Anthony Arillotta, the man whom the Geases once regarded as their ticket to relative wealth and influence, was ultimately the most damning witness against them.
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NEW YORK – Jurors in the federal court trial here for two Western Massachusetts mob enforcers delivered swift guilty verdicts on Friday after three weeks of testimony, guaranteeing three defendants life sentences.
The panel found Fotios "Freddy" Geas, 44, of West Springfield, Mass., his brother Ty Geas, 39, of Westfield, Mass., along with the onetime acting boss of the Genovese crime family, Arthur “Artie” Nigro, 66, of the Bronx, N.Y., guilty of murder, attempted murder, racketeering, extortion and other crimes.
The jury’s decision caps a seven-year saga since Springfield, Mass., crime boss Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno was gunned down in a stunning public execution in the parking lot of an Italian social club in late 2003.
Bruno’s slaying came just weeks after longtime street thug Gary D. Westerman, of Springfield, had disappeared without a trace. Westerman’s remains were ultimately recovered in an 8-foot grave in a wooded lot where he had been shot and bludgeoned to death by the Geases and two co-conspirators, the jury found.
Nigro and the Geases also were convicted of a wide-ranging conspiracy to murder Bruno to pave the way for a younger, more volatile organized crime guard in Western Massachusetts.
The Bruno hit and Westerman’s grisly murder were part of what federal prosecutor Elie Honig told jurors was “an epic spasm of violence” that peaked in 2003 and opened the field for more aggressive shakedowns of business owners in Greater Springfield.
At the forefront of the power play was budding mob capo Anthony J. Arillotta, 42, of Springfield, Mass., who quickly turned on the Geases, his former “scare guys,” and Nigro, the boss who formally inducted him into the Genovese family in 2003, after his indictment and arrest last year.
Arillotta’s blandly-delivered testimony was the stuff of screenplays, with details of elaborate rub-out schemes – some successful and others not – grisly murders and attempted murders in broad daylight and the secret ceremony in which he became a “made man” in the Bronx. He told jurors he was required to strip down to nothing but a robe and swear his oath of allegiance to the Genovese family after offering his trigger finger up to be pricked for blood.
Once regarded by the prison-worn, street-tough Geas brothers as their ticket to relative wealth and influence, Arillotta was inarguably the most damning witness against them, apparently sealing their fates with jurors over days of testimony early in the trial.
Victor C. Bruno, one of Adolfo Bruno’s sons who attended each day of the trial, said his reaction to the verdict was mixed after an act of violence that has consumed his thoughts every day since the shooting.
“I want to thank law enforcement for solving the murder, but yet it’s a bittersweet ending,” Bruno said on Friday. “I believe my father’s murder could have been prevented.”
Of seven counts, the defendants were acquitted of just one: murder to obstruct justice with regard to Bruno, meaning the panel rejected the notion that he was murdered because he was suspected to be feeding information to law enforcement.
One of the prosecution’s central theories related to Bruno’s slaying was that a court document emerged in 2003 painting a muddy picture of the then-boss chatting with an FBI agent in 2001 about another made man, Emilio Fusco.
Fusco also was charged in the case but fled to Italy before he could be arrested. He is fighting extradition from his native country; no date has been set for his return.
Jurors instead accepted the theory that Bruno was gunned down amid a power play spearheaded by Arillotta and green-lighted by Nigro and other New York crime family higher-ups.
Victor Bruno said he believes the testimony and the jury’s verdict on that count debunked the theory that his father was an informant.
“That proved to be false,” said Bruno, who has long considered the accusation a taint to his father’s memory.
While there have been seven guilty pleas and convictions in connection with his father’s murder, Bruno reserved his most resounding scorn for Arillotta, a onetime mentee of Bruno who began insidiously ingratiating himself with New York gangsters the year before he sought permission to kill Bruno.
“Anthony Arillotta was the master manipulator in this whole thing. He put it all together, and he was the first (of the made guys) to sing,” Victor Bruno said. “I hope the judge recognizes that and doesn’t go easy on him.”
Arillotta has pleaded guilty to charges for the Bruno and Westerman murders, plus a laundry list of other crimes including extortion, drug-dealing and possessing machine guns under a deal with prosecutors in the hopes of shortening his prison sentence.
Also pleading guilty in connection with the Bruno murder plot were East Longmeadow gangster Felix Tranghese, New York gangster and FBI informant John Bologna and Bruno shooter Frankie A. Roche, the Geases’ so-called “crash dummy” who shot Bruno six times and then accepted $8,000 to get out of town.
Like Arillotta, Bologna, Tranghese and Roche await sentencing in undisclosed prison cells as members of the federal Witness Security Program.
Defense lawyers for the Geases and Nigro declined comment immediately after Friday’s verdict.
Prosecutor Honig said the U.S. attorney’s office would be issuing a written statement.
Detective Lt. Stephen P. Johnson, head of the Massachusetts State Police organized crime investigation unit, said the work of state police and FBI agents essentially gutted two generations of gangsters through the guilty pleas and convictions in the case.
"A lot of these guys were considered the up-and-comers in the Genovese family in Western Massachusetts," Johnson said "This took care of a lot of members of Al Bruno's generation and the younger ones.
"Structurally, it decimated not just the leadership but the membership; and, it'll eliminate a significant organized crime presence until they can rebuild themselves, and they'll do that cautiously," Johnson said, particularly lauding the work of state police Lt. Thomas Murphy, who Johnson said has made a career of pursuing gangsters in Springfield.
Along with the murder convictions, the defendants were found guilty of $12,000 monthly shake-downs of Springfield strip club owner James Santaniello and strong-arms of vending machine business owners Carlo and Gennaro Sarno, restaurateur Michael Cimmino and two Connecticut nightclub owners, Michael and Anthony Grant.
The Geas brothers also were found guilty of thwarted murder plots against Western Massachusetts mob associates Louis “Lou the Shoe” Santos and Giuseppe Manzi. None of those victims or intended victims was called to testify.
Nigro was not implicated in the Westerman murder, which provided perhaps the most grisly fodder for Arillotta on the witness stand. The Geases lured chronic convict Westerman, 48, to a house in Agawam on Nov. 4, 2003, under the guise of committing a home invasion, according to testimony.
Arillotta told jurors that he and Fusco hid in a garage and emerged after hearing a struggle and Westerman cry out. Arillotta said Westerman appeared to be unconscious, then began struggling, prompting him and Fusco to bash him in the head with shovels.
Freddy Geas later told Roche that the silencer on his gun was faulty, somehow causing the bullets to “bounce off Westerman’s head,” which became a running joke between the two, according to trial testimony.
Westerman’s bones were recovered with Arillotta’s help in April, his sneakers, a ski mask and a stun gun apparently meant for the faux home invasion buried along with him.
Westerman’s family members have repeatedly refused to comment on the case.
The Geas brothers and Nigro showed little reaction to the verdicts, according to courtroom observers. The men face mandatory life sentences, but will not be formally sentenced by U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel until June 23.
Victor Bruno said his first child, a baby girl, is scheduled to be born the same day. He said whatever his father’s choice of profession, Adolfo Bruno was a charitable man and maintained a relative calm in the underworld.
“He made sure that on the streets, there was order,” Victor Bruno said.
Eric Denson
