Last Rites

by William J. Craig

  These men were the major players of the Boston underworld during the time when Gigi Portalla grew up. In this environment, it was difficult to see the world through rose-colored glasses. After all, we live in a society in which profit supersedes people. Consumerism is the ethos of life. Revere was an exciting place during the 1950s and 1960s. The clubs on the beach were constantly being frequented by mobsters, hit men and heavy hitters from Boston and Providence. These men were exciting to be around and were idolized by the local kids. During this time in Revere, everyone would receive one hell of a streetwise education.

  CHAPTER 6

  MOB WAR

  Joseph Russo, Vincent Ferrara and Robert Carrozza needed to eliminate their underboss, William Grasso. He was fifty-eight years old and known to have a close relationship with all five of the New York crime families. The FBI believed him to be the real power in New England. On June 16, 1989, William “the Wild Man” Grasso was found on the banks of the Connecticut River with a bullet in the back of his head. The attempted murder of Frank Salemme on Route 1 in Saugus took place five hours after police found Grasso’s body. Law enforcement believed at first that the Genovese family had sanctioned the hit because Grasso had muscled in on some of their rackets in Springfield, Massachusetts, but this was not the case. These three capos were able to kill Grasso, but the failed attempt on Salemme, which was originally planned by Angelo “Sonny” Mercurio, caused further problems. They now had a major problem. The botched hit was unsanctioned and could now cost all three their lives. They decided to keep a low profile and hope that the hit team would not rat them out.

  Everybody loves a gang war, whether via television, radio, newspapers, magazines or movies. Everybody, that is, except the gangs. While the general public finds gang wars exciting and fascinating, the gangs find them expensive and dangerous. Mob wars are caused by many things: young hotshots trying to push out older people, personal vendettas, expansion of turf. This soon-to-be war stemmed from the inevitable weaknesses that flow from bureaucratic inertia and the pursuit of self-interest. The New England mob had become lost after Patriarca Sr. died and Angiulo went to prison. The replacements lost sight of the game plan that was established by Patriarca Sr. When Salemme took power, he was out to get what he thought he was owed, and that meant increasing the street tax and alienating those soldiers who were in the trenches hustling the streets and earning day in and day out.

  On October 29, 1989, the FBI secretly recorded a mafia induction ceremony. Present were J.R. Russo, Vinnie Ferrara, Bobby Carrozza, Dee Dee Gioacchino, reigning boss Raymond Patriarca Jr. and twelve other mafia made members. The induction ceremony took place in the dining room of an associate’s home at 34 Guild Street in Medford. The following is a partial conversation between Raymond Patriarca, Biagio DiGiacomo, Joseph Russo, Angelo Mercurio and Vincent Federico.

  Patriarca: “We’re all here to bring in some new members into our family and more than that, to start maybe a new beginning. Put all that’s got started behind us. ’Cause they come into our family to start a new thing with us. Hopefully, that they’ll leave here with what we had years past. And bygones are bygones and a good future for all of us. I’ll, and I’ll greet you later.”

  DiGiacomo: “Can we open our [unintelligible] ’cause we should open it up.”

  Unidentified speaker: “Yeah, Yeah.”

  DiGiacomo: “In onore della famiglia la famiglia e’ aparta [in honor of the family the family is open]. It means anybody want to say something [unintelligible].”

  Russo: “Anything we want to discuss first? Any questions about anything first?”

  Patriarca: “Yeah, I have something to say. Last week I met with Joe, to ah, kind of like, resolve ah, a few problems we had, and I want anybody to speak up [TV in the background] ’cause, ’cause I kind of like to resolve this. I appointed Joe, not only is he counselor, but he has the authority to more or less handle business in Boston when I leave [unintelligible] more or less like Jerry did when he was here. And this way you people go direct, and whatever decisions he goes by, I’ll abide by. Completely. More or less for a dual purpose [unintelligible]. I hope we’re all in agreement with that and I think he’ll do a good job.”

  Mercurio: “Good luck, Joe.”

  DiGiacomo: “Good luck.”

  Federico: “Good luck [applause in background].”

  Russo: “Will everybody that’s being presented today, because it means Richie Floramo, Vinny Federico, there’s Carmen Tortora, as well as [unintelligible]. Most of us know most of them, but some of us don’t know any of these. Any remarks anybody wishes to [unintelligible] bring up [unintelligible]?”

