This rocks. When it comes to criminal conspiracy, you have to be lucky all the time. Your enemies only have to be lucky once. Looking forward to seeing how this all goes down.
Hell or Highwater: Buddy Cianci and the Decade of Malice
- Thread starter ZeroFrame
- Start date
It’ll be quite the shock for the world.
Thank you! Cianci's fall is going to be long and hard and hopefully enjoyable to read. I agree with your point on the criminal conspiracy, though it was only a matter of time considering the size and scope of the conspiracy.
A minor but interesting point, how will Cianci's fall effect Mafia Cinema given his dealings with the mafia and him running the presidency like a mob don?
Well, IOTL we already have the Prince of Providence play and a few others. Those could be possible starting points for TTL. IOW, Operation Plunderdome gets retread very time.
First of all, the genre would experience a dramatic increase in popularity.
Second, I imagine a lot of films would be like "The Deal with Satan" mentioned in the chapter, showing powerful men in the Mafia or collaborators as less professional and stylistic and more brutal. Films as a whole I envision would be focused on powerful men who fall, like Napoleon, Andreotti, or Cianci.
Personally though, I don't have a lot of knowledge on the Mafia genre or know how pop culture will be effected so suggestions or ideas would be welcomed.
Chapter XXVIII: Law and Order
A quiet town that would never be the same after 1985.
Right next to the Diamondhill Nuclear Power Plant was a man who’s known only for being the unluckiest man in Rhode Island. Neil Bonino was born to a middle-class family in Cranston in 1941, two days after the US had declared war on Japan. His father had been wounded in Italy while attempting to liberate his ancestral land from the tyranny of fascism. Soon after graduating from high school in 1959, he had joined the Republican Party and apart from 1964 and 1976 he had voted for every Republican nominee. But he had grown tired of the Cianci Administration. Right next to the Diamondhill Ski Park the nuclear power plant had been built. Everyone in the surrounding area knew the government was corrupt, even more than the Italian government and despite it being heralded as a job creator by the local politicians and President Cianci most surrounding residents viewed it as a cancer creator. Bonino was especially vocal in his opposition to the plant due to his belief that it had given his wife cancer shortly after it opened. Furthermore, he along with most Rhode Islanders, despite there being no evidence of leakage from the plant firmly believed that the construction of the plant had been riddled with corruption and corners were cut. While true for other parts of the plant scientists proved numerous times to the citizens of Diamondhill that the plant wasn’t leaking radiation Bonino still protested the plant.
In fact, he went so far that he demanded an investigation into the plant which he failed to succeed at due to the fact a non-insignificant number of politicians in Rhode Island were complicit in the embezzlement and bribery that marred the construction of the plant. But he did inspire several journalists from the Rhode Island Journal to investigate the plant. A fact that Cianci and the corrupt forces of the Rhode Island government noticed and hated.
The powers that be swooped down on Bonino and the Journal like an eagle swoop down on its prey. Bonino instantly became the enemy of the entire political establishment in Rhode Island and soon enough Cianci’s goons took action.
The Journal’s investigation was swift and effective. After a week The Journal found sufficient evidence to prove the project was riddled with corruption and the corruption went to the highest levels of the state government. Of course, this story couldn’t be published. Edward DiPrete, who had assembled vast connections with local prosecutors, police departments, state legislators, and business executives who formed an empire inside an empire that had made DiPrete decently wealthy, amassing a net worth of $20 million dollars. Now with his empire and Cianci’s empire threatened by The Journal and Bonino who was petitioning for an investigation by Governor Schneider and Schneider had begun to seriously consider it. So, DiPrete decided to completely destroy Bonino and The Journal. First for the latter he decided to give The Journal something to write about. Using some contacts from Licio Gelli he assembled a team of neo-fascist terrorists and no-name Mafia hitmen to execute his plan. At 2:34 AM on February 2nd, The Journal’s office in Providence was firebombed. Fortunately, DiPrete wasn’t intending to kill anyone, making sure the building was cleared out and all that remained in the building was notes and articles that were waiting to be published. Included in the destruction was the article on the Diamondhill Power Plant. Soon after, The Journal cut the story to launch a scorched earth campaign against who they believed to be at fault for the fire: Cianci.
