Dominick Montiglio - Post-Vietnam Organized Crime Career

Post-Vietnam Organized Crime Career

Dominick claims he left Vietnam in 1968 and was shortly thereafter informed by an Army physician that he would be unable to continue parachuting due to a knee injury allegedly suffered in combat. Montiglio decided to leave the Army after learning of this and served out the rest of his enlistment period assigned to the Military Police, as an "MP", at Fort Bragg. While still serving out his enlistment, Montiglio took his first step towards organized crime when he helped his uncle Nino use dynamite to blow up the porch of a dentist who had insulted Nino's wife.

He was honorably discharged from the Army in December 1968 and spent a short time at Dade County College in Miami before temporarily moving back to New York and working a series of jobs provided by his uncle. In December 1971 he got married and left for San Francisco with his wife. The couple settled in Berkeley, where Dominick again dabbled in the music business with little success.

In 1972 he and his wife went to see The Godfather, a movie that Montiglio claims changed his entire outlook on life. The couple soon moved back to New York and moved in with his uncle Nino, Dominick accepting a job working for a car service Nino was starting up. It was while working at the car service in 1973 that Dominick was first introduced to an associate of Nino's by the name of Roy DeMeo. Weeks later Dominick accompanied Nino to the Gemini Lounge, where he was introduced to Chris Rosenberg, one of Roy's closest associates.

By 1974, Nino closed his car service and put Dominick in charge of collecting payments from his varied assortment of loanshark customers. Nino also put Dominick in charge of collecting the weekly tributes from the DeMeo Crew, ordering that association with the crew be on a business level only.

In March 1975 Dominick showcased his willingness to murder for his uncle when he assisted Nino and Roy DeMeo with an attempted hit on Vincent Governara, a young man who had feuded with Nino over a decade earlier. Dominick planted a grenade in Governara's car. Intending to 'put a scare' in Governara, he used a concussion grenade (as opposed to a fragmentation grenade, which are designed to kill their target); resulting in a broken leg for the victim. Montiglio's efforts cemented his bond with his uncle.

His next endeavor in the activities of the Gambino family was assisting his uncle with intimidating a witness set to testify against Paul Castellano, a Gambino Captain who was charged with extortion. The intimidation was successful and when the trial date arrived the witness outright refused to testify, securing an acquittal for Castellano. Dominick was also a guest at several meetings over lunch held between Nino, Castellano and Carlo Gambino, the highly respected boss of the family at the time.

Dominick was also occasionally serving as Roy DeMeo's chauffeur, a job that provided him insight into the relationship between DeMeo and Nino Gaggi, who readily accepted money from activities DeMeo was involved in that were considered off-limits to members of the Gambino family, namely drugs and taboo pornography. In January 1976, Montiglio was introduced to DeMeo Crew member Henry Borelli and the two began meeting socially, despite Nino's warning to Dominick that he was supposed to interact with Roy and his men strictly on a business level.

Montiglio's position as liaison between Nino and the DeMeo crew provided him a unique position, allowing him access to various events that few others in the underworld were privy to such as the murder of Joseph Brocchini, who was a made man and was killed without permission, a violation of Mafia code that would mean certain death for Nino and Roy if the slaying were ever traced back to them. Montiglio claims the various instances of blatant rule breaking he witnessed with his uncle and DeMeo began to make him realize that the rules a made man must follow were not taken as seriously as they appeared to be.

In June 1976, Vincent Governara was again targeted by Nino, Roy and Dominick. This time the hit was successful, with Governara being shot and killed by Nino and Roy as Dominick watched. He claims that although he had a firearm and was originally ordered by Nino to perform the hit, at the last minute his uncle instead decided that he and Roy would handle it. Witness testimony from those present at the Bensonhurst crime scene at the time of the shooting corroborated Montiglio's claims, as all interviewed who witnessed the shooting claimed that they did not see the youngest man fire his weapon.

As 1976 continued, Dominick found himself put in charge of more of his uncle's loanshark collections, through which he met and befriended Matthew Rega, the relative of a Genovese mobster and associate of the DeMeo crew. Dominick also befriended Danny Grillo, a new DeMeo crew member who was primarily involved in hijacking trucks delivering shipments to and from the John F. Kennedy International Airport. Like Henry Borelli, Dominick began meeting with Grillo socially and their families became close friends.

In late 1976, Carlo Gambino died and a new boss of the Gambino family had to be elected. It was a tense situation, with two separate factions within the family each supporting their own choices. One was Aniello Dellacroce, longtime Underboss and highly respected member of the Family dating back to the days of Albert Anastasia. The other was Paul Castellano, the Captain who had close ties with Nino Gaggi and thus had the support of Dominick and the DeMeo Crew as well.

