Last Rites (7 page)

Revere Police headquarters.

The worst scandal in Revere Police history became known as the “Exam Scam.” In 1987, several members of the Revere Police force paid to get the answers to the sergeant's exam. These corrupt officers took the test and memorized the answers. The test should take a minimum of four hours. The cheating officers all had an average exam time of two hours and several minutes. Once the test was turned in, the officers thought that they may be under suspicion, so they devised a plan. They came up with the bright idea to break in to where the tests were stored and change their answers to some of the questions, thinking that their test results should not be so good as to raise suspicions but only high enough to pass and be promoted. Edward Robinson, a former Revere Police officer, was found guilty of mail fraud in attempting to buy a copy of the sergeant's exam. Former Revere Police Chief John “Jake” DeLeire was also implicated in the exam fraud and convicted. After the men were caught, prosecuted and convicted, the U.S. Federal Appeals Court held up all the convictions of the seven other men, including the mastermind of the swindle, Gerald Clemente.

Another event that left a black eye on the Revere Police Department was when several officers responded to an alarm at CVS store and pharmacy on Squire Road. When the officers arrived, they noticed that the store had been burglarized. Some of the officers began filling the trunks of their police cars with merchandise from the CVS store. The corrupt officers were caught on surveillance cameras and prosecuted for their actions.

A former Revere Police officer tells a story of when he first joined the force, back in the 1950s, and he was walking a beat in Beachmont Square. This officer was filling in for the regular officer, who was on vacation. While patrolling the square, he was to call in to the station from a call box every hour after doing his rounds. When the officer went to call in to the station, he unlocked the call box and discovered a bottle of Irish whiskey inside. As the day progressed, the rookie officer took a sip of whiskey every time he called the station. At the end of the week, the bottle was gone. When the veteran officer came back from vacation, he instructed the rookie to replace the bottle and never let it happen again. This was the way the Revere Police conducted itself for close to fifty years. While these incidents do not speak well of them, the Revere Police officers were still held responsible by the general public to keep the peace. In addition, that meant dealing with the mob as part of their duties.

In September 1991, Revere Police responded to a call at a home on Mountain Avenue. There they found a pool of blood and brain tissue on the front porch. A short time later, Robert Donati was found in the trunk of his 1980 Cadillac on Savage Street. He had been bludgeoned to death and his throat was slit. Donati was a small-time racketeer who collected money for Vinny “the Animal” Ferrara, who was imprisoned at the time. At first, investigators believed that Donati was about to flip and that was the reason behind his murder. It was later alleged that Donati had been involved with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist. In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, two men dressed as Boston Police officers approached the museum. The museum security allowed them in but quickly realized that they weren't really cops. The infiltrators tied up the security guards and proceeded to rob the museum. Within ninety minutes, they had stolen several works of art, including Rembrandt's only seascape. They cut the works of art out of the frames, leaving only jagged edges. Investigators looked into the possibility that the IRA might have been involved with the help of Whitey Bulger. Then a small-time hood and wannabe singer named Myles Connor became a possible suspect. Although he was serving a fifteen-year sentence in a Rhode Island prison at the time of the robbery, all roads seemed to lead to him as being the mastermind behind the heist. It seems that Myles Connor and his band, the Wild Bunch, had played many clubs at Revere Beach that were frequented by Donati and other mobsters. During this time, Connor cased the Gardner Museum and informed Donati of how he could potentially commit the robbery. This very scenario may be why Donati was killed. From the 1960s until the mid-1990s, if anyone was purchasing a used car in Revere, it was best to check the trunk first.

Another incident occured at 115 Suffolk Avenue in Revere, a home that was once owned by Samuel Granito, a capo with the Angiulo faction. He was convicted of procuring the services of Frederick Simone to kill Angelo Patrizzi. After Patrizzi was found hogtied and strangled to death in the trunk of his car, FBI wiretaps picked up this conversation between Larry Zannino and Ralph Lamattina.

Zannino: “They got him. Freddy was scared to death. The kid would have clipped him in two fucking minutes.”

Lamattina: “He wanted to clip Freddy. The kid wanted to ahhh.”

Zannino: “Freddy fucked him in the ass.”

The Patrizzi hit stemmed back to 1978, when Joseph Patrizzi, a loan shark, was shot and killed in Revere. The killer was never found but was believed to be Connie Frizzi, another loan shark who shared the same territory as Patrizzi. The mob feared that Joseph's brother Angelo, who was incarcerated at the time, would seek revenge upon his release. Angelo had other plans to revenge his brother's death. Angelo escaped from prison, and law enforcement placed several wiretaps in mob hangouts. They produced several conversations on the subject of how to kill Angelo. There was talk of offering the contract to Whitey Bulger, but Angiulo decided that it would be better to have Frizzi do it. Angelo placed a call to Roy's Coin Shop in Revere that set up the events that led to his own demise. On March 11, 1981, nine people, including Frizzi, showed up at the Harbour House on the Lynnway in Lynn to tie Angelo up and let him slowly strangle to death in his trunk in the parking lot.

Another wiretap in Lynn was placed in Studio IV, which was unofficially owned by Jerry Angiulo. It was a dance club that held monthly Las Vegas nights that would supposedly donate the house takes to charity. However, the donations were never received. One night, the FBI picked up that Jerry was passing on some fatherly advice to his son Jason on a wiretap.

