Speaker 1: You're listening to Law and Order Criminal Justice System, a
Speaker 1: production of Wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts.
Speaker 2: In the criminal justice system, landmark trials transcend the courtroom
Speaker 2: to reshape the law. The brave many women who investigate
Speaker 2: and prosecute these cases are part of a select group
Speaker 2: that is defined American history. These are their stories. December sixteenth,
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty five, Midtown, Manhattan.
Speaker 3: The bullets that ended Big Paul Castellano's life last night
Speaker 3: may very well have been a payoff for getting into
Speaker 3: such trouble with the Feds.
Speaker 4: I was there that night, the night that he was murdered.
Speaker 1: Former FBI agent Jim Kostler was meeting with Bob Blakey
Speaker 1: and Rudy Giuliani at an event at NYU. The topic
Speaker 1: of conversation the biggest criminal trial against organized crime. I'm
Speaker 1: in New York City history.
Speaker 4: We were having the cocktails and it was all kinds
Speaker 4: of brass from the NYPD and various district attorney's offices there,
Speaker 4: and all of a sudden.
Speaker 5: Bells go off and beepers go off. I get it called.
Speaker 4: You know, Costellano has been murdered up at the Sparks Steakhouse.
Speaker 1: Paul Castellano was the reputed boss of the Gambino crime
Speaker 1: family and one of the most important defendants in the
Speaker 1: upcoming case against the mob.
Speaker 4: So I grabbed my boss and we get in the
Speaker 4: car and we go up there. We missed the dinner.
Speaker 4: We were right there in the thick of things. Whenever
Speaker 4: the bodies were still laying on the street. Tommy Billotti
Speaker 4: was laying out in the middle of the street. Castellana
Speaker 4: was laying with his head down in the gutter right
Speaker 4: next to the car. People everywhere, because you know, it
Speaker 4: was at five o'clock at night and people were going home.
Speaker 4: It was chaos.
Speaker 3: As the reputed head of the crime Commission and the
Speaker 3: godfather of the Gambino family, his appearance in court every
Speaker 3: day and the preoccupation with his defense were bad for business.
Speaker 1: Yes, the evidence accumulated against Castellano was a lynchpin in
Speaker 1: the government's case, but his murder might turn it all
Speaker 1: upside down.
Speaker 5: You're not with the mob because you want to be.
Speaker 6: It's the gangster that decides whether you're his associated.
Speaker 7: On if you like your life, you will vote to acquit.
Speaker 1: I'm anisee and Nicolazzi, my father should have been a
Speaker 1: dead man from Wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts. This is
Speaker 1: Law and Order criminal justice system. It had taken years
Speaker 1: to assemble the case against the Commission. Now, just months
Speaker 1: before the trial was set to begin, a key defendant,
Speaker 1: Paul Castellano, had been gunned down in the street, a
Speaker 1: stark reminder of the high stay for both the criminals
Speaker 1: and those prosecuting their crimes. Paul Castellano and his newly
Speaker 1: appointed underboss, Thomas Bollotti, had just pulled up in front
Speaker 1: of Sparks Steakhouse for dinner. They were about to get
Speaker 1: out of their car when assassins opened fire from close range,
Speaker 1: killing both Castellano and Ballotti.
Speaker 8: And obviously that ended his participation in the trial.
Speaker 1: Michael Cherdoff was the lead prosecutor, just thirty two years
Speaker 1: old at the time and facing off against the most
Speaker 1: infamous figures in organized crime. Michael immediately knew the effect
Speaker 1: Castellano's murder could have on their case. There were mountains
Speaker 1: of evidence connecting the Gambino boss to the wider criminal
Speaker 1: enterprise of the Commission, but all that evidence was now
Speaker 1: potentially out the window. The prosecution needed to regroup and fast.
Speaker 8: We had to really make sure that we kicked the
Speaker 8: tires on everything and it was all solid, and that
Speaker 8: kind of nervousness and anxiety is a great motivator in
Speaker 8: terms of making sure you are doubling down on how
Speaker 8: careful and how meticulous you are in both the factual
Speaker 8: and illegal construction of the case.
Speaker 1: There were three main goals in this trial, and it
Speaker 1: wasn't going to be easy. One prove that the Mafia
Speaker 1: and the Commission existed in the first place. Remember, for decades,
Speaker 1: members of organized crime had dismissed the Mafia as a myth,
Speaker 1: but now Michael had the receipts in the form of
Speaker 1: wire tabs and testimony from cooperating witnesses. Two, Michael and
Speaker 1: his young team of attorneys had to prove it the
Speaker 1: remaining defendants, including Fat Tony Salerno, Tony Dux, Carlo Carmine Persico,
Speaker 1: and some of their underlings, were indeed members of the
Speaker 1: Mob's governing body, or that they conspired to carry out
Speaker 1: its orders. And three, that their illegal influence included the
Speaker 1: control of major industries like concrete, construction and sanitation. Owen
Speaker 1: one more thing, to prove the Commission conspired to murder
Speaker 1: fellow mob boss Carmen Gallanti. Taken together, it was a
Speaker 1: massive undertaking, especially considering that there was no one on
Speaker 1: the prosecution team over the age of thirty two, and
Speaker 1: they were up against the elder statesman of the mafia
Speaker 1: crime bosses that had collectively spent over one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty years in organized crime. But as Michael explains, they
Speaker 1: had assembled mounds of damning evidence.
Speaker 8: We had witnesses, including a couple of contractors who had
Speaker 8: paid the mob because they were required to, and they
Speaker 8: kind of put a human face on what this was.