Soon after, The Journal ran an article accusing Cianci of Mafia tactics that included intimidation and bribery. A charge that Cianci fiercely rejected and proceeded to sue The Journal for libel. Soon after, The Journal attempted to publish the article but was stopped by a corrupt judge who quickly ordered the article redacted based off the grounds that it would compromise the case. Soon after this decision the bribed jury ruled in Cianci’s failure, managing to give him a little extra cash for him and DiPrete and cripple The Journal as every allegation they made would be fought until they were bankrupted.
For the former, Bonino would be thoroughly destroyed both financially and socially. First DiPrete would order his goons to sabotage Bonino’s ski slope by short circuiting the ski lift. At first Bonino wouldn’t question the sabotage, figuring it was only a very badly timed accident. The very next day though he would go to work and find that the main building was completely flooded, with the main pipes being cut and the back door was kicked opened. Despite Bonino’s pleas the police refused to investigate the break in, classifying it as an accident caused by Bonino violating construction laws and cutting corners. So, Bonino was fined $50,000 dollars. Bonino tried to fight it by going to the local paper but instead of publishing the story they bought the rights to it (for a dollar) and buried it, with DiPrete handsomely paying the Cumberland Times to keep quiet. If Bonino thought his life couldn’t get any worse, he was wrong as his wife of ten years, Bonnie Bonino was killed in a car accident. Bonino soon after entered a depression that combined with the constant hounding by the police destroyed his business. By the end of April, he was bankrupt and thinking about taking his own life. He wouldn’t though as he was killed when a firetruck hit his car on May 14thh, 1985.
Just nine days before Bonino’s death the most infamous post-WWII crime in Italian history occurred. May 1st was International Workers Day and per usual the atmosphere was festive. International Workers Day was a national holiday in Italy so per usual as most businesses were closed and Italians enjoyed the day. Whether they were Communists, Socialists, Christian democrats, or Republicans they enjoyed their day off by going to parades, hanging out with friends, and in Rome there was even a concert organized by trade unions. The day wasn’t abnormal, minus there being increased security throughout the city to prevent far-left or far-right terrorism. But despite the increase in security there would be a terrorist attack and it would be one of the bloodiest in Italian history. At 7:25 PM Vizzutti’s Bar in Turin two hundred people were celebrating International Workers Day. The bar was one of the few restaurants that had turned into a worker co-op in Italy. Thus, it became very popular amongst the Communist and Socialists who lived in Turin. In fact, it had became the official meeting place for the local PCI chapter that met every two months to discuss campaign strategies. Naturally, today it was packed as Communists packed the bar to celebrate, with the dining room and porch being packed to the brim with customers. The atmosphere was festive and everyone at the bar was having a good time. It felt like nothing could go wrong but then it did.
In the lost and found section laid three brief cases packed with explosives and at 7:25 AM they were set to detonate. Two of the mechanisms failed but one didn’t and within seconds the bar was turned into a warzone. People from all over the city stopped what they were doing and turned towards the bar, which had a massive cloud of smoke over it. For twenty seconds silence filled Turin until the screams of the dying and emergency sirens pierced the air.
When the first firefighters arrived, the scene was something out of WWII. The bar was burning, and the screams of the dying overwhelmed the fire fighters who desperately tried to save as much lives as possible. The bar itself was annihilated and all that remained was a pile of wood and concrete that was burning. The surrounding buildings, that included a sit-down restaurant, a cupcake shop, and a bank were on fire due to burning debris being hurled into the buildings. The firefighters acted fast and bravely but in they couldn’t save everyone or even half of the injured. By the end of the day the official death toll was 149, with 79 people being injured.
Chiaie shortly before his death.
