Angelo Ruggiero - The Tapes

The Tapes

Citing Wilfred Johnson, Jame Cardinali, Mark Reiter and George Yudzevich, FBI informants, the FBI's "Gambino Squad" in Queens, New York received permission from the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. to seek a wiretap order on Angelo's home phone which was granted November 9, 1981. They were investigating loansharking and illegal gambling, but soon turned their attention towards the trafficking of heroin. The tapped telephone in Angelo's home was listed in his daughter Princess Ruggiero's name. It was singled out because he had told informants it was "safe". They said that Angelo, only a few months after the Bergin wiretapping from Queens officials, was openly discussing on the phone the loansharking and gambling rackets that he, John Gotti and Gene Gotti operated.

In its initial request to wiretap the telephone, the FBI listed Peter Gotti and Richard Gotti as loanshark collectors and stated that Angelo was a "known murderer who would, without question, seek physical retribution and possibly murder a shylock victim who is unable to pay his debts." Somehow Angelo found out that agents had been listening to him and went into hiding. The affidavit caused panic and deception within the Dellacroce–Gotti faction regime and the Paul Castellano loyalists in the Gambino crime family, whose titular boss equated drug dealing with death. Somehow, sometime in late June 1985, the Bergin crew finally demonstrated it could get accurate information. Angelo obtained a pasted-together version of the last of the FBI's six Angelo electronic-surveillance affidavits. The notes told him that FBI Agent John Conroy was not all he cracked himself up to be and that attorney Michael Coiro was not wired into the Eastern District as he imagined. Critically, the FBI working papers confirmed the depth of the probe, and that it was supported by a three-bug invasion of his home. Sources advised Angelo Ruggiero became scared to death because he had been lying systematically to Paul Castellano and his uncle Aniello Dellacroce insofar as he had constantly told them that he had not been dealing in drugs by himself, by merely cleaning up loose ends of his brother Salvatore's narcotics operation.

On December 1, 1984 the Angelo wiretap was removed because he moved from Howard Beach, Queens to Cedarhurst, New York, to a house he was having renovated. Angelo told informants it was a good move for him and that the FBI would not know where he lived. In fact, pen registers at the Our Friends Social Club had disclosed several calls to his home in Cedarhurst and FBI agents were watching on the day Angelo moved in. The agents had increased physical surveillance of Angelo and John Gotti, suspecting they might be dealing drugs. Despite Angelo's growing uneasiness and despite his efforts to discuss matters in code, evidence of narcotics trafficking began to grow around him mostly from his tape recorded telephone conversations with drug traffickers Alphonse Sisca and Arnold Squitieri.

On April 17, 1984 he met with Jack Conroy. Jack Conroy was an associate who said he had a source who worked at the telephone company, which is notified when phones are being legally tapped, and he could find out who authorized the taps. A week later, he told Angelo this would cost $1,000- $800 for his telephone company source and $200 each for he and his partner. Angelo agreed. In a few days, Conroy delivered a bill of goods. He said the taps were legal because of a March 18 federal court order in the Southern District of New York, which is Manhattan and the Bronx. This invention caused Angelo to speculate that he was only peripherally involved in an investigation aimed at someone else. Just in case, however, he told Conroy, who had just suckered Angelo out of $1,000, that he would get some other telephone numbers for him to check. No problem, Conroy told Ruggiero. Jack Conroy was really an undercover FBI agent who was posing as a telephone repairman.

Angelo at the time the indictments were being prepared seemed to not be worried of the outcome of the trial. He spent $40,000 on remodeling his home in Cedarhurst and was overheard saying, "the bugs in this house were a bunch of bullshit and nothing is coming." His confidence later seemed ridiculous, even to his confederates. In court one day, John Carneglia stated: "Dial any seven numbers and there's a fifty-fifty chance Angelo will answer the phone."

After Paul was arrested for racketeering and other crimes, he learned for the first time that his home had been bugged by the FBI, and that the Ruggiero tapes were the legal basis for it. Paul went to Angelo's uncle, Aniello Dellacroce and demanded him to give over the tapes. Dellacroce tried to placate Paul Castellano, saying that there were many personally embarrassing moments on the tapes that Angelo did not want anyone to hear. He said that he wanted the tapes not to justify murdering him, but for his lawyers who were trying to suppress the introduction of his own tapes in the upcoming 1985 Mafia Commission Trial. In ensuing sessions between Ruggiero, Gotti and Dellacroce, Ruggiero remained adamant about not giving up the tapes. He accused his uncle of betrayal for even entertaining the thought. He told his lawyers he would kill them if they gave up the tapes.

Sammy Gravano stated, "I didn't know till later that the bug on him gave the government the OK, the right legally, to bug Paul (Paul Castellano)'s house. It was Angie's big mouth. I mean, he's caught on tape all over the fucking place. His tapes, the tape with Gerry Lang (Gennaro Langella) and Donnie Shacks (Dominick Martomorano). You name it and Angie's on tape. And always talking about stuff that he ain't supposed to be even mentioning to anybody. We find out about the tapes on Angie when he was arrested. And they eventually would become a major fucking problem. Ultimately, people would say these tapes and what was on them probably led to Paul's downfall. But what really led to it was also a lot of things he was doing that people in the family were against, and when the time came, when it came down the wire, this was why me and Frank DeCicco and the other guys went along with it. Right then though, Angie's tapes had nothing to do with me whatsoever. I was never at Angie's house. I'm not on any of his tapes in any way, shape or form. That was all Angie's problem. John Gotti's problem. And Paul's."