(With apologies in advance to Edna Buchanan, author of The Corpse had a Familiar Face.)
Lest we forget the murder and mayhem angle within our favorite Figure of Scandal, Jack Abramoff’s never ending story, Friday’s Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel tells us that Adam Kidan, Abramoff’s business partner in the purchase of Sun Cruz Casinos from Gus Boulis, who was gunned down in true Buchanan fashion on the streets of Ft. Lauderdale back in 2001, has had a sudden recollection of the facts surrounding Boulis’ murder.
Wanna know what he says he knows?
In a 2 1/2 hour taped interview given to Ft. Lauderdale police last May 1st, and made public today, Kidan, who’s been nailed on fraud charges, chooses to finger a corpse for Boulis’ murder, saying that John Gurino, a one-time Howard Beach deli owner
. . .sprayed Boulis’ BMW with bullets on Feb. 6, 2001, shortly after the self-made millionaire left his Fort Lauderdale office. Kidan said the plot to kill Boulis was orchestrated by two of the three men now awaiting trial for the murder.
Who knew!? One can speculate that Kidan heard himself saying something like this to the patient policemen taking his interview, “I know that I told everyone I didn’t know anything about the murders, and now I know I know who did it!”
Folks down south are speculating just how Kidan, who’s apparently feeling all fuzzy, warm, and cooperative, will play in the murder trial of the three hapless henchmen: Anthony “Big Tony” Moscatiello, 68; Anthony “Little Tony” Ferrari, 49; and James “Pudgy” Fiorillo, 28. They’re facing the death penalty. Will Kidan help them get it?
It’s unclear how Kidan will figure in the high-profile murder case, or whether prosecutors will call him as a witness.
And exactly who is this deceased John Gurino? Well, exactly isn’t quite clear, but he was at least fond of John Gotti. Enough to take part in the mini-riot outside the courthouse where Gotti got his life sentence back in ’92.
One arrested demonstrator, Richard Valley, 20 is an associate of Junior Gotti who frequents his social club, and another, Joseph Gotti, 22, is Junior’s cousin. A third, John Gurino, is a Howard Beach deli owner whose acquittal of murder in 1984 earned his then-unknown defense lawyer, Bruce Cutler, a spot next to John Gotti. [emphasis mine]
Notice a pattern here? Murderers get murdered when they’re mob murderers. Hmmm….
Kidan
said he had no role in the murder plot, only learning details after the killing when Moscatiello, an alleged associate of late mob boss John Gotti, and Ferrari confided they were responsible for it.
STOP THE PRESS !!
Will somebody tell me, please, why a mobster would up and confide/confess such a thing? I can’t picture it. And especially at a time when the guy he’s having the intimate soul-baring chat with is currently involved in a tough negotiation with the victim for a floating gambling operation with lots of potential for laundering money!! [Money like certain shady donations to Republican lobbyist (oh, and Kidan business partner in the purchase — remember?) Jack Abramoff.]
I can picture a mob hit man reporting back to the goon who hired him that the job was done, if imperfectly, which is apparently what Moscatiello and Ferrari were doing.
Moscatiello admitted the murder didn’t go off as planned, Kidan said.
“(Moscatiello said) the plan was to kidnap and kill him and bury him somewhere and that he would never be found,” Kidan said.
Well, that may have been Kidan’s plan. And instructions. Too bad Boulis wouldn’t pull over his Beamer, cooperate, get out of his car, and go with Little Tony to wherever. All this could have blown over. Who knows, Tom DeLay might not have had to leave his buddies in the House; all those associates of his could continue to take Scottish golfing holidays; and numerous politicians wouldn’t have had to dump their filthy lucre so suddenly on unsuspecting charities in the past tax year.
Ahhh, the fickle finger of Fate moves in mysterious ways when you get nailed and decide to cooperate with the law. Suppose Jack’s sweating and squirming at the thought of his former friend’s refreshed memory?
Oh, and how did poor John Gurino meet his end? Gunned down in a Ft. Lauderdale deli by the owner, Ralph Liotta, who claimed self-defense. Apparently Liotta was threatened by Gurino who’d loaned him $26,000 so he could open his deli. When Liotta didn’t pay back the loan as promptly as Gurino would have wished, and when Gurino paid him a visit (presumably to collect), Liotta shot him dead.
Too many delis spoil the mob.
* Notes for the dedicated afficianados of the Abramoff Scandal:
- It tickles me pink that “Little Tony” Ferrari was the wheel man in Boulis’ murder, according to Kidan’s belief. Hee hee!
- And isn’t it simply fascinating that Kidan’s own mother was killed in a mob-connected (Bonanno crime family as opposed to Gambino crime family — Gotti’s mob) robbery in 1993?
- And “Big Tony” Moscatiello is allegedly an FBI informant! Could it get any better?
- Finally, for the best summary of this murder for hire/Abramoff scandal, read, “Money, Mobsters, Murder” by Matthew Continetti.
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Diary also appears at that Orange Place
