice, without defying Mafia law. In June 1957, Scalice delivered $32,000 to Anastasia as down payment for a big shipment of narcotics from the exiled Lucky Luciano. Anastasia simply pulled a switch and forwarded $32,000 in counterfeit money, to Luciano's lair high in a penthouse overlooking Naples harbor. When the indignant Luciano demanded an explanation, Anastasia swore he passed on the money he had received from Scalice. Mafia justice isn't troubled by rules of evidence. In his capacity as boss of the bosses, Luciano ordered Scalice's death, and Anastasia eagerly carried out the contract."

- Another foolish reference of Lucky Luciano being the boss of bosses....in 1957!

[B.]

Strange, I read an article that had some of the same information but not everything you just shared. I imagine the content was syndicated and may have appeared in different versions?

The stuff I shared is what seemed most reliable to me (aside from the bit about Scalise and Anastasia's deaths), but some of the other stuff you mentioned is definitely over the top. The murder of Mangano for example seems very specific and not too grandiose, though I wouldn't take it as a fact without other corroboration or evidence that would have linked Squillante to the killing (though as a top Anastasia follower, you can guess AA may have used one of his own people, such as Squillante, due to the sensitivity of the murder).

That's always a problem -- the media / author taking liberties. That's an issue for a lot of misinformation in the Valachi book, too, with Maas adding his own research and theories in between Valachi's.

[Jimmy_the_gent]

Picture of Joe Celso and the farm...

[B.]

Thanks, those are great photos. Those old state police uniforms are bad ass.