Word: buscetta
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...prosecution relied heavily on 14 Mafia members who broke the code of silence, known as omerta, to describe the organization's workings. The star witness was Tommaso Buscetta, 59, a mobster who once ran some Mafia operations in the U.S. and South America and who also testified in the "Pizza Connection" trial in New York City, which led to the conviction of 17 drug traffickers. Buscetta described to the jury the Mafia's pyramidal structure, capped by a twelve-member cupola, or commission, that ruled on all major gangland murders. There were plenty of those. The prosecution charged that between...
Some of the pentiti brought before the bench in Palermo have been impressive. Tommaso (Don Masino) Buscetta was known as the "Boss of Two Worlds" because he used to control extensive operations in both Italy and Brazil. Buscetta, who testified in New York's "pizza connection" trial about heroin smuggling between U.S. and Sicilian mobsters, provided new evidence about the operations of the Mafia's ruling Commission. A second pentito, the mid-level Mob executive Salvatore (Toto) Contorno, made detailed accusations against defendants based on his firsthand knowledge of the Mafia's internecine warfare over the drug market...
...When Buscetta began giving his testimony in April, a high school student in a balcony reserved for the public called out "Forza, Masino!" (be strong), demonstrating the support some Sicilians feel for curbing the continuing Mafia violence on their island...
...most important of the turncoats are Tommaso Buscetta and Salvatore ("Toto") Contorno. They testified in December in New York City at the so- called pizza-connection trial, where 22 defendants are charged with distributing Sicilian heroin through a chain of U.S. pizza outlets. Both are expected to make court appearances in Sicily in the spring, though Contorno gave prosecutors a scare last week by suddenly threatening not to. Officials see Contorno's move as a ploy to get better treatment and more security. Nonetheless, they are visibly concerned. Contorno's statements helped indict 160 defendants...
...Buscetta occasionally stood up in the cavernous courtroom to point at defendants he claimed to have known as Mafia members. He identified Gaetano Badalamenti as a onetime capo, or boss, of the ruling Mafia commission in Sicily. Badalamenti, the key defendant, stared back impassively. Gaetano Mazzara's bemused smile turned to a look of disgust when he was picked out at the crowded defense tables and identified as the American distributor for the imported heroin. More such fingering is expected as Buscetta continues to testify in a complex trial that could last as long as six months. Defense attorneys will...