Word: silverman
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...investigation of Secretary of Labor Raymond Donovan came to an unsatisfying end last week. Less than a month after reopening his inquiry, Special Prosecutor Leon Silverman closed the case, saying, "I have been unable to corroborate the allegations made against him with sufficient credible evidence." But the prosecutor's exoneration of Donovan was something like the Scotch verdict of "not proven." Said Silverman: "I was, and I continue to be, concerned by the sheer number of allegations...
...charges against Donovan. The Massellis were embroiled in a financial dispute with some Mob-connected business associates, and conceivably that could have been the reason for the rubout. But some law enforcement sources thought it was more likely that Nat Masselli was killed in retaliation for cooperating with Silverman or as a warning to the elder Masselli to keep his mouth shut...
Masselli's murder and the reopening of the Donovan investigation have heightened White House anxiety over allegations that a Cabinet Secretary was linked with the Mafia. Earlier this year, Silverman investigated reports that in January 1979, Donovan, then part owner of New Jersey's Schiavone Construction Co., had met in Miami with William Masselli, a member of the Genovese Mafia family and head of an excavation firm that did business with Schiavone. Donovan heatedly denied the charge, and Silverman decided that the Miami meeting could not be corroborated. Then, last May, the special prosecutor persuaded Masselli...
...late June, Silverman announced that there was "insufficient credible evidence" to prosecute Donovan. But in a 1,025-page report, the special prosecutor disclosed that the elder Masselli, now serving a seven-year sentence for hijacking, had tried to peddle information about Donovan in an effort to cut his prison term and that Nat had permitted the FBI to bug his phones. Although these details were largely overlooked by the press, they were apparently noted with extreme interest by mobsters...
...Silverman was packing up his records, he received fresh allegations from the Justice Department that Donovan had met in Miami with William Masselli and Albert ("Chink") Facchiano, a convicted loan shark and former captain in the Genovese clan, to set up no-show jobs for mobsters on Schiavone construction sites. In mid-July, Silverman reopened his investigation, determined to dig deeper into the alleged links between the Genovese family and Schiavone. In his first probe, he had questioned the elder Masselli and Buono, who is reputed to be a Genovese captain; Silverman decided to interrogate them again, and also...