<--back
...continued from page one
Testifying on Traficant’s behalf was
another of his Deputies, Anthony Gutierrez, who had a bit of a
credibility problem in that just months earlier he had been fired
from his position for allegedly threatening to murder Youngstown
Mayor George Vukovich. Undaunted, Traficant persisted in his
defense and maintained he had returned to Charlie the Crab the
bribe money he was on trial for accepting. With Carabbia
conveniently dead, Traficant was able to explain the contents of
the tapes by telling the jury that he had joined neither Mob
faction by accepting their money, but rather was conducting his
own "undercover sting operation" against the Mob so
that he would know whom to arrest for corruption once elected
Sheriff. After four days of deliberations an exhausted jury
acquitted Traficant of all charges.
James Traficant had single-handedly beaten the
United States government, the same government that the residents
of Mahoning County held responsible for the closing down of the
area steel mills. "This is America in 1983 – not (Nazi)
Germany in 1940!" a jubilant Traficant told his group of
supporters. "The Mob will really fear me now!"
Thus, Sheriff Traficant returned to a
hero’s welcome in Youngstown; tee-shirts with his image
emblazoned on them sold out in minutes outside a Church
reception; crowds jammed the victory celebration while a parade
of supporters in automobiles turned the event into a Media
circus. Traficant had proved Zsa Zsa Gabor right; there IS no
such thing as "bad publicity!"
Sheriff Traficant then declared total war on
the "Establishment," filing intimidation and grand
theft charges against the FBI agents assigned to the Youngstown
office, in addition to dereliction of duty charges against them
and Mayor Vukovich. Don Hanni, local chairman of the Democratic
party, called Traficant a "nitwit, a lunatic and a raving
maniac" and tried to have Traficant declared legally insane
so he could be removed from office. Skillfully learning to
manipulate the press and public opinion, Traficant boasted
publicly: "I am a powerful bastard! I’m unique;
I’m a little crazy!"
Traficant’s popularity soared. Despite the
opposition of the local Democratic party, Sheriff Traficant rode
the wave of his "anti-Mob, anti-Establishment"
notoriety into Congress in the elections of 1984. He was, in
fact, the only Democrat nationwide to unseat an incumbent
Republican in the Republican landslide generated by the
re-election of popular President Ronald Reagan. But if James
Traficant was in fact a self-styled, heroic
"Mob-buster," he would fail miserably in one of his
first acts as Congressman by hiring his old pal Charles
O’Nesti, a close associate of the Prato/Naples/Strollo
Pittsburgh Mafia faction, as Chief of Staff of his Youngstown
Congressional office.
The Revenge of "BIG
ANGE"
A few months after Traficant’s acquittal,
Cleveland Underboss Big Ange Lonardo, who along with Godfather
Licavoli had been convicted in Federal Court on racketeering
charges, quietly ‘flipped’ and became a co-operating
witness for the United States government. Pre-shadowing the later
flipping of Gambino Family Underboss Sammy the Bull Gravano, it
was the high-est-ranking defection amongst the Mob up until that
time. Big Ange would not disappoint the government, helping
convict many Mobsters, including "Fat Tony" Salerno,
Godfather of New York’s Genovese Family.
Big Ange also testified against "Deer
Hunter" Rockman, the man he believed lied about Godfather
Scalish’s wish that Licavoli succeed as head of the
Cleveland Family, thus depriving Big Ange of his lifelong dream.
Upon Big Ange’s testimony, the Deer Hunter was convicted of
skimming profits from two Las Vegas casino; thus did Big Ange
exact his revenge.
