Post by TonyBombassolo on May 21, 2023 19:06:46 GMT
Cleveland Magazine article
Cleveland mobster Anthony "Tony Lib" Liberatore had a car dealership and he learned that one of his employees, named Jeffrey Rabinowitz, was engaged to a young woman named Geraldine "Gerri" Linhart, a clerk in the Cleveland office of the FBI. Gerri was in love with Jeffery Rabinowitz, a Cleveland Heights High School dropout car salesman at Crossroads Lincoln-Mercury. Rabinowitz was friends with Kenneth Ciarcia, one of the agency's most successful salesman. Linhart was a clerk in the Cleveland office of the FBI who was getting a divorce. She did not earn much working for the Bureau and she was trying to sell a house she had received in the settlement. She had a hard time getting this house sold Liberatore had someone contact her and they promised to make her financial troubles disappear. She was advised that she only need to do some favors in return. She started selling files to Liberatore and his capo James "Blackie" Licavoli. Among those files was a complete list of FBI informants. An example was the name Danny Greene who was in a battle with the Italian mafia over control of a labor union. He had been informing on the Mafia for years. In an interesting turn of events, the Cleveland Teamster official Jackie Presser was a Top Echelon Informant but he had demanded his name never be put on any list. However, two of his underlings were on the informant list.
In early April of 1977, Linhart went to the closed FBI intelligence files on the 30th floor of the Federal Building on the pretext of needing the spelling of a name. While there, she casually picked up a 30-page report on Jack White. Later, she and Jeff proudly delivered a Xerox copy of the report to Ciarcia at his house. And two months later, she produced another report. But Ciarcia and Liberatore were not satisfied. They wanted the names of the FBI's informants, which were disguised by code numbers on the intelligence reports. So, a short time later, Geraldine went to an FBI security room where informants' names were matched in a complicated filing system with their code numbers, and copied the 14 names Liberatore had sought. Liberatore picked up the list at Crossroads and copied down the names on a separate sheet of paper. He then set a match to her list. (The FBI speculates that he then fed a phony list to Jack White, perhaps adding the names of those men who stood in the way of his rise to mob power.) Liberatore also gave Geraldine $1,000, which she needed as earnest money on the new home.
Once FBI agents realized that the names of informants were on the street, they doctored their files, eliminating some names and adding others. So, when Geraldine again went to the FBI files in August to copy the names of another 52 informants, she unknowingly gave a salted list to Ciarcia and Liberatore. (As a result, most mob figures in Cleveland today simply do not know who the FBI's real informants are, and are suspicious of one another.)
One month later, Geraldine stole another report on Jack White, the most current one in FBI files. But both she and Jeffery became frightened when they suddenly lost their court battle to break the land contract. Legally committed to a construction company for the building of a new house in Brunswick and financially hard-pressed, the couple went to Liberatore, who promised them $15,000 but asked for some indication he would be repaid.
In early October, with Jeff and Geraldine planning to be married the following month, they again pressured Liberatore for money. He met them at the home of Ciarcia's girlfriend, Noreen Orlowe, in Richmond Heights, where he instructed Jeff to go to his car and bring in an envelope. "This is a loan," Liberatore said, handing Noreen the cash. The following day, October 14 (after Ciarcia reportedly lifted $100 from the envelope), Noreen Orlowe took the cash to a branch of Shaker Savings, where she turned it into a cashier's check. The $14,900 check was turned over to Jeff Rabinowitz, who deposited it in his own bank.
By early March of 1978, with the Rabinowitz couple living comfortably but nervously in their new home, the FBI was ready to make its move. After the confessions of Aratari and Guiles, agents on March 3 arrested Ciarcia and Lanci for murder. (Liberatore left his South Euclid house only 30 minutes before agents arrived to arrest him, and has been missing since.)
