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News and Features about Organized Crime, Mafia and La Cosa Nostra taken from National and Local News Sources. In an attempt to get you this type of coverage in a timely manner we can not be responsible for the content of the following material. |
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5-21-00 Tip from mob suspect leads to body. Sunday, May 21, 2000 The Associated Press NEWARK -- Federal investigators have found the corpse of a man buried for at least 25 years beneath the basement of a building where reputed mob associate Pete "The Crumb" Caprio once ran a social club. Authorities said Caprio, who has become a cooperating witness since he was charged in March with helping in two gangland executions, tipped them off to the body under the three-story building on Hudson Street. Investigators Tuesday left mounds of dirt behind the sealed building after the search for the remains of a man known only as "Butch," according to a published report. City records indicated the building belongs to Caprio's brother, Alphonse. Sandra Caroll, an FBI spokeswoman, confirmed only that a search warrant had been executed at the building. She said recent developments in the case kept her from making additional comments. But the report cited unidentified sources in reporting Caprio had implicated two mob figures in that killing. The sources also said the people implicated had been dead for some time. Observers have said the 70-year-old Caprio could be used to build a federal racketeering case against Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino of Philadelphia and 10 others. Merlino is the reputed boss of the Bruno organized crime family. Although the government's case has been reinforced with the help of another gangland turncoat, former Bruno boss Ralph Natale, observers said Caprio could give investigators an idea of the family's hierarchy. It also is likely Caprio would be able to talk about the influence of the family's Philadelphia mob bosses over activities in northern New Jersey such as gambling, loan-sharking, and murder. Caprio was indicted in March on charges he participated in the 1996 murder of reputed Bruno organized crime family captain Joseph Sodano and the 1994 death of William "Crazy Willie" Gantz. Gantz was reported to be Sodano's right-hand man. Investigators have theorized Sodano was killed after he refused to give Natale and Merlino a bigger cut of profits from illegal gambling and loan-sharking operations in New Jersey. The indictment said Caprio participated in the murders with others "for the purpose of maintaining and increasing their position in the North Jersey crew of the Bruno crime family." Attorney Robert Sarcone, who represented Caprio at arraignment, has said his client wasn't the shooter. No others have been arrested in the case.
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