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| April 18, 2002 | |||||
| By Jerry Capeci | |||||
| Spero Lives 'The Life' To The End | |||||
 The smile on
his face and the way Anthony Spero stood as tall as he could on Monday was reminiscent of
the day seven years ago when the aging Bonanno gangster faced the music for another
federal conviction.Both times, it was as if the onetime acting boss was making good on an "I can handle it" boast to an FBI agent who told Spero he was doing his damnedest to get the goods on him and send him to prison. It was a lot easier for Spero to put on a happy face when he showed up in Manhattan Federal Court for sentencing in April 1995. Originally charged with murder, he was convicted of loansharking and given two years. This week, Spero knew going in that he would be sentenced to die in prison for ordering three gangland style slayings a decade ago, and the 73-year-old wiseguy played the tough guy right to the end. Dressed in drab prison blues, Spero smiled broadly and waved at relatives and friends, including many who have showed up to support him since his |
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three years ago. He stood impassively as Brooklyn Federal Judge Edward Korman sentenced
him to life in prison. "The case," said Korman, "highlighted -- at least for me, because I hadn't actually fully appreciated it -- the extent to which young men are lured into this life where they become cannon fodder to be killed or to kill, with people like Mr. Spero benefiting from it." Korman also fined him $250,000 and ordered him to pay about $7000 in restitution for the funeral expenses of one of his victims, Louis Tuzzio, who was killed on his way to what he hoped would be his induction into the family. Spero also ordered the execution of Vincent Bickelman, a neighborhood drug addict who burglarized his daughter Jill's Bath Beach, Brooklyn apartment, and the murder of Paul Gulino, a wannabe wiseguy who stupidly spoke of killing Spero for slighting him. Unlike most racketeering convictions, Spero was nailed without the help of any tape recorded conversations or direct testimony from turncoats who |
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said they heard or saw Spero order the murders of any of the three victims. Prosecutors
James Walden, Greg Andres and Chris Blank used a motley crew of
killers and drug-abusing
drug dealers who testified that other crew members told them that they either heard Spero
order a killing or learned
To paint him as a lifelong mobster, they used former Luchese acting boss Alfonse (Little Al) D'Arco (left) and photos of Spero hobnobbing with wiseguys at clubs, wakes and weddings for decades, including the spectacular Dec. 9, 1984 wedding reception of Victoria Gotti and Carmine Agnello. At trial, and at his sentencing, lawyer Gerald Shargel portrayed Spero as a loving father and grandfather who spent his days on Bath Avenue raising champion racing pigeons and playing pinochle in social clubs. In the end, the jury and judge were convinced that Spero was a lifelong gangster who had taken an oath of allegiance to a Mafia family, had used it to his advantage at least three times and could handle the consequences that came along with it. |
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| Mind Games | |||||
 Mobster
Joseph Benanti was Anthony Spero's go-to-guy for many of the years that he ruled the roost
along Bath Avenue. Benanti, now 67, served as Spero's buffer and bagman with the young
wannabes who were dealing drugs and doing the dirty work for the Bonanno consigliere. When push came to shove 18 months ago, Benanti, like all 18 codefendants, pleaded guilty, admitting a role in the murder of the burglar who broke into Jill Spero's home, a charge that calls for a life sentence. "I said it was okay, your honor. I didn't pull the trigger myself," said Benanti, who is scheduled to be sentenced next week. Today, Benanti, has allegedly been hit by the same epidemic of mental illness that seems to have afflicted more and more wiseguys -- Luchese capo Joey Flowers Tangorra and Gambino soldier Agnello to name two --since fictitious New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano began seeing a shrink. In Benanti's case, however, his lawyer David Stern is looking for a lenient sentence on the grounds that Benanti "will almost definitely" develop "primary degenerative dementia" like Alzheimer's within five years. According to a 21 page report by a state certified social worker, Benanti, a former Marine, suffers heart and other physical ailments and a myriad of emotional problems stemming from growing up in a broken home. He suffers "Mild Cognitive Impairment" (defined as "memory impaired but |
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functioning well") and "chronic dysthymia" (defined as "sadness as
opposed to severe clinical depression") that have gotten worse since he pleaded
guilty and has known he faced the likelihood of life in prison. Rather than stress him out even more, social worker Hillel Bodek and teams of doctors have decided not to alert Benanti of his impending dementia, apparently believing it was best to delude him of that reality. Asked for his positive assets and strengths, Benanti said: "I never really think much about that, to throw bouquets at myself. I'm sincere, loyal, respectful, understanding, trustworthy, honorable. I can say that anyone who gets to know me isn't wasting their time. About weaknesses and negative attributes, he said: "I can't think of any off hand. I don't want to sound like a sterling character, but I can't think of any. If I had one, I'd try to do my best to correct it. I would reach down inside and do what I could to change it." Asked to make three wishes, Benanti demurred: "Wish on one hand and shit on the other and see which you've got more of," he said. "I try not to wish so I don't get disappointed again. If wishes came true, everyone would come out on top." Told to assume that some magical genie could grant them, he said: "Health, wealth and happiness." Here are a few additional Benanti words of wisdom gleaned from 44.5 hours of interviews:
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about the order from another member of his Bath Avenue crew.
