Last Rites (12 page)

Boston Police arrived around 9:30 p.m. to investigate the shooting. When they arrived, they found Devlin slumped over the steering wheel of his 1994 Buick Skylark. The car was parked in front of a restaurant that was once owned by Biagio DiGiacomo, who went to prison in 1991. Devlin was wearing a bulletproof vest, had been shot in the head and was in critical condition. He died after a few days on life support in Massachusetts General Hospital. Devlin had been a brutal enforcer for Salemme. In 1971, he was convicted of manslaughter. It seems that he chopped off his victim's head, hands and right leg. The hatchet he used was found buried in the victim's chest when the corpse washed up in Dorchester Bay. While in Walpole Prison, he was a prime suspect in the 1973 killing of Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Strangler. Two trials both ended in hung juries, and the case was never solved. He was also a suspect in the murder of Rocco Scali.

Richard Gillis approached the police investigating the scene and informed the officers that he too had been hit. He was wounded in the mouth and had been grazed slightly on the head. Gillis told police that he had not been in the vehicle but had a hard time explaining why his teeth, which had been shot out, were in the backseat. Gillis had been shot six times at close range in 1980 at Copps Hill Cemetery and was a suspect in the murder of Vincent Arcieri. Gillis and Devlin were considered Salemme's top muscle in Boston.

The same night that Devlin and Gillis were shot, Ronald Coppola and Peter Scarpellini suffered the same fate as they were playing cards in a social club in Cranston, Rhode Island. Police arrested Antonio “Nino” Cucinotta in connection with the shootings. He confessed to the murders, stating, “They failed to defend his honor when another man insulted him.” Both men worked for Salemme lieutenant Robert “Bobby” DeLuca.

Law enforcement began to speculate that there was a rift between the old guard and the Salemme loyalists. They knew that the shootings weren't related yet they speculated as to the possibility that Salemme was beginning to charge a higher rate of tribute while not offering enough protection for his men.

Around this time, Eddie Portalla's good friend Joe received a call from his girlfriend, who was crying. Joe hung up with her and was immediately and visibly upset. He is a mountain of a man, standing at about six feet, three inches, and weighing in at about 350 pounds of solid muscle. Joe proceeded to tell Eddie that his girlfriend's boss had insulted her and called her a bitch. Joe felt helpless because her boss was a connected guy, and if he did anything, there would be reprisals. Eddie told him not to worry, and they loaded up a couple of cars with mob associates and proceeded to the restaurant. Once they arrived, Joe approached the boss, surrounded by a bunch of young Turks, and asked the man if he had made the comment. The boss's reply was an affirmative one, and he further stated that he would not be taking the comment back or apologizing. At that point, Joe hauled off and hit him square in the face, knocking the man out of his shoes in front of the wait staff and patrons. Joe and his gang of toughs proceeded to turn around and exit the restaurant. No reprisals ever came about due to this incident.

On July 11, 1994, John Marlon, Sean Cote and John S. Patti broke into a sandwich shop in East Boston where it was known that a couple of handguns were being kept. The trio decided that if they were going to continue going down the list of Salemme associates they wanted killed, then more guns would be needed.

In the summer of 1994, Sonny Mercurio, a member of the Carrozza faction, was arrested in Georgia on drug trafficking charges. Mercurio was a fugitive at the time and was sentenced a year later. He was a major player in the trafficking of drugs coming to Massachusetts. His arrest was a major blow to the drug trade in Boston.

Romano Jr. was driving Enrico Ponzo and Robert “the Blur” Paleo to Everett to pick up an extortion payment from Joseph Cirame, owner of the Stadium Café in Everett. Salemme loyalists learned that Ponzo was attempting to muscle in on payments that were going to them. Romano Jr. was left in the Kentucky Fried Chicken parking lot in Ponzo's girlfriend's car with a flat tire. Romano volunteered to change the tire while Paleo and Ponzo walked to the Stadium Café. While he was in the process of changing the tire, a man approached his vehicle and began kicking the tires. When Romano asked him what he was doing, the man pulled out a gun. He pressed it to Romano's cheek and pulled the trigger. Romano Jr. was killed at 9:20 p.m. on September 1, 1994. After the shooting, Everett detective Charles Marchese saw Paleo and Ponzo walking toward the Stadium Café. Later that night, he saw them in a dark-colored Cadillac driven by a third man who was believed to be Cirame. Jerry Matricia, a bookmaker, believed that Ponzo was the intended target since he was considered the most dangerous of the men who were present.