Speaker 8: We had the tapes which had very explicit discussions about
Speaker 8: shaking down contractors and getting money for concrete projects. We
Speaker 8: also had a former boss of the Cleveland La co
Speaker 8: Osnostra family named Angelo Leonardo, who had been convicted in
Speaker 8: another case years before it had turned state's evidence and
Speaker 8: was cooperating with us. So we had multiple levels of evidence,
Speaker 8: and by tying them all together and showing how they
Speaker 8: cross referenced, that gives you a good measure of credibility.
Speaker 1: But as Paul Castelano's murder proved, there were no guarantees.
Speaker 8: Well, you're most nervous about are the witnesses. Are the
Speaker 8: witnesses going to wind up being able to tell a
Speaker 8: coherent story? Are they going to wither under cross examination?
Speaker 8: Are they going to be able to stand up?
Speaker 1: And are they even going to stay alive long enough
Speaker 1: to testify?
Speaker 6: Virtually no one who wanted to be a witness in
Speaker 6: this case, as you can imagine.
Speaker 1: That's Attorney Gil Childers, the Brooklyn prosecutor that had been
Speaker 1: called in to help try some of the world's most
Speaker 1: dangerous gangsters.
Speaker 6: Even if it's the most innocuous testimony, who wants to
Speaker 6: possibly get any of these people mad at you? There
Speaker 6: was a lot of hand holding, a lot of cajoling,
Speaker 6: a lot of pushing people to get them to testify
Speaker 6: and make them understand that, you know, look, we can
Speaker 6: do what we can to partake you, but you don't
Speaker 6: really have a choice here.
Speaker 1: For years, the mob had used intimidation and violence to
Speaker 1: keep witnesses out of the courtroom and themselves out of jail.
Speaker 1: But the government was ready to flex their muscles as well.
Speaker 1: And while young, the prosecutors were a virtual dream team
Speaker 1: of talent. Here's John Savay's.
Speaker 5: Michael was the most senior person, and it was therefore
Speaker 5: pretty well understood that he would make the opening statement
Speaker 5: on behalf of the government.
Speaker 1: John knew that Michael Chertoff would set a clear tone
Speaker 1: and that no matter the experience or reach of the defendants,
Speaker 1: prosecutors would not be intimidated. Only thirty one, John was
Speaker 1: already an accomplished Harvard law graduate and a former clerk
Speaker 1: to a Supreme Court justice, a clear up and comer
Speaker 1: in the US Attorney's office, and Giuliani was confident he'd
Speaker 1: be a strong addition to this team. The third in
Speaker 1: their trio guild Childers. He had the trial experience needed
Speaker 1: and would round out the team.
Speaker 5: He brought to the table something that Michael and I
Speaker 5: did not have, which is all of the forensics and
Speaker 5: expertise around the triple murder that was a chief part
Speaker 5: of the case.
Speaker 6: I certainly had a tremendous advantage and luxury of having
Speaker 6: two great lawyers who were very steeped in federal criminal
Speaker 6: practice being my teammates. But when you're examining a witness,
Speaker 6: you're up there, I'll say.
Speaker 1: Alone, alone except for the alleged mobsters steering a hole
Speaker 1: in his back and the scores of press outside the
Speaker 1: courtroom that would be reporting on the trials every move.
Speaker 1: For the young prosecutors, it would be a baptism by fire.
Speaker 6: This is the most important organized crime case arguably ever.
Speaker 6: You certainly didn't want to be known as the three
Speaker 6: guys who let the mob get off.
Speaker 1: John had similar apprehensions, but he was also aware of
Speaker 1: the unique opportunity.
Speaker 5: We knew we were young. None of us had been
Speaker 5: a prosecutor all that long, and there were moments where
Speaker 5: we would, the three of us, we'd look at each
Speaker 5: other and sort of feel like, I have to pinch
Speaker 5: myself that we're actually getting to do this.
Speaker 1: This case could make or break their young careers, not
Speaker 1: to mention the career of their ambitious boss, Rudy Giuliani,
Speaker 1: who was staking his inevitable run for the Mayor's office
Speaker 1: on his promised takedown of the New York Mob.
Speaker 5: And as the trial got closer and closer, that feeling
Speaker 5: was very strong. But at the same time, we were
Speaker 5: also working just ferociously hard. I mean just months and
Speaker 5: months and months of seven day weeks, with each day
Speaker 5: being fifteen sixteen hours low.
Speaker 8: You know, you know the stakes, You're high, You're really
Speaker 8: operating on adrenaline and will power to make sure you
Speaker 8: are focused, because important than you want to make sure
Speaker 8: is you don't want to make any mistakes. Somebody you
Speaker 8: could undermine the case, factually or legally, so you have
Speaker 8: to have your wits about you.
Speaker 1: Michael Chertoff, Guild Childers, and John Savay's ready to take
Speaker 1: on the challenge. But what about the risks? As the
Speaker 1: murder of Castellano proved, even the bosses weren't immune from danger,
Speaker 1: And do you know who else had caused for concern
Speaker 1: members of the jury. As you might recall from our
Speaker 1: first episode, in a previous trial against Banano boss Carmi Galanti,
Speaker 1: one jury format was thrown down a flight of stairs,
Speaker 1: resulting in a mistrial. Prosecutors knew it would be tough
Speaker 1: to convince the jury to serve in a trial against
Speaker 1: the city's most ruthless criminals.
Speaker 9: They may turn out to be the biggest series of
Speaker 9: mob trials in US history, but first the trials have
Speaker 9: to begin, and what's slowing that process down is the
Speaker 9: actual selection of the jury itself. Over three thousand potential
Speaker 9: jurors have been called by the government, more than four
Speaker 9: times the usual number. The US Attorney also asked for
Speaker 9: and got anonymity for the jury, saying he feared the
Speaker 9: mob would try to get to them.