A sitdown, or meeting, was scheduled at Gaggi's house between the two candidates for the throne and Dominick claims that he was stationed as a sniper in an upstairs window of the house with orders to gun down the Dellacroce emissaries should the meeting lead to violence. Castellano was quickly given the position of boss however and hostilities were avoided. Additionally, Dominick's uncle Nino was promoted to Captain, heading the crew that was previously under the command of Castellano.

In 1977 he was working as an insurance agent and appraiser for an insurance firm that was secretly managed by Anthony Gaggi in New York City. As an insurance salesman and appraiser Dominick was involved in fraud. During this time he continued to associate with the DeMeo crew, although by 1977 it was not entirely on a business level. He was involved in a large brawl that took place at a catering hall that summer when Roy got in an argument with a waiter and struck him in the face for showing disrespect. Dominick was also regularly meeting with Henry Borelli and Danny Grillo for drinks at Manhattan bars.

His close association with these crew members gave him insight into Roy and crew's activities, such as their by now infamous reputation for violence and murder. Because he was the go-between with Nino and Roy, he was also witness to Nino's aggravation at being unable to control Roy, who had been made earlier that year for organizing an alliance between the Gambino family and the Westies, a predominantly Irish-American gang that dominated the Hell's Kitchen area of New York City. Nino had promised the new boss Paul Castellano, who had previously opposed the idea of inducting Roy into the crime family, that he would control Roy and put a stop to his wanton murdering and uncontrollable behavior.

Nino's efforts were ultimately ineffectual, as Roy's crew continued to kill indiscriminately, even murdering a teenage girl whose only crime was being involved romantically with a man Roy learned was going to testify against the DeMeo crew. This murder in particular reportedly enraged Nino and strained his relationship with Castellano, who already had a strong dislike of Roy and his methods.

The situation intensified when the Westie/Gambino alliance nearly fell through after yet more killing on behalf of the Westies and a DeMeo crew member threatened a conflict between the Gambino Family and the Genovese family. Dominick claims that he was usually present at the sitdowns and clandestine meetings resulting from these situations, where Roy continually escaped any real punishment due to his tremendous earning ability, which served to placate Castellano and Gaggi's anger.

By 1978 Dominick Montiglio was becoming disillusioned with his position as his uncle Nino's errand boy and was constantly refused a raise in pay for his services, which included collecting Nino's loanshark payments, his tributes from the DeMeo Crew and running Nino's food sales company when he was in Florida for months at a time. Roy offered Dominick a role in his crew's many drug activities but Dominick claims Nino vehemently shut down that possibility immediately upon hearing about it.

Dominick did not violate Nino's order to stay away from the drug business but did begin increasingly hanging out with the DeMeo Crew. This association soon ended as the DeMeo Crew's murderous activities continued to increase even further, with Roy now openly offering his crew's services to all of the Five Families as well as to others willing to pay.

Dominick claims that he was disgusted by the constant killing as well as by the crew's method of dismembering the majority of their victims. He claims that one night at a bar, Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter were taunting Henry Borelli due to his inability to stomach the dismembering that by now nearly always followed the murders. Hearing this, Dominick claims he openly voiced his disgust with the crew's methods, declaring their actions worse than any atrocity he allegedly witnessed in Vietnam. This comment, as well as an earlier conflict he had with Chris Rosenberg, Roy's second-in-command, damaged his relationship with the crew and led to him dreading every visit to the Gemini Lounge to collect Nino's weekly payments.

By 1979, Dominick was heavily addicted to cocaine and also suffered from a drinking problem. He was accused by an associate of stealing money from his uncle and was also openly accused of dealing in and being addicted to heroin. These accusations were brought to Paul Castellano, still the boss of the Gambino family at this time. The penalty for dealing drugs, particularly heroin, was death under Castellano's rule.

After a meeting between Paul Castellano and the accuser's father, a made member of another Mafia family, Dominick was informed by his uncle Nino that Castellano had taken his side for the time being and had not believed the claims that Dominick sold heroin. A second meeting, where Dominick and his accuser would be present, was scheduled for a day in December 1979. Dominick's uncle Nino and Roy DeMeo were going to drive him to the location.

By the time the day for the meeting arrived, Dominick's paranoia and drug/alcohol abuse had led him to believe his death had already been ordered and that his uncle and Roy were planning to kill him if he were to drive with them to the meeting. He decided to flee to California with his wife and children, where he would stay until 1983.

While away in California, his uncle Nino falsely claimed to his associates that Dominick had robbed him of a large sum of money and then fled, presumably out of embarrassment for his nephew's actions. Dominick bought an expensive house in an upscale California neighborhood and supported himself and his family through drug deals and at times serving as a bodyguard and enforcer for other drug dealers. He was arrested after a botched armed robbery attempt but was released after his wife provided him with an alibi.