Later, Romano Sr. confided in Sean Cote and David Clark that Joseph Souza and Lonnie Hilson had killed his son. Romano had been a standout hockey player at Wakefield High School. He was married to a schoolteacher and had a small daughter. He got involved with Rico Ponzo when he was having some financial troubles. In August 1994, he and Ponzo were arrested when Boston Police witnessed Ponzo hand a bag of cocaine to someone. During the pursuit that followed, Romano was spotted throwing a bag that contained the supply of coke they were selling that night. Ponzo and Romano were supplementing their income by dealing coke and crack. Romano's family and friends were shocked by the arrest. Ponzo, on the other hand, was known by law enforcement and had been since 1986, when he supplied the guns that took the lives of two young guys in a park in the North End.

Violence at this time continued to thrive, as a day later, Massachusetts state trooper Mark Charbonnier was gunned down on Route 3 in Kingston at 3:00 a.m. during a routine traffic stop of a van driven by a paroled killer. A shootout ensued because while he was being questioned, the driver became spooked and began firing. He shot the trooper in the stomach right below his bulletproof vest. David Clark, the driver, thought that the trooper knew he had just killed Romano Jr. Charbonnier was medi-flighted to Beth Israel Hospital, where he died on the operating table. Even with his wound, the trooper was able to hit the driver in the left arm and head. After a thorough investigation, Clark was arrested and convicted of murder.

An interesting mob associate was Sean Cote. He was a polite boy until a family tragedy changed his life forever. Born in Everett, his parents divorced when he was a toddler. He and his older sister went to live with their mother Barbara, a hairdresser. At age twelve, he went to stay with his father's family. When at the funeral of his paternal grandmother, he learned that his mom had perished, at the age of thirty-four, in a North Reading house fire. The arson investigators came to the conclusion that the fire was started on the back porch by someone playing with matches. It is widely believed that Sean may have possibly started the fire by accident; however, this is only speculation. Sean moved into the Kelly's Meadow section of Revere, and shortly thereafter he began stealing cars. One day, he was driving through the Revere High School parking lot with a stolen Pontiac Trans Am. Suddenly, the car stalled. Sean proceeded to re-hotwire the vehicle right in front of a shop teacher. The car started back up and he proceeded to drive off. By age nineteen, he had been in court more than one hundred times on charges including stolen motor vehicles, breaking and entering and cocaine possession. All the while, his Bay Road neighbors loved and adored him due to his outgoing personality and willingness to assist those in need. In 1990, he crashed a stolen car into a Chelsea storefront during a high-speed chase. He was convicted of assault with intent to murder and served two years in prison. While in prison, he befriended alleged armored car robbers Matthew McDonald and Patrick McGonagle, alleged mafia enforcer Darin Buffalino and Gigi Portalla.

In August 1994, two armored car guards were slain during an $800,000 heist in Hudson, New Hampshire. Shortly after, a stolen Mazda 929 was found burning behind Johnny's Foodmaster Supermarket in north Revere. This location was a place where Sean Cote had disposed of stolen cars in the past. The Revere Fire Department found $1,000 in $1 bills in the trunk as well as a jumpsuit from the heist that was barely singed. It is widely believed that Sean was the wheelman and was not involved in the killing of the two guards. The police immediately began to search for Cote. In January, he was found holing up in a house in Revere with a gun and eighty packets of heroin. The Massachusetts State Police and the FBI surrounded the home and besieged it for several days. Later, it was discovered that Cote had made a hasty retreat a day or two before law enforcement surrounded the home.

Cote, who originally worked freelance and floated freely from one crew to the next without allegiance to any faction of the New England mob, decided to ally himself with the Carrozza-Russo faction. This decision came sometime in September after his friend, Romano Jr., was killed. Cote was considered the best wheelman in the business. Any time a stolen car or a driver was needed for a getaway, Cote's services were sought out. Now he would work solely for the Carrozza-Russo faction.

Bobby Romano Jr.'s murder created a chain of vicious events, driven by the vindictiveness of Bobby's father, Robert Sr., who was frequently at the helm.