Speaker 1: As a rule, trial juries are not secret. Attorneys review
Speaker 1: potential jurors names, occupations, and backgrounds to try and eliminate
Speaker 1: potential bias. But his Gil Childers explains this case and
Speaker 1: these particular defendants called for extraordinary measures.
Speaker 10: The legal justification for anonymous jury really is concerning the press.
Speaker 3: Very frankly, the judges instructed the jury that the reason
Speaker 3: they're being pictononymously.
Speaker 11: Is that he's concerned about the media trying to interview
Speaker 11: them during the course of the trial.
Speaker 1: But there was also the uncle spoken reason of juror
Speaker 1: safety from potential bribery, coercion, or even violence.
Speaker 10: Certainly, you can't tell the jury that the reason we're
Speaker 10: holding your names from the public is because these guys
Speaker 10: may try.
Speaker 5: And kill you.
Speaker 1: After jury selection, their safety became a top priority for
Speaker 1: the federal government.
Speaker 10: The US Marshall Service would take them all and drop
Speaker 10: them off in one or two points of a transportation access,
Speaker 10: so they'd take them to the Grand Central or Defend
Speaker 10: station or a Porterfari bus terminal. Places where they did that,
Speaker 10: they would be melting in with folks, and it would
Speaker 10: be difficult to try and trace someone going home.
Speaker 1: But as the trial was said to begin, the security
Speaker 1: of everyone involved was just one of many challenges, because
Speaker 1: the government's all star team of young prosecutors weren't the
Speaker 1: only ones preparing for battle. Just as they'd been doing
Speaker 1: for over a century. The Five Families were prepared to
Speaker 1: do anything to protect their criminal kingdoms, and they weren't
Speaker 1: going down without a fight. On September eighth, nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 1: the Commission trial began.
Speaker 12: Federal government says, if you want to know about the
Speaker 12: mob and its rackets and shakedowns and robots, you should
Speaker 12: ask a handful of men known as the Commission. They're
Speaker 12: on trial starting today in a Brooklyn courtroom.
Speaker 13: The cast of the Commission trial three alleged bosses of
Speaker 13: organized crime families Anthony Tony Ducks Corlo of the Lukeesi
Speaker 13: crime family, Anthony fat Toni Slano of the Genevese family,
Speaker 13: and Carmine the Snake Persico, who allegedly runs the Columbo
Speaker 13: crime empire. This is the first time the ruling Commission
Speaker 13: has been put on trial.
Speaker 1: On the steps of the Manhattan Federal Courthouse, swarms of
Speaker 1: report and cameras waited and watched as each car pulled
Speaker 1: up one after another, the defendants arrived. Their names and
Speaker 1: reputations had been whispered about for years, but this was
Speaker 1: the first time many in the public had ever laid
Speaker 1: eyes on some of the most notorious figures in the
Speaker 1: New York underworld. The defendants slipped out of their cars
Speaker 1: and quickly moved up the steps, their lawyers and bodyguards
Speaker 1: keeping away the press. Inside the courtroom was a scene
Speaker 1: for the history books. Mafia bosses, their underbosses, and all
Speaker 1: manner of minions, soldiers and enforcers assembled in one room,
Speaker 1: and predictably, most of them were dressed to the nines.
Speaker 1: Here's Gil Childers.
Speaker 6: The younger guys were coming in like Valentino suits, tie
Speaker 6: bars and gorgeous ties and pocket squares. Then you had
Speaker 6: Thatt Tony Soleardo, who would be in a sportcoat, collared
Speaker 6: shirt buttoned all the way to the top, no tie.
Speaker 6: You know, when he was outside, he'd have this little
Speaker 6: for Dora on.
Speaker 1: For a public well acquainted with the mafia from the
Speaker 1: Godfather movies, The defendant's appearances were often as intriguing as
Speaker 1: the case itself. After all, the slick suited image of
Speaker 1: the Hollywood mafio so was a lasting part of pop culture,
Speaker 1: and the stars of this trial did not disappoint their audience.
Speaker 6: In the Daily News and the New York Post, they
Speaker 6: actually had a mob fashion column talking about how the
Speaker 6: mob guys were dressed. We're trying these guys because they
Speaker 6: extort people. They're filled with violence, they murder people. And
Speaker 6: the newspapers are talking about what color suit they were wearing.
Speaker 6: Did the tie really matched the suit, and did the
Speaker 6: shoes and socks go with a suit? It was weird.
Speaker 14: The baggy eyed man in the suit is Carmine Junior Persico,
Speaker 14: and the camera shine man in the handcuffs is Anthony.
Speaker 14: They may look like grandfathers, but I says they are
Speaker 14: godfathers on trial for being members of the Mafiast ruling Council,
Speaker 14: the Commission.
Speaker 1: The courtroom was full to the brim. The young prosecutors
Speaker 1: had never seen anything like it.
Speaker 5: Well. The case attracted a huge amount of press attention,
Speaker 5: and when the trial was first getting underway, the courtroom
Speaker 5: was absolutely packed with spectators and a lot of press,
Speaker 5: and that obviously creates a kind of electric atmosphere in
Speaker 5: a courtroom. It was being conducted in one of the
Speaker 5: large ceremonial courtrooms. My recollection of day one was walking
Speaker 5: in and realizing we were going to be putting on
Speaker 5: this trial in front of a very large audience.
Speaker 1: For Gill and the rest of the team, it was
Speaker 1: by far the biggest case any of them had ever handled.
Speaker 1: Their every move and every possible mistake would be broadcast
Speaker 1: to the watching world.
