Mafia Commission Trial

The Mafia Commission Trial (February 25, 1985 – November 19, 1986), officially known as United States v. Anthony Salerno, et al., was a criminal trial in New York City, United States. Using evidence obtained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, eleven organized crime figures, including the heads of New York's so-called "Five Families," were indicted by United States Attorney Rudolph Giuliani under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) on charges including extortion, labor racketeering, and murder for hire. The case struck a blow against "The Commission," a loose organization of the New York Mafia organizations that met to resolve disputes or discuss criminal activities, sometimes likened to organized crime's board of directors. Time magazine called this "Case of Cases" possibly "the most significant assault on the infrastructure of organized crime since the high command of the Chicago Mafia was swept away in 1943," and quoted Giuliani's stated intention: "Our approach... is to wipe out the five families."

The initial defendants included:

as well as their subordinates,

Philip Rastelli was granted a separate trial, Aniello Dellacroce died of cancer on December 2, 1985, and Paul Castellano was murdered two weeks later. The remaining eight defendants were found guilty on all 151 counts on November 19, 1986, and were sentenced on January 13, 1987.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had long pursued members of the New York organized crime families through a number of methods, including undercover informants and different types of surveillance.

In the Mafia Commission trial, evidence from a number of "bugs" was crucial to the prosecution's case. The first bug, placed in the home of Gambino crime family boss and Commission chairman Paul "Big Paul" Castellano, revealed many of the Commission's criminal operations, such as the "Concrete Club" in which New York's five families controlled the companies and bidding for all construction contracts involving the use of cement/concrete worth $2,000,000 and over.

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