  In this conversation we can almost hear the tension of the internal problems through their conversation. The ceremony was part of Patriarca’s ongoing effort to ease tensions between competing factions and establish a better working order in the post-Angiulo era. This ceremony was a wealth of information for the FBI; not only did they learn who the new members were, but they also learned about the unease between the factions. During this ceremony, Patriarca attempted to put the killing of Grasso and the attempted killing of Salemme in the past. In this business, there is a strong incentive to keep things running in the black. Deficits mean death, and the Patriarca family could not afford to have internal problems at this point in time. It was Patriarca’s intention to attempt to smooth things over and help unite both factions. Had his father still been alive and in power, certain people certainly would have been killed. Patriarca Jr. believed that by initiating four new people into the family, this would appease the rival faction. When it was later revealed that Angelo Mercurio, Patriarca’s driver, had helped bug the ceremony, this helped vindicate Patriarca as a bumbling idiot among his peers. Since the elder Patriarca died and Angiulo went to jail, the FBI had been exerting constant pressure on the New England mob, which had been bad for business and decimated the ranks of experienced mobsters. The induction ceremony was believed to be successful in uniting the two factions.

  Unfortunately, the hazards of doing business in crime still encroached upon the mob. Less than a month later, in November 1989, Russo Ferrara and Carrozza were arrested and held on a federal indictment in Plymouth County Correctional Facility.

  In March 1990, Raymond J. Patriarca Jr. was added as a defendant in a superseding indictment. Earlier, he had stepped down as family boss, a position he had held since July 1984, when his father died. According to Johnny “Sonny” Castagna, a FBI informant, in a 1989 meeting presided over by Joseph Russo and Carrozza they warned Patriarca to step down or he would be killed. When Patriarca gave up the position as head of the family, Nicholas Bianco replaced him. In a 1990 trial, Bianco was sentenced to eleven years on RICO charges. With the boss, ex-boss and consigliere all behind bars, Salemme was now heir to the throne, and with his crowning the power base moved from Providence back to Boston for the first time in thirty-seven years.

  According to FBI sources, Frank Salemme took over the reins of the New England mob officially in September 1991. It is widely believed that Salemme held the title unofficially until the New York families could sit down together and give their official blessing on the nomination. In December of that same year, the FBI was able to tape a meeting at a Boston hotel between Salemme and Gambino family capo Natale Richichi. This meeting was set up to discuss how to possibly repair the growing rift between the feuding factions.

  After that morning, it didn’t take long for Salemme to start settling problems. During 1991 and 1992, six murders took place. At first, the FBI believed that they were related to regular mob business—until the Russo-Carrozza faction began to fight back. The first Salemme-sanctioned murder was on August 16, 1991. Howard Ferrini, a professional gambler, was beaten to death in his home and tossed into the trunk of his 1988 Cadillac. He and his car were found at Logan Airport five days later, dripping blood and emitting a foul odor. On October 3, restaurateur Barry Lazzarini was brutally beaten to death and found tied up in his home in Manomet. F
or at least a year, the killings seemed to have stopped. Then, in September 1992, Kevin Hanrahan was found shot to death in Providence, Rhode Island. A month later, Dedham Police found Rocco Scali, a North End restaurant owner, shot to death in his car in the parking lot of a pancake house. In December 1992, there were three more killings. Vincent Arcieri, another restaurant owner, was killed in the driveway of his East Boston home. Steven DiSarro, a South Boston nightclub owner, also turned up missing and was presumed dead.

  The Russo-Carrozza contingent of the mafia retaliated on February 5, 1992. Gigi Portalla and Dennis Othmer, a twenty-five-year-old from East Boston, were driving on Blackstone Street at about 3:30 p.m. Gigi pulled up next to Dennis Caldarelli, who was also driving on Blackstone Street, and opened fire on him. Caldarelli abandoned his car and attempted to flee on foot through the North End of Boston. Gigi pursued him in a blue 1988 Chevy through the streets of Boston and finally caught up with Caldarelli at the corner of Fleet and Hanover Streets. Gigi hit him in the head with the 9 mm as he pulled alongside him. Then Gigi fired several more rounds as Caldarelli fled through backyards and alleyways. Later that evening, Gigi and passenger Dennis Othmer turned themselves in at the Revere Police Station. They informed the officer that they had not realized the police were looking for them until Gigi received a call from his mother. According to Gigi, his mother had seen on the evening news that the police were seeking her son. Gigi had only been out of prison for a short time when this incident occurred. He was convicted once again for pistol whipping and shooting at Caldarelli. Apparently, Caldarelli had insulted him and called him a nobody. Gigi was sent to Leavenworth for eighteen months. Here he was reunited with Jerry Angiulo and he started reading the works of Niccolo Machiavelli.

