Uncle of Mafia Informant, Peter "Big Pete" Chiodo, is Found Slain in Brooklyn

Two years ago Peter Chiodo of Staten Island was shot a dozen times and critically wounded, but the 500-pound informer against the Mafia still lived to testify against a dozen major underworld figures.

A year ago Mr. Chiodo's sister, Patricia Capozzalo, of Brooklyn, was seriously wounded in what the authorities described as a failed attempt by the mob to kill her.

And yesterday, the police found the body of Mr. Chiodo's uncle, Frank Signorino, of Staten Island, stuffed in the trunk of a parked car in East New York, Brooklyn. There were numerous wounds to his forehead, some resembling gunshot wounds.

The authorities would not say last night what the motive might have been in Mr. Signorino's slaying. But the investigators and witnesses in the trials of Mafia leaders last year have said that the earlier shootings were intended to intimidate Mr. Chiodo into silence. Role in Upcoming Trial

Ronald Goldstock, director of the New York State Organized Crime Task Force, said of Mr. Signorino's slaying, "There could be a thousand reasons for it, and the silencing of Mr. Chiodo is one possible motive."

Mr. Chiodo, one of the more prominent witnesses in the Federal Government's recent prosecutions of Mafia leaders, is expected to testify again at the upcoming trial of Anthony Casso of Brooklyn, whom prosecutors say is the boss of the Lucchese crime family.

Mr. Casso was captured by the F.B.I. two weeks ago as he was getting out of a shower at a hideout in Mt. Olive, N.J. He had been a fugitive for almost three years and had been charged with ordering the killings of 11 people linked to fraudulent construction contracts in New York.

Mr. Casso has been described by Federal authorities as one of the most dangerous Mafia figures in the country. With his capture, officials say the leaders of the region's five Mafia groups are either serving long prison terms or awaiting trial.

The police discovered the body of Mr. Signorino with a black plastic bag tied around his head in the trunk of an abandoned car at Vermont Street and Flatlands Avenue. Reported Missing

Sgt. Michael Race of the 75th Detective Squad said the remains, which were frozen, were turned over to the city Medical Examiner's Office, which will perform an autopsy.

"The body was frozen," Sergeant Race said "Mr. Signorino was reported missing three days ago, and we are not exactly sure what caused the wounds in his head." The detective said the remains had been identified by the dead man's family.

Sergeant Race said the authorities were trying to determine whether Mr. Signorino had any ties to the Mafia.

Mr. Chiodo, whose girth earned him the nickname "Big Pete," turned informant against Mafia figures after being shot a dozen times in May, 1991.

Mr. Chiodo, who has admitted that he was a captain in the Lucchese crime family, said he decided to cooperate with the authorities after two of his criminal associates threatened to kill his wife and his father.

According to the authorities, in the yearlong interval between the shooting of Mr. Chiodo and that of his sister, there were repeated attempts to intimidate other relatives of Mr. Chiodo's.

At the trial last year of Vittorio Amuso, a Lucchese crime chieftain who was convicted of nine murders, Alfonse D'Arco, another underworld figure turned informant, testified that he had made such attempts. Mr. Chiodo also testified about Mafia activities at that trial.

Another person connected to Mr. Chiodo, Anthony Fava, who the police said was a close associate, was found shot to death in Brooklyn 18 months ago. None of shootings has been solved.

Thanks to Richard D. Lyons.

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Jack Gail and Joseph Granata Recorded on Mob Tapes

As Jack Gail and Joseph Granata drank coffee in a Rosemont restaurant last December, they talked privately of their experiences as killers, according to secret tape recordings.

Granata, 51, a former Chicago mob enforcer turned government informant, said he liked to see his victims plead for their lives.

