The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 56

Boston Sunday Glob August 1, 1971 'Gambling is ihc standby and ibc foundation If you could crush gambling, you I Mould put the mob out of business incent Teresa speaks crime 56 of 10 generally call it "the mob." New young people who become members call it "the outfit." In Providence, which is headquarters for New England, they call it "the office." It has many different names the "organization," the "syndicate," and a number of uary 1969, I went with Frank Cangiano to an empty apartment in a building in Brooklyn and spent approximately five hours going through a closet full of stolen securities. After going through these securities, I took $5 million worth of Gulf and Western Industries stock which was part of a multi-million theft from JFK International Airport. Shortly after that I left New York City and returned to the Boston area. mi. drop for stolen merchandise.

In the spring of 1952, I joined with Herbie Serino, Al Judd, also known as Al Georgio, and Bobby Daddi-eco, and we started a phony check operation using stolen Massachusetts drivers' licenses and cashing checks in supermarkets and department stores in the Boston area which netted a couple of grand a week for myself and my three partners. Bobby Daddieco and I held up the Khoury's State Spa Bar in Somerville, Massachusetts. This was an armed robbery in which two pistols and a shotgun were used. During the robbery, Bobby whacked one of the customers on the head with the shotgun butt causing both barrels to fire and the charges went through the ceiling. For this offense, Judd and Daddieco were caught and convicted and received 9-15 years at Walpole State Prison.

I was not named as a defendant in this matter as the State's Attorney could not prove my involvement in it. In the fall of 1952, 1 was picked up after somebody ratted on me about the phony check scheme. I pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years with the sentence suspended and I was placed on probation for two years. In the fall and winter of 1952, I was engaged in three bank robberies with Al Judd and six other indi- (Following re excerpts from the testimony given by Vincent C. Teresa before the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee list Tuesday.

The excerpts concentrate on those parts of his statement not previously covered by The Globe.) I am Vincent Charles Teresa. 1 was born in Revere, Massachusetts, on November 28, 1928. My parents were Cosmo and Mary Teresa. I am one of two children. Until the third grade, I attended school in Revere and then completed my schooling until the ninth grade at Medford when I was asked to quit for fighting and gambling.

When I was in the seventh grade, I got into trouble for the burglary of the North End Meat Market in Medford, Massachusetts. I got picked up by the law and went to Juvenile Court in Maiden. I received one year's probation in the custody of my parents. I went back to school and I was gambling all the time, playing cards in the basement, and committed other burglaries. After I got kicked out of school at the age of 15, having finished the ninth grade, I went to work for the Royal Tomato Packing Company in Boston as a tomato packer.

I used to hop on the back of trolley cars to save the nickel fare. I was making $12 a week. I worked there until I was elmost 17 and then I went into the service, but in the meantime I robbed the tomato plant. We were knocking over different places, drugstores, cleaning stores, and other businesses. We did all right from the tomato company.

We got about $1500. Nov. 29, 1945, I to me. Karger took $4000 for himself and his lawyer with a commitment from me that he would get additional money when the bonds were sold. The $22,000 was divided as follows: $4500 to Jack Mace and Artie Todd, $3000 to Chiotti, $3000 to Chivalo, $1000 to Joan Harvey and $10,000 to me.

Karger was indicted on this charge and pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years. Chivalo received five years. Chiotti and Jack Mace received 10 years. In. January or February of 1969, while I was in Miami, Tony Pullio from Chicago arranged to have a fellow named Jerry from Brooklyn bring a lot of stock to Florida.

I looked it over and picked out about $43,000 worth of American Express Company stock, plus a few other items. Dave Iacavetti, Bobby Cardillo, Willie Phil Wagenheim, and I discussed how to handle the situation. We decided to open an account in a brokerage house in the name that was on the stock certificates. We knew an employee in the brokerage house. I signed the account forms, and the certificates.

In April of 1969, we received the checks for the sale of the stock, totaling $43,000 and we cashed the checks in a bank near the brokerage house, receiving all the cash in $100 bills. We whacked it up among ourselves, including a good slice for the brokerage house employee. Recently I testified in a trial relating to that matter, and there were five convictions: Tony Pullio, Dave Iacavetti, Bobby Cardillo, Willie Dentamore, and Phil Wagenheim. The case of the brokerage employee is pending. They wanted to know if I could move them.

