Pizza Connection Trial

The Pizza Connection Trial , also known as the so-called "Monster Trial ", is considered to be the longest jury trial in the history of the United States of America . The trial of a total of 22 defendants, who were said to belong to the drug ring of the so-called Pizza Connection , began on September 30, 1985 and ended on March 2, 1987 with the conviction of all but one person.

Scope of the process

The lawsuit centered on a Mafia- run company that sold large quantities of heroin and cocaine in the United States and "laundered" the money obtained from them before it was brought back to suppliers in Sicily . The defendants used a number of independent pizzerias as a facade for selling narcotic drugs - hence the name "Pizza Connection".

Only Giovanni "John" Gambino , a member of the Gambino family and the cousin of the Sicilian boss Salvatore Inzerillo , was the owner of 240 pizzerias, which were distributed over the entire United States. In the northeastern United States, the mafia controlled more than 80 percent of drug trafficking through the Pizza Connection alone.

There is evidence that the Pizza Connection shipped at least $ 1.6 billion between 1975 and April 1984.

The arrests of the defendants were carried out in a coordinated manner in the USA, Italy , Switzerland and Spain on April 9, 1984 , after Gaetano Badalamenti and several members of his family had been arrested the previous day . Badalamenti was once the most powerful man of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and the main supplier of heroin and cocaine for the American Cosa Nostra .

The arrests were carried out in collaboration with the FBI , DEA , US Customs and NYPD , and it was operated in close collaboration with Italian police and prosecutors, as well as the Swiss authorities. It is estimated that 27 of the people arrested were US residents.

Giovanni Falcone was an Italian public prosecutor, born in Sicily, who investigated the Italian side of the Pizza Connection - whose tireless efforts also led to the cooperation of major Mafiosi in Italy and ultimately to the historic Maxi Trial with the conviction of more than 350 Mafia members, for which the mafia murdered him on May 23, 1992, together with his wife and three bodyguards, in a bomb attack .

The witnesses

The Sicilian mafioso Tommaso Buscetta , who became a pentito (traitor), testified against his former criminal allies during the trial. The authorities guaranteed Buscetta protection and immunity for his testimony against the Pizza Connection, and he would be accepted into the witness protection program.

Another key witness was Salvatore Contorno , a Sicilian Mafioso who also became a Buscetta's model and consented to testify in return for protection after being the target of a Corleonesi assassination attempt during a war for control of the Sicilian Mafia.

The FBI Special Agent Joseph Pistone alias "Donnie Brasco", who was undercover in the Bonanno family , was the first source of information about the "Pizza Connection" through conversations with Bonanno members "Lefty" Ruggiero and Anthony "Tony" Mirra . Pistone also reported on the ambivalent relationship between the Americans and the Sicilians and described the impressions that the Sicilians left with the simple " soldiers ":

“He said“ Zips ”were Sicilians who had been brought into the country so that they could sell heroin and carry out murder assignments for the New York Bonanno boss Carmine“ Lilo ”Galante .

They were housed in pizzerias, where they received and distributed heroin, laundered money and waited for further orders from Galante. ... he said the "Zips" were a conspiratorial and closed clique. ... They are, he said, the most unscrupulous killers there is in the business. "

- Joe Pistone

The trial also included a lot of evidence from wiretapped conversations in connection with surveillance , undercover heroin orders and tapes of money laundering and the transfer of millions of US dollars to Switzerland. Swiss bank records and testimony showed that the company received two tons of morphine base from Turkish suppliers for US $ 6,000 / kg , which was processed into pure heroin in Sicilian drug laboratories and sold in the US at wholesale prices for between US $ 165,000 and US $ 185,000 and generated up to $ 1,000,000 on the road.

The defendants

38 Mafia members and associates were originally to be charged in this case. 35 members were presented to the jury, four of whom were convicted in Italy and four in Switzerland; four of the accused were initially on the run.

Before the trial began, one of the accused was murdered and another died of natural causes. One defendant was also murdered during the trial. Each of the defendants was a native Sicilian and some therefore did not speak English. The courtroom in this historic trial was always overcrowded as each defendant had his own lawyer.

