Nov. 17, 1997 BOMB MYSTERY EXPLODEDBy Jerry Capeci
DeCicco was blown up outside a Bensonhurst, Brooklyn social club on April 13, 1986. Pate - now 56 - fashioned the powerful bomb out of C-4 plastic explosive and a remote-control toy car. Gotti, the primary target of the plot by Gigante and Luchese family leaders, survived because he changed his plans to visit the Veterans And Friends Social Club that Sunday morning. At the time, Pate was on parole from a 1980 conviction in which he and a former New York City Councilman from Queens, Eugene Mastropieri, were found guilty of tax evasion. Pate was awaiting trial on tax and other charges stemming from the seizure of millions of dollars in jewelry and weaponry at several homes and properties Pate owned. In the searches, agents had found two Claymoor land mines and 50 hunting rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition, said Gregory O'Connell, a former
federal prosecutor in the case. "There was a loaded gun in his kitchen cabinet, on the first floor landing, in a pocket of his bathrobe. Upstate he had a secret elevator to a vault where agents found a cachet of weapons and the Claymoor mines."
After getting the explosives through a Florida contact of Casso's, Pate conducted a test run upstate for Casso, then-Lucchese capo Vittorio Amuso and his brother Robert Amuso, said Casso. On the day of the bombing, Casso and the Amusos watched from a parked car as Pate, ambling by and carrying groceries, dropped something near DeCicco's car and ``while picking it up, placed a bag containing the explosives under [the] car,'' said Casso. They waited about an hour - with Pate in a car across the street and the others in another car equipped with a police scanner - for DeCicco to leave the club and get in the car. "Pate pulled up alongside DeCicco's car with the window rolled down, detonated the bomb. When the explosion went off, Pate's car was hit with glass and debris," said Casso.
Five days after DeCicco's death, Pate appeared in court on his pending case. A month later, he was nabbed for parole violation. That June, he pleaded guilty to
fraud, tax and weapons charges. He was sentenced to 12 years and released last November. He could not be reached for comment. Casso provided the FBI with a blow-by blow account of the DeCicco murder plot in early 1994, after he began cooperating with federal authorities. Although Casso has never testified for federal prosecutors - they recently accused him of making false statements - authorities say his account about DeCicco's killing rings true. It is unlikely, however, that Pate, or the Amusos, will be charged with the slaying because the feds have little evidence other than Casso's version. Apparently, the effort to divert suspicion away from the real killers worked, according to an account of a conversation later that day between Gotti and then-capo Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano, obtained by Gene Mustain and myself. The conversation appears in our book, GOTTI: Rise and Fall.
"I saw it John," said Gravano, "I pulled Frankie out." "I heard, Sammy. I heard it was too late." "Who the fuck did it?" said Gravano. "I don't know...Who the fuck knows?" said Gotti. "Chin?" "Nah, he wouldn't use fuckin' bombs, he'd want you to know. It's some renegade element."
Palermo prosecutor Guido LoForte said his office would seek to extradite Gaetano Badalamenti to stand trial for the murder of Giuseppe Impastato, a militant leftist who was killed on May 9, 1978. Investigators said Impasto was killed at a farmhouse in Badalamenti's Sicilian hometown of Cinisi because he had accused Badalamenti of Mafia activities over a pirate radio station. His body was blown up on train tracks between Palermo and Trapani to cover up the murder. His death had been ruled a "work accident" on the theory he killed himself while trying to plant a bomb for his militant group. The investigation was reopened when new Mafia turncoats fingered Badalamenti as the force behind Impastato's slaying. ASK ANDY
"The Cosa Nostra situation in New Jersey has always caused confusion amongst both the public and law enforcement," says Andy. "Due to it's proximity to both New York and Philadelphia, the garden state has been plagued by no less than seven Cosa Nostra Families, and a wide variety of other criminals. In addition, the DeCavalcante family, which takes its name from its late long time boss, Simone (Sam The Plumber) DeCavalcante, New Jersey has mobsters from New York's Five Families and the one based in Philadelphia. Obviously, with all these soldiers moving around, there is often need for clarification sitdowns in order to avoid violence.
"The DeCavalcante Family was an independent entity going back decades. There were at least two bosses prior to DeCavalcante's reign - Phil Amari and Nick Delorme. Sam had the misfortune to have been bugged in the early 1960's while a historic event was taking place in the upper levels of Cosa Nostra. One of the New York leaders, Joe Bonanno, was attempting a coup which eventually failed. Sam was recorded as he played a messenger role between Bonanno and the other New York leaders. Eventually, the transcripts of those conversations became public and DeCavalcante was a household name, much to his displeasure. "Sam's organization was heavy into gambling and labor racketeering and he eventually was sentenced to prison. After about 30 years of semi-retirement in Florida, DeCavalcante passed away earlier this year. His replacement, John Riggi was convicted of federal racketeering charges in Newark and Brooklyn in the early 1990's and is in federal prison, unlikely to be active in crime family business again."
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"The bomb was
fuckin' something," said Gotti. "The car was bombed like they put gasoline on
it. You gotta see the car. You wouldn't believe the car."
ANDY had so much fun at the movies last week that he was looking for another plum
assignment but the premise - and the reviews - of the CBS TV mini-series, Bella Mafia,
were so bad, that Andy stuck to the real world and tackled a query from a Gang Land
regular who wanted to know whether "the old Willie Moretti mob" was a forerunner
of the current New Jersey Mafia family.
"The DeCavalcante Family did not evolve
from the organization led by Willie Moretti. Although Moretti was based in New Jersey, he
was the underboss of the Genovese Family when he was executed in 1951. He had been a long
time member of that group and had risen to the second position under Frank Costello. By
1951, Moretti was known by the mob to be suffering from a disease which impaired his
mental capacities. He was what Vincent (Chin) Gigante was pretending to be for 30 years.
At the time, Costello's chief rival was Vito Genovese, who attempted to undermine Costello
by expressing concern that Moretti might inadvertently reveal Mafia secrets if he were
picked up for questioning. Costello (right) was no fool. Genovese (left) was correct. And
Costello had forged an alliance with Albert Anastasia and no longer needed onetime ally
Moretti. A short time later, Moretti was gunned down in a "mercy killing."
