United States v. Licavoli

725 F.2d 1040 (6th Cir. 1984)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Defendant Licavoli (D) is a leader of organized crime in Cleveland. Liberatore is his second-in-command, and Calandra also holds a position of confidence and responsibility within the organization. Carabbia and Cisternino act for the organization, carrying out the orders of the top men. Ciarcia manages a car dealership and supplies vehicles for the organization's criminal activities and also acts on behalf of the organization in other ways. D decided that he needed to have Danny Greene killed. Greene was the leader of a rival criminal organization which had developed a monopoly on criminal activity in West Cleveland. D had others in his organization contact Raymond Ferritto regarding his wish to have Greene killed. Ferritto testified that he met at various times with each of the defendants (except D), to plan Greene's murder. Ferritto stalked Greene for some months without success, sometimes assisted by Cisternino. After Ferritto had been on the job for some time, he asked D for money to cover his expenses, and he was eventually given $5,000 by Carabbia. D also told Ferritto that he would get a percentage of money derived from gambling in the Warren and Youngstown areas when the murder was accomplished. Ferritto and Cisternino attempted to bomb Greene's apartment building but never carried through because of the regular presence of older people in the area. They even drove to a party attended by Greene intending to kill him. Greene's car was guarded by members of Greene's criminal organization seated in an adjacent car. Liberatore arranged with two other men, Aratari and Guiles, to kill others in Greene's criminal organization, and ultimately to help kill Greene as well. Aratari and Guiles were at times assisted in their efforts by defendants Carabbia, Calandra, Cisternino and Ciarcia. Ciarcia and another man provided Aratari and Guiles with a car and weapons. D had Greene's phone tapped. Carabbia and Cisternino gave Ferritto the resulting tapes. One tape revealed that Greene was to go to a dentist's appointment at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 6, 1977. D, Cisternino and Carabbia played this tape for Ferritto on Monday, October 3. Cisternino and Ferritto built a bomb in an apartment maintained by Cisternino. Ferritto drove to the dentist's office with the bomb in his car. Carabbia drove a second car to the office, a Nova. This car had a special box mounted on the side in which the bomb was to be placed. Cisternino remained behind at the apartment to listen to a police scanner for calls. A few minutes after Ferritto and Carabbia arrived at the dentist's, Aratari and Guiles arrived in another car, supplied by Ciarcia as the car to be used in 'the Danny Greene case.' Guiles was armed with a high-powered rifle. The plan was for Guiles to shoot Greene if he had the opportunity. The bomb was to be used as a backup method. Greene arrived for his appointment, and Guiles apparently had no opportunity to shoot. A few minutes later a parking space opened next to Greene's car. Ferritto placed the bomb in the box on the side of the Nova, parked the Nova next to Greene's car, and activated the bomb. When Greene emerged from the office, Ferritto began to drive away, with Carabbia in the back seat. Carabbia then detonated the bomb with a remote control device, and Danny Greene was killed. Six Ds were tried for Danny Greene's murder in state court. Cisternino, Carabbia, and Ciarcia were convicted of D's murder. A Geraldine Rabinowitz worked as a file clerk in the FBI office in Cleveland. She was asked by her then-fiancé Jeffrey Rabinowitz, who worked for Ciarcia's car dealership to obtain confidential information from FBI files regarding investigations into himself, Liberatore, and D. Ms. Rabinowitz was to receive a down payment on a new home for her efforts and on October 15, 1977, they were given $15,000 for that purpose. Counsel for Liberatore characterized the payment as a loan but no interest was set, no repayment schedule was named, and no collateral was specified. The stolen FBI documents were found in Ciarcia's car dealership. All six Ds were found guilty of RICO violations. Ds appealed. (There were four basic issues appealed we have only stated one issue but stated and answered all four in the holding and decision).