Speaker 6: There were daily press reports. Frequently, there was television news coverage.
Speaker 6: You know that if you screw up, your name's going
Speaker 6: to be in the paper for a bad reason the
Speaker 6: next day.
Speaker 1: Michael Chertoff would be the first one to take center stage.
Speaker 1: On the morning of September eighteenth, nineteen eighty six, he
Speaker 1: addressed the jury to give his opening statement.
Speaker 8: In some ways, it's so consequential that you don't have
Speaker 8: time to be nervous, to think about yourself. You're just
Speaker 8: thinking about how do I present this to the jury
Speaker 8: in a way that is understandable, that covers a significant
Speaker 8: amount of evidence, it doesn't bog down in detail. And
Speaker 8: also to make it clear what the stakes are, that
Speaker 8: this is not just a routine case, but that you're
Speaker 8: talking about the board of directors of the American Mafia,
Speaker 8: the largest criminal organization in American history.
Speaker 1: The prosecution intended to prove that the Commission was a
Speaker 1: criminal enterprise and that each defendant committed multiple acts of racketeering.
Speaker 8: I told you early on in my opening, this is
Speaker 8: the largest and most vicious criminal business in the history
Speaker 8: of the United States. And I went on to say
Speaker 8: the Commission was dominated by a single principle, greed. And
Speaker 8: I think those two statements from my opening Encapsuley what
Speaker 8: the nature of the Commission and the American Mafia was.
Speaker 15: In his opening remarks, Federal Prosecutor Michael Chertoff told the
Speaker 15: jury that the Commission has been the governing body of
Speaker 15: the Mafia all a cost in Austra for the last
Speaker 15: thirty years. He said that on a government audio tape
Speaker 15: fact Tony Solano describes a Commission as a sacred thing.
Speaker 1: Michael made it clear that the Mafia had a devastating
Speaker 1: impact on the lives and livelihoods of everyday citizens.
Speaker 15: He said Commission members rule over mafia activities, particularly the
Speaker 15: concrete industry, with the power of an iron fist covered
Speaker 15: by a velvet glove, and he says he has video
Speaker 15: and audio tapes to prove it. He says, unlike TV
Speaker 15: and the movies, their threats to extort money are subtle
Speaker 15: and unpleasant.
Speaker 1: But just like in the movies, their methods were cruel, ruthless,
Speaker 1: and often deadly. After Michael delivered his opening statement, it
Speaker 1: was the defense's turn, and defense attorney Samuel Dawson did
Speaker 1: something that no one in the courtroom ever saw coming.
Speaker 16: In an unusual move, one of the defense attorneys admits
Speaker 16: all of the defendants in this case are members of
Speaker 16: the mafia.
Speaker 1: In an effort to undermine one of the prosecution's main arguments,
Speaker 1: the defense launched a preemptive attack. He admitted to the
Speaker 1: packed courtroom that the mafia did exist. Here's the defense
Speaker 1: attorney speaking to reporters.
Speaker 11: We've told the jury that people are members of it.
Speaker 11: But just as you heard me say, each one of
Speaker 11: those jurors coming to this courtroom with all the beliefs, impressions,
Speaker 11: or opinions about the mafia or whatever they think it is,
Speaker 11: they pledged to us that they would put that side
Speaker 11: and decide whether these men from the mafia in this
Speaker 11: case did the crimes charged in this.
Speaker 1: Case Dawson even confirmed the existence of the Commission and
Speaker 1: its role as the mafia's governing body. However, he denied
Speaker 1: a conspire to extort the concrete industry, claiming instead that
Speaker 1: its function was to approve new members and settle disputes.
Speaker 1: Former FBI agent Charlotte Lang remembers the shock they all
Speaker 1: felt as he delivered his statement.
Speaker 7: I can remember looking at your top. His mouth was
Speaker 7: wide open, and we were like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 7: Because we had such excellent evidence that there was such
Speaker 7: a thing as the Commission In Organized.
Speaker 1: Crime, John Savaye remembers thinking that the defense's daring strategy
Speaker 1: was a smart play for a savvy jury.
Speaker 5: It was obviously a bold move on that lawyer's part,
Speaker 5: but I certainly understand the stratug He made the tactical judgment,
Speaker 5: I'm not going to try to eat up my credibility
Speaker 5: with the jury by contesting something that's going to seem
Speaker 5: so obvious to the jury. By the end of this trial.
Speaker 1: The next big surprise when one of the defendants, Carmin Persico,
Speaker 1: decided he would forego a defense attorney and represent himself
Speaker 1: in the biggest trial of his life.
Speaker 15: Carmine the Snake Persicoe, alleged boss of a Colombo crime family,
Speaker 15: acting as his own attorney, stood to address the jury.
Speaker 15: He approached the jury box, took off his glasses, smiled,
Speaker 15: and said, my name is Carmin Persicoe. I am not
Speaker 15: a lawyer, he said, I'm a defendant. The government has
Speaker 15: to prove I'm guilty. He mock anticipated government witnesses against him.
Speaker 15: Referring to paid informants, he said they have contracts with
Speaker 15: the government. Looking at the jury, he said the government
Speaker 15: pays for them with your money and my freedom.
Speaker 1: Persico spoke to the jury with a mix of indignate
Speaker 1: and folksy street charm, saying he intended to undermine the
Speaker 1: government's case by exposing an alleged bias, corruption, and illegal
Speaker 1: investigative methods. Here's Michael Carmine.
Speaker 8: Perscoe was the one who was the most personally antagonistic.
Speaker 8: Persco would occasionally demonstrate his anger or his disdain.