Five days later, Harry Lum, the owner of Crossroads, was cleaning a conference room adjacent to Ciarcia's office when he found a suspicious black cardboard box on the floor behind a desk. Inside was a newspaper wrapped around a Fruit Loops cereal box; in the cereal box was a clear plastic wrapper covering a manila folder. And inside the folder were some strange papers. Lum immediately called the FBI. "I think I got some papers belonging to you," he told agent George Grotz. "I want to give them back to you--- now!" The two men agreed to meet at 12:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn on Lakeside Avenue downtown.
Somewhat suspicious at first, Grotz asked Foran and Kahoe to conceal themselves in a car nearby and watch the transaction. But when Grotz got into Lum's car, Lum simply handed him the box. "Here they are," he said. "I don't want to know anything about them." "I was so happy," Grotz told other agents the next day, "I could have kissed him."
When the three agents unwrapped the package on the desk of Stanley Czarnecki, head of the Cleveland FBI office, what they saw confirmed their worst fears. Intelligence files on White, reports on FBI car license numbers, an affidavit on a wiretap of a Teamsters Union official, a memo on another Teamster leader involved in a shooting, and the precious salted informant list were all inside. "We were dumbfounded," confesses Kahoe, "at the sheer amount of the documents." But Kahoe recognized the handwriting on the informant list and hurriedly pulled Geraldine Rabinowitz's personnel file. It contained matching handwriting and also a notation that her new husband, Jeff, had been a car salesman at Crossroads. "At the moment, we had mixed emotions," says Kahoe. "We were elated that we had uncovered the biggest lode of documents stolen in FBI history, but our joy was tempered with disgust." The disgust, of course, was for Geraldine Rabinowitz, whom they had trusted for so long. When confronted by Czarnecki, she broke down sobbing. She had realized that after the arrest of Ciarcia and Lanci she might get caught, and had resigned a week earlier. On her second-last day at work, she told Czarnecki, "I'm glad it's over. I knew it was only a matter of time before you would get me. I knew you would not let this rest until you did." "You know," she added later, "Tony said no one would get hurt from this. He said he only wanted the information to find out who was telling the FBI all those nasty lies about him and his friends. He said he would tell those people that what they're saying is not true. "I guess I believed him." Among the fingerprints lifted from the documents were those of Lanci, Liberatore and Ciarcia.
Cleveland mobster Anthony "Tony Lib" Liberatore had a car dealership and he learned that one of his employees, named Jeffrey Rabinowitz, was engaged to a young woman named Geraldine "Gerri" Linhart, a clerk in the Cleveland office of the FBI. Gerri was in love with Jeffery Rabinowitz, a Cleveland Heights High School dropout car salesman at Crossroads Lincoln-Mercury. Rabinowitz was friends with Kenneth Ciarcia, one of the agency's most successful salesman. Linhart was a clerk in the Cleveland office of the FBI who was getting a divorce. She did not earn much working for the Bureau and she was trying to sell a house she had received in the settlement. She had a hard time getting this house sold Liberatore had someone contact her and they promised to make her financial troubles disappear. She was advised that she only need to do some favors in return. She started selling files to Liberatore and his capo James "Blackie" Licavoli. Among those files was a complete list of FBI informants. An example was the name Danny Greene who was in a battle with the Italian mafia over control of a labor union. He had been informing on the Mafia for years. In an interesting turn of events, the Cleveland Teamster official Jackie Presser was a Top Echelon Informant but he had demanded his name never be put on any list. However, two of his underlings were on the informant list.
In early April of 1977, Linhart went to the closed FBI intelligence files on the 30th floor of the Federal Building on the pretext of needing the spelling of a name. While there, she casually picked up a 30-page report on Jack White. Later, she and Jeff proudly delivered a Xerox copy of the report to Ciarcia at his house. And two months later, she produced another report. But Ciarcia and Liberatore were not satisfied. They wanted the names of the FBI's informants, which were disguised by code numbers on the intelligence reports. So, a short time later, Geraldine went to an FBI security room where informants' names were matched in a complicated filing system with their code numbers, and copied the 14 names Liberatore had sought. Liberatore picked up the list at Crossroads and copied down the names on a separate sheet of paper. He then set a match to her list. (The FBI speculates that he then fed a phony list to Jack White, perhaps adding the names of those men who stood in the way of his rise to mob power.) Liberatore also gave Geraldine $1,000, which she needed as earnest money on the new home.
