by Joe Pistone
When Charlie got up to leave, Mafia writer Jerry Capeci told him to “take a look at Tom Robbins’s Village Voice Web site tonight.” Jerry then approached the defense lawyers and Vecchione. He said that in 1997 when he and Tom Robbins jointly interviewed Linda Schiro for a book, they taped her. That June preceding the October trial, Capeci used the state’s press-shield law to quash a defense subpoena for his notes. But now he and Tom Robbins had decided to make their tapes available if subpoenaed. In these heroic authors’ eyes, by her inconsistent testimony in court Linda Schiro waived their promise to her not to divulge her words to law enforcement. Capeci said that Robbins had prepared an article—“Tall Tales of a Mafia Mistress”—and posted it on the Village Voice Web site. The article laid out direct contradictions on these very murders in Schiro’s own voice.
The next morning the court convened for a few minutes to return the subpoena and to apprise Judge Reichbach of the recent events. Everybody got the rest of the day off to listen to the tapes. Vecchione said that if the quotes in Robbins’s article were accurate the D.A. would dismiss the charges. Finally, Vecchione was investigating the accuracy of evidence—even if it was Tom Robbins’s accuracy he was investigating.
In court the following morning,Vecchione stood up and asked the judge to enter an order of dismissal. At last the ankle bracelet would come off retired supervisory agent Lin DeVecchio’s left ankle. But not so fast. First the judge wanted to read a prepared statement while Lin remained deprived of liberty. The old campus radical took the spotlight beside his red and blue neon light scales of justice and reamed out—not Schiro and the D.A.—but Lin and the FBI for its relationship with informants.
The judge, based on no evidence or argument presented to him one way or the other at this trial, found the FBI and Lin had made a “deal with the devil” in using Scarpa as an informer. It was rough going as insult was added to injury to Lin and his wife. Then the judge took a shot at the Bush administration for water boarding. He bashed those in the government who believe “that it is permissible to make men scream in the name of national security.” That a judge could leap from the partial evidence in this murder case to—Dick Cheney, I guess—was the kind of thing, Charlie told me, he had never seen in three decades as a trial lawyer in Delaware.
But the retired agents that packed the room weren’t going to let this judge make this moment all about him.
When Reichbach was done and Lin finally was free to stand up and stretch the stretch of an innocent man and hug his darling wife Carolyn, a courtroom full of supporters erupted into a standing ovation.”
I wish I’d been there, but my man Charlie got me on his cell phone so I had a chance to talk to my friend, my former supervisor, as he walked out of that courthouse.
At the press conference Lin’s lead lawyer, Doug Grover, stated the obvious: “We are, of course, thankful that Tom Robbins stepped forward.” Doug blamed the office of D.A. Hynes for the grand jury indictment itself: “The fact is they never told the grand jury that Linda Schiro had made numerous statements for years inconsistent with her recent claims about Mr. DeVecchio’s guilt.” Doug called Lin’s prosecution “a model of what a responsible prosecutor should not do. . . .You have to wonder how a responsible prosecutor could pursue these charges. . . .You have to wonder who is minding the store.”
Nothing for nothing, but we already know. Hynes’s mind was on his new book.
On the phone, Charlie said to me: “Imagine the field day Giuliani’s political opponents would have if Lin was convicted. His crown jewel as U.S. Attorney was the Mafia Commission Case. Imagine the TV ad showing his Commission Case supervisor doing life in Attica. Using murder to fight the Mafia. I’ll bet Hynes would’ve liked to take credit for that ad at cocktail parties.”
All I could say to that was: “Fuggeddaboudit.”
Right away Hynes and Vecchione complained in the papers that Schiro’s inconsistent statements took them by surprise—like Claude Rains in Casablanca being shocked that there was gambling at Bogart’s casino.
The court appointed a special prosecutor to look into perjury charges against Schiro. Under oath Schiro made the mistake of swearing that everything she told the writers was “the truth.” That specific testimony transformed those tapes, with her voice and her words—tapes that Tom Robbins had kept in an old box of junk—into sworn testimony. Linda Schiro then gave sworn testimony 180 degrees the opposite way. Nothing for nothing, but let’s not forget the million-dollar motive this woman had to lie about Lin. Fuggeddaboudit.
At the press conference right after the dismissal Lin took the podium and, with dignity and understatement, got his first chance to express himself. “After almost two years, this nightmare is over. It has consumed me emotionally, drained me financially, and it has tested my faith in the system I spent thirty years of my life defending. . . . I will never forgive the Brooklyn D.A.”
A few days after Lin’s press conference, D.A. Charles J. Hynes told the press that he now viewed the recent loss of the case of The People of the State of New York vs. Roy Lindley DeVecchio as “Nothing more than a bump in the road.”
A month later down the street in Brooklyn’s federal court, the last Colombo Family War murder trial was held. Little Allie Boy Persico—heir to the Colombo throne—got convicted of whacking Wild Bill Cutolo.
Who wants to argue with Lin now? We won this thing.
