Gerlando Sciascia
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Gerlando Sciascia | |
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![]() FBI surveillance photograph of Gerlando Sciascia and Joseph Massino | |
Born | February 15, 1934 |
Died | March 18, 1999 (aged 65) The Bronx, New York, USA |
Other names | George from Canada |
Gerlando "George from Canada" Sciascia (Italian pronunciation: [dʒerˈlando ˈʃaʃʃa]; February 15, 1934 – March 18, 1999), was a New York City mobster, and a caporegime of the Bonanno crime family, who was also the Sixth Family's representative from New York, and was a major narcotics trafficker in Canada, and the United States.
Background
Sciascia was born in Cattolica Eraclea in the province of Agrigento, Sicily, the same area as Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto.[1] In 1955, Sciascia immigrated to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, later moving to the United States, to New York City three years later in 1958.[2][3]
Sciascia was a stylish dresser with thick gray hair worn in a pompadour style. He had a wife, daughter, son, and grandson. His business headquarters was a small jewelry store in the Bronx.[2] Gregarious and charming, Sciascia epitomized traditional Cosa Nostra values. However, Sciascia was very willing to give his opinion on anything, for he really had no superiors.
By the mid 1970s, Sciascia was established in New York with the Sicilian, or "zip" faction, of the Bonanno family. However, due to his Sicilian upbringing, Sciascia also had close ties to the Bonanno crew in Montreal, which included Rizzuto. At this time, the Bonanno leadership considered the Rizzutos and the Bonanno crew in Canada to be under their firm direction and control.
Three Capos Murders
On May 5, 1981, Sciascia participated in the murders of dissident Bonanno capos Dominick "Big Trin" Trinchera, Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato, and Philip "Lucky" Giaccone at a Gambino crime family social club in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. Rizzuto came from Montreal with two Sicilian hitmen to join Joseph Massino, Salvatore Vitale, and Sciascia.[4][5] Sciascia escorted the three rebellion capos into the club. Once the men were inside, Sciascia signalled the attack by slowly running his fingers through his hair. At that point, the men burst from a closet and started shooting.[1] During the massacre, Salvatore Vitale observed Sciascia shooting Indelicato in the head. When the three capos were dead, Sciascia and his Sicilians quickly left the building, leaving the cleanup to Vitale and the others.[5]
Narcotics Indictment
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Bonannos_and_Rizzuto.jpg/200px-Bonannos_and_Rizzuto.jpg)
In 1983, Sciascia was indicted for attempting to transport 46 kilograms of heroin from Canada to the United States. To avoid prosecution, Sciascia fled to Montreal.[2] In the 1980s, while living in Montreal, Sciascia served as the liaison between the Rizzuto crime family and the Bonanno family in New York, managing drug trafficking between the two countries. On the New York side, he worked closely with Gambino mobsters Gene Gotti and John Carneglia. In 1986, Sciascia was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) based on the US trafficking charges.
In 1988, after two years in Canadian custody fighting the extradition order, Sciascia was deported back to the United States.[6] Wealthy from his heroin trafficking days, Sciascia moved back to New York and established a small construction company in the Bronx. On February 9, 1990, Sciascia was acquitted on the narcotics trafficking charges in New York.[6] Government witness Sammy Gravano later claimed that the Bonanno family paid a juror $10,000 to block Sciascia's conviction.[7]
In July 1991, Sciascia applied to the Canadian government for readmission to Canada, basing his application on his son Joseph's residence in Montreal.[6] In 1997, after a long legal battle, Citizenship and Immigration Canada deemed Sciascia persona non grata and denied him readmission to Canada.[3]
Friction between criminal partners
In the 1990s, relations between Massino and Sciascia had started to sour. Scascia was becoming more independent of Massino and more aligned with Vito Rizzuto. Growing richer and stronger, Rizzuto became less willing to defer all decisions to the Bonannos.
