Ray Ferritto
Raymond W. "Ray" Ferritto (born April 8, 1929 , † May 10, 2004 ) was an Italian-American mobster from Erie (Pennsylvania) and an enforcer of the Dragna family from Los Angeles and the Licavoli family from Cleveland from the American Cosa Nostra . Ray became known as the man who murdered the infamous Irish gangster Danny “The Irishman” Greene in 1977 .
Life
Early years
In 1942, at the young age of 13, he was sentenced to two years probation for breaking into two gas stations. A year later, while Ferritto was working in a bronze factory, an accident caused the amputation of two of his toes. Ferritto dropped out of high school at the age of 17 and joined the Marine Corps ; but was honorably discharged a month later because of the injuries to his foot. During his twenties, Ferritto was a bookie and vending machine business in Erie.
He married in 1948 and fathered two children before divorcing in 1956. He married again in 1957 and had another child. At that time Ferritto had moved to Warren, Ohio , where he met Mafia members Ronald "The Crab" Carabbia and Anthony "Tony Dope" Delsanter.
Criminal career
In 1958, at the age of twenty-nine, Ferritto was convicted of burglary and served three years in prison for it.
In the late 1960s, Ferritto had moved to Los Angeles , where he became an allied and associated with a group of Cleveland bullies, including Julius "Julio" Petro, and Capo named "Jimmy the Weasel" Fratianno . In 1969 Julius Petro was murdered by Fratianno. The murder remained unsolved for many years.
In 1971 Ferritto was again convicted of burglary, this time in connection with the use of explosives. He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison at the California Institution for Men in Chino, California .
In 1974, Ferritto was released from Chino and returned to Erie. At the time, Ferritto developed a gastric ulcer that was serious enough to require removal of part of his stomach. To calm his nerves, he took antacid and smoked marijuana.
The Danny Greene murder
During the 1970s there was an Irish gangster named Danny Greene who started to compete with the Cleveland Mafia. This led to an extremely violent war between the Mafia and Danny Greene's gang, in which nearly 40 car bombs exploded in Cleveland. After eight failed attempts to assassinate Greene, Chief James "Jack White" Licavoli got outside help. For the 1977 murder of Danny Greene, Licavoli and Underboss Angelo Lonardo hired Ray Ferritto and offered him a position as a manager and his own territory in return. They learned of a scheduled dentist appointment on October 6, 1977, and while Greene was inside, Ferritto and Licavoli associate Ronald Carabbia placed a bomb in a car and parked it next to Greene's car. When Green came out and tried to open his car door, Carabbia detonated the bomb in the car parked next to it by remote control and Greene died immediately.
Arrest and Consequences
There were two witnesses in Green's murder named Greg and Debbie Spoth. Debbie, the daughter of a suburban police officer, was a sketch artist who drew an amazingly precise Ray Ferritto for the authorities. Cleveland Police identified Ray Ferritto from the sketch and an arrest warrant was issued. At Ferritto's house in Erie, police found the registration papers for the bomb truck and arrested him.
After Licavoli heard of Ferritto's arrest, he placed a murder order against him. When Ferritto learned that the Cleveland family wanted his death, he became a government witness and testified against his accomplices in 1978. He also confessed to the 1969 murder of Julius Petro. The subsequent trials lead to the conviction of Licavoli and later Pentito Jimmy Fratianno, who also became a government witness and testified against members of the Mafia across the country. All of these events ultimately led to the infamous Mafia Commission Trial and were filmed in Bulletproof Gangster in 2011 .
With his help as a witness, Ferritto spent less than four years in prison, and after a year left the witness protection program of his own free will and went to Pennsylvania .
Last years
In 1992 he was convicted of criminal conspiracy and bookmaking.
Ferritto retired in 2000 and moved to Florida , where he died of heart failure four years later at the age of 75.
Films and documentaries
- 2011: Bulletproof Gangster (OT: Kill the Irishman) ; Film about the life of Danny Greene and his conflicts with the Licavoli family and the Gambino family . Ray Ferritto is played by Robert Davi.
literature
- Rick Porrello: To Kill the Irishman: The War that Crippled the Mafia ; 2004; ISBN 0-9662508-9-3
- Susan Ferritto: Ferritto: An Assassin Scorned ; 2012; ISBN 978-0-578-10829-2
Individual evidence
- ↑ American Mafia - Danny Greene - Plus 25
- ↑ Erie Reader - Erie's Goodfellas
- ↑ Cleveland.com - Greene escapes another bomb
- ↑ a b Cosa Nostra News - Q&A with Hit Man Ray Ferritto's Wife Susan
- ^ Cleveland.com - Car bomb kills Danny Greene
- ^ Blog of Death - Raymond Ferritto
- ↑ Jerry Capeci: The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia . Alpha Books, 2002, ISBN 0-02-864225-2 , pp. 92-93.
- ^ Find a Grave - Raymond W. Ferritto
- ↑ Cleveland.com - Kill the Irishman cast: Real life vs. reel life
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ferritto, Ray |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ferritto, Raymond W. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian-American mobster |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 8, 1929 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Erie, Pennsylvania |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 10, 2004 |
| Place of death | Florida |