The reason the Unholy Alliance executed such a large terrorist attack was mainly because they believed a large terrorist attack would cause the collapse of the Natta government. Cianci had known about the attack ahead of time though he had not directly planned it as he allowed the neo-fascist terrorists a degree of autonomy provided; they didn't do anything too stupid. What is undeniable is that the US government supplied the explosives that were used to destroy the bar. The attack itself had been planned by Stefano Chiaie who was currently in federal custody and soon after charged. The manhunt to find the other bombers was swift as two neo-fascists were arrested fleeing from Turin with a hundred pounds of bullets and explosives. The two men soon after admitted having bombed Vizzutti’s Bar with them admitting they had planned it with Chiaie. At this point Chiaie had become the most notorious terrorist in Italian history even before the Unholy Alliance was exposed. At this point the only reason Chiaie hadn’t destroyed Cianci was out of his belief that Gelli and Cianci would break him out. Of course, they never did that as Chiaie knew too much and the risk of breaking him out of jail was too much. On May 2nd, 1985, right after he had been charged with 149 counts of first-degree murder he was poisoned and soon after died of cardiac arrest at the prison hospital. The police were once again embarrassed but Chiaie’s arrest provided all the evidence they needed to confirm what they had suspected. Something bigger was going on in Italy.
Soon after Chiaie’s death the Italian government found their most damning lead. On May 3rd, 1985, the Italian police raided a house in Rome that they believed to have belonged to Chiaie. There they found it abandoned and filled with guns, explosives, and money. The strange thing that was immediately noticed was that along with Italian dollar bills there was also American dollar bills neatly stacked in a closet. The cash was later traced to Washington D.C which made confused the police as an international terrorist having hundreds of thousands in foreign cash wasn’t that suspicious but having cash directly from D.C was certainly noteworthy. As the police combed through the apartment things became weirder. Notes were on desks that gave a list of names of known CIA agents in Italy. Even more damning was Chiaie’s travel journal which had a peculiar location: New York City.
After the raid the evidence was now in the hands of Minister of Defense Massimo D’Alema who was now tasked with finding out just what was Chiaie doing in New York City of all places. Italy had an extradition treaty with the US so if Chiaie had visited the nation frequently surely federal marshals would’ve apprehended him? But then again why would he have a list of CIA agents?
D’Alema didn’t want to accuse the US outright of funding a campaign of terror against Italy due to their not being sufficient evidence but deep down he knew that the US was funding the far-right. Three days later on May 5th Prime Minister Natta was presented the evidence collected from the Cicchitto murder and Chiaie house. Within a few minutes Natta ordered D’Alema to open an investigation that was for the time top secret.
The man who brought down Cianci.
Almost immediately they had a break when one Chiaie’s alleged accomplices who had been spotted leaving the warehouse where Cicchitto was murdered was located. Pietro Mazzini was one of the men who had helped kidnap Cicchitto and before his capture on May 8th he thought he was the luckiest man in the world. But he had gotten sloppy. On May 6th a young woman reported him when she saw him in a grocery store. The police had followed the lead and observed him entering the store again the next day to pick up chicken for dinner. For the next day they observed him and decided to apprehend him on his daily jog. Soon after leaving his house for his afternoon jog a police car turned on its lights and pulled up next to him. Mazzini stopped as his worst nightmare came to life. Two men exited the squad car as two unmarked police vehicles pulled up from around the corner. Then an officer politely said, “Pietro Mazzini you are hereby under arrest for the kidnapping and murder of Fabrizio Cicchitto.”
Mazzini tried to run away but was swiftly tackled by the second officer and hand cuffed. At the police station Mazzini was questioned and facing life imprisonment he decided to make a deal. In exchange for a lighter sentence he agreed to cooperate with the police. Mazzini gave the police some expected information, telling them he knew Chiaie and he had been one of the leaders of the kidnapping. But then he dropped a bombshell. MSI Deputy Vito Miceli had been involved in the kidnapping. Vito Miceli for some background was already a suspected terrorist, being involved in the clandestine neo-fascist Rose of the Winds which had been accused of numerous massacres and terrorist attacks. Furthermore, he was tried for his role in the alleged 1970 coup attempt in Italy but was acquitted. Mazzini alleged that Miceli had given the kidnappers information about Cicchitto’s security detail and identified the times of the day Cicchitto was almost always alone. Soon after Mazzini’s testimony on May 13th the police subpoenaed Miceli and brought him in for questioning. During the questioning he was unsurprisingly quiet about the accusations and claimed he was meeting with local MSI politicians in Rome but he did not provide a specific time. Soon after he was released by the police due to a lack of progress with the interrogation. The next day the police found a hole in Miceli’s alibi. He was meeting with local MSI politicians the day of Cicchitto’s murder he wasn’t with them right before the kidnapping happened. In fact three hours before the kidnapping he met with Mazzini and one of the kidnappers who was killed in the raid by the SWAT team at a restaurant two miles away from Cicchitto’s house. With this piece of evidence the police prepared to indict Miceli for murder. But on May 14th, when D’Alema was meeting with federal investigators he was interrupted by Minister of Foreign Affairs Achille Occhetto who ran in out of breath. “Turn on the TV! Something big is going down in America.”