''You just wanna have fun,'' Granata told Gail, a felon from Highland Park. ''What ya do is let him beg, let him beg, let him beg. Did you ever have a . . . . beg?''
''No, I never let anybody beg,'' responded Gail, according to a recording of the conversation that was entered into court proceedings in Lake County on Tuesday.
''Oh, I love it,'' Granata continued.
''Let me tell you something,'' said Gail, continuing the conversation. ''When I do that there ain`t no conversation, nothin.` See, I`m a believer. . . I don`t deal with them (lying).''
''I laugh,'' Granata replied. ''I bust out laughing. You`re gonna see, I`m gonna laugh. Cause I love it. I laugh and they look and they go, `Oh, it`s all right, this is all a joke.` ''

Granata, who said he was an enforcer for Joseph Ferriola, a late Chicago crime boss, recorded the conversation in his role as an undercover government informant. In the Rosemont restaurant meeting on Dec. 2, and in other meetings that Granata recorded with Gail, the two men talked frequently of murders and trafficking in drugs.

Lake County Assistant State`s Attorneys George Strickland and John Kornak say the tapes prove Gail`s propensity for crime, and they asked Circuit Court Judge Raymond McKoski to consider the tapes when he sentences Gail on Thursday.

A jury in August convicted Gail, 47, of armed violence and possession of a controlled substance.

The charges involve some cocaine and a .357 Magnum revolver that Gail purchased from Granata in January in the parking lot of the Lake Forest Oasis on the Tri-State Tollway. Gail faces 6 to 30 years in prison.

His attorney, Dennis Berkson of Chicago, objects to McKoski considering the tapes when he sentences Gail. He contends that Granata is a liar and that the conversations are puffery and braggadocio by two men trying to impress each other with their toughness.

''What we have here is two individuals who are lying to each other,'' said Berkson, pleading with McKoski on Tuesday not to consider the tapes. ''I don`t think that anyone can say that Mr. Granata is an honest man.''

Berkson said the state is attempting to ''bring in other crimes that have not been proven or corroborated'' against his client.

Strickland said there is no corroboration because the drug trafficking and murders that Gail and Granata were planning before Gail`s arrest did not happen. ''What we are basically trying to do is show what they were going to do in the future,'' Strickland said.

McKoski said he will review the taped conversations and decide which parts he will consider at the sentencing hearing on Thursday.

At the time of his arrest in January, Gail was living in the Highland Park home of Karen Canzoneri. Her husband, Salvatore, a pizza company owner, was slain in his home in 1989. The murder has never been solved.

Gail faces another trial on Oct. 5 on charges that he solicited the murder of Gabriel Ponzio, a man in Florida whom Gail disliked. The murder never took place.

Thanks to Robert Enstad.

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Sammy the Bull Testifes That John Gotti Ordered the Slaying of Gambino Crime Boss Paul Castellano

Reputed mob boss John Gotti ordered the slaying of Paul Castellano out of fear that he faced assassination himself, Gotti's onetime underboss said during his first day of testimony yesterday in a hushed and heavily guarded courtroom.

There were "quite a few reasons" why Gotti wanted the head of the Gambino crime family killed, Salvatore Gravano said in a low and gravelly voice. But, he testified, Gotti's chief motive was self-preservation.

Gravano described the 10 months during which, he, Gotti and others planned Castellano's execution. He said the final plan came shortly after the death of cancer-striken Aniello Dellacroce, the Gambino family's underboss and Gotti's mentor.

"Paul showed total disrespect and didn't go to the funeral," Gravano told the jury. "We were wondering if and when . . . Paul might make a move - if he might strike," Gravano testified. "We wondered if he might shoot John and Angelo" Ruggiero, a close Gotti associate. "Paul Castellano, after Neil [Dellacroce] died, said he was going to wreck John's crew," said Gravano. He said Castellano was angry that members of Gotti's crew had violated a family rule - enforceable by death - against drug dealing.

Gravano, the highest-level mob informant ever to testify against Gotti, was calm and composed as he took the stand under a deal to reduce his prison sentence to 20 years. Indicted along with Gotti and co-defendant Frank Locascio, he faced life in prison without parole if convicted at trial. Gravano occasionally glanced at Gotti, and once during the testimony pointed out Gotti and Locascio as being the boss and consigliere of the crime family.