Jerry: “We're talking craps now.”

Jason: “Mister Vardie is my…”

Jerry: “Fucking, mother fucking big mouth cock sucker, shut up.”

Jason: “You gonna listen to me?”

Jerry: “No, you mother fucker. Now shut up. Let me tell you something huh. I've been in the crap business when you were, weren't even born, you cock sucker that you are. Don't you even, ever ask me ever that a pair of dice that's been used more than one and a half or two hours without replacing it, with a brand-new set, and that set goes in your pocket and they're down the fucking sewer. Do you understand that? That's a fucking order because you're a fucking idiot. Now shut up.”

Jason: “Yeah, let me tell you.”

Jerry: “You talk and I'll hit you with a fucking bottle.”

Now that sounds like a quality conversation between a father and son.

Mafia violence could spill over anytime, anywhere, no matter how sacred the occasion. On January 30, 1980, both Jerry Angiulo and his underboss, Larry Zannino, were attending the wedding of Bruno Balliro when Ronald Davis, another wedding guest, insulted Zannino. Consequently, Davis received a beating at the wedding. A taped conversation on March 23, 1981, revealed the circumstances of Davis's apparent suicide in his cell at Walpole State Prison.

Zannino: “You were at the wedding. You know the kid that threw a punch at me? Remember we kicked him all over the joint.”

Angiulo: “You mean Liz's cousin?”

Zannino: “I had him killed in Walpole. I sent a fucking word in…he was killed in Walpole.”

Angiulo: “You had the right, because [inaudible].”

Zannino: “Embarrass me in front of, he was yelling our names out…Davis.”

Gigi Portalla had been exposed to this world. No matter how hard his mother had tried to protect and insulate her children from the outside world, this influence was still able to penetrate because Revere has a feeling of family. These are people you have grown up with and attended school with. In that kind of environment, it is impossible to betray old friends, no matter what they do for work.

The sweeping indictments and ultimate convictions of the men who ran the New England mob left the underworld infrastructure in complete and total chaos. Jerry Angiulo and his brothers were arrested in 1983 and convicted solely on 850 hours of audiotape that were recorded on a FBI wiretap in his office on Prince Street. Raymond Patriarca Sr. died in July 1984, leaving his son, Ray Jr., in charge. Within a few years, he found himself under indictment and ultimately convicted and sentenced to a federal prison. This turn of events caused Ray Jr. to step down as boss of the family. Ray Jr. had informed the capo regimes that in the event of his imprisonment, his successor would be Frank “Cadillac Frank” Salemme. This decision caused a major rift between the capo regimes. In early 1989, Capos Joseph A. Russo, Vincent “the Animal” Ferrara and Robert F. Carrozza broke ranks from Ray Patriarca Jr. They decided to take out Salemme before Patriarca was convicted. Since this was a risky move, they would have to assemble a crew consisting of those who were not yet made men and extremely loyal to their side. This hit was unsanctioned and would have serious consequences and repercussions if it failed. The local bosses who recruited Gigi promised to initiate him into Russo's crew as a made man if the hit was successful. This was a sign of how desperate the mob had become for new blood. Thirty years previous, this type of deal would have been unheard of.

Raymond Patriarca Jr., successor of his father. He stepped down after a few years on the throne.
AP worldwide
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Cadillac Frank Salemme, the former boss of the New England mafia and Gigi's nemesis.
AP worldwide
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In the mid-afternoon of June 16, 1989, four men in black camouflage were waiting in a car outside of an International House of Pancakes in Saugus. These men were Enrico Ponzo, Gigi Portalla, John “Smiley” Mele and another man. Salemme pulled up in the parking lot in a black BMW with a briefcase containing $12,000. As Salemme attempted to exit the vehicle and head into the restaurant, the would-be assassins sprung into action. They ran up to Salemme, firing a hail of bullets. Salemme was hit twice, once in the leg and again in the chest. He managed to dodge the rest of the small arms fire and ran to the parking lot of a nearby Papa Gino's pizzeria, collapsing on the floor of the restaurant. The shooters drove away in a Chrysler. Salemme was taken to the AtlantiCare Hospital in Lynn, Massachusetts. While recovering from his wounds, he was protected by the Massachusetts State Police.

In the hours after the shooting, the police began to sweep the homes and hangouts of the usual suspects. At the border of Chelsea and Revere, police spotted Frank Imbruglia, a driver for one of the bosses. They tailed him to Gigi's home in Revere, where he entered the home and then left because Gigi wasn't there. Nine hours after the shooting, Imbruglia drove to the Kentucky Fried Chicken in Everett and went out back. There, police found Gigi wearing a baseball cap with the Boston Police logo and a windbreaker covering a bulge in his waist. The bulge was a semiautomatic pistol that ballistic testing linked to the Salemme hit. Also present was John Mele, a small-time drug trafficker, and another man. Police also found in Imbruglia's pocket a slip of paper with a license plate number and a description of the Chrysler New Yorker that was seen by witnesses. The Chrysler New Yorker had been stolen from a rental agency where J.R. Russo's girlfriend worked. Lieutenant Charlie Quintina was waiting at the wrong restaurant for Salemme.