—Joseph D. Pistone and Charles Brandt, 2008
Photography Credits
AP Images: pp. 161, 169 (top), 170, 171 (bottom), 172 (bottom), 175 (top)
New York Daily News: pp. 164 (bottom left & bottom right), 174 (bottom left & bottom right)
© Robert Maass/Corbis: p. 168 (bottom)
© Bettmann/Corbis: pp. 169 (bottom), 173 (top)
Jack Smith/New York Daily News: p. 171 (top)
Thomas Monaster/New York Daily News: p. 172 (top)
Robin Graubard/New York Daily News: p. 173 (bottom)
© Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images: pp. 174 (top), 175 (bottom), 176 (top)
Carmine Donofrio/New York Daily News: p. 176 (bottom left)
Julia Xanthos/New York Daily News: p. 176 (bottom right)
INDEX
A
Accetturo, Tumac
Ahmed, Tammy
Alfano, Pietro
Amato, Baldo
Amato, Tommy Scars
American Mafia. See also Mafia; specific Mafia families
Amuso, Vittorio “Vic,”
Anastasio, Paul
Andres, Greg
Angelica, George
Arena
Aronwald, George
Aronwald, William
Avellino, Sal
B
Badalamenti, Gaetano
Badalamenti,Vito
Baird, Bruce
Balistrieri, Frank
Balistrieri, John
Balistrieri, Joseph
Balistrieri Mafia family
Barstow, Donald
Basciano,Vinnie Gorgeous
Batista, Billy
Bay of Pigs invasion
Beccacio, Al
Bergin Hunt and Fish Club
Billotti, Tommy
Bishop, Jim
Blakey, G. Robert
Blumenthal, Ralph
“Bonanno Family Trial,”
Bonanno, Joe “Bananas,”
Bonanno Mafia family
Bonanno, Salvatore Bill
Bonavolonta, Jules
Bonventre, Cesare
Boriello, Bobby
Borsellino, Paolo
Bottone, Lou
Brasco, Donnie.
Breitbart, David
Breslin, Jimmy
Brevetti, Laura
Brooklyn
Brotherhoods: A True Story of Two NYPD Detectives Who Murdered for the Mafia
Bruno, Angelo “The Docile Don,”
Bucknam, Robert
Budapest, Hungary
Bufalino, Russell
Buffalo Mafia famil
y
Burstein, Judd
Buscetta, Tomasso
Bypass Gang
C
Caan, James
Cama, Cabrini
Cannone, Stevie Beef
Cantalupo, Joe
Cantarella, Richard “Shellackhead,”
Capasio, Robert
Capasso, Fort Lee Jimmy
Capeci, Jerry
Capone, Al
Caracappa, Steve
Carter, Jimmy
CaSa Bella’s Restaurant
CasaBlanca Restaurant
Casso, Anthony “Gaspipe,”
Casso, Lillian
Castellano, Big Paul
Castro, Fidel
Catalano, Saca
Catalano, Toto
Cecil’s disco
Cerasani, Boobie
Chaney, James
Chechnya
Chertoff, Mike
Chicago Mafia
Chiodo, Fat Pete
CIA
Cirelli, Nettie
Clark, Marcia
Clark, Ramsey
Clemente, Angela
Coffey, Joe
Coldwater Operation
Colman, Ronald
Colombo, Joe
Colombo Mafia family
Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Mafia
Concrete Club
Conte, Patsy, Sr.
Conte, Tony
Contorno, Salvatore
Corallo, Tony Ducks
Corso, Steven
criminal enterprises
Cuomo, Mario
Cutler, Bruce
Cutolo, Wild Bill
D
Dades, Tommy
Daidone, Louis “Bagels,”
D’Amico, Joey “The Mook,”
Daniels, Tony
“Dapper Don,”See also Gotti, John
D’Arco, Little Al
DeCavalcante, Sam “the Plumber,”
DeChristopher, Fred
DeCicco, Frank
Defede, Little Joe
Delaney, Bobby
Dellacroce, Neil
DePalma, Greg
DePenta,Vinny
Depp, Johnny
DeSalvo, Steve
DeVecchio, Lin
DiGiaimo, Lou
Dilapi, Anthony
DiPietro, Collie
DiSalvo, Steve
“Don the Jeweler,”See also Brasco, Donnie
Donahue, Joseph
Donnie Brasco (movie)
Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia (book)
Dorsky, Daniel
Double Life, A
Douglas, William O.
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
drug trafficking
Drury, Bob
Duce
Duvall, Robert
E
East River
Embarrato, Al Walker
Eppolito, Andrea
Eppolito, Fran
Eppolito, Lou
Eppolito, Lou, Jr.
Eppolito, Tony
F
Facciola, Bruno
Falcone, Giovanni
Farace, Gus
Farrugia, Sally Fruits
Fat the Gangster
Favara, John
Favo, Christopher
FBI
Fencl, Doug
Fiorenza, Dorothy
Fiorenza, Tatto
Fisher, Ivan
Five Families
Five Families (book)
Ford, Gerald
Fourth Amendment
Francis, John the Redhead
Frattiano, Jimmy the Weasel
Freedman, Monroe
Freeh, Louis
French Connection
Furnari, Christy Tick
G
Gagliano, Tommy
Galante, Carmine
Gallo, Crazy Joey
Gallo, Joe N.
