Word: restelli
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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That contact turned out to be Dominic Lombino, 40, a lawyer from Milan whose clients had included Franchino Restelli, the northern Italian city's leading Mafioso. Jailed briefly in 1978 for his Mafia associations, Lombino fled to the U.S. in July 1981 when Italian authorities suddenly seized his passport, a signal that they were preparing to indict him. The Italian military attaché told Lombino that he could make a lot of money if he would help with the Dozier case. On Dec. 22, only five days after Dozier had been abducted, Lombino phoned the Fat Man and then...
Attaché Campione quickly agreed. Over the Christmas holiday he developed a plan to sneak Lombino out of the U.S. and into Italy so that Lombino could talk with Restelli. Since Lombino was still a fugitive with no passport, the Italian official had to concoct a new identity for him. With the Fat Man's aid, Lombino acquired the Social Security number of an unwitting high school driver's education instructor from Brooklyn, while a cooperative priest in Manhattan provided him with false baptism records...
...intrigued. It quickly called the FBI off the case and began negotiating directly with Lombino by phone. Lombino, however, no longer trusted SISMI. He insisted on U.S. protection as well as a pledge that he could legally return to the U.S. if he went to Italy and saw Restelli. The Justice Department approved the residency deal, and as a result, in early January 1982 Lombino made the first of two trips to the Washington, D.C., area to meet with CIA agents...
...days just before the rescue, the trail was growing so hot that the police might have found the general without help from Restelli. On the other hand, Italian magistrates acknowledged that on Jan. 26 Restelli was secretly released from prison at the request of SISMI and the CIA to meet with officials in Milan. U.S. embassy personnel in Rome confirm that Dozier's whereabouts was not known until the night before the raid, which is when the Mafia leader reportedly gave the address to the Italians...
Today General Dozier is stationed at the U.S. Army base in Fort Knox, Ky. Marcello Campione, who clashed with the head of SISMI, has been dispatched to the Italian embassy in far-off Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. Franchino Restelli has been transferred from his Milan prison to a more hospitable jail in Parma. Dominic Lombino is back in New York, reportedly waiting for the Justice Department to approve the residency papers requested by the CIA. In Italy, trouble is brewing within SISMI about the sum of money, which turned out to be $500,000 that was promised to Lombino...