Speaker 1: There's an old saying about the defendant who represents himself
Speaker 1: in court that he has a fool for a client.
Speaker 1: But in cases as meticulously prepared as this one, no
Speaker 1: surprise is a good surprise, and managing a wild card
Speaker 1: like Carmine Persico would keep prosecutors on their toes again
Speaker 1: and again. They would have to rely on their biggest,
Speaker 1: most effective weapon, the evidence, witness, testimony, surveillance, and especially
Speaker 1: recorded wiretaps, and they would start with the classic that
Speaker 1: dated all the way back to nineteen fifty seven, the
Speaker 1: infamous Appalachan Commission meet. You may remember that the Appalachan
Speaker 1: Meeting in upstate New York was a historic summit of
Speaker 1: organized crime bosses. Law enforcement broke it up, sending Vito Genevi's,
Speaker 1: Carlo Gambino and Paul Castelano running through the woods.
Speaker 6: Of course, it caused a lot of belly aching from
Speaker 6: defense council. Who cares what happened in nineteen fifty seven?
Speaker 6: Is that what they're charged with? And of course the
Speaker 6: answer to that is yes, they are charged for that
Speaker 6: because they're part of this enterprise, and this enterprise existed
Speaker 6: back then as.
Speaker 1: Well, as Michael explains. The prosecution then presented the hours
Speaker 1: and hours of wiretap audio in which mob members referenced
Speaker 1: the commissionssion.
Speaker 8: Both on the tapes in the Palma Boy Social Club
Speaker 8: and the tapes in the Jaguars. They use the word
Speaker 8: the Commission they talked about the Commission. The Commission has
Speaker 8: decided the Commission's decide that so there was no question
Speaker 8: that the Commission existed.
Speaker 1: None was more significant than the jaguar bug, which overheard
Speaker 1: damning conversations between Tony Ducks, Caralo, and a lou Casey
Speaker 1: family capo named Salvator Avelino.
Speaker 14: For years, the FBI has been watching and listening to
Speaker 14: the mob street corner meetings from a bug installed under
Speaker 14: the dashboard of Coralo's Jaguar. They heard Tony Ducks complain
Speaker 14: about family members who sell drugs, then talk business.
Speaker 7: Would out selfless second child.
Speaker 8: So Avelino was, in a way like an answering machine
Speaker 8: who recorded messages to be given to the other leader
Speaker 8: of the family. The result of this is again you
Speaker 8: had a very detailed description when Avelino talked to either
Speaker 8: Coralo or Soalerno about what their illegal businesses were.
Speaker 1: The hours of recorded surveillance was hard to refute, but
Speaker 1: it could also be a challenge for a jury to
Speaker 1: absorb in process, and a trial can be a fight
Speaker 1: for a jury sympathy and attention as much as a
Speaker 1: fight for the facts, which is why presenting a live
Speaker 1: witness became so critical to the prosecution's case because at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, a jury loves to hear
Speaker 1: it straight from the source. Enter Angelo Leonardo, the Cleveland
Speaker 1: crime boss, had been serving a life sentence plus one
Speaker 1: hundred and three years when he offered to testify against
Speaker 1: his fellow mobsters. In exchange, he'd be given a reduced
Speaker 1: sentence and a life in the witness protection program. In
Speaker 1: the courtroom, Leonardo laid out the inner workings of the Commission,
Speaker 1: and according to Charlotte Lang, his testimony was pivotal.
Speaker 7: He was basically saying, these are the heads of organized crime,
Speaker 7: and it's called the Commission. Yeah, the associates, Yeah, soldiers.
Speaker 7: He was basically laying it out for the jury.
Speaker 1: His nearly sixty year criminal career and heavy Sicilian accent
Speaker 1: only added to his authenticity, and his testimony had jurors
Speaker 1: on the edge of their seat. Here was one of
Speaker 1: the mafia's own testifying under clear threat to his life
Speaker 1: against one of the deadliest criminal organizations in the world, and.
Speaker 7: The signal was kind of interesting about him. He kind
Speaker 7: of looked like Aristotle Anassis, and he wore dark glasses,
Speaker 7: had this full head of gray hair. He just looked
Speaker 7: like a mob boss. He sounded like a mob boss,
Speaker 7: and the jury was like hanging on every word he
Speaker 7: was saying.
Speaker 1: Leonardo explained to a rapt jury that in order to
Speaker 1: sanction a hit on a mob boss, you needed approval
Speaker 1: from all the families. During cross examination, Salerno's attorney grilled
Speaker 1: Leonardo about his claims, and more importantly, tried to raise
Speaker 1: doubts about the credibility of a convicted drug trafficker and
Speaker 1: admitted career criminal, especially one who had betrayed his fellow
Speaker 1: mobsters in exchange for his freedom and a new identity.
Speaker 1: The fury from the defendant's table was palpable, and the
Speaker 1: threat to Lenardo's safety did not have to be spoken
Speaker 1: aloud to be clear to everyone in the courtroom.
Speaker 6: You're dealing with a different animal. I'm not suggesting that
Speaker 6: witnesses in a homicide in Brooklyn aren't frequently and very
Speaker 6: real peril, but it's not a nationwide organization with a
Speaker 6: type of reach that Lakosinustra has.
Speaker 1: And part of the difference in the threat is that
Speaker 1: once they turn, it's not just about stopping their testimony.
Speaker 1: It's to pay the price for breaking that code correct.
Speaker 6: Even if it's not going to do the individuals they
Speaker 6: testified against any good at that point in time, there
Speaker 6: still has to be a message set for the next
Speaker 6: person who's thinking about cooperating.
Speaker 1: A lot of thought goes into how best to keep
Speaker 1: those witnesses safe.