Skinny Freddy has a big connection in two or three different joints an Wall Street where he gets his stocks and bonds. One place where he was well connected was Hayden Stone and Company. In fact, most of the stuff he gets he disposes of through customers in Montreal, Canada, and the Bahamas, and he 'makes frequent trips carrying shopping bags filled with stolen stocks and bonds. After knowing that I had these bonds at my disposal, I called Stewart Harrison and told him a friend of mine got hit for a number and needed fast cash and that he had the bonds but didn't want to cash them himself because he didn't want the IRS to know. I told Harrison if he would cash them, I would get him $12,000.

He asked if he could ask Joe Schwartz. Harrison called me back the next day and said to send them down because he could get a $30,000 loan from the bank in Baltimore. I gave the bonds to Danny and Freddy Sarno. They went down to Baltimore and turned the bonds over to Harrison. Harrison went downstairs and came back with a check for $30,000 or $30,000 in cash.

They called me and I told Harrison to take $8000 and in a week he would get the balance of $4000. He gave $22,000 to Danny to give to me. I gave $11,000 to Freddy and Bobby Cardillo for the price of the bonds. The other $11,000 Joe Black, Danny and I whacked up. After this I knew Harrison could move bonds so I called Jack Mace to see if he had any merchandise that we could shoot to this guy.

Mace had $253,000 in US Treasury bearer bonds. "There is one Jbg gang that runs orga" nized crime in this country. We generally call it 'the mob'." Upon my release on the loan sharking charge, I moved to" the Cape Cod area and together with Joey Palladino opened a restaurant and cocktail lounge called Chez Joey. This restaurant and cocktail lounge remained in operation for approximately three years, during which time it served as a base for loan sharking, gambling, and as a drop point for stolen merchandise. During this time, I was engaged in numerous breaking and entering efforts in the Cape Cod area and in the Portland, Bangor, and Lewis-ton, Maine, areas.

The proceeds from these included $1.2 million worth of jade which we were unable to dispose of and which was finally recovered by the FBI, a $100,000 coin collection which we sold for approximately $20,000, and other itmes including furs, jewelry, and so forth. The restaurant and night club, Chez Joey, was popular visiting place for al members of the New England mob and was visited frequently by Raymond Patriarca, Henry Tameleo, Buttsy Morrelli, and others. During this time, 1957-1963, I was engaged in the knocking over of fur shops and warehouses and turned over the proceeds for disposal to Henry Tameleo. Tameleo always acted as a fence and handled furs, jewelry, and anything else I gave him. In 1959, I moved from the Cape area and purchased a house in Somerville.

In the spring of 1959, I went to work for one of my wife's uncles driving an over-the-road trailer between Boston and New Jersey. This job lasted approximately 4-5 months and I suffered a heart attack at this time. While employed by my wife's uncle, I was involved in a theft of a trailer load of liquor which was disposed of in New Jersey by myself and for which I received approximately $6000. Again, most of the funds realized from this theft went to pay part of my loans from Visconti which I had incurred as a result of my gambling. In 1960, I opened up a delicatessen in Somerville, which also functioned as a front for stolen merchandise and a numbers and gambling drop for Joey Palladino.

In 1961-62, I was primarily engaged in a book-making, gambling, and loan sharking operation with the Palladinos and Bobby Visconti and was handling stolen merchandise, fencing it through Henry Tameleo. During this time, I maintained all my contacts constantly with the mob element in the Boston, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island, areas. In 1963, together with Al Fifi, Joseph Puzzangara and Jimmy Coine, we successfully burglarized, on two occasions, a fur shop and realized approximately $63,000 from the disposal of these furs through Henry Tameleo. During this time, we were also involved in knocking over 15-20 specialty shops for women's clothes and disposing of this tuff, again through Henry Tameleo. In the meantime, (1968), Freddy Sarno and Bobby Cardillo had received $53,000 worth of stolen Jefferson County School Bonds from Skinny Freddy Guarino of New York City.