Under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Gleeson, Gravano said others beside Gotti were dissatisfied with Castellano.

"At the time, there were a lot of conversations about Paul. Nobody was too happy with him . . . He was selling out the family for his own basic businesses," said Gravano, explaining that Castellano formed several business partnerships with leaders of the Genovese crime family.

Gravano said Gotti and his followers also were upset that Castellano had allowed another crime family to kill a Gambino crime captain in Connecticut. "You just don't let another family kill a captain in your family," Gravano testified. "That's against the rules."

Gravano said Gotti discussed two other possible plans for killing Castellano that were rejected. In one plan, Castellano was to have been shot at his home on Staten Island. But that plan was dropped because "there was a lot of FBI surveillance at his house," Gravano said.

Another rejected plan called for an old-time mobster to walk into a diner where Castellano and his driver, Thomas Bilotti, frequently went before meeting with Castellano's lawyer, James LaRossa. "The old man was known by Paul and would be able to walk in and shoot him," Gravano said.

Gravano, 46, said the final planning session for Castellano's murder came the night before Castellano and Bilotti were shot to death outside Sparks Steak House on East 46th Street on Dec. 16, 1985.

Frank DeCicco, a Castellano loyalist, had informed Gotti and Gravano that he would be meeting Castellano and Bilotti for dinner at Sparks on Dec. 16, Gravano testified. Also among those attending the dinner, said Gravano, would be Thomas Gambino, son of the late Carlo Gambino, for whom the Gambino family is named.

The night before, at a meeting Gotti arranged, Gotti, Gravano and Ruggiero sat down with eight other mob figures at Gravano's drywall construction firm in Brooklyn and outlined a plan to kill two men whose names were not revealed. "We didn't tell them who was going to be hit," Gravano said. "We just said he had to be done."

Gravano said it was decided that the shooters would be John Carneglia, Edward Lino, Salvatore Scala and Vinny Artuso, all members of the Gambino crime family.. The others would serve as backups who would be stationed at various locations.

The next afternoon, the participants - armed with guns and walkie-talkies - met Gotti and Gravano in a small park on the Lower East Side and were told the names of their targets for the first time. "We told them exactly who was going, and that it had to be done," Gravano testified.

The designated shooters were stationed in front of Sparks, Gravano said, and four backup shooters were posted around the block. He said the backups included Anthony Rampino, a convicted Gambino soldier, and Ruggiero.

"Me and John got in the car and went to the Third Avenue side of East 46th," Gravano testified. "I was a backup shooter. If they [Castellano and Bilotti] got away, we would be ready."

At that point in his testimony, U.S. District Court Judge I. Leo Glasser closed the session for the day and ordered Gravano's examination to continue today.

Gravano, known on the street as Sammy the Bull, spent much of his two hours on the witness stand discussing his crime career, which he said began shortly after he dropped out of school at the age of 16. From 1961 to 1964, "I worked on and off. I committed armed robberies, burglaries."

He served in the Army between 1964 and 1966. After his discharge, he said he returned to Brooklyn. "I went back to my life of crime," he said.

Gleeson asked him how many murders he was admitting."Nineteen," Gravano said.

Gravano said he was something of an expert killer. Asked by Gleeson if there was a common expression used by the Gambino family for murder, Gravano said without emotion: "To do a piece of work - to whack someone out."

He described his 1976 initiation into the Gambino crime family in the presence of Castellano. He said during the ceremony, his trigger finger was pricked with a pin, a drop of blood was placed on the picture of a saint and the picture was set afire.

He then repeated his oath of silence: "If I divulge any secrets of this organization my soul should burn like this saint."

Gravano testified that officials of the Luchese, Colombo and Bonanno crime families were notified of the plan to kill Castellano. "They were behind the killing," he said. New York's fifth crime organization, the Genovese family, was not consulted. "We didn't trust them because Paul Castellano was in partners with them," Gravano said.

Thanks to Pete Bowles

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