Only after the flipping of Big Ange did facts
surrounding the murder of Charlie the Crab begin to emerge. Big
Ange told the FBI that after Traficant was offered the bribe
money, Jimmy Prato and Joey Naples of the Pittsburgh Family
approached him and Godfather Jack White to request permission to
murder Charlie the Crab. They suspected The Crab was cheating
them by lying about the size of his gambling rackets in
Youngstown. Most disturbingly, the two wiseguys reported that
Charlie was now in the habit of going out to public bars, getting
very drunk, and making statements against them as well as members
of his own Cleveland Family. It was evident to the four Mobsters
that something was deeply troubling Charlie the Crab; either he
was becoming greedy and trying to take over all of the Youngstown
rackets for himself, or he was on the verge of
"’flipping’ for the government, as had hitman
Ferritto. Prato and Naples smelled a ‘rat’ and wanted
Charlie dead.
After giving the matter considerable thought,
the Godfather decided that if Charlie was murdered, his brother
Ronnie, in prison for the murder of Danny Greene, would likely
retaliate by himself becoming a government witness. Ronnie, they
all knew, could bring down everyone, but would likely stay in
line as long as Charlie was alive to provide for his
brother’s family. The Godfather denied Prato’s and
Naples’ request, although he did grant permission to murder
Charlie the Crab if he continued this erratic and unexplained
behavior.
Shortly after his disappearance, Prato and
Naples confessed to Big Ange that they had murdered Charlie the
Crab. The two wiseguys also explained that they had an accomplice
who helped them in this murder. They did not tell Lonardo who
this man was but apologized to Big Ange for the fact that he very
sloppily disposed of The Crab’s car in Cleveland, which
would suggest to law enforcement that Charlie’s
disappearance was the work of the Cleveland Family.
Who Was This "THIRD
MAN" Involved in the Murder of Charlie the Crab? Was He
Someone Whom Charlie Had Secretly Photographed or Tape-Recorded
for the Purposes of Blackmail, and Would Thus Have a Motive to Kill Him?
All that is certain is that he was an associate
of Jimmy Prato, Joey Naples, and Lenny Strollo of the Pittsburgh
Mafia Family, was probably, like most of their associates, an
Italian-American, and most likely lived in the area of the
Youngstown donut shop where Charlie the Crab was last known to
be. Unlike the bloodstained car of Lips Moceri, authorities found
no evidence inside The Crab’s car that a violent event had
taken place, indicating he was lured inside another vehicle or
building where his abduction occurred. As both Naples and Prato
were The Crab’s publicly proclaimed enemies, it is likely
that their accomplice was someone whom Charlie had known for many
years and trusted to some extent and thus was used by the two
wiseguys to lure The Crab into their death trap.
The Tale of the Tapes
In 1987 Congressman Traficant faced a civil
trial for back taxes on the bribe money he did not declare on his
income tax. Advising Traficant during this trial was Youngstown
attorney George Alexander. Traficant claimed that the money was
campaign contributions which are non-taxable, although he failed
to report the money on campaign finance reports. Traficant
refused to testify about his statements on the FBI tapes, perhaps
fearing a Perjury trap should the government ever
‘flip’ Prato or Naples. Judge B. John Williams Jr.
concluded that Traficant’s refusal to testify confirmed the
damning evidence on the tapes and convicted Traficant of all
charges. In his decision, Judge Williams cited the secretly
recorded conversations that were the final legacy of Charlie the
Crab. In the age of electronic surveillance, dead men DO live on
to tell tales.
Shortly after Traficant’s conviction,
Jimmy Prato died of a heart attack. Despite his life of crime
Prato had only spent one day of his life in jail. In August, 1991
Joey Naples was blown away by an assassin laying in wait for him
in a cornfield across the site of the construction of his
retirement home. Coming 11 years after the murder of rival
Charlie the Crab, the news of Naples’ murder stunned those
within and without law enforcement. Said government informant
Robert Armstrong; "What other faction is there?;
there’s nobody to fight with!" At Naples’ funeral,
the Reverend John DeMarinis called his murder "tragic."
"He was always there to help!" Traficant, in town
during the August Congressional recess, had no comment.
