by Tony Bertot
One officer looked up from his cards, smiled, and nodded.“Sure, I’ll go this time. You saved me from losing another five bucks,” he added.
“How about some burgers, with french-fries and soda?” he asked everyone.
“Sure. How about some beer to go with that burger instead of soda?” asked the judge.
“Yeah, for you, why not?” the officer responded.
Sheila and Tyler nodded their approval. No reason why the judge can’t have a beer with his food, as long as it’s not them drinking. Tyler walked the officer to the door. “Be careful,” Tyler advised him.
The Officer looked Tyler in the eye, smiled, nodded, and responded, “I will.”
Tyler stared at the officer as he walked down the hallway and disappeared down the stairs. In that moment, he realized the big mistake they had made. Tyler turned to the others and said “I’ll be right back” as Tyler raced out after the officer. “Dan! Dan, come back!” Tyler shouted as he ran down the stairs.
Dan reached the bottom of the steps and was almost out the front of the building when he heard Tyler shouting his name. Tyler reached him outside of the building and asked him to come back in. “Why are you in your uniform?” Tyler asked him.
“I’m on duty” was his response.
“Forget about the food. Go back upstairs and tell them we need to get ready to move. I’ll go and pick something up,” he told the officer.
Tyler was worried that someone might have found it suspicious seeing a couple of police officers going in and out of this building. He would ask them all to change to civilian clothes before they moved again.
Walking up the boulevard toward 119th Street, Tyler entered a local deli where he ordered their lunch. While the order was being filled, he walked to the front of the store and stared south toward the hotel, scanning the area for any unusual activity.
“Hey, buddy. Your order is ready,” one of the deli employees shouted out to Tyler. As Tyler turned and entered back into the deli, Nick passed behind him heading down the boulevard toward 118th Street. Crossing from between two cars, Nick figured he would bring less attention to himself if he was on the opposite side of the hotel.
Entering a drugstore on the corner of 118th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard, he had a clear view of the hotel and two of the unmarked cars. In front of him was a magazine rack from which he grabbed one and started to scan through it as he occasionally glanced up. Acting as if he lost interest, he started to exit the store when he spotted Tyler heading toward the hotel. What luck.
Nick immediately exited the store and headed toward 117th Street. Crossing the boulevard, he was now on 117th Street where there was a line of brownstones. He walked up to the first building and rang several bells. “Who’s there?” one of the voices came over the intercom.
“Sorry, but I forgot my keys to the front door. I left them upstairs,” Nick said. Nick heard a disgruntled person on the other side and then the buzz that let him into the building. He raced up the stairs and found the door to the roof unlocked, then quickly ran across the top of the building toward 118th Street. There was only one other building between this one and the hotel and it was very easy to get to. However, Nick moved cautiously, not wanting to ruin his luck by letting someone on the street spot him. Reaching the top of the closest building, Nick realized that the hotel was two stories shorter than the building he was on. Damn, he thought to himself.
Reaching a fire escape, he went down between the buildings and easily located the back entrance to the hotel, which, as luck would have it, was open. Cautiously he entered the building.
As both Tyler and Eric finished their lunch, Sheila was heading out the door to alert those in the unmarked cars that they were moving. Tyler asked the officers to cover their backs as he didn’t want any attention to be drawn toward them as they exited the building.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Sheila turned and was startled as Nick passed her on the way out of the building.“Sorry, ma’am. Didn’t mean to startle you,” Nick said, smiling as he walked toward the hotel lobby.
“No problem,” responded Sheila.
Nick stopped at the front desk and waited patiently while a rather attractive hotel attendant was busy with a guest. Sheila stared after him for a second but then continued on and exited the hotel.
Once the hotel attendant was finished with the guest, Nick approached and began to ask the young lady questions about dining in the area and sights to see. The young lady found Nick to be rather attractive and was happy to help. She wasn’t sure what room he was in, figuring another colleague must have checked him in, but was eager to please him.