Surname	judgment	annotation
Pietro "Pete" Alfano	Sentenced to 15 years	discharged after 7; Gaetano Badalamenti's nephew
Baldassare "Baldo" Amato	Sentenced to 5 years	Bonanno - Capo
Gaetano Badalamenti	Sentenced to 45 years	former mafia boss
Vito Badalamenti	the only accused to be acquitted	Gaetano Badalamenti's son
Cesare "The Tall Guy" Bonventre	was murdered before the prosecution	Bonanno -Capo
Giovanni "Johnny" Cangialosi	Sentenced to 12 years
Frank "Ciccio l'Americano" Castronovo	sentenced to 25 years	Brother-in-law of Tommy Mazzara
Onofrio "Oliviero" Catalano	on the run	Cousin of Salvatore Catalano
Salvatore "Toto" Catalano	Sentenced to 45 years	Bonanno -Capo
Samuel "Sam" Evola	Sentenced to 15 years	Zerilli member; another nephew of Gaetano Badalamenti
Giuseppe "Pino" Ganci	from health Founding detached from the process	died of cancer on February 11, 1986
Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco	sentenced to 20 years	Brother of Bagheria boss Leonardo Greco
Giuseppe "The Brother-in-Law" Lamberti	sentenced to 30 years	Brother-in-law of Salvatore Mazzurco
Salvatore "Toto" Lamberti	sentenced to 20 years	Cousin of Giuseppe Lamberti
Giovanni "Johnny" Ligammari	Sentenced to 15 years
Gaetano "Tommy" Mazzara		was murdered on December 1, 1985
Salvatore "The Little One" Mazzurco	Sentenced to 35 years
Emmanuele "Manny" Palazzolo	Sentenced to 12 years	Brother-in-law of Peter Alfano
Francesco "Frank" Polizzi	sentenced to 20 years	DeCavalcante -Capo
Vincenzo "Enzo" Randazzo		Nephew of Gaetano Badalamenti
Salvatore "Sal" Salamone	Sentenced to 5 years
Giuseppe "Joe" Trupiano	sentenced to 1 year	another nephew of Gaetano Badalamenti
Giuseppe "Joe" Vitale	Sentenced to 5 years

Wanted defendants during the trial

Surname	judgment	annotation
Franco Della Torre	transferred in Switzerland
Leonardo Greco	transferred in Italy	Bagheria capo; Brother of Salvatore Greco
Faro Lupo	arrested in Switzerland	Nephew of Vincenzo Randazzo
Salvatore Miniati	transferred in Italy
Vito Roberto Palazzolo	transferred in Italy
Filippo Salamone	transferred in Italy
Giuseppe Soresi	transferred in Italy	Borgetto member
Oliviero Tognoli	on the run	Sicilian money launderer
Benny Zito	on the run	Philadelphia Pizzeria owner

Films and documentaries

• 2005: The Mafia - the four-part documentary  ; 4-part documentary about the Mafia in America and Italy (episode 2/4)
• 1985: Pizza Connection  ; Film about the Pizza Connection

literature

• Alexander Stille : Excellent Cadavers: Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic  ; 1995; ISBN 9780099594918
• Shana Alexander:
  1. Pizza connection. The trial against the drug mafia , 1992 Bastei-Lübbe , ISBN 3404603184 , (OT: Pizza Connection: Lawyers, Money, Drugs, Mafia  ; 1989; ISBN 1555840272 )
  2. Pizza connection. the fight against the drug mafia.  ; 1989; ISBN 3471770186
• Ralph Blumenthal: Last Days of the Sicilians  ; 1988; ISBN 0-8129-1594-1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ralph Blumenthal: Acquitted in 'Pizza Connection' Trial, Man Remains in Prison , New York Times. July 28, 1998. Retrieved January 30, 2009. 
2. ↑ Claire Sterling: The Mafia. Scherz Verlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-502-17700-7 .