  Once released, Gigi opened a restaurant in Everett. He named the restaurant Something Fishy, a sneer at local law enforcement. During this time, he and his crew also began shaking down local bookmakers along the North Shore. As Gigi grew in power, he began to diversify his criminal portfolio. His next step was to invest in the drug trade. He established a drug-selling network with “Fat” Charlie McConnell and Bobby Nogueira, an ex-con who loved drugs and violence in equal amounts. This was his crew, the men he would work with and with whom he would attempt to take over the trafficking in the Boston area. Gigi would drive around with his crew in rented Chevy Blazers. He didn’t trust cars that weren’t rented on the spot with no reservations. He would frisk his own friends and crew. Gigi would drive, McConnell would be in the passenger seat and Nogueira would be riding in the rear with a loaded weapon. They had a cellphone with an East Boston number, which received calls from customers around the clock. They would sell forty-dollar bags of cocaine. Charlie McConnell would have a can of soda between his legs to help him swallow the bags of coke if they were to be stopped and searched by police. In the glove box was a bottle of Ipecac to help Charlie vomit the bags up after the police left. Gigi never carried more than thirteen grams of cocaine on him, so if he was caught he couldn’t be prosecuted for trafficking. At the height of his business, the crew was selling five-plus kilos a week, bringing in $20,000 a kilo. Gigi and his crew delivered coke to every bar, lounge and nightclub in Revere, East Boston, Winthrop and Chelsea. They were known as DOW: drugs on wheels.

  Gigi was still having feuds with other mobsters at this time. Only now, the feuds were on a different level. One evening, Gigi was entering the tunnel in East Boston to head into Boston for a night of drinking. Another car pulled alongside his. In the car were Bobby Luisi and his son, Roman. The Luisis were well-known North End bullies. They exchanged words with Gigi, and before anyone knew what had happened, the Luisis pulled out a gun and began firing. Gigi floored his car and raced through the tunnel while trying to reach the gun under his seat. He finally reached the gun and began firing back at the Luisis. The gunfight went back and forth as the two cars barreled through the Callahan Tunnel. Neither party hit its respective target. Gigi eventually lost the father-and-son duo once they got out of the tunnel. The Luisis were later gunned down, along with two confederates, at the 99 Restaurant in Charlestown. The shooting made the front page of the Boston Herald. It is widely believed that the Luisis were trying to scare Gigi from encroaching on their territory in the North End.

  In April 1992, Carrozza was sent to federal prison. While he was serving his time in Pennsylvania, Anthony Ciampi and Michael Romano Sr. visited him and requested permission to go to war against Salemme.

  This was a period of constant reminders that the mob was ever present along the North Shore of Massachusetts. On April 2, 1993, in a Kentucky Fried Chicken parking lot in Everett at the corner of Route 16 and Everett Avenue, a white GMC rapidly sped into the lot. Two men exited the vehicle, leaving the doors ajar. They walked toward two cars parked in front of the GMC, and each man grabbed a driver and threw him into the back of the GMC. One of the men got back into the GMC and drove off. The passenger of the GMC then got into and drove off in one of the cars that was parked in front of the Kentucky Fried Chicken. The whole incident took approximately thirty to sixty seconds. Witnesses described the driver as a twenty-year-old male who appeared to have a gun. The passenger was wearing a DEA hat and a DEA jacket. Police searched the car that was left behind and discovered a kilo of 87 percent pure cocaine. Police quickly determined that this was an attempt to steal the drugs, but the robbers had driven off with the wrong vehicle. The GMC had been reported stolen by Romano about two hours before the kidnapping took place. Romano had rented the vehicle at National Rental Car at Logan International Airport. Police also believed that Romano was the man wearing the DEA apparel.

  The KFC parking lot where drug dealers were abducted and Michael romano Jr. was killed while changing a flat tire.

