Joseph D. Pistone, answers to the subcommittee, April 22, 1988 (S. Hrg. 100-906, pp. 207-217)

Printed pages 207 to 217 (NCJRS PDF pages 215 to 225) of “Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi,” the hearings of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, filed as the hearing volume. This record covers only the questions and answers that followed Pistone’s opening statement on April 22, 1988. It is sworn testimony. It is not a court finding.

Asked about gambling, Pistone said “the operation that I was involved in was run by an individual named Nicky Marangello, who at the time was the underboss of the Bonanno family.” On the factions he said: “since 1979, when [Carmine] Galente got killed, there became two factions within the Bonanno family fighting for control of the family, and I was aligned with Napolitano and Ruggiero, who were aligned with Rusty Rastelli, who became the boss of the families at that point in time.” (The transcript spells the surname “Galente,” the scan’s text layer garbles the first name, and “Rug- giero” is split across a line.) “In May 1981, Rastelli’s faction, which included Napolitano, myself, Ruggiero, and of course others, these individuals murdered three captains who were the top members of the opposition.”

On the contract: “An individual by the name of Bruno Indelicato escaped the assassination, and I was given a contract to kill him.” He said Napolitano summoned him from Florida, “and I went to the club, which at the time was the Motion Lounge in Brooklyn, on Graham and Wither Street,” where Napolitano “gave me the contract to get Bruno.” The FBI, he said, meant to “arrest him for his own protection, but we did not find him.”

On the end of the operation: “I had been proposed for membership, I was due to become a made member of the Bonanno family in December and we terminated the operation, I think it was July 27.” He said “17 days after the disclosure Sonny Napolitano was killed,” and that when the FBI learned of a contract on Ruggiero, “that is when we arrested him for his own protection.” Asked whether Bruno Indelicato was killed, he said he “was convicted in the commission trial in New York City, and I think he got sentenced to 35 years.” The en banc Second Circuit records two consecutive 20-year terms; this archive uses the court’s figure. Other statements in these answers about named people that no court record supports are left out.