Cianci is fucked, but how many people he drags down with him remains to be seen.
Kitiem3000
Donor
It's like a slow motion train wreck, you just can't look away. So predictable, yet so awesome.
Thank you! I promise there's still a couple of twists left.
Cianci is going to make sure he won't be the only one he destroys. Right now, every day Cianci is in office is another day he spends digging his and his allies graves deeper and deeper.
Good one so far. Just some brief nitpicks (it's a RI thing 
) - it's the Providence Journal and Pawtucket Times, not the Rhode Island Journal and the Cumberland Times (and, for good measure, since it's Diamond Hill, Bonino could have also tried the Call even if he also got the same response), but that's just something minor that didn't hinder my enjoyment of the whole thing - and certainly sounds like something that would happen here. Fountain and Sabin Streets would be a mess for a while (and, indirectly, could possibly help lead, gradually, to the fall of Joe Paolino). Which makes me wonder - because of the plant's location in Diamond Hill, it's possible the leakage from the radiation could also spillover into Massachusetts. The ProJo might be spooked off the story, but that probably couldn't stop Boston media and the Sun Chronicle (over the state line in Attleboro, MA) from picking up the story. Given that even in the 1980s Boston TV channels were carried on Rhode Island cable systems, not to mention some of us listening to Boston radio stations and/or reading papers like the Globe or the Herald, that would probably be a big inconvenience for Cianci and DiPrete.
) - it's the Providence Journal and Pawtucket Times, not the Rhode Island Journal and the Cumberland Times (and, for good measure, since it's Diamond Hill, Bonino could have also tried the Call even if he also got the same response), but that's just something minor that didn't hinder my enjoyment of the whole thing - and certainly sounds like something that would happen here. Fountain and Sabin Streets would be a mess for a while (and, indirectly, could possibly help lead, gradually, to the fall of Joe Paolino). Which makes me wonder - because of the plant's location in Diamond Hill, it's possible the leakage from the radiation could also spillover into Massachusetts. The ProJo might be spooked off the story, but that probably couldn't stop Boston media and the Sun Chronicle (over the state line in Attleboro, MA) from picking up the story. Given that even in the 1980s Boston TV channels were carried on Rhode Island cable systems, not to mention some of us listening to Boston radio stations and/or reading papers like the Globe or the Herald, that would probably be a big inconvenience for Cianci and DiPrete.
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Chapter XXIX: Rudy
"Cianci's death is a glorious event in world history. He was a bastard through and through who'll join Judas in Satan's mouth. He may not have back stabbed Jesus, but he back stabbed his home, his ancestors land, and the entire world with his crimes that killed thousands and caused the suffering of millions once the economy melted down. I rarely wish for people to go to hell but he's the exception."
- Rudy Giuliani at the Progressive Political Action Conference (PPAC) in 2016.
When most Americans look back at their history there are some names that carry enormous weight. Every child knows the names Lincoln, Kennedy, Roosevelt, Washington, and Jefferson but who will be remembered as the greatest statesmen of the last 50 years? Some thought it would be Cianci, but we all know how that ended. Others would’ve said Jerry Litton but his coronation to the presidency in 1988 was interrupted by a radicalized electorate that was done with moderate insiders. After the last eight years though, most Americans agree who's the next Roosevelt or Jefferson and that man is Rudy Giuliani.
