A Big Night for Chest Pains

By Ed Magnuson.

For the aging leaders of the Mafia's New York crime families, the clean sheets of a hospital room looked much more inviting last week than the cold bars of the Metropolitan Correctional Center. FBI agents watching the Staten Island home of Aniello Dellacroce, 70, saw the longtime underboss of the Gambino family moving normally about the residence. But when agents arrived to arrest him, Dellacroce claimed to be sick and was taken to Manhattan's Mount Sinai Hospital. He joined Anthony ("Tony Ducks") Corallo, 72, boss of the Lucchese family, who had anticipated his imminent arrest and checked in earlier, claiming to be suffering from chest pains. Philip ("Rusty") Rastelli, 67, the Bonanno family don, complained in court that he too felt chest pains and was rushed to Beekman Downtown Hospital, where doctors found him well enough to return to jail. Ralph Scopo, 56, a reputed soldier in the Colombo family and regional president of a concrete workers' union, got better treatment. A doctor confirmed his complaint that he had pneumonia and kept him in bed.

"It was a big night for chest pains," said one federal investigator about the arrests on racketeering charges of nine New York City mobsters, including the leaders of the five Mafia families in the city. U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani, who brought the indictments, suspects that the Mafiosi were trying to establish a record of illness in hope of proving they are too ill to stand trial or to endure imprisonment if convicted. Several, in fact, do have | various illnesses, including heart ailments. "If a guy claims he's sick and, like Dellacroce, he looks sick, we take him to a hospital," said the investigator. "We're not doctors." Before trial, however, Giuliani expects to have each of the defendants claiming illness undergo examinations by Government-hired doctors.

Bail was set at either $2 million or $1.75 million for each of the accused. Most of the mobsters easily posted it. They put up 10% in cash and rights to their personal property, including some lavish homes, to guarantee their appearance for trial.

The case is the first in which the Government contends that a "commission" of bosses directs Mafia operations throughout the U.S., and that it is a "corrupt organization" within the meaning of the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The U.S. Attorney says that investigators have acquired 4,000 hours of secretly taped conversations among the mobsters, and he promises to produce 30 or more witnesses against them. The 41-page indictment cites 15 racketeering counts, including five Mob murders, narcotics trafficking, loan-sharking, and alleged control of New York's concrete industry.

This last charge focuses largely on Anthony ("Fat Tony") Salerno, 73, boss of the Genovese family, whose health could also become an issue. His Manhattan celebrity lawyer, Roy Cohn, expressed outrage when Giuliani said Salerno suffered only from obesity, and had been on "fat farms." Snapped Cohn: "That's not true. Mr. Salerno suffers from hypertension. He had three strokes. He walks with a cane. He has heart trouble." Before they grapple with more serious matters, lawyers on both sides apparently will have to answer a preliminary question: "How sick is the Mob?"

With reporting by Barry Kalb/New York