"I went to an empty apartment and spent approximate ly five hours going through a closet full of stolen securities I took $5 million worth I turned over the $5 million in Gulf and Western stock to a man named Ber-nie who was in the air conditioning business in Somerville, Massachusetts. He, in turn, turned them over to a man named Antonio from Venezuela with the intention of investing these securities in coffee futures. The deal was this: we gave him $5 million in securities, he in turn would negotiate a deal where we would get $4 million in coffee futures, and the $4 million would be whacked up between Bernie and myself. Shortly after this, I started serving my prison sentence and have no knowledge as to what happened to these securities. In June of 1969, after receiving a telephone call from Jack Mace, I sent Johnny Chivalo and Tony Chiotti to New York City to meet with Jack Mace at his home.

Jack Mace turned over to them $34,000 worth of Treasury bills tin denominations of $1000 and $5000. Mace told me that these bills had just been lifted from a brokerage firm and were still ice cold. I made arrangements with Jerry Meyers to nan- -die the bills and on June 16, 1969, Joe Black, Chiotti, Chivalo, Joan Harvey and I went over to Meyer's office. Meyers and Joan Harvey went to a bank in Boston and came back in about an hour with a receipt for the bills, said that the bills were okay and would be paid the next banking day. The following day when they went to the bank to be paid for the bills, the bank officer turned the bills back to them saying that the bank did not wish to handle them.

I later found out that Meyers had checked with Federal authorities and had been advised that even though the bank had checked and found that the bills had not yet been reported stolen, they had advised Meyers not to get involved in this situation and Meyers made up this cock and bull story that the bank would not handle them. After Meyers could not get rid of the bills, I received a call from Marvin Karger whom I had known for a long time. Karger's father was Julie Karger who was the brother-in-law of Louis Fox, a big racketeer in Revere, Massachusetts. I offered Karger an opportunity to dispose of the $34,000 of stolen Treasury bills which Karger snapped at as he was down on his luck and needed cash. We drove over to Karger's place in Newton, Massachusetts, and I gave one $1000 bill to Karger.

Karger told me that he would attempt to dispose of this through a bank in Brook-line where an attorney friend of his could help him. Karger called the following day and said that the attorney had agreed to handle the bills and Chiotti and Chivalo delivered them to him in Brookline. A couple of hours later, Karger called me back and said that he had used the bills as collateral for a loan of $26,000. Chiotti picked up S22.C00 and delivered it mm over the world, they've gone into legitimate businesses, they've gone into politics, and they pay politicians. What they do with the nickel number is fantastic.

Loan-sharking breeds other crimes, because the poor sucker who is hooked for $1000 plus 5 percent a week interest, eventually is tempted to go commit a crime to get the money stick up a drugstore, or push some heroin, or break into a house, or take a gun and rob a bank. There are only two ways to beat the loan shark. You can die of you can run away. If you come back in 10 years, you'll find that you still owe the principal and the interest that's been piling up for 10 years. The books never close.

"The mob has barrels and barrels of money and it all starts with the man or woman who puts a nickel on the number If you don't die and you stick around, you pay the juice every week you pay the juice. Most of the people who go to loan sharks are gamblers. Sometimes a fellow gets into trouble and has to pay lawyers, and the only way to do it is through loan sharks, or his wife may get sick and he needs the money right away. But mostly they are gamblers. Sometimes one of these guys may get lucky gambling or stealing, and then he can pay off the loan shark, but that doesn't happen too often.

What does happen is that he gets in deep, and he can't pay, and they beat him up. He gets out of the hospital, and they beat him up again. Then he either turns to crime to get the money say he is a truckdriver and starts hijacking trucks or else he runs away. He leaves his wife and his kids and his home and he runs away. There's not much that the law can do about it, unless you go back to what I said before about the gambling.

I talked about the woman who puts a nickel on the number. Break the guy she gives the nickel to, and all the guys like him, and you'll stop the gambling, and the loan-sharking, and the corruption. You'll stop everything if you put the agents on the street out of business. Beyond the gambling, the loan-sharking, the narcotics traffic, the dealing in stolen securities; you come to the legitimate businesses in which the mob puts the money. They go into every business you can imagine.