Speaker 6: They had to put them in communities where there would
Speaker 6: not be any ties to a large Italian American populations
Speaker 6: because because of those true fermiated Italian neighborhoods and populations
Speaker 6: throughout the country, and once one of these guys would
Speaker 6: testify or it was known to be cooperating, the word
Speaker 6: would go out and literally there would be a nationwide manhunt.
Speaker 6: So you know, you end up with people out in
Speaker 6: the Midwest or the far West, or outside of some
Speaker 6: small city in Texas where the best thing he can
Speaker 6: do is dominoes for Italian food.
Speaker 1: Charlotte was one of those responsible for prepping and protecting
Speaker 1: Lenardo both before and during the trial. He was living
Speaker 1: in an undisclosed location far from the eyes of the
Speaker 1: New York City mob.
Speaker 7: So I flew to this particular location. The whole one
Speaker 7: side of this condo was all glass and there were
Speaker 7: like trees back behind there like a woodsy area. We
Speaker 7: would be chatting, and then I thought to myself, if
Speaker 7: anybody knew we were here, they could just walk out
Speaker 7: of those woods and just kills the two of us.
Speaker 1: And the safety of their star witness wasn't the only concern.
Speaker 1: The prosecutors also had their own wellbeing to think about.
Speaker 1: Here's John Savay's It was very.
Speaker 5: Much a concern. I would sort of disappear for days
Speaker 5: to some city that I couldn't even tell my wife
Speaker 5: where I was going, in order to meet with someone
Speaker 5: who was a murderer. I vividly remember we had a
Speaker 5: tape in which fat Toni Salerno in his social club
Speaker 5: is kind of mocking Rudy Giuliani. There had been a
Speaker 5: story in the New York Post about Giuliani having a bodyguard,
Speaker 5: and fat Toni says something like, that's ridiculous. He don't
Speaker 5: need a bodyguard. Don't even know we never killed prosecutors.
Speaker 5: And I brought it home and on my home stereo
Speaker 5: played this tape for my wife and I then look
Speaker 5: at her and I say, see, it's all fine. He
Speaker 5: looked at me like I completely lost my mind. She said,
Speaker 5: so you think because you caught a mass murderer on
Speaker 5: tape saying that he's not going to kill prosecutors, that
Speaker 5: I'm supposed to feel better about this.
Speaker 8: There had been, over a period of years prior to
Speaker 8: or during this case, a pretty clear indication that the
Speaker 8: US Mafia would not kill prosecutors or police. They would
Speaker 8: kill witnesses, and they might kill people who disrupted their business,
Speaker 8: but they didn't kill law enforcement people. A lot of
Speaker 8: that was based on the fear they had that if
Speaker 8: they ever killed a prosecutor or a police officer or
Speaker 8: an FBI agent, the government might take the gloves off
Speaker 8: and do some things that were, let say, out of
Speaker 8: bounds otherwise in order to retaliate.
Speaker 1: But the commission case was rewriting the rules. The heads
Speaker 1: of the five families were facing an existential crisis, and
Speaker 1: it was becoming increasingly clear that there was no line
Speaker 1: they wouldn't cross. It was a reality that Gildchilders conceded,
Speaker 1: So I guess.
Speaker 6: My subconscious there was at least acknowledgment that there was
Speaker 6: some element of danger.
Speaker 1: A danger that went from unspoken to front and center
Speaker 1: in the courtroom.
Speaker 6: There was one episode one afternoon involving Bruno and Delocado,
Speaker 6: where you threatened me.
Speaker 10: In the courtroom.
Speaker 1: Bruno and Delacado was the primary defendant in the murder
Speaker 1: of Carmi Galante, and as we will see, the hot
Speaker 1: headed consiglieri for the Banano family was willing to do
Speaker 1: anything to avoid going down with the ship. In our
Speaker 1: first episode, we described the murder of the de facto
Speaker 1: boss of the Banano crime family, Carmin Galante, and two
Speaker 1: of his associates. After matching a palm print on the
Speaker 1: recovered ghetaway car, police identified one of their primary suspects,
Speaker 1: a Banano soldier named Bruno in Delacado, and this homicide
Speaker 1: was now a centerpiece of the government's case against the mafia.
Speaker 1: But why among the many murders carried out by the
Speaker 1: mob did prosecutors focus on this one. Because the government
Speaker 1: believed that they could prove that Galanti's murder was ordered
Speaker 1: by the members of the commission, and that conspiracy meant
Speaker 1: they were all accountable for the crime. But as Michael
Speaker 1: Cherdoff explains, including this case in the trial also served
Speaker 1: another critical purpose.
Speaker 8: In order to make it real and to motivate the
Speaker 8: jury to sit through the trial and to take it seriously.
Speaker 8: An active violence has a dramatic effect, unlike tapes or
Speaker 8: people talking about paying money, and it makes in a
Speaker 8: very real way the jury understand that we're talking about
Speaker 8: here is not just who gets money from a contract,
Speaker 8: who lives and dies. And the fact that you have
Speaker 8: a criminal organization that is willing to chose someone at
Speaker 8: a restaurant, I think makes everybody sit up and take notice.
Speaker 1: You know what else makes a jury sit up and
Speaker 1: take notice when an aggressive defendant threatened street justice in
Speaker 1: the middle of the court room. Here's Gil Childers.
Speaker 6: At the time of the trial, Bruno was a captain.
Speaker 6: He had been promoted largely, our informants tell us as
Speaker 6: a result of his successful murder of Carmon Galante. For
Speaker 6: a couple months, he's just sitting there twiddling his thumbs.
Speaker 5: You know what am I doing here?