Giuliani’s popularity amongst the American public is unmatched by any politician in the United States and it all started in New York City. Long before he was serving America, he was serving New York City as a prosecutor for at first the Justice Department and then the New York Attorney General’s office. Giuliani’s time as the Big Apple’s attorney is legendary. He fought the Mafia in the early 80s and successfully sued The Trump Organization for racial discrimination in 1980 in a big win for the NYC’s African American population. He followed this case up when he successfully prosecuted one of the high-ranking members of the Gambino Crime family, arresting Robert DiBernardo on charges of child pornography which served as an excellent opportunity to attack the Gambino Crime Family directly, with Attorney General Robert Abrams opening several high-profile investigations into the Gambino’s. Furthermore, DiBernardo would flip on several Mafia members in exchange for a reduced sentence.
By 1985 Giuliani had managed to become one of the biggest names in New York, with his support for African Americans, the poor, and his crusade against the Mafia making him the most popular man in the city. He was so popular that the Democratic Party approached him to run against incumbent mayor Lewis Lehrman. Giuliani, instead of focusing on advancing his political career decided to instead stay a prosecutor for New York. While his supporters portray this decision as a selfless act the move was motivated by Giuliani (correctly) believing that becoming mayor would stunt his career, with very few politicians being able to use the mayorship to obtain higher office such as the governorship or the senate. Despite Giuliani rejecting the offer he did end up campaigning for the Democratic nominee, New York State Senate member Carol Bellamy who only managed to capture 44% of the vote compared to Lewis Lehrman who won 54% of the vote.
But before campaign season started, he was presented the biggest case in the history of New York. On a cold February night on Valentine's Day the NYPD conducted a raid on a suspected Mafia warehouse in the Bronx. The group, armed with rifles easily overwhelmed the thugs who guarded the warehouse and soon after the Mafia surrendered the warehouse to the NYPD. Eric Adams was the first one in and what he found was unusual. In the warehouse were explosives that if detonated could easily kill thousands of people. Furthermore, in the warehouse there were fascist symbols such as Fasces and eagles that the Mussolini regime used.
Soon after the raid Giuliani was tasked by Attorney General Robert Abrams with figuring out why the Mafia was now seemingly fascist. Furthermore, there were freemason symbols and a map of Italy with highlighted towns and cities. Giuliani arrived thirty minutes after the raid had finished and ordered all materials confiscated. But as soon as he left an hour later that didn’t happen. In fact, as soon as the Adams and all the non-corrupt officers left the warehouse it caught on fire and burned to the ground. At the time the NYPD claimed the fire was started by an officer discarding a lit cigarette into a garbage, but it wouldn’t take long for the truth to come out that a dozen corrupt officers burned the place to the ground with gasoline and matches.
Soon after the warehouse was destroyed Giuliani was pressured to drop the case by the NYPD. Predictably, Giuliani refused, with the fascist imagery being incredibly concerning along with the sheer number of explosives.
Giuliani would soon after beginning to investigate a new person of interest. Ralph Scopo was the leader of NYC’s local cement workers union and had been rumored to have worked for the Mafia, including meeting members of the Nosa Costra abroad in Italy. On February 11th, 1985, the police obtained a warrant to bug Scopo’s car due to his connections to the Colombo Crime Family. Giuliani assembled a team of six detectives and three NYPD officers, including Eric Adams to spearhead the investigation. For the first month of the investigation nothing happened. Literally nothing. Scopo and his passengers did not speak while in his car and Scopo soon after sold his car. With that lead failing miserably Giuliani tried to find another lead but the Mafia was always a step ahead of him thanks to Cianci and P2’s resources and protection. A month into the investigation Attorney General Abrams got a visit from Congressmen Robert Bauman who attempted to pressure Abrams into forcing Giuliani to drop the case. Abrams refused and a day later the Unholy Alliance came up with a solution. Salvatore Riina ordered a bomb to be placed under Giuliani’s car and for Eric Adams (who had quickly become Giuliani’s biggest defender and most determined investigator) to be killed on his way to work.
