Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 14

2nd cd. 4lhcJ. 3rd 5 th cd, A6 THE HARTFORD COURANT: Tuwdoy, Orfobw 30, 1990 A BREAKTHROUGH FROM WEIGHT WATCHERS At least 3 believed buried in secret grave in Hamden Continued from Page 1 OUR NEW MIX MATCH MENU PLANNER I I LETS YOU CHOOSE THE The discovery of the secret grave is perhaps the most startling development in a 3-year-old, New England-wide investigation of organized crime carried out jointly by state and federal authorities. In March, authorities fanned out over Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts and arrested 22 members of the Patriarca organized crime family, including boss Raymond A. Patriarca, on racketeering charges.

Two of those arrested were John F. "Sonny" Castagna and his son, Jack Johns, both of Hartford. During the summer, Johns and Castagna pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the continuing investigation in an effort to avoid lengthy prison sentences. Since July, information provided by Castagna and Johns, either jointly EASIEST WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT HERE; HERE, HERE. WEIGHT WATCHERS FOODS HOME COOKING EATING OUT or singly, led to indictment in August of four men in connection with the slaying of William "The Wild Guy" Grasso of New Haven, the former un- Once in the garage, Caruana opened the trunk of his Cadillac, revealing the body believed to be that of Burns.

There was twine wrapped around Burns' neck. Letters seized from Caruana's residence have caused federal agents to suspect that Caruana suspected Burns, his one-time associate, of having an affair with his wife. Grasso stripped Burns' body of its clothing, and the men dumped it in a 6-foot-deep hole that had been dug. Someone spread two bags of lime over the body, and Beedle covered it with soil. It took Johns about a month after he began cooperating with authorities to find Beedle's garage.

Day after day, agents drove him around the New Haven area, looking for the building; Johns found it Friday. U.S. Attorney Stanley A. Twardy Jr. and Milt Ahlerich, head of the FBI's Connecticut office, said Monday that someone tried to remove evidence of the bodies before the grave site was located by Johns.

They said someone apparently reopened the graves and removed larger bones. However, inspection of the graves by the state police major crime squad recovered small bones, Ahlerich said. Ahlerich said Monday it had not been determined whose remains, besides those of Burns, were found. But participants in the investigation have speculated the bodies could be those of Caruana, East Hartford restaurateur William Grant and Salvatore Annunziato of East Haven. Grant, a former Grasso lieutenant in the Hartford area, disappeared in 1988 after mob colleagues began to suspect he was an informant, authorities have said.

Annunziato, once a powerful figure in the Connecticut underworld, disappeared in 1979, about the time Grasso consolidated his control of the New Haven and Hartford area rackets. When he was arrested, Beedle denied knowing bodies were buried in his garage, but volunteered to the FBI that because he once owed Grasso a favor, he permitted Grasso to use his garage and gave him a key. Authorities said the favor involved Beedle's arrest in the early 1970s for stealing an expensive wristwatch from a prominent New Haven figure during the holdup of an illegal gambling club. Grasso supposedly arranged a meeting of witnesses who subsequently testified that Beedle was not involved. Beedle also suggested the bodies could have been removed without his knowledge.

He said he and his wife received a free trip to Atlantic City four months ago. When he returned, he said, he noticed evidence of someone digging in his garage. Beedle was convicted of a bank robbery in the early 1970s in Pennsylvania with notorious Connecticut bank robber Edward M. "Eddie" Devlin. However, he was later acquitted after winning an appeal.

He also has been convicted of burglary and larceny. He has run a locksmith shop from his home for 15 years. Law enforcement documents, including transcriptions of wire tapped conversations, allege that D'Aquila runs lucrative illegal gambling operations in Connecticut for the Patriarca organization. D'Aquila and Beedle face 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines if convicted of the accessory charges, Twardy said. In addition, D'Aquila faces another 60 years in prison and $700,000 in fines as a result of his arrest after the March, New England-wide mob indictments.

I (,) i i I i i I I I I I i 7 I i i I I I I f- i A I (I. 1 a 1 .11 I ff, i I i i I i L- 7 1 4 f- r. njriER -'1 derboss, or sec- D'Aquila ond in command, of the Patriarca organization. Grasso was shot once in the back of the neck and dumped in the Connecticut River in June 1989. Castagna and Johns implicated themselves in the murder, but were given immunity from prosecution for their cooperation.

The information also led to discovery of the grave site in the garage behind Beedle's combination home and locksmith shop in Hamden. Johns led investigators to the grave and admitted helping to bury one of the bodies. He received Immunity from prosecution for participation in the burial. Johns told investigators he helped bury only one body, believed to be that of Ted Burns, an associate of a Boston-area mob drug-smuggler. FBI affidavits show that Johns met with Grasso at a grocery store on the Berlin Turnpike before burying Burns' body, on a Sunday evening in August, probably in 1986.

At the grocery store, Johns and Grasso met D'Aquila and drove in D'Aquila's car to a shopping plaza in the New Haven area, where they met Salvatore Caruana. Caruana, who is from the Boston area, was the head of a major Patriarca family drug-smuggling ring that employed about 100 people, authorities have said. He personally earned $15 million from smuggling about 50 tons of marijuana and hashish into New England between 1979 and 1981, authorities said. Caruana was charged with smuggling in 1984, but jumped a $500,000 bail. He has been a fugitive since 1984 and has been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list for 10 years.

In the mid-1980s, Caruana lived secretly in East Hampton under the alias John Hurley. Caruana barely escaped capture at a Cromwell restaurant in February 1987. Some investigators believe he has since been slain. The affidavits charge that Grasso spoke privately with Caruana at the New Haven shopping center. Then, all four drove to a Hamden doughnut shop where they met Beedle.

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