For example, from what I know, you will find that Jerry Anguilo owns a hospital in the Boston area. He owns a bowling alley and motel that are connected. He and Potriarca owned a golf course in western Massachusetts. I don't know hew many motels and restaurants in the Boston area that they have pieces of say, 25 or 30 percent They havt their fingers in just about cards and selling them as fast as they got them. The made a lot of money.

Bobby Cardillo was one of the busiest of the airline ticket hustlers. In a travel bureau, if you got next to the manager, he'd sell you tickets on stolen credit cards as long as you kept coming in. All you had to do was change the cards every few days, and he would fill ap a barrel with plane tickets for you. Second, we used the stolen and counterfeit credit cards for hotel and restaurant bills, for night clubs, loans, and almost every traveling expense you can think of. Third, we hit jewelry stores, clothing stores, gas stations, tire companies, and almost every kind of retail store that honored credit cards.

Gambling is the single most important activity for organized crime. They control it all over the country and all over the world. It's like a chain link fence that stretches to every place in the world. Gambling is far more important than any other business to the mob. Narcotics may be big in New York with the drugstore gangsters, but in Boston the leaders wouldn't touch it.

Loan-sharking is a big business, but it couldn't exist without the gambling as its base. Securities have been a big money-maker, but maybe that will come to an end now. Gambling is the standby and the foundation. From it comes the corrupt politicians and policemen, the bribes and the payoffs, and sometimes murder. If you could crush gambling, you would put the mob out of business.

You'd have them back on the pushcarts as it was in the old days. There is no bookmaker that can do business by "Loan sharking is a big business, but it couldn't exist without gambling as its base." himself; he couldn't survive. The mob would turn him over to the police, give him a few beatings, or even kill him if he's stubborn. He has to go with them, because they run everything. All the other rackets they are in are secondary to gambling.

They run it all from the housewife that puts a nickel on a number all the way to the casinos in Las Vegas, Monte Carlo, London, Portugal, or the Caribbean Islands. There isn't one casino in the world, outside the Communist countries, that doesn't have the mob involved in some way. Don't pay any attention to the guys who walk around the casinos wearing tuxedos. They check out to be clean and legitimate, but behind them is the mob. The mob has barrels and barrels of money, and it all starts with the man or the woman who puts a nickel on the number at the corner store every day.

Everything starts with the nickel number, and everything else follcws. From that nickel number, they've built casinos all "During this time I was also engaged in anything that came along that looked good and had the promise of a buck." viduals. My end of the three robberies, one in Coolidge Corner, one in Brookline, and one in Cambridge, Massachusetts, netted approximately $10,000 for me. I soon disposed of it in a card game. In 1953, I went to work for the Palladino brothers in Somerville, Massachusetts, supervising a numbers operation in that area for them.

During this time, I was also engaged in anything that came along that looked good and had the promise of a buck- Among these were handling hot merchandise, fixing horse races, breaking and entering business establishments and private homes. In late 1953 and all during 1954, while I was still working for the Palladino brothers and also Bobby Visconti in the bookmaking and numbers rackets, I started moving a sucker named Frank Mitrano, a fuel oil dealer in the Somerville area. The term "moving a sucker" means conning him or fleecing him. Through various phony schemes, I managed to take approximately $75,000 from this man. In 1957 or 1958, 1 was indicted, along with thirteen others, including Joey Palladino and Bobby Visconti, for violation of the Small Loan Act (a Massachusetts state statute on loan sharking and strong arming).

I received a three-year sentence, but this was later reduced to a suspended sentence. In 1955, my uncle, Dom-inick Teresa, also known as Sandy Mac, was a bodyguard for Joseph Lombardi, formerly the boss of the Boston mob. Through my uncle, I was introduced to all the mob people in the Boston area at that particular time and these included Joe Lombardi, Tony Santonello, Jimmy "Spats' Lombardi Buttsv Morrelli. and others. Through these people, I eventually met Raymond Patriarca, "Fat Tony" Salerno and others.

What do I mean by leading mob figures? Well, the word "Mafia" isn't used much anymore. And I never heard the term "Cosa Nostra" until Joe Valachi used it But there is one big gang that runs organized crime in this country. We after I was 17. I got in trouble in the Navy for fighting and got a bad conduct discharge. While in the Navy, I went over the hill a few times.

