Salerno Prosecutors End Summation

Salerno Prosecutors End Summation


By ARNOLD H. LUBASCH

Published: March 8, 1988




Two prosecutors completed a summation yesterday that accused Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno and 10 other men of carrying out a wide range of racketeering activities of the Genovese crime family.

Among the activities were a murder plot, extensive extortion, organized gambling, fixing union elections and rigging bids in the construction industry, according to the prosecutors, Alan M. Cohen and Mark R. Hellerer, who presented a 12-day summation in the 11-month trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan.

''The trial has been about power, the power of these men, the power of the mob,'' Mr. Cohen said, pointing at the defendants as the unusually long summation was ending.

''Mr. Hellerer and I have spent a long time reviewing the evidence with you,'' Mr. Cohen told the jury, noting the volume of evidence, including hundreds of taped conversations.

After depicting Mr. Salerno as the powerful Genovese boss, Mr. Cohen described several other defendants as mob members and four defendants as businessmen who ''associated themselves with the Genovese family.''

''The case showed the mob gone corporate,'' he said. 'Enormous Criminal Enterprise'

Earlier, Mr. Hellerer said in his half of the summation that the evidence ''demonstrates the existence of an enormous criminal enterprise, the Genovese family of La Cosa Nostra.''

''You have seen the inner workings of a Mafia family,'' Mr. Hellerer said, adding that the evidence included secretly tape-recorded conversations of defendants' discussing crimes ''in their own words.''

''Now you have heard the evidence about the Genovese family, ladies and gentlemen,'' he continued. ''It's one of the five families in the City of New York and it's one of the most powerful in the country.''

''The evidence produced in this case was massive,'' he added. ''You heard over 100 witnesses, you heard nearly 400 tape recordings, and you saw over 1,000 exhibits during the course of this trial.'' 'Everybody Reports to Fat Tony'

In their summation, the prosecutors replayed taped conversations, which, they said, showed Mr. Salerno's talking about mob activities.

They said the tapes made it clear that he was the boss and that ''everybody reports to Fat Tony.''

The prosecutors contended that Mr. Salerno had directed the murder of John (Johnny Keyes) Simone in 1980 ''because of his participation in the murder of Angelo Bruno, the head of the family in Philadelphia.''

Turning to the businessmen among the defendants, the prosecutors portrayed one of them, Edward (Biff) Halloran, as a key figure in illegally allocating contracts in the construction industry in New York City.

''Biff Halloran, ladies and gentlemen, the Government submits, was a full associate of the Genovese family,'' Mr. Hellerer told the jury, adding that Mr. Halloran had obtained ''a monopoly in the ready-mix concrete industry here in New York.'' Role in Concrete Industry

Much of the evidence about the construction industry was also presented in the Mafia ''commission'' trial, which resulted in the conviction of Mr. Salerno in 1986. The present trial focuses on the Genovese group.

Two men charged as Genovese captains are Matthew (Matty the Horse) Ianniello and Vincent DiNapoli. Mr. DiNapoli's brother, Louis, is also a defendant. Two others, John (Peanuts) Tronolone and Milton (Maishe) Rockman, are charged as a leader and an associate, respectively, of the Mafia family in Cleveland.

Another defendant, Aniello (Neil) Migliore, identified by the authorities as a leader of the Lucchese crime family, watched part of the prosecution's summation on a television monitor in his home on Long Island while recovering from recent back surgery.

Other businessmen among the defendants are Nicholas Auletta, Alvin O. Chattin and Richard Costa.

The defense summations are expected to take about two weeks.