Naples’ murder, like the murder of Charlie the Crab, remains
unsolved.
go to top of page
|
The Congressional Follies
James Traficant’s career in Congress has
been just as controversial as his tenure as Sheriff of Mahoning
County, once again involving a single subject; murder. One of
Congressman Traficant’s most publicized acts has been his
championing of John Demjanjuk, the retired auto worker whom the
Justice Department deported to Israel to face charges he was
"Ivan the Terrible," the notorious Nazi concentration
camp murderer. Traficant insisted that the Justice Department had
"gotten the wrong guy" and rose to Demjanjuk’s
defense. (This was, of course, the SAME Justice Department that
Traficant had compared to Nazi Germany after his own acquittal.)
Although Demjanjuk was found guilty, the Israeli Supreme Court
overturned his conviction in 1993 and Traficant personally flew
to Israel to escort the accused Nazi mass murderer back to the
United States. Traficant also has traveled to Gwinnett County,
Georgia to show his support for former police officer Mike
Chapel, who was convicted of the robbery and murder of a 53 year
old woman.
Congressman Traficant’s greatest
controversy involves his claim that officers of the CIA were
responsible for the murders of the 270 people who died as a
result of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in December, 1988.
Shortly after this terrorist attack, Traficant called a press
conference, at which he claimed that a CIA drug trafficking
scheme gone awry had allowed the bomb to be smuggled onboard. ABC
News London correspondent Pierre Salinger then picked up the
story, utilizing Traficant, government informant Lester Coleman,
and private investigator Juval Aviv as his sources. Eventually,
the Justice Department indicted two agents of Libyan Intelligence
for the bombing and Traficant’s and Salinger’s CIA
theory lost credibility as the press began to scrutinize its
proponents.
Lester Coleman was able to get his allegations
published in a book in which he portrayed himself as a daring
"superspy" but Michael Hurley of the Drug Enforcement
Administration filed a lawsuit, and the publisher, Bloomsbury,
issued a public apology to Hurley, $155,000 in damages, $465,000
in legal fees, and agreed to shred all remaining copies of
Coleman’s book. Coleman later pleaded guilty to Perjury
charges and admitted the whole Pan Am/CIA story was a hoax.
Juval Aviv, the private investigator whose
report for Pan Am implicated the CIA, also is the author of a
book, "Vengeance," an account of what he claimed was
his life as a "superspy" for Israel’s Mossad. The
Israeli government denied Aviv’s claims and the
President’s Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism
would later conclude that Aviv had fabricated his past as a spy.
In 1996 Aviv was put on trial in Manhattan on Federal fraud
charges unrelated to the Pan Am case. He was acquitted.
Upon Aviv’s indictment Congressman
Traficant found a replacement in Prince Boris de Korczak, a
retired "superspy" from Poland who, like Aviv,
immigrated to America to become a private investigator. De
Korczak joined Traficant’s office as his lead researcher in
his quest to prove CIA responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am
Flight 103. Boris is best known for the lawsuit he filed in 1996
against the CIA claiming he is owed money from an alleged
recruitment in the 1970s as a double agent against the KGB. At a
1979 party at the Soviet Embassy in Denmark, Boris claims, his
‘cover’ was blown by a drunken U. S. Embassy official,
resulting in a shoot-out with the KGB during a wild car chase
through the streets of Copenhagen. Boris also swears that once he
had entered the United States, his CIA case officer demanded a
bribe of Medieval Russian icons worth $300,000 in exchange for
help obtaining the pension he claims he is owed. Boris claims he
turned over the bribe, only to be shot in the kidney 3 months
later by an unknown assailant armed with a pellet gun. The CIA
denied Boris’ claims he is owed monetary compensation and
also denied any of it’s employees shot Boris with a pellet
gun. Boris’ case was dismissed and the decision was upheld
on Appeal. In January 1998, Traficant introduced into Congress a
bill that, if passed, would compel the CIA to compensate Boris.