I couldn't take orders. On Feb. 7, 1948, I was discharged at Newport after a general court martial after having knocked down a lieutenant. When I was discharged from the Navy in February 1948, I knocked around for about a year, living off the proceeds of money I made while gambling in the Navy. I had accumulated about $14,000 through my gambling escapades in the Navy.

4 In March of 1949, 1 married Blanche Bosselman and went to work for H. B. Welch Trucking Company on the platform loading and unloading trucks. During that time, whenever a chance came along that looked inviting, I took a "I started as a truck-driver and goon went I into business for my-; self using merchandise 6tolen from the company." night off from work and we robbed the place we had picked. I was always gambling.

I left H. P. Welch and approximately one year later went to work for the Atlas Paper Company in Somerville, where my father was employed as the head receiving clerk. I started as a truckdriver and soon went into business for myself with the head shipping clerk, using merchandise stolen from the Atlas Paper Company by the head shipping clerk. In the spring of 1951, I left Atlas Paper Company.

While employed at Atlas, I was engaged in loan sharking, working for Bobby Visconti as a collection man. I was forced to work lor Visconti as I was in hock to him for approximately six or seven grand as result of my gambling losses. After that, when I left Atlas, I goi a little more money from Bobby Visconti and opened a small lun-; cheonette in Somerville i which a'so functioned as a front for bookmaking, loan harking operations, and a "Stolen credit cards had a useful life of about three weeks. Counterfeit cards could be used longer because they never got on the list." On all these occasions, the biggest bulk of the securities I handled came from Jack Mace and Artie Todd and I had no information as to where they came from and had never asked them. The only time I knew where these securities came from was when Mace or Todd volunteered the information.

I would like to talk about the use of stolen and counterfeit credit cards. Stolen credit cards had a useful life of about three weeks. Then you would have to throw them away, because usually they showed up in three weeks on the list of stolen cards published by the credit card companies every week- If they didn't show up in three weeks, you could use them for another week. It was easy to find out if the cards were on the list. For instance, in Boston, a man named Louis was the maitre d' hotel, or some such job, at a restaurant on Boylston Street.

We would check' with Louis to see if cards we were using were on the. list. If they weren't, we were safe for another week. Counterfeit cards could be used longer because they never got on the list. You could use them until the name popped up too many times.

We generally used them only three weeks, however. Generally, there were three principal reasons for using stolen or counterfeit credit cards. First, we could buy plane tickets to anywhere, end as many as we wanted. A man could go into a big terminal or to a number of travel agencies and pick up worth of plane tickets in an afternoon, and then sell them at half-price to anybody who wanted them. Some guys I know would fly from one terminal to another, all over the country, just buying airline tickets with stolen credit "Jerry Anguilo owns a hospital in the Boston area.

He owns a bowling alley and motel that are connected They hive their fingers in just about everything." My secretary Joan Harvey, made a reservation for me at the Americana Hotel in New York City and Danny Mondovano, Jack Hirschfeld and I flew down to New York. I met with Artie Todd and Jack Mace. Jack Mace turned over to me $253,000 in US Treasury bonds. In the meantime, I had instructed Jack Hirschfeld to go to La-Guardia Airport and pick up Harrison and his wife who were coming into New York on a holiday and shopping spree. Harrison arrived at the Americana with his wife and I showed him the bonds.

I told Harrison that these bonds were stolen and I also told him that the $53,000 worth of Jefferson County school bonds also had been stolen and I told him how easy it was to dispose of them. Between 17-20 percent of the face value of the bonds was the price I had to pay to Jack Mace and Artie Todd for the US Treasury bonds. The following day, Danny delivered the complete package of $253,000 of stolen US Treasuries to Harrison in Baltimore. Harrison went right down to the bank he used and immediately borrowed $70,000 on one of the $100,000 notes in the package. He turned over the funds to Danny and Jack Hirschfeld who left Baltimore and returned to Boston with the cash.

A few days later, Harrison took a second $100,000 Treasury note and parked it as collateral for a loan in the same bank and received an additional $70,000. I also instructed Harrison at this time to sell the Jefferson County school bonds on which he had received the loan. He did what I said. He turned the funds over to Joe Black, who brought them to Boston. In the latter part of Jan- irr i --fc..