A few minutes later, Sheila had returned. Other than Nick chatting with the hotel attendant, there was no one else in the lobby. Sheila walked over to where Nick was and waited as if she too had a question for the hotel attendant.
When Nick was finished, he thanked the young lady, nodded at Sheila, and headed upstairs.
“Who was that?” Sheila asked the attendant.
“Uh . . . I don’t know. I didn’t check him in. He is really very nice,” the clerk responded.
Sheila quickly turned back and looked toward the back of the stairs. “Do you have any rooms back there?” Sheila asked, pointing toward the back of the stairs.
“Uh . . . No. That leads to the back entrance of the hotel,” she responded.
“Fuck!” Sheila said loud enough for the attendant to hear.
Drawing her gun, Sheila ran toward the stairs. By the time Sheila reached them, Nick had disappeared. She ran back to the front desk and asked the attendant to ring room 302 and to hand her the phone.
Before Tyler got a chance to say anything into the phone, Sheila told him to be quiet. “Listen, someone’s in the hotel. Get away from the doors. Move the judge into one of the other rooms. Wait for me to get to you,” Sheila ordered.
Tyler immediately put the phone down and signaled them all that something was wrong. They all scrambled up and drew their guns. Tyler pointed to the television and gave it a thumbs up, indicating to the officer to raise the volume just a little.
Sheila ran outside and waved hysterically to the officers in the unmarked cars. Realizing something was wrong, they screeched out of their positions and drove to the front of the hotel from all sides. They quickly exited their cars and raced into the hotel.
Sheila explained to the men what had happened, that she suspected that the man she ran into was a killer. Slowly and cautiously, they began to ascend the stairs. In the meantime, Tyler, Eric, and the officers remained in their room, vigilant of any activity outside.
Slowly, they climbed the stairs, looking every which way, as they covered each other. When they reached the first floor, they breathed a sigh of relief. Two more flights to go, they all thought to themselves. Knowing quite well that any door could hold the suspect, they were now even more cautious as they began the next set of stairs. As they reached the second floor and were about to once again breathe a sigh of relief, an old man came out from one of the rooms.
“Hey, what’s going on!” he screamed. Caught by surprise, one of the officers fired his gun, missing the man by several inches. “Holy shit!” responded the old man.
“Get the fuck back in your room!” screamed another officer. The old man ran back into his room. Others, who stepped out of their rooms, seeing what was happening, quickly retreated.
The officers and Sheila all stared at one another. “Shit happens. Okay, let’s move, just take it easy,” Sheila said.
The officer who took the shot, obviously shaken, nodded at her as another officer took his place in the lead position. They once again began their ascent. Cautiously, they came around the stairway to the third-floor platform. The lead officer stuck his head out and looked down the hallway. It was empty. They all moved forward, covering each other as they made their way to the front door of room 301.
Sheila knocked and called out to Tyler. “Tyler, it’s me, Sheila,” she said. Inside, the officers
approached the door cautiously and opened it. There stood Sheila with at least six officers. “Let’s get the hell out of here,” said Sheila.
Tyler led the judge into the middle of the officers with Eric following close behind. They began to descend the stairs slowly, looking in every direction. When they reached the second floor, one of the officers noticed that the window at the end of the hallway was open. “That wasn’t opened before,” he said. They all turned their eyes toward the window as they reached the second landing.
All of a sudden, there was a muffled sound; Eric was hit in the back of the leg, causing him to fall to the floor. Then another muffled sound. As the officers turned to see where the sound was coming from Nick disappeared back into the room he occupied.
“What the hell,” Tyler began as all of them turned to look behind them. No one was there though Eric was on the floor with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the back of his leg. The judge had tripped and fallen upon Tyler when Eric bumped into him as he fell.
“Help . . . help,” the judge said. They looked at the judge and noticed he too had been shot. He was hit from behind. They scrambled around him as they all pointed their guns from where they thought the shots came from. Sheila turned the judge over. It looked like he was grazed just above the back of the head.