On September 16, 1994, Paul Strazzulla was lying in wait in the driveway of Cirame's house in Revere at about 2:00 a.m. As Cirame opened the door of his car, Strazzulla, dressed in a black hood and jumpsuit, took a crouching position within five feet of Cirame and unloaded his weapon. The street and driveway began to fill with blood as Cirame was hit in the abdomen and legs, but he survived the shooting. Cote drove one getaway car while Enrico Ponzo drove the other. Romano Sr. and Ciampi provided the weapon used in the shooting. Cirame survived yet another shooting. An earlier attempt undertaken by Romano, Cote and Arciero had also failed.

On September 21, 1994, John Arciero and Sean Cote had been up for the past four days straight smoking coke in Cote's East Boston apartment. At 3:00 a.m., Michael Romano Sr. picked up Arciero to drive a getaway car for a planned hit. Michael Prochilo was the intended target because he was allied with Salemme. Prochilo had previously stolen drugs from dealers who worked for Nazzaro “Ralph” Scarpa and John S. Patti. When the hit squad approached Prochilo in his car, which was parked on Gladstone Street in East Boston, Cote leapt from the moving vehicle and began shooting at him. It was strictly amateur time; Prochilo spotted the hit squad approaching in a car and ducked to avoid injury. Cote missed him completely. Patti began to back the car up in order to pick up Cote and make their escape, when suddenly he hit Cote with the door of the moving car. Arciero, who was waiting at a location nearby in a second getaway car, left after ten minutes, probably paranoid from being high on crack. This was a procedure that was done because of witnesses seeing and being able to describe the original car. This action left Cote and Patti with no getaway car. They were forced to carjack a
Boston Globe
delivery truck to get back to Cote's apartment.

Four days later, Cote, Romano Sr., Spisak and Arciero were in a car in the parking lot of the White Hen Pantry on Maverick Street in East Boston. Romano spotted Timothy Larry O'Toole as he pulled up to the convenience store. Romano yelled out, “Get him!” Cote jumped out of the vehicle, ran up to O'Toole and stabbed him in the chest. Cote then jumped back into the car and Romano Sr. sped off. O'Toole survived the stabbing but later testified in court that he believed a stockier man than Cote had stabbed him.

Around the same time, Scarpa, Strazzulla, Cote and Paul Decologero attempted to kill Rossetti in Revere. They missed and Rossetti returned fire. However, the attempted assassination was a wash since Rossetti wasn't killed and none of the assassins was hit either.

On October 20, 1994, at about 5:20 p.m., a lone gunman crossed a busy Bennington Street in East Boston. The assassin approached Joseph Souza, who was using a pay phone located across from Anthony Ciampi's Social Club, next to Sava's Market. As pedestrians walked in every which direction on the mild October afternoon, the shooter pulled out his weapon and proceeded to shoot Souza, who was standing next to two Mormon missionaries. Souza was hit four times as he attempted to get his .45-caliber weapon out of his shoulder holster before slumping to the ground. In full view of eyewitnesses, the gunman simply slipped into the crowd and disappeared. Witnesses who were standing not more than ten feet away at the time of the shooting couldn't identify or agree on the description of the shooter. Michael Romano Sr. of Wakefield had told associates that he had killed Souza.

In late October, Cote was chased through the streets of East Boston by Salemme loyalists. When he told Ciampi about the incident, Ciampi informed Cote that if he needed any guns he could come to his club because he had them stored there.

In the fall, Eugene “Gino” Rida, Cote and Leo Boffoli, a bookmaker, sat down at a restaurant to discuss the upcoming hit on Matteo Trotto. Rida was telling Boffoli about the mob war in Boston and the ongoing battle over protection money. Rida went on to say that if the Salemme faction lost, then he would have control over Worcester. Rida used Cote's reputation as a hit man to threaten Boffoli's compliance with the plan.

On October 31, Boffoli brought Sean Cote to Worcester to help in a personal feud between Rida and Trotto. It seems that Trotto was refusing to pay protection and Rida wanted to kill him. This would serve to send a message to other drug dealers and bookies that it was in their best interest to pay the protection. Boffoli suggested that they extort Trotto rather than kill him, but Rida wanted him dead. Rida decided that Boffoli would lure Trotto to the phone booth outside the gym, and there Cote would kill him. Rida had plans of moving out to Worcester and starting to shake down bookmakers and dealers. Cote would be the bagman and Rida would be the boss. Boffoli and Rida were both bookmakers and saw an opportunity to take over Worcester. Romano was Rida's cousin, and he was being schooled by Romano in the art of loan sharking and shakedowns in an attempt to take over Worcester.