Word: prosecutors
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When he was investigating Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan last spring, Special Prosecutor Leon Silverman summoned a pair of mobsters to testify before a grand jury about their alleged past links with the Reagan Cabinet member. One of them, Philip Buono, reportedly denied even knowing Donovan; the other, Joseph ("Joe Hooks") Verlezza, claimed he was too ill to talk and never showed up. The names of both men have resurfaced: federal authorities consider them prime suspects in the slaying last month of Nat Masselli, 31, a Silverman informant and son of a mobster who has been a central figure...
...turns out, both Nat and William Masselli were crucial witnesses in the investigation, reopened in mid-July, into charges that U.S. Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan had dealings with organized crime when he was part owner of the Schiavone Construction Co. The investigation is being conducted by Special Federal Prosecutor Leon Silverman, who stated in June that there was "insufficient credible evidence" to prosecute Donovan. TIME has learned that Silverman's investigators had in fact questioned Nat Masselli at least once in the renewed probe. William Masselli was recently transferred from a prison near Lake Placid, N.Y., where...
...first phase of Silverman's investigation, the elder Masselli provided evidence that, he claimed, showed a Schiavone official had arranged for Masselli to receive a $200,000 loan from the firm in return for a $20,000 kickback. But the special prosecutor did not find the evidence clear-cut, and the Schiavone official denied the charge. Masselli's son Nat also consented to telephone taps of his conversations with a Schiavone lawyer. Silverman told TIME: "Those conversations, although they may have been illadvised, were not criminal...
...knew if investigators' hopes would be fulfilled. "Billy Masselli may be hell-bent for revenge," says one official. "It's a question of whether he'll take it on the street or whether he'll even the score by telling the special prosecutor everything he knows...
...jurors had begun deliberating around 3 in the afternoon, and it was now around 6:30 p.m. Prosecutor Warren Von Schuch was worried. As he later put it, "The longer a [jury] panel is out, the worse shape we're in." And so he proposed a deal to Seigler's attorneys: their client would plead guilty to first-degree murder and robbery and receive a 60-year prison term, with 20 years suspended...