On April 30, 1992, Scascia's top lieutenant in Canada, Joseph LoPresti, was found shot to death in a Montreal lot. LoPresti, a Bonanno made man, was murdered without any prior notification or approval from the New York Bonanno leadership. Sciascia defended the killing to Salvatore Vitale as justified because LoPresti had become addicted to drugs.[6]
On a later occasion, when Rizzuto refused to send a hit team to New York to kill Bonanno target Robert Perino, Sciascia infuriated Massino by again supporting Rizzuto. When Bonanno capo Anthony Graziano, a Massino loyalist, appeared high on drugs in a meeting, Sciascia started telling other Bonanno family members that Graziano was a substance abuser. When new family boss Joseph Massino heard about Sciascia's complaints, he felt Sciascia was attacking him also.[6] Feeling that Sciascia was challenging his authority, Massino, in a jealous rage, decided to have him killed.[8]
Assassination
In early 1999, at a wedding anniversary party, Massino gave the following message to Salvatore Vitale: "George has got to go". The plan was for fellow capo Patrick DeFilippo to invite Sciascia to a meeting to resolve an ongoing disagreement with Graziano over a marijuana racket. It was crucial that the murder not be linked to the Bonanno family in any way to avoid a potential conflict with the Rizzuto family in Montreal.
On March 18, 1999, Sciascia received a note at his jewelry store telling him to meet DeFilippo at a Manhattan dinner. At the dinner, DeFilippo told Sciascia that they were driving to a different location and the three men entered mobster John Spirito's SUV. As Spirito drove the vehicle, DeFilippo shot Sciascia four times with a silenced gun. The gunmen then drove to a deserted Bronx street, where they left the body on the road.[9] A passerby saw the dumping and immediately called the police.
Aftermath
Vacationing in Mexico, Massino immediately met with each of the Bonanno capos to tell them he did not know what happened to Sciascia and theorized it was a bad drug deal. However, in private, Massino reportedly remarked "It served him right for telling me how to run the family."[10]
On July 30, 2004, Massino was convicted of seven murders, including the Sciascia murder. With prosecutors intent on asking for the death penalty, Massino quickly offered to become a government witness.[8] On June 24, 2005, Massino confessed to ordering Sciascia's murder along with many other crimes. He was sentenced to life in prison.[11]
On January 11, 2006, DeFilippo was indicted on several federal racketeering charges,including the Sciascia murder. However, on May 9, 2006, the jury exonerated him of the murder charge.[12]
References
- ^ a b "A humble beginning". Canada.com: The National Post. Archived from the original on 24 March 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
{{cite web}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ a b c Crittle, Simon (2006). The Last Godfather: The Rise and Fall of Joey Massino. New York: Berkley. ISBN 0-425-20939-3.
- ^ a b Andre Cedilot; Andre Noel (2010). Mafia Inc. Toronto: Vintage Canada. ISBN 978-0-307-36041-0.
- ^ Cédilot, André; Gilson, André Noël; translated by Michael (2011). Mafia Inc.: The Long, Bloody Reign of Canada's Sicilian Clan. Toronto: Random House Canada. ISBN 0-307-36042-3.
- ^ a b Raab, Selwyn (2006). Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires (1st St. Martin's Griffin ed.). New York: Thomas Dunne Books. p. 601. ISBN 0-312-36181-5.
- ^ a b c d e Humphreys, Lee Lamothe & Adrian (2008). The Sixth Family: The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto (Rev. & updated. ed.). Mississauga, Ont.: J. Wiley & Sons Canada. ISBN 0-470-15445-4.
- ^ Marzulli, John (March 21, 1999). "Mobster Found Shot Dead In Bronx". New York Daily News. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
- ^ a b Schneider, Stephen (2009). Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada. Mississauga, Ont.: Wiley. ISBN 0-470-83500-1.
- ^ "'Hit him high, hit him low'". Canada.com: National Post. Archived from the original on 23 February 2009. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Marzulli, John (November 12, 2004). "Seek death for boss". The New York Daily News. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
- ^ Worth, Robert F. (June 24, 2005). "Bonanno Crime Boss Is Sentenced to 2 Life Terms". New York Times. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
- ^ "UNITED STATES v. Patrick DeFilippo, also known as Patty from the Bronx, Defendant-Appellant". Findlaw. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
- Family ties trip up would-be immigrant - Canada says applicant is member of American Cosa Nostra By Estanislao Oziewicz / The Globe and Mail
Further reading
- Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
- 1934 births
- 1999 deaths
- American expatriates in Canada
- American mobsters of Sicilian descent
- Bonanno crime family
- Canadian mobsters of Sicilian descent
- Deaths by firearm in New York (state)
- Italian emigrants to the United States
- Murdered American mobsters of Sicilian descent
- Murdered Canadian mobsters
- Murdered Mafiosi
- Organized crime in Montreal
- People acquitted of racketeering
- People extradited from Canada to the United States
- People from Cattolica Eraclea
- People murdered by the Bonanno crime family
- People murdered in New York (state)
- Rizzuto crime family