KILLING CALLED SETTLING OF MOB ACCOUNTS

Foray Into Illegal Slots Implicated In Gunfire Death

Like many of us, Gaetano Panepinto liked to live high off the hog and was a little tardy paying debts.

Unlike many of us, Panepinto's debts were in the heroin and cocaine businesses, which sources say may explain why he was killed in a barrage of pistol fire Tuesday night.

Complicating the final days of his life was his recent foray into the world of illegal slot machines in Toronto. In the illegal business, players play for dollars and not free games, which is the legal reward.

Panepinto, 41 whom mobsters often sought to carry out rough jobs had angered competitors in the illegal slots business, sources said.

He also worked in the cut rate casket trade and operated a west Toronto gym, where he enjoyed lifting weights himself.

Sources close to organized crime say that Panepinto's death probably marks a closing of accounts with him, rather than the start of a gang war.

"I don't think we'll have a gang war," said author James Dubro, who has written several books on organized crime. "That (murder) is how you settle accounts in the mob. You don't launch a lawsuit."

"I would not expect revenge," agreed Antonio Nicaso, who also has written several books on organized crime.

While Panepinto was well known to organized crime investigators, no one had been keeping close tabs on him shortly before his demise.

One veteran of the Toronto force said close monitoring of organized crime in Toronto has dropped by more than half in the past five years.

In the early 1980s, there were 10 officers devoted solely to monitoring the movements of mobster Paul Volpe. Now, there are only about 60 city officers devoted to covering organized crime of all types.

"The problem is a lack of manpower," the police veteran said. "There's not much intelligence on them."

Panepinto's killer or killers pulled up beside him on Bloor St. W., just west of Highway 27, then opened fire from the passenger side of a van into Panepinto's maroon Cadillac.

His car rolled across the intersection as they sped away.

It's expected the Panepinto murder will be mentioned by Toronto police Chief Julian Fantino in his Oct. 12 review.

Organized crime officers hope Fantino himself a former undercover organized crime officer raises the priority of organized crime surveillance in the Toronto force.

"It does remind everyone there is a mob," Dubro said. "They're quietly going about their business."

The style of Panepinto's killing was unusual among his associates, who prefer to gun down a man at his home or outside his business, not in a car.

However, Nicaso said anyone familiar with Panepinto would not be eager to approach him on the street with the intent of killing him.

Panepinto was a tall, muscular man who weighed upwards of 250 pounds, Nicaso noted, and he had a reputation for being quite capable of violence.

"To confront a guy like that, you have to be another (former bodybuilder Arnold) Schwarzenegger," Nicaso said.

He said the decline in the number of officers specializing in organized crime is a symptom of a far greater problem.

"We are paying the price of 30 years of political underestimation of the problem," Nicaso said.

"Our politicians don't realize yet the threat that organized crime mounts."