Post by TonyBombassolo on Aug 22, 2024 4:34:20 GMT
1985-11-01
www.nytimes.com/1985/11/01/nyregion/gambino-jurors-hear-testimony-on-killings-of-3.html
Federal jurors sat rapt yesterday as a Government informer vividly recounted three killings that prosecutors say were linked to a car theft ring operated by 10 reputed figures in the Gambino crime organization.
The testimony, which the prosecutor, Walter S. Mack Jr., allowed to run in an almost uninterrupted narrative, came from Vito Arena, the 12th witness in the trial of the 10 men on car theft and murder conspiracy charges.
Mr. Arena is serving an 18-year prison sentence and is testifying in exchange for leniency for himself and a confederate. According to prosecutors, he stole cars for the ring and participated in three of the five slayings that figure in the trial, which is being held in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
Wearing tinted glasses that he removed from time to time, Mr. Arena said he had pulled the trigger in the September 1978 slaying of Joseph Scorney, one of his partners in a car theft operation. He said the killing, in a Brooklyn car repair garage, was the idea of another partner, Richard DiNome, who convinced him that Mr. Scorney wanted to push him out of the lucrative operation.
''I remember taking the gun out of my pocket and pointing it at Joey, and Richie came over and nudged me again,'' Mr. Arena said. ''Then I shot Joseph Scorney. The first bullet hit him in the shoulder and just fell to the floor. He turned around and I shot him again. He fell to his knees and I went and put the gun in his mouth and fired again.'' ''Was he dead?'' Mr. Mack asked. ''No, and the gun wouldn't fire anymore'' the witness answered. ''Richie picked up a five-pound sledgehammer and whacked him in the head.''
They mixed eight bags of cement and poured it and the body into a metal drum, Mr. Arena said. The gun, he said, was provided by Ronald Turekian, one of the defendants. Mr. Turekian, he said, watched out for the police. Then, Mr. Arena said, the three men put an ''eye bolt'' in the wet cement so they could contend it was a boat anchor if the police stopped them.
''What did you do next?'' Mr. Mack asked.
''We went to Chinatown to eat,'' he said.
The testimony about Mr. Scorney's death occupied nearly all the morning session of the trial. Later the anonymous jurors heard an account of two slayings in which the bodies were hacked up and after which, Mr. Arena said, he and others snacked on pizza.
By the end of the day, the witness had named and pointed to 7 of the 10 defendants as being involved in the theft ring and killings. Still not mentioned by witnesses was 70-year-old Paul Castellano, a defendant and reputed boss of the Gambino organization.
The accounts of the Scorney death had been the subject of several days of closed hearings earlier in the week. Attorneys for the defendants then maintained that the death was not linked to the reputed car theft ring. David Greenfield, Mr. Turekian's attorney, said in open court that the prosecution had ''thrown in some gore to whet the appetite of the jury.''
The judge, Kevin Thomas Duffy, however, allowed the testimony.
In the afternoon, Mr. Arena told of his recruitment into the car ring, a year after the Scorney death, by Roy DeMeo, the reputed street boss of the crew, who was killed in 1983.
In October 1979, he said, the ring was stealing 15 cars a week, altering their identification numbers and storing them at a pier for sale in Iran and Iraq. Then, he said, Ronald Ustica, one of the defendants, became suspicious of two legitimate automobile wholesalers who were seen at the storage area.
''Ronnie Ustica wanted them dead and he was willing to pay,'' he said.
The two victims, Ronald Falcaro and Khalid Faoud Darwish, were lured to a Brooklyn body shop. Mr. Arena said he was told to stay outside. He heard the muted thuds of handguns fired with silencers, he said, and when he entered saw the two men lying on the ground as Henry Borelli, another defendant, and Mr. DeMeo stood holding guns. Two other defendants, Joseph Testa Jr. and Anthony M. Senter, helped cut up the bodies, he said.
www.nytimes.com/1985/11/01/nyregion/gambino-jurors-hear-testimony-on-killings-of-3.html
Federal jurors sat rapt yesterday as a Government informer vividly recounted three killings that prosecutors say were linked to a car theft ring operated by 10 reputed figures in the Gambino crime organization.
The testimony, which the prosecutor, Walter S. Mack Jr., allowed to run in an almost uninterrupted narrative, came from Vito Arena, the 12th witness in the trial of the 10 men on car theft and murder conspiracy charges.
Mr. Arena is serving an 18-year prison sentence and is testifying in exchange for leniency for himself and a confederate. According to prosecutors, he stole cars for the ring and participated in three of the five slayings that figure in the trial, which is being held in Federal District Court in Manhattan.
Wearing tinted glasses that he removed from time to time, Mr. Arena said he had pulled the trigger in the September 1978 slaying of Joseph Scorney, one of his partners in a car theft operation. He said the killing, in a Brooklyn car repair garage, was the idea of another partner, Richard DiNome, who convinced him that Mr. Scorney wanted to push him out of the lucrative operation.
''I remember taking the gun out of my pocket and pointing it at Joey, and Richie came over and nudged me again,'' Mr. Arena said. ''Then I shot Joseph Scorney. The first bullet hit him in the shoulder and just fell to the floor. He turned around and I shot him again. He fell to his knees and I went and put the gun in his mouth and fired again.'' ''Was he dead?'' Mr. Mack asked. ''No, and the gun wouldn't fire anymore'' the witness answered. ''Richie picked up a five-pound sledgehammer and whacked him in the head.''
They mixed eight bags of cement and poured it and the body into a metal drum, Mr. Arena said. The gun, he said, was provided by Ronald Turekian, one of the defendants. Mr. Turekian, he said, watched out for the police. Then, Mr. Arena said, the three men put an ''eye bolt'' in the wet cement so they could contend it was a boat anchor if the police stopped them.
''What did you do next?'' Mr. Mack asked.
''We went to Chinatown to eat,'' he said.
The testimony about Mr. Scorney's death occupied nearly all the morning session of the trial. Later the anonymous jurors heard an account of two slayings in which the bodies were hacked up and after which, Mr. Arena said, he and others snacked on pizza.
By the end of the day, the witness had named and pointed to 7 of the 10 defendants as being involved in the theft ring and killings. Still not mentioned by witnesses was 70-year-old Paul Castellano, a defendant and reputed boss of the Gambino organization.
The accounts of the Scorney death had been the subject of several days of closed hearings earlier in the week. Attorneys for the defendants then maintained that the death was not linked to the reputed car theft ring. David Greenfield, Mr. Turekian's attorney, said in open court that the prosecution had ''thrown in some gore to whet the appetite of the jury.''
The judge, Kevin Thomas Duffy, however, allowed the testimony.
In the afternoon, Mr. Arena told of his recruitment into the car ring, a year after the Scorney death, by Roy DeMeo, the reputed street boss of the crew, who was killed in 1983.
In October 1979, he said, the ring was stealing 15 cars a week, altering their identification numbers and storing them at a pier for sale in Iran and Iraq. Then, he said, Ronald Ustica, one of the defendants, became suspicious of two legitimate automobile wholesalers who were seen at the storage area.
''Ronnie Ustica wanted them dead and he was willing to pay,'' he said.
The two victims, Ronald Falcaro and Khalid Faoud Darwish, were lured to a Brooklyn body shop. Mr. Arena said he was told to stay outside. He heard the muted thuds of handguns fired with silencers, he said, and when he entered saw the two men lying on the ground as Henry Borelli, another defendant, and Mr. DeMeo stood holding guns. Two other defendants, Joseph Testa Jr. and Anthony M. Senter, helped cut up the bodies, he said.