The Great Youngstown Water Scandal
Like James Traficant, the former Sheriff’s
attorneys Carmen Policy and Ed Flask would move on to bigger and
better things after Traficant’s acquittal on bribery
charges. Policy would become President of the San Francisco 49ers
professional football team, whose owner Edward DeBartolo Jr., the
son or Ronnie Carabbia’s gambling partner, would resign his
position in December, 1997 after the Media reported he was likely
to be indicted along with former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards
on Federal illegal gambling charges.
Ed Flask went on to head the Mahoning Valley
Sanitary District, the public utility that supplies water to the
valley’s 300,000 residents. Flask’s downfall began in
1995, when James Callen, Chairman of the Citizen’s League of
Greater Youngstown, testified before the Ohio State Legislature.
Callen was concerned that Charlie the Crab’s photographs
might be used by the Mob to compromise Flask’s actions in
the public interest. Callen testified: "If organized crime
figures do, in fact, have ‘prejudicial, compromising
photographs’ of Mr. Flask that could be used to blackmail
him regarding bribes to political candidates, what assurance do
citizens of the Mahoning Valley have that the same photographs
will not be used to influence his performance as Director of the
MVSD?"
Callen’s testimony prompted an
investigation of the MVSD by Ohio State Auditor Jim Petro and in
August, 1997 Petro released a scathing report, accusing Ed Flask
of awarding multi-million dollar contracts to a variety of
corporations and then receiving $1.9 million in payments from
those same companies. Petro is seeking the recovery of $2.7
million in taxpayer funds, while an MVSD Special Prosecutor has
joined the FBI and the Justice Department in their investigation
of over 30 attorneys, judges, politicians, and Mobsters
implicated in an elaborate bribery and influence peddling scam.
Through his attorney John Climaco, the son of a steelworker who
once represented Teamster’s President Jackie Presser and
entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., Flask has denied the allegations
being made against him.
To date, over 10 Youngstown officials have been
charged, including Charles O’Nesti, who for 13 years worked
as Traficant’s Chief of Staff of his Youngstown
Congressional office. O’Nesti has pleaded guilty to Perjury
and racketeering charges regarding his efforts with Pittsburgh
Mobster Lenny Strollo to bribe a candidate for Mahoning County
Sheriff and to extort money from Mahoning County contractors.
Strollo, the successor to Jimmy Prato and Joey Naples, is being
held without bail on racketeering murder charges.
Municipal Judge Patrick Kerrigan, who has also
been charged, told the press that being indicted by the U. S.
Attorney’s office in Cleveland "didn’t hurt Jim
Traficant!’ Assistant U. S. Attorney Craig Morford has
announced that Traficant’s former attorney George Alexander,
now disbarred, is one of the targets of his Mob investigations.
One area of concern is the fact that $13,000 went into the
pockets of Alexander’s two daughters who performed little or
no work while on Traficant’s payroll in 1985 and 1986.
Also assisting Morford in this investigation is
former MVSD Executive Director Michael Iberis, who has told
authorities that Ed Flask directed him to launder money to
various elected officials in a manner similar to that which
Traficant says he laundered money with Flask on the Carabbia
tapes. The Congressman has been mostly silent as the growing
scandal has prompted the Media – and the authorities –
to take a second look at the tapes made by a Mobster who
disappeared 17 years ago – and the public figure the Mobster
conversed with on those tapes.
EPILOGUE
The last major investigation by the Media of
Congressman Traficant was a 1990 profile in the Washington Post,
which detailed Traficant’s erratic and violent behavior. One
Congressional Aide complained: "He once physically accosted
my boss in the middle of the street about a particular
bill!" "He stopped traffic and wouldn’t let go of
his arm!" Traficant, who lives alone on a boat, pulled no
punches in telling the Post of his willingness to resort to
violence under certain conditions, volunteering that he sleeps
with a loaded shotgun at his side. "There’s no question
about it!" the Congressman warned. "If I see someone in
my house at night, I’m not going to ask them what
they’re doing there; I’m going to kill them!
END
back to top
|