“Shit! They almost got him,” Sheila said.
“Let’s get out of here, now!” ordered Tyler.
Helping Eric hop up on one leg and grabbing the judge, they all scrambled down the stairs, out onto the street and into one of the awaiting cars. Nick exited out the window and jumped onto the fire escape of the nearest building. He knew he didn’t finish the judge. He had missed., and that infuriated him.
Racing down the fire escape, he ran up the alley in time to see the cars pull out. Just then, he turned and saw Tyler staring at him from the front entrance to the hotel just twenty feet away. Nick immediately turned and started to walk away.
Tyler had spotted Nick staring at the cars as they rode away. I know this man, Tyler thought to himself. Tyler saw as Nick turned and started to walk away. “Hey, you!” Tyler shouted out to Nick. “Hey, you!” Tyler shouted again.
Nick turned at the corner and started to run down 117th Street as Tyler began to pick up his pace after Nick. When Tyler reached the corner, Nick was more than halfway down the block. Tyler took off into the middle of the street, hoping that Nick would not see him coming after him. Nick turned and saw no one up the block heading in his direction so he stopped running. Then he heard a car hit its breaks, and turned seeing Tyler less than half a block behind him. Nick took off running into traffic, crossing Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard, almost getting hit by several cars. Tyler hit the intersection as Nick got to the other side of the boulevard. Nick, now running up the boulevard toward 118th Street, was dodging between pedestrians as he kept looking back to see if Tyler was still after him. Tyler was on the other side of the street running in the same direction waiting for a chance for the traffic to let up so he could bolt across the boulevard. Nick turned left on 118th and began to quickly disappear as Tyler saw the opportunity and bolted across the boulevard on the corner of 118th Street. Running as fast as he could, Tyler was closing in on Nick. Nick, realizing that Tyler was getting closer, pulled out his revolver and knelt behind a parked car, took aim, and fired.
Tyler had seen Nick go behind a parked car and immediately drew his weapon. Tyler did not see Nick exit from the other side of the car so he slowed down and moved more cautiously in Nick’s direction. All of a sudden, Nick reappeared with gun drawn. Tyler saw the flash of Nick’s gun as he raised his own gun to fire back. Before Tyler could get off a shot, Nick’s shot shattered the back window of the car nearest to Tyler, causing Tyler to dive for cover. When Tyler got back up again, Nick was gone.
A couple of hours later, Tyler caught up with Sheila and Eric at the Thirteenth Precinct on Twenty-First Street. Tyler filled Sheila in on what had happened, stating that although he didn’t get a really good look at the shooter, he resembled the man Tyler had seen in Massachusetts. After Sheila described the man she saw in the lobby, she and Tyler compared notes and agreed that it was the same man.
“This guy is determined to get the judge,” Tyler said.
“Well, we better get our asses out of here before that guy comes looking for him again.” Sheila said. “Why don’t we play it off as if the judge is dead?”
“I don’t think this guy is going to fall for it. Especially after he saw you guys take off from the hotel,” Tyler replied.
One of the officers came up to Tyler and Sheila to tell them the judge was ready to go. He had only suffered a scratch and had been bandaged up. Eric on the other hand was out of commission for a couple of weeks.
Tyler went down to see Eric before taking off. “Looks like you are going to get the Purple Heart,” Tyler said.
“Yeah, like that’s what I really wanted. If that’s the case, I should have gotten it for just hanging around with you,” chuckled Eric. He turned to Sheila and said, “It’s up to you now to take care of him.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone get to the judge,” she responded.
“Fuck the judge. It’s Tyler I’m worried about,” Eric said. They started to laugh when they noticed the judge looking at them all.
“Yeah, you guys are doing a fine job protecting me,” he said.
“Hey, are you dead yet?” Tyler asked him.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Sheila ordered.
“Fine with me,” Tyler responded.
A few minutes later, they were on their way back to the heliport where a helicopter was waiting to take them to an undisclosed location in Pennsylvania. By the time the Giordanos got the word that they were airborne again, it was too late. They simply disappeared and could not be traced.