Gallo, Kid Blast
Gallo, Larry
Gallo War
Galpine, Thomas
Gambino, Don Carlo
Gambino Mafia family,
,
Gambino, Rosario
Gambino trial
Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, The
Genovese Mafia family
Genovese,Vito
George from Canada
“getting made,”
Giaccolone, Diane
Giaccone, Phillip “Phil Lucky,”
Gibbs, Barry
Gigante, Andrew
Gigante,Vincent “The Chin,”
Giordano, Santo
Giuliani, Rudy
Giuliano, Boris
Glasser, I. Leo
Gleeson, John
Godfather, The
Goldstock, Ronald
Good Guys, The
Goodfellas
Goodman, Andrew
Gotti, John
Gotti, Junior
Gotti trial
Gotti,Victoria
Gravano, Sammy “the Bull,”
Greca, Jilly
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Greenwald, Israel
Guido, Mike
Guido, Nicholas
Guido, Nicky
Guido, Pauline
H
Harmon, Sandy
Hatcher, Everett
Hayes, Eddie
Heche, Anne
Heidel, Otto
Henoch, Robert
heroin smuggling
hijacking
Hoffa, Jimmy
Hoover, J. Edgar
Hormozi, Mitra
Hostage Rescue Team (HRT)
Hungary
Husick, Benny
Hydell, Betty
Hydell, Frank
Hydell, Jimmy
Hynes, Charles J.
I
I Heard You Paint Houses
Ida, James “the Little Guy,”
Indelicato, Alphonse “Sonny Red,”
Indelicato, Bruno
Infanti, Gabe
Intartaglio, Robert
J
J & S Cake Social Club
Jim-Jim
Jimmy Legs
Jimmy the Clam
Joe and Mary’s Restaurant
Johnson, Lyndon
Johnson, Wilfred “Willie Boy,”
Jones, Barbara
K
Kallstrom, Jimmy
Kaplan, Burton
Kaplan, Eleanor
Kennedy, Bobby
Kennedy, Edward
Kennedy, John F.
Kennedy, Michael
Kenney, John
King’s Court club
Kinne, James
Kirby, Bruno
KKK
Kossler, Jimmy
Kubecka, Jerry
Kubecka, Robert
Kurins, Andris
L
La Cosa Nostra
Langella, Gerry Lang
“Last Don,”See also Massino, Big Joey
Law and Order
Le Vien, Douglas
Lee, Thomas
“Lefty”. See Ruggiero, Benjamin “Lefty Guns”
Legs, Jimmy
Leisenheimer, Goldie
Leonetti, Phil
Leval, Pierre
Levinson, Barry
Lino, Eddie
Lino, Frank
Little Apalachin meeting
Little Italy
Loar, Jerry
Locasio, Franki Loc
Lonardo, Angelo
Lucchese Mafia family,
,
Lucchese, Tommy
Luciano, Lucky
Luigi the Napolitan
M
Maas, Peter
Madsen, Michael
Maduro, Denis
Mafia. See also specific Mafia families
“Mafia Agent,”
Mafia bosses. See also specific Mafia families
Mafia Commission
Mafia Commission Case
Mafia Cop: The Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family
Was the Mob
Mafia Cops
Mafia Cops Case
Mafia criminal enterprises. See also specific Mafia families
“Mafia Detectives,”
Mafia trials
Magaddino, Stefano
Magliocco, Joe
Man of Honor, A
Mapp v. Ohio
Marangello, Nicky Glasses
Marcu, Aaron
Marshall, Pat
Martin, John
Martin, Richard
Maruca, Steve
Massaro, Joey “Bang Bang,”
Massino, Big Joey
Massino, Josephine
Matera, Johnny “Irish,”
Mattiace, Chris
Mauro, Russell
Mauskopf, Roslynn R.
“Maxi Trial,”
Mazzara, Tommy
McCaffrey, Kimberly
McCarthy, Andrew
McDonald, Gene
McWeeney, Sean
Mean Streets
Mercer, Johnny
Merlino, Skinny Joey
Milwaukee
Minerva, John
Mirra, Tony
Monteleone, Joseph
Morgan, Joe
Mosconi, Angela
Motion Lounge
Mouw, Bruce
Mussolini, Benito
N
Napolitano, Dominick “Sonny Black,”
Natale, Ralph
Nesta Social Club
New York City
New York Daily News
New York Post
New York Times
Newsday
Nixon, Richard
O
O’Brien, Joseph
O’Connell, Gregory
O’Connor, John
O’Donnell, Eugene
Olarte, Gloria
Oldham, William
omerta
Operation Genus
Operation Timber
Orbach, Jerry
Orena, Little Vic,
Orenstein, James
Owen, Richard
P
Pacino, Al
Palermo, Charlie Allen
Palma Boys Social Club
Palmisano, Augie
Pape, George
Paradiso, Mickey Boy
pastry shop murders
Pataki, George
Pate, Blue Eyes
Paterson, New Jersey