  Another horrific incident took place one night when Gigi, his brother Eddie and Enrico Ponzo pulled up to a convenience store on Squire Road in Revere. The three men entered the premises and began to get a few snacks. Ponzo picked up a candy bar and began eating it in the aisle. The store clerk, a big Texan cowboy type, said, “Ya have to pay for that before you eat it.” Ponzo, feeling embarrassed, went up to the counter and apologized. At the counter, he proceeded to ask the clerk how much a large metal flashlight would cost. The clerk answered his question, and Ponzo agreed to purchase the flashlight. He then asked the clerk to install the D cell batteries in it, which the clerk did and then rang up the entire purchase. Ponzo paid the clerk, and when the clerk gave him his change, Ponzo grabbed him, pulled him over the counter and began to beat him with the flashlight. Within seconds, the clerk was lying in a pool of his own blood. Eddie had to interrupt Ponzo and tell him that the cops were on the way in order to prevent him from killing the clerk. Gigi and Ponzo exited the store laughing as if they had just pulled a childish prank. That is just how quickly you can be involved in an altercation with these guys. The mob’s violence does involve the public from time to time. The raw impulses that define life on the streets take over with these men, and there is only blind allegiance to the wise guy way.

  Another time, Gigi and his crew needed to send a message to a person who owed him some money. Gigi came up with the idea of buying a tombstone. He placed it in the trunk of his car and drove away. Later in the evening, he took the tombstone to the man’s house and proceeded to throw it through the guy’s living room window. The next day, the man contacted Gigi and paid the debt in full. He had received the late payment notice loud and clear.

  During this time, Gigi and his crew began hanging around at a private club located at 151 Bennington Street in East Boston. The club was in a nondescript storefront in a heavily overcrowded area of Eastie, surrounded by other mom and pop stores and forbidding three-deckers. The street was constantly congested with traffic and pedestrians. This was the perfect location to avoid the incessant surveillance of the FBI and the state and local police. The pay phones on the corner also helped the local mobsters avoid telephone taps. The club was owned by Anthony Ciampi, a local bookmaker and loan shar
k who lived nearby. The club became known as the war room due to the amount of guns and ammo that was being housed at the location. Every so often, the FBI or local and state police would serve a warrant on the club and search it. Mostly they were looking for the occasional weapon or betting slips, or possible information about a hijacked truck of swag out of Logan International Airport.

  Rico Ponzo, a cold-blooded psychopathic killer who is still on the run. Courtesy of the FBI.

  The building on the right was the social club for the Russo-Carrozza faction located at 151 Bennington Street in East Boston. The pay telephone on the building across the street was where Michael Romano Sr. gunned down one of the men he believed responsible for his son’s death.

  One of the mobsters who hung around the East Boston club was Michael P. Romano Sr. A Suffolk Superior Court jury acquitted Romano of the 1993 killing of Penrod E. Lashod in East Boston. Lashod was shot to death on his boat, the Irish Temper. A co-defendant and one-time close friend of Romano’s, David J. Boyd, testified that the killing was because of Lashod’s refusal to pay rent to Romano. Boyd is now in witness protection. Prior to the acquittal, Romano had approached the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office and offered to plead guilty to manslaughter, but the district attorney refused the plea.

  Mark Spisak was an employee of the club as well as an associate of the men who hung out there. Spisak was a dealer for the card games at the club, which began on Friday nights and continued through Sunday mornings. He learned the illegal gambling business by the age of nine from his stepdad, who was a bookie. At age seventeen, he was working as a professional poker player. While working at the club, he made $200 to $400 in tips and $7.50 an hour. The club would rake in 5 percent of the first $1,300 of each hand. During the week, Spisak worked as a truck driver for Sky Chef at Logan International Airport. There he would load meals and liquor onto the planes prior to their departures. One time, Spisak drove his truck to the club and unloaded a full load of liquor into the club. During this time, there were other card games taking place in East Boston. Cadillac Frank Salemme had a game run by Bobby Luisi Jr.—the same Bobby Luisi who shot at Gigi—on Marginal Street, and there was also one run by the Rossettis in Orient Heights, a section of East Boston. Spisak worked as a dealer at all three clubs. Eventually, Spisak only worked for Ciampi due to the increasing friction between Ciampi and Salemme.