Speaker 6: Then all of a sudden we turn to the part
Speaker 6: of the case that involves the homicide of Carmine Galante,
Speaker 6: and all of a sudden, his world sort of changed
Speaker 6: from he's been a spectator now he's in the spotlight.
Speaker 6: As soon as the court recessed for lunch, he jumps
Speaker 6: up and starts yelling at me, screaming, I know who
Speaker 6: you are what are you doing?
Speaker 8: You fair?
Speaker 6: What are you talking about? Just screaming. The marshals come in,
Speaker 6: grab them and take him in the back and I'm like,
Speaker 6: oh wow, that was kind of shocking.
Speaker 1: The episode left prosecutor's shaken. Just one look at the
Speaker 1: Galante crime scene photos gave them a good idea of
Speaker 1: what in Delacado was capable of.
Speaker 6: Came back after the lunch in recess and we're at
Speaker 6: the council table getting ready before the court comes in
Speaker 6: and the jury comes in. Bruno was coming in from
Speaker 6: the holding cell behind the courtroom. The marshals bring him
Speaker 6: and he sits down and one of the deputy marshalls
Speaker 6: comes over and says that Gil and Delocata wants to
Speaker 6: talk to you. So I go over to him and goes,
Speaker 6: mister Childers, I want to tell you. I apologize. I
Speaker 6: was completely out of line. That was not right. You've
Speaker 6: got nothing to worry about for me. Again, I wasn't
Speaker 6: really expecting that.
Speaker 1: So what accounted for the sudden change of heart?
Speaker 6: When I thought about it, I thought his co defendants
Speaker 6: are all people with exception of one that outranked him
Speaker 6: within the mafia. They're all on trial for their lives
Speaker 6: as well. In the back room and the holding salon,
Speaker 6: he could imagine that fat Tony or someone else said, Bruno,
Speaker 6: what the hell are you doing? We got enough heat
Speaker 6: on us, We don't need this kind of crap. But
Speaker 6: for whatever reason he had a change of heart when
Speaker 6: he came back out, and there was never another episode
Speaker 6: like that with him in the courtroom.
Speaker 1: The prosecution pressed on with the evidence in the Galante murder.
Speaker 1: One of the key witnesses was a woman named Migaulia Figueroa,
Speaker 1: who had identified part of the license plate on the
Speaker 1: getaway car. But once again the specter of retribution from
Speaker 1: the mob threatened to derail their case. Here's Charlotte.
Speaker 7: She was like nowhere to be found for a long
Speaker 7: period of time. She was so frightened. We sent a
Speaker 7: lead down to our office in Puerto Rico, and I
Speaker 7: got a call saying that an agent in Puerto Rico
Speaker 7: had located her and she was really not willing to testify.
Speaker 1: Without the witness to lead to the getaway car was
Speaker 1: likely out. And then what about the pomp print linking
Speaker 1: a Delecado to the murder. Charlotte had to convince her
Speaker 1: witness to show up in court on the day that
Speaker 1: it mattered.
Speaker 7: We sat down with her and at one particular point,
Speaker 7: I thought she's going to back out of this, but
Speaker 7: I think we had convinced her that the most important
Speaker 7: thing was her safety and we would make sure that
Speaker 7: she was going to be safe.
Speaker 1: Finally, she agreed, and as she took the witness stand,
Speaker 1: the fear was clear on her face and to the jury.
Speaker 7: The thing that was so significant about her testimony was
Speaker 7: you could tell she was scared to death. She didn't
Speaker 7: even want to look over toward where we were sitting.
Speaker 7: I mean, all the mob guys were behind us. You
Speaker 7: could just tell that she didn't want to do this,
Speaker 7: which made her a very effective witness.
Speaker 1: Figaro's testimony confirmed that the car she had seen leaving
Speaker 1: the crime scene and the one with the pomp print
Speaker 1: were one and the same. They also had video surveillance
Speaker 1: of Bruno a Banano celebrating with Gambino gangsters at their
Speaker 1: club right after the murder, clearly showing the families were
Speaker 1: in this together.
Speaker 6: It showed that these guys, as a governance tool, employed murder.
Speaker 6: So it was the clearest and probably the most compelling
Speaker 6: piece of evidence you could have in terms of the
Speaker 6: violent nature of not only the mafia but the Commission
Speaker 6: taking action to govern Lecosinostra.
Speaker 1: But while the murder of Carma Galanti gave the Commission
Speaker 1: case many of its dramatic headlines, the bulk of the
Speaker 1: government's case centered on the mob's less sexy side of
Speaker 1: the business concrete. Concrete made up the majority of the
Speaker 1: mafia's illicit revenue streams.
Speaker 8: The major money making effort private Commission was this requirement,
Speaker 8: using their control over the labor unions, that every job
Speaker 8: in Manhattan that involved concrete being poured or cement being
Speaker 8: poured have a value of over two million dollars. The
Speaker 8: mob had to get a percentage of that four percent,
Speaker 8: two percent for the particular family that quote owned that
Speaker 8: labor union, and two percent for the Commission as a whole,
Speaker 8: to divide up.
Speaker 1: In other words, as New York City grew hire and hire,
Speaker 1: the mob grew richer and richer. But explaining the complicated scheme,
Speaker 1: which involved everything from rigging union votes to threatening contractors,
Speaker 1: was not a simple task. Prosecutors worried that their case
Speaker 1: risk being bogged down in the minutia of the financial details,
Speaker 1: and digging through all those records was difficult for the
Speaker 1: prosecutors too.
