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He and his relatives, who were in court for his final reckoning, were hoping for a five year prison sentence like the one superstar mob turncoat Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano had received.

Mazza had blown the whistle on an FBI supervisor, testified at three mob trials and spent nearly five years in jail in the process.

In late 1993, he agreed to testify about the 1991-1992 Colombo family war that left 10 dead and a bunch of others wounded. He had killed three rival hoods during the bloody internecine mayhem.  With a total of four hits on his resume, he compared himself favorably with Gravano and other mob informers in tape recorded telephone conversations he had with his relatives from jail.

"I seen what other guys got in here," Mazza told his brother on June 19, 1994. "How could they give me more. They gotta know I'm a better person, and I'm giving as much as anybody's given, including Sammy the Bull. You know, he had the big name, but I can give (up) a boss.... I'm doing everything I can."

Still, he was no Sammy Bull, as a Gang Land butcher or as a prosecution witness. Gravano outgunned Mazza 19 to 4, and from the witness stand, he put away 39, compared to Mazza's five.

He lost again last month. In a secret session where family members and federal prosecutors sang his praises, Brooklyn Federal Judge Charles Sifton sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

Mazza was stunned by the double digit jail term.

"He was not happy, but he's dealing with it," said one Gang Land source. 

Despite rave reviews from prosecutors in their sentencing memo, Mazza had become a liability after taped jailhouse remarks he made after his first trial were given to defense lawyers.  Among other things, Mazza told his relatives that federal prosecutors have more power than President Clinton, that jurors were stupid, and that trial Judge Sifton liked him "a lot."

Defense lawyers played those statements at two later trials of eight defendants charged with murder and racketeering and all were acquitted, including capos Alphonse Persico (left) and William (Wild Bill) Cutolo.

A former delivery boy in Brooklyn, Mazza grew up to be a mob hitman after he was seduced by a mobster's common law wife, and his secret lover, Linda Schiro, introduced him to her husband, capo Gregory Scarpa.

Mazza was 18 and Schiro was 30 when he began the torrid affair which he said was based on "love ... not merely sex." It started in 1979 when he showed up at her home with her grocery order from a local supermarket, according to his testimony at his debut as a federal witness. He and Scarpa (right) hit it off too, and Mazza became a member of Scarpa's crew. 

Eventually, said Mazza, Scarpa learned of the affair and didn't bat an eyelash. "He told me he wouldn't take anything away from Linda that she wanted. He loved her too much and he knew how she felt about me and how I felt about her."

The Daily News reported the story, which sort of upset Mazza's parents.

But Mazza told his mom that the story was a positive development: "The article that came out was good. It showed how I started out one way and wound up with the Devil."

Looking anything but elegant in prison issue blues and matching sneakers, the gray haired and goateed Tomasello put on a happy face, pleaded not guilty, and heard Sifton set a trial date for next June. Tomasello is charged in five slayings of rival gangsters from Dec. 6, 1991 to May 22, 1992. He faces life in prison.  

While on the lam for six years, Joe T. obviously paid attention to the goings on during the Colombo war trials. He retained lawyer James LaRossa, who won acquittals for two defendants in war trials.

ASK ANDY
This week, Andy, seen posing with one of his all time favorite books, "Mob Star," answers a query from Scott, a Gang Land follower looking for a primer about the Montreal mob.

The Montreal mob is actually a crew of the New York based Bonanno Family. At present, the crew chief or capo is Nicolo Rizzutto, a native Sicilian. He rode his way to the top through his heroin connections.

His predecessor was a Paulo Violi who came from the Calabrian wing of the organization. Unfortunately for Violi, he had no drug connections and it just so happened that the Bonanno boss at the time was a major drug trafficker and a Sicilian to boot, Carmine (Lillo) Galante. More unfortunately, Violi wasn't sharp enough to see where the power was, and complained to Galante about the Sicilian faction's failures to keep him informed about their drug dealings. Rizzutto supporters killed Violi in the mid 1970's and Rizzuto has been in charge ever since.

The Montreal Sicilians were less interested in the traditional money makers -- gambling, loansharking, extortion and labor racketeering. The drug money was fabulous and there was little need to get down to the street level. Authorities finally caught on to Rizzutto and his associates and have been hounding them for decades with some success.

Rizzutto was arrested at his house in Venezuela on Feb 8, 1988. He was charged with cocaine possession and trafficking. He was convicted of coke  possession and served five years in the slammer. He returned to Montreal on in 1993 where he was met by his son Vito and other relatives. He lives quietly in Montreal and at 74, is still the Boss. His son Vito is his top aide.

In addition to La Cosa Nostra, the Montreal underworld includes members of the Sicilian Mafia and the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, as well as French Canadian gangsters, violent bikers, Vietnamese gangsters, Nigerian con men, and English drug dealers known as the West End Gang. Until the mid to late 1970's, authorities did not understand this milieu and thought that the Cosa Nostra Capo, Vic Cotroni, controlled much more than he actually did.

Books, by Andy

TO KILL THE IRISHMAN by RICK PORRELLO

Amazon     $22.59

Rick Porrello provides a valued service to mob watchers with his second
book, TO KILL THE IRISHMAN. Like his first effort, THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CLEVELAND MAFIA, the focus is on the Cleveland Family and its internal turmoil. Most of the popular Mafia books have concentrated on New York and Chicago while the smaller mob cities have had less attention with the fairly recent exception of the violent Philadelphia group. Porrello details the 1970's mob war in Cleveland which was highlighted by the bombing death of colorful Danny Greene, a rival to the established Cosa Nostra Family lead by James Licavoli.

Porrello argues that Greene's murder was a major factor in the national decline of Cosa Nostra. The thesis is interesting and worthy of some consideration even though the successful federal attack on the Mafia was the sum of many parts. Finding a starting point in Cleveland is debatable.

For those who love mob charts, Porrello provides four: Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Cleveland. The 1980's lineups are pretty accurate and give names of gangsters who are not that well known to the average mob follower.

There are, however, a few small factual errors. As he did in his first book, Porrello states that Cleveland Boss Frank Milano was one of the original Commission members, as turncoat Cleveland underboss Anthony Lonardo testified in 1986 at the Commission trial. The aging Lonardo was mistaken, however. In addition, Porrello messes up the list of the 24 Cosa Nostra Families. He incorrectly places three families in Canada and misidentifies a couple of U.S. Mafia cities. These errors are minor and do not detract from his examination of the Cleveland mob.

Porrello uses a chronological technique to present his material and includes a portfolio of pictures that are not for the squeamish. His book is a fast read and a good source of Cosa Nostra lore.

Gang Land is an authorized affiliate of Amazon.com.  If  you decide to purchase Andy's recommended books online - or for that matter, any other books, videos, software or other products - please use a Gang Land link to Amazon.com, the Godfather of online booksellers.