Ex-Mobster Claims an FBI Cover-Up

A turncoat Luchese mobster who helped authorities nail two suspects in the deadly Seton Hall arson five years ago has now turned the tables on law enforcement, claiming that a high-level FBI agent, together with New Jersey investigators, have knowingly kept an innocent man incarcerated for 12 years for a murder he didn’t commit.In a 14-page affidavit, mob defector Thomas Ricciardi, whose cooperation has also led to convictions of mobsters and mob associates, alleged that the officials learned they had wrongly convicted the gangster just four days after he was found guilty in 1993.Ricciardi claims that he, along with another family turncoat, have firsthand knowledge of a miscarriage of justice that has kept Luchese gangster Martin Taccetta, 54, wrongfully imprisoned for the infamous 1984 golf-club slaying of contractor James “Jimmy Sinatra” Craporatta, a mob-connected contractor on the Jersey Shore.In his unusual effort to free the imprisoned gangster, Ricciardi has an unusual ally: a Yale Law School professor, Steven Duke, who has been working on the case for seven years. “The evidence clearly establishes an audacious, pervasive conspiracy by many New Jersey law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, that is comparable to the disgraceful conduct of FBI agents who framed innocent men for murder in Boston in the 1960s,” Mr. Duke told Gang Land.“The state’s case was a pack of lies, and the state and federal government knew it,” he added.Ricciardi’s affidavit – which is buttressed by numerous FBI documents, including one that specifically exonerates Taccetta two years before his trial – was filed in July by Mr. Duke and co-counsel Marco LaRacca in an effort to overturn the conviction and obtain a new trial. A hearing on the motion is scheduled next month before Superior Court Judge James Citta in Ocean County.The affidavit, along with sworn statements by six other cooperating witnesses that back up much of the turncoat’s claim, levels a potentially devastating charge against law enforcement officials: that the entire case was a “frame up” concocted by an FBI agent as payback for the embarrassing acquittal of 20 Luchese mobsters and associates after an exhausting 21-month racketeering trial in 1988.The agent, Dennis Marchalonis, who has since retired, had been instrumental in the investigation that ended in the largest mass acquittal ever in a racketeering case. The trial later became the subject of a book, “The Boys From New Jersey: How the Mob Beat the Feds,” by Robert Rudolph, a Newark Star Ledger reporter who covered the trial.At trial, Ricciardi was convicted of Craporatta’s murder. Taccetta was acquitted of a murder charge, but he and capo Anthony “Tumac” Accetturo were found guilty of conspiring to commit racketeering and extortion that led to Craporatta’s murder. All three were key defendants in the failed 1988 case. Taccetta got 30 years to life, but his co-defendants fared much better.Four days after the verdict, according to court records, Ricciardi and Accetturo began cooperating with state and federal authorities, telling state investigators and Mr. Marchalonis about numerous murders and other crimes that they and other Lucheses in the New Jersey faction committed, including a jury “fix” that led to the 1988 mass acquittal.Ricciardi admitted taking part in nine killings, according to court records, while Accetturo owned up to taking part in 13 successful mob slayings. But both turncoats, according to Ricciardi and his younger brother, Daniel – who began cooperating that same day, and who also helped authorities solve the Seton Hall fire – were adamant that neither Ricciardi nor Taccetta had murdered Craporatta and that Accetturo had not been involved in an extortion that resulted in Craporatta’s murder.According to Thomas Ricciardi, he and Accetturo told Mr. Marchalonis and state investigators that the prosecution’s key witnesses – a former Philadelphia underboss, Philip Leonetti, and a one-time acting Luchese boss, Alfonse “Little Al” D’Arco – had testified falsely about the episode that led to Craporatta’s death.Ricciardi and Accetturo told the investigators that Leonetti and D’Arco had “fabricated” meetings and conversations to bolster the prosecution’s theory that Ricciardi, Taccetta, and another gangster had killed Craporatta so they could terrorize his nephews and gain a piece of their joker poker business, Ricciardi wrote.In fact, Ricciardi swore that Craporatta’s killing “was an unplanned accident arising from [my] idea to give Craporatta a physical beating as a means of sending him a message” to stop claiming he was connected with Ricciardi and “not to brag about business dealings he had with me.”Ricciardi’s actions unquestionably led to Craporatta’s death – the cohorts he sent to give Craporatta a “message” got carried away and beat him to a bloody pulp – and Ricciardi could be found guilty of murder for his actions under New Jersey law, but for 12 years he has asked that the truth about the slaying be told and not covered up, according to his affidavit.He and Accetturo “told authorities, during joint debriefings held over two days after we decided to cooperate with the government, the truth regarding the Craporatta case, and these authorities have continued to suppress that truth to this day,” Ricciardi wrote.In his affidavit, Ricciardi wrote that he has told authorities the names of all four men who took part in the slaying: “None of them included Martin Taccetta. [He] had no knowledge of the Craporatta matter as it was occurring.”This assertion, like many others by Ricciardi, seems to be supported by an FBI report filed with the court, one of 16 FBI reports that Mr. Duke has obtained through the Freedom of Information Act over the years. The report states that Ricciardi named four men who participated in Craporatta’s killing, but three names are blacked out.Ricciardi notes that because of his efforts, two former cohorts pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the slaying, and that despite his angst over his treatment by authorities, he has always abided by his agreement to cooperate with them, even after he was released from prison.Ricciardi said he had gone above and beyond in his cooperation. He wrote that in 2002, at the insistence of Deputy Attorney General Robert Leaman, he appeared “reluctantly” on an “America’s Most Wanted” TV segment about Michael Coppola, then the “no. 1 most wanted fugitive” by Mr. Leaman’s department, the Division of Criminal Justice. “He told me I had to do it,” Ricciardi said.Ricciardi acknowledged complaining about a “cover-up” to New Jersey law enforcement officials and cooperating witnesses while housed in special federal prison units for turncoats, but never publicly. Instead, he used the threat of exposure to obtain better living conditions for himself and nine family members who were relocated. He often enjoyed special accommodations and received cash payments.“It is my belief,” Ricciardi wrote, “that in fact much of this money was payment for me keeping quiet about the 1993 perjury and subsequent cover-up.”Despite encouragement from several cooperating witnesses to “go public,” he refused until lawyers for Taccetta “confronted [him] with a series of affidavits” by former inmates who detailed his frequent accounts about the matter to them. Then, he wrote, “I had no choice but to confirm what they said.”Mr. Marchalonis, a former organized crime supervisor, could not be reached. A spokesman for the Newark FBI declined to comment. Deputy Attorney General Leaman told Gang Land that he has “conducted an investigation” into the “authenticity of the filings by Mr. Duke” and by next week expects to file a response in which “all the questions will be answered.”This and other news of organized crime is available at www.ganglandnews.com.

Ex-Mobster Claims an FBI Cover-Up

Ex-Mobster Claims an FBI Cover-Up

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