On March 2nd, 1985, the plan was executed. The bomb exploded as the car was driving to the Empire State building. Anna Glass was killed instantly, having been lent the car by Giuliani after she had been in a car accident and was currently being repaired. Giuliani figured that taking the taxi to his office was a small price to pay but now he knew it was the right thing to do for himself. Soon after Eric Adams came under fire from a Mafia death squad. While walking to work two Mafia hitmen screamed for help in a dark alley. Being a police officer, he responded but was then shot at by the two hitmen Fortunately, two bystanders tackled the two men which gave Adams enough time to pull out his pistol and shoot both men in the head. Then another two men drew their guns at Adams, but he was a quicker shot. The next ten seconds where the closest Adams came to death as the first hitman he swiftly shot in the head, but the second man got in a couple of shots, three of which hit Adams in his left hand, right leg, and shoulder. Adams fired everything he had at the hitman and hit him twice near the heart, incapacitating him and causing him to bleed out before the ambulance arrived. Adams despite suffering from blood loss walked out of the hospital with his life three days later.
Giuliani had originally been unsure about continuing the investigation but after the bombing and attempted assassination of Adams. The attack would further anger Giuliani who like his fellow citizens had grown to hate the Mafia’s power. Now was the time to destroy the Mafia but it wouldn’t just be the Mafia that was going to be destroyed.
The day after Adams returned from the hospital Giuliani found his next target. Roberto Calvi. The man had only recently made a name for himself in America. As a part of Mayor Lehrman’s attempt to boost the economy of NYC he decided to reach out to numerous different companies. One of those companies was suggested by President Cianci and was Banco Ambrosiano, the now largest bank in Italy. With Calvi’s expansion into the US Calvi began to buy up real estate in New York which he used as a front for P2 and the Mafia. The evidence to back this up was quite easy to find as coincidently Calvi owned Scopo’s house and the warehouse that was raided by the NYPD and set off this wild goose chase.
Everyone in NYC knew Calvi was connected to the Mafia which thus made him untouchable in New York society. With his immense wealth and connections making it impossible for the police to touch. But Giuliani saw Calvi as less a threat who could hide behind his connections but as the key to destroying the Mafia.
Banco Ambrosiano office in Newark.
On March 7th, 1985, Giuliani ordered the task force to observe Calvi’s daily life. The NYPD during this time would view Calvi meeting with Nosa Costra leaders such as John J. Gotti. Furthermore, Mafia members such as Scopo and Vincent Gigante were seen entering Banco Ambrosiano’s American HQ with brief cases and leaving without them. But when the NYPD demanded to inspect Scopo and Gigante’s bank accounts, but the head of the bank claimed Scopo and Gigante didn’t have bank accounts. This was all Giuliani needed to hear. Two weeks after investigating Calvi and his assets he obtained a search warrant. On March 25th, 1985, Eric Adams was tasked with searching the bank for anything incriminating including financial records. The raid on Calvi’s penthouse in Staten Island was a massive success with Calvi’s penthouse holding numerous orders from “The Hero,” “The Master,” and “The Beast” that gave him instructions on how to avoid law enforcement and on which locations were to be used by the Mafia for their weapons smuggling. More damning evidence came a day later on March 26th when state police under the command of Attorney General Abrams managed to prove that Scopo and Gigante were hiding money in Banco Ambrosiano under false aliases. The same day Giuliani announced an arrest warrant for Calvi, who had fled to Italy on charges of money laundering and racketeering.
Calvi had escaped though, just in the nick of time too as the warrant was given out 3/4ths of the way to Italy, meaning it was impossible for the pilots to turn back. When Giuliani attempted to get the FBI involved the FBI refused. Much to the shock of the investigators the federal government refused to request Calvi’s extradition to the United States. Unsurprisingly one of the three codenames were Cianci. “The Hero” was Licio Gelli who gave himself the name for the self-righteous belief he was going to be remembered as a liberator and hero. “The Beast” was Riina who earned the name for the viscous murders he conducted and for being known as one of the evilest men Italy had ever seen. Cianci didn’t stop at refusing to request the extradition of Calvi (which Natta would’ve gleefully approved) but made sure that there was no reason for Calvi to be extradited. Soon after Cianci refused to request Calvi’s extradition a bribed judge ruled that the NYPD had used “tampered evidence” to indict Calvi, thus making the arrest warrant null and void on May 3rd. Giuliani was close to destroying the Mafia but this time it was not meant to be. Still Giuliani was a problem for Cianci, and he knew damn well he wasn’t going