Speaker 17: Ritual we set up four days a week from I
Speaker 17: think those nine thirty to five, and at the end
Speaker 17: of the court day you take a deep breath and
Speaker 17: then you scurry back to your office because you'd gotten
Speaker 17: awful lot of work to do to get things ready for.
Speaker 5: The next day.
Speaker 1: As you can imagine, the trial took its toll on
Speaker 1: the prosecutor's families as well.
Speaker 5: All three of the wives, you know, Michael's, mine and Gills,
Speaker 5: became friends and they would I think commiserate among the
Speaker 5: three of them that you know, they had these three
Speaker 5: lunatic husbands that were working just like complete maniacs.
Speaker 1: Speaking of wives, those on the prosecution side weren't the
Speaker 1: only ones showing up to the courtroom. Here's John.
Speaker 5: My wife was in the courtroom on important days and
Speaker 5: she during breaks would go into the ladies room and
Speaker 5: the mob wives were there. I remember her telling me
Speaker 5: afterwards that they don't like you very much. John. You know,
Speaker 5: I won't repeat exactly what they said, but it wasn't
Speaker 5: very friendly.
Speaker 1: But whatever their animosity towards the government, their husbands betrayed
Speaker 1: a little outward emotion.
Speaker 8: They understood they had signed on for this and always
Speaker 8: understood the risks. They were stoic. They would listen to
Speaker 8: the evidence, and they didn't seem to be angry or resentful.
Speaker 8: They seemed to be philosophical about it. I remember a
Speaker 8: couple of times we're walking up to the bench to
Speaker 8: talk to the judge. I'd walk by Salerna, who's the
Speaker 8: boss of the Genevie's film mean. He'd make a comment like, Oh,
Speaker 8: You're going to be famous when this is over, and
Speaker 8: I'm going to be in jail, and he'd like laugh.
Speaker 1: But as the trial went on, many on the prosecution
Speaker 1: side and in the press began to wonder if their
Speaker 1: stoicism was a sign of resignation in the face of
Speaker 1: the evidence against them, or a sign that maybe these
Speaker 1: giants of organized crime, who had avoided the long arm
Speaker 1: of the log for going on seven decades, might still
Speaker 1: have one or two more tricks up their sleeves. Carmine
Speaker 1: Persico was an alleged participant in multiple mob assassinations and
Speaker 1: violent power plays. He had a reputation for living up
Speaker 1: to his nickname the Snake. In the courtroom, it was
Speaker 1: clear he aimed to be just as hard to handle.
Speaker 5: Persico decided that he would represent himself in the trial
Speaker 5: and not have a defense lawyer represent.
Speaker 1: Him, and acting as his own attorney made for some
Speaker 1: unique moments.
Speaker 5: Periodically, the judge will bring the lawyers up to sidebar
Speaker 5: to have a discussion outside the hearing of the jury
Speaker 5: about a point of evidence or an issue that has arisen.
Speaker 5: And one of the stranger things about this trial is
Speaker 5: that Carmine Persico, the boss of the Colombo family, was
Speaker 5: in these intimate little sidebars with us, the other defense lawyers,
Speaker 5: and the judge.
Speaker 1: It was obvious that Persico was scheming something, but what
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be until he got up to talk that
Speaker 1: prosecutors finally got a glimpse of his plan.
Speaker 16: Dressed in a pinstriped suit and reading from a yellow
Speaker 16: legal pad, Persico told the jury in a barely audible voice,
Speaker 16: that the government will put witnesses on the stand who
Speaker 16: have committed many crimes and are testifying because of deals
Speaker 16: with the government that include payments of money.
Speaker 1: With an aggression befitting a man whose freedom was on
Speaker 1: the line, Persico proceeded to attack and threaten every witness
Speaker 1: who had dared to take the stand against him. In
Speaker 1: one cross examination after another, he tried to intimidate witnesses
Speaker 1: into recanting testimony. His reckless approach threatened to doom the defense,
Speaker 1: That is, until it looked like it just might be working.
Speaker 2: Next time. On Law and Order Criminal Justice System.
Speaker 5: You could just feel the venom and the hatred that
Speaker 5: Persico felt.
Speaker 7: She said it was impossible for Bruno to be involved
Speaker 7: because he was with me, so she was the alibi.
Speaker 8: This sent Percugo into orbit. If you've ever heard of
Speaker 8: the expression of looking daggers at somebody, this is like
Speaker 8: looking surface missiles.
Speaker 6: Persigo tugged on my coat sleeve and said, you think
Speaker 6: them guys died? The gunshot Wounds.
Speaker 2: Law and Order Criminal Justice System is a production of
Speaker 2: Wolf Entertainment and iHeart podcasts. Our host is Anna Sega nicolazi.
Speaker 2: This episode was written by Trevor Young and Anna Sega Nicolazzi.
Speaker 2: Executive produced by Dick Wolf, Elliott Wolf, and Stephen Michael
Speaker 2: at Wolf Entertainment on behalf of iHeartRadio. Executive produced by
Speaker 2: Alex Williams and Matt Frederick, with supervising producers Trevor Young
Speaker 2: and Chandler Mays and producers Jesse Funk, Nomes Griffin, and
Speaker 2: Rima Alkali. This season is executive produced by Anna Sega Nicolazzi,
Speaker 2: story producer Walker lamond. Our researchers are Carolyn Talmadge and Lukes.
Speaker 2: Dance editing and sound designed by Nomes Griffin, original music
Speaker 2: by John O'Hara, original theme by Mike Post, additional music
Speaker 2: by Steve Moore, and additional voice over by me Steve Zernkelton.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Fox five in New York, ABC and
Speaker 2: CBS for providing archival material for the show. For more
Speaker 2: podcasts from iHeartRadio and Wolf Entertainment, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.