Nick spoke to the Giordanos, advising them that there would be only one more opportunity to take out the judge and that would be when he returned to give his testimony. In the meantime, they needed to get as much information on where and when the judge was scheduled to testify.
Both Fabio and Felicia were upset with Nick. “I thought you were supposed to be the best,” Felicia shouted into the phone.
“Shit happens,” responded Nick.
“Yeah, well, I don’t like it,” Felicia told him.
“Why didn’t you ask one of your boy scouts to take the judge out?” Nick asked her. “I’ll tell you why. Because they’re too fuckin’ stupid and couldn’t hit the side of a fuckin’ building unless it fell on them. That’s why you didn’t ask them to do the job.” The anger of having missed the opportunity came to the surface. Nick said, “Listen, you fuckin’ bitch. I’ve never failed in any job I have ever taken. Never! And I don’t plan to start now. So get off my ass and get the information I need to get the job done.”
Felicia was in shock. She almost started to stutter back at him but held herself in check as Fabio took the phone from her.“Nick, Nick, calm down. My sister is just upset. Lot’s going on,” Fabio said.
“Yeah, I understand, Mr. Giordano. Sorry I lost my cool,” Nick responded.
“Sure, I understand,” Fabio replied.
Felicia stared at her brother as he hung up the phone.“Did you hear what that son of a bitch called me?” she asked her brother. “How dare he! I can’t wait to put a bullet in his fuckin’ head. He is going to regret the day he was born, so help me God,” she shouted.
Fabio stared at his sister as she raged on, knowing full well that it was best to let her blow her steam before trying to calm her down. Finally, after she calmed down, Fabio walked up to her and gave her a hug and started laughing. “Gee, sis, I don’t think you like this guy,” he said to her.
She stared at him for a few seconds and then started to laugh. “You think?” she asked him, now laughing out loud.
“I promise you we will deal with him when the time comes,” Fabio told her. “In the meantime, let’s try to get along, at least until the judge�
��s brains have paved the streets of New York.”
Final Preparation
June 16-July 9, 1984
After an intensive interview with Adriana, it was determined that her testimony would not be enough to put the Giordano family out of business. Though they could use much of the information she provided, it was not enough to implicate them in any crimes. The FBI’s suspicion about the Giordanos having contacts and influence in the various government agencies was proven to be true. However, Adriana was unable to provide any of the contacts except for the judge and the lawyers they used.
After learning of the execution of her parents, Adriana accused the FBI of failing to provide protection and escape as they promised. She refused to elaborate further on the Giordanos’ dealings. In her anger and despair she said, “You promised! Now they are dead because of you. You bastards, you killed my parents. You killed them!” she screamed at John.
There was nothing more anyone could do to calm her down or to bring her to reason. “It wasn’t us who killed your parents. It was the Giordano family and that is where you should direct your anger. Make them pay for what they did,” John Connolly told Adriana.
“No. No. It’s over,” Adriana said in a low voice, staring into John Connolly’s eyes. “It’s over,” she said.
Over the next few weeks, John and his agents began to prepare for the judge’s testimony. They visited the courthouse and fanned out into the neighboring buildings as they began to lock down the immediate areas surrounding it. With the cooperation of the New York City Police Department, they would have officers stationed atop all of the buildings with snipers in strategic locations. Special badges would be assigned to all of them, which would not be given out until the day before. They weren’t taking any chances.
An artist’s rendering of Nick’s face, in various disguises, was distributed to everyone. It was decided they would use their sources in the media to publish the picture a week before the judge was going to testify.
Sam and Eric, who had recovered from their wounds, teamed up to cover the entryway to the courthouse. Though they could not get a hold of either Tyler or Sheila, they knew the three of them would be coming in anytime between now and the ninth of July, and they needed to be ready. As for Tyler, Sheila, and the judge, they simply disappeared and were not heard from by anyone for over three weeks.