BIG-TIME BUSTS RAISE MOB SPECTRE

But police say Marotta, Ranieri, Leonardo cases don't indicate a resurgence
of organized crime in Rochester

(Sunday, August 12, 2001) -- Anthony Vaccaro's slaying was, in this day and
age, not a typical homicide.

Vaccaro, a target of an ongoing multi-state gambling probe, was riddled by
a fusillade of gunfire as he drove to his Greece home late one evening in
May 2000. The execution-style killing harkened back to an era when
organized crime had a strong foothold in Rochester and some of its suburbs.

Add his slaying to other crime news in recent months and a picture emerges
of a possible resurgence of organized crime. Consider, for instance, that:

Anthony Leonardo Jr., a high-profile defense lawyer who defended some of
Rochester's most prominent mobsters, on Thursday pleaded guilty to
conspiring to murder Vaccaro. Former mob captain Thomas Marotta, who was
shot twice in the mob wars of the early '80s, was recently indicted on
charges of cocaine trafficking. Authorities also suspect that he was
involved in money laundering. In April, a judge suppressed incriminating
statements allegedly made by a Chili man accused in a deli owner's murder.
The defendant, Frank Giudice, was working as an informant for the FBI and
the Monroe County Sheriff's Office in an attempt to crack gambling
allegedly controlled by organized crime, court records show.

Is Rochester, a hotbed for mob activity in past decades, on the cusp of a
return of organized crime? In a word, authorities answer: No.

Law enforcement authorities and chroniclers of local mob activity say that
organized crime in Rochester is nothing like it was in past decades.

Michael Giglia, the special agent in charge of Rochester's FBI office, says
there are still vestiges of organized crime, but nothing similar to what
Rochester saw decades ago when mob figures waged a campaign of bombings and
slayings in a turf war.

"It's not what it was in the '70s here when you had people blowing each
other up on street corners,'' Giglia said.

Frank Aloi, who detailed Rochester's mob history in his book The Hammer
Conspiracies, agreed. "I don't see any major (mob) personalities. I don't
see any structure as was apparent back in the '50s, '60s and '70s.''

The mob's heyday

Between the late 1950s and the mid-1980s, Rochester was rife with mob
activity, with warring factions and a bounty of bloodshed.

Internecine warfare erupted in the late 1970s, between what became commonly
called the A Team and B Team. The organized crime figures engaged in a
campaign of bombings, trying to destroy their foes in the opposing ranks.

In one particularly notorious episode in 1978, a bomb exploded under the
car of Salvatore "Sammy G'' Gingello, an eccentric mob figure. Gingello
lost a leg in the explosion and died from injuries.

Within years, the mob was merely a shell of its former self, and many of
its principal players were either dead or in prison.

Since the mob's demise, crime in Rochester has paralleled that experienced
by many urban areas beset by intense pockets of poverty. Drugs, instead of
the gambling and racketeering favored by the mob, are the new epidemic. And
the illegal substances have spawned their own waves of violence.

But, local authorities say, there aren't true criminal enterprises
controlling much of the illegal activity as there were in the days of the
mob. Crime, especially drug dealing, is more diffuse, with no hierarchical
structure in control.

Nonetheless, organized crime has not completely disappeared, authorities say.

"There is still traditional organized crime in existence in Rochester,''
said Richard Endler, who heads the organized crime division in the U.S.
Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York. "I still think it
presents an important criminal issue for the community, but perhaps it's
not as organized and potent as it once was.''

What semblance there is of organized crime is most present in after- hours
gambling operations, authorities say.

A death in January 2000 and subsequent court proceedings highlighted police
tactics against illegal gambling. Thomas Bertola Sr., 58, died of a heart
attack after his Lyell Avenue shop was robbed. Police allege that Chili
resident Frank Giudice admitted he was the getaway driver for two friends
who tied up Bertola and another man and robbed them of $1,000 during a card
game. Authorities charged Giudice with second-degree murder.

In April of this year, however, County Court Judge Elma Bellini ruled that
Giudice's statements could not be used against him. As it turned out, court
papers show that Giudice had a contract with sheriff's investigators and
the FBI. He'd worked with authorities since 1998 in an attempt to curb
gambling controlled by organized crime, the court papers reveal.

Bellini determined that Giudice's contract prohibited prosecutors from
wielding incriminating statements against him. The District Attorney's
Office has filed a notice that it plans to appeal the ruling. Without the
statements, prosecutors acknowledge that they can't pursuse a case against
Giudice.

Rochester police say they still battle the same sort of illegal gambling
establishments that were common during the mob's reign. Now, however, there
are fewer gambling joints, police say. And, they say, gamblers who fall
behind on debts aren't as likely to be victims of retaliatory violence as
in years past.

"It's not so much that somebody is going to break their legs (if they don't
pay) any more,'' said Rochester police Sgt. Robert Mattick of the Special
Investigations Section. "They just aren't going to let you bet with them
again.''

Cleveland connection

Leonardo, a prominent lawyer for mob figures in the 1980s, has now been
tied to cocaine trafficking and murder. Authorities suspect that Club
Titanic, a nightclub he operated with Vaccaro in 2000, was a site for money
laundering.

On Thursday, Leonardo incriminated Albert M. Ranieri, the key suspect in
the 1990 armored car heist of $10.8 million, in a plot to kill Vaccaro.
Ranieri, who was arrested with Leonardo in December on federal cocaine
trafficking charges, has not been charged with the killing. He is being
held without bail on the federal charge.

Central to the charges against Leonardo and Ranieri is FBI informant
Anthony Delmonti, who has loose connections to Cleveland mob families.
Delmonti helped arrange the alleged cocaine deal, as federal authorities
surreptitiously videotaped the meetings. Some of those tapes were recently
released publicly.

Delmonti also befriended former Rochester mob captain Thomas Marotta, who
is also accused of conspiring to distribute cocaine in a separate case

But, while news of money laundering and execution-style slayings may kindle
memories of the mob, authorities have not pointed to any organized crime
connections in the cases. And, Aloi said, there is a major difference
between these cases and criminal charges commonly lodged decades ago. Then,
the code of silence -- or omerta -- sometimes held firm, as many mobsters
would not turn on one another to help authorities.

"Now anyone is liable to buy his way out of a problem by trading whatever
information he's got,'' Aloi said.

The erosion of organized crime in Rochester is emblematic of the national
scene, where mob families have been destroyed or greatly weakened in recent
years. Many prominent mob bosses, such as John Gotti, are now incarcerated,
with their fiefdoms largely obliterated.

"What has happened here mirrors what has happened in the major cities
across the country,'' Aloi said. "Even New York City is basically
emasculated. The major mob families are shadows of what they used to be.''