Once FBI agents realized that the names of informants were on the street, they doctored their files, eliminating some names and adding others. So, when Geraldine again went to the FBI files in August to copy the names of another 52 informants, she unknowingly gave a salted list to Ciarcia and Liberatore. (As a result, most mob figures in Cleveland today simply do not know who the FBI's real informants are, and are suspicious of one another.)
One month later, Geraldine stole another report on Jack White, the most current one in FBI files. But both she and Jeffery became frightened when they suddenly lost their court battle to break the land contract. Legally committed to a construction company for the building of a new house in Brunswick and financially hard-pressed, the couple went to Liberatore, who promised them $15,000 but asked for some indication he would be repaid.
In early October, with Jeff and Geraldine planning to be married the following month, they again pressured Liberatore for money. He met them at the home of Ciarcia's girlfriend, Noreen Orlowe, in Richmond Heights, where he instructed Jeff to go to his car and bring in an envelope. "This is a loan," Liberatore said, handing Noreen the cash. The following day, October 14 (after Ciarcia reportedly lifted $100 from the envelope), Noreen Orlowe took the cash to a branch of Shaker Savings, where she turned it into a cashier's check. The $14,900 check was turned over to Jeff Rabinowitz, who deposited it in his own bank.
By early March of 1978, with the Rabinowitz couple living comfortably but nervously in their new home, the FBI was ready to make its move. After the confessions of Aratari and Guiles, agents on March 3 arrested Ciarcia and Lanci for murder. (Liberatore left his South Euclid house only 30 minutes before agents arrived to arrest him, and has been missing since.)
Five days later, Harry Lum, the owner of Crossroads, was cleaning a conference room adjacent to Ciarcia's office when he found a suspicious black cardboard box on the floor behind a desk. Inside was a newspaper wrapped around a Fruit Loops cereal box; in the cereal box was a clear plastic wrapper covering a manila folder. And inside the folder were some strange papers. Lum immediately called the FBI. "I think I got some papers belonging to you," he told agent George Grotz. "I want to give them back to you--- now!" The two men agreed to meet at 12:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn on Lakeside Avenue downtown.
Somewhat suspicious at first, Grotz asked Foran and Kahoe to conceal themselves in a car nearby and watch the transaction. But when Grotz got into Lum's car, Lum simply handed him the box. "Here they are," he said. "I don't want to know anything about them." "I was so happy," Grotz told other agents the next day, "I could have kissed him."
When the three agents unwrapped the package on the desk of Stanley Czarnecki, head of the Cleveland FBI office, what they saw confirmed their worst fears. Intelligence files on White, reports on FBI car license numbers, an affidavit on a wiretap of a Teamsters Union official, a memo on another Teamster leader involved in a shooting, and the precious salted informant list were all inside. "We were dumbfounded," confesses Kahoe, "at the sheer amount of the documents." But Kahoe recognized the handwriting on the informant list and hurriedly pulled Geraldine Rabinowitz's personnel file. It contained matching handwriting and also a notation that her new husband, Jeff, had been a car salesman at Crossroads. "At the moment, we had mixed emotions," says Kahoe. "We were elated that we had uncovered the biggest lode of documents stolen in FBI history, but our joy was tempered with disgust." The disgust, of course, was for Geraldine Rabinowitz, whom they had trusted for so long. When confronted by Czarnecki, she broke down sobbing. She had realized that after the arrest of Ciarcia and Lanci she might get caught, and had resigned a week earlier. On her second-last day at work, she told Czarnecki, "I'm glad it's over. I knew it was only a matter of time before you would get me. I knew you would not let this rest until you did." "You know," she added later, "Tony said no one would get hurt from this. He said he only wanted the information to find out who was telling the FBI all those nasty lies about him and his friends. He said he would tell those people that what they're saying is not true. "I guess I believed him." Among the fingerprints lifted from the documents were those of Lanci, Liberatore and Ciarcia.