Dominick Napolitano - Biography - Death

Death

The order came down to kill Napolitano for allowing such a breach in Mafia security. On August 17, 1981, he was summoned to a meeting in the basement of Bonanno associate Ron Filocomo's home in Flatlands, Brooklyn. Knowing that he would be killed, Napolitano gave his jewelry to his favorite bartender, who worked below his apartment at the Motion Lounge, along with the keys to his apartment so that his pet pigeons could be cared for. Bonanno capo Frank Lino and Steven Cannone drove Napolitano to the house of Filocomo and Frank Coppa, who was also present. Napolitano was pushed down the staircase in Filocomo's basement and shot to death by Filocomo and Lino with .38 caliber revolvers. When the first shot misfired, Napolitano told them, "Hit me one more time and make it good".

Napolitano's girlfriend Judy later contacted Pistone and told him that, shortly before his death, Napolitano had told her that he bore no ill will towards Pistone, knowing that Pistone was only doing his job, and that if anyone was responsible for taking him down, he was glad it was Pistone. She said that Napolitano really loved Pistone and was broken up when he found out he was an agent. Napolitano could not believe that Pistone was an agent because of the "things we had done together, the conversations we'd had, the feelings we'd had."

In August, FBI surveillance noticed workmen dismantling Napolitano's pigeon coops atop the Motion Lounge. On August 12, 1982, a body was found at South Avenue and Bridge Street in Arlington, Staten Island, New York; the corpse's hands were severed and the face was so badly decomposed that dental records were required to verify the identity. The FBI announced that it had found the corpse of Dominick Napolitano. In 2000, however, they publicly revealed doubts about whether the corpse was correctly identified.

In 2003, Bonanno boss Joseph Massino was arrested and charged with a variety of crimes, with the case centering around the murder of Napolitano. At Massino's trial, prosecutors claimed that Napolitano was killed by his associates for allowing his crew to be compromised, and that his hands had been removed as a warning to other mobsters to follow the rule about proper introductions (the association of shaking hands when being introduced to someone). Massino was convicted in 2004.

In 2006, Frank Lino and Frank Coppa turned state's evidence, providing authorities with the details of Napolitano's murder. Although the FBI were reasonably sure that the body found in Staten Island was Napolitano, one discrepancy existed: Lino claimed that he and Filocomo shot Napolitano with .38 caliber revolvers and that he himself had fired more than once. But the corpse only had one bullet wound, apparently made by a .45 caliber pistol. Coppa later said that Napolitano "died like a man". Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Queens. Pistone expressed some regret over Napolitano's fate; "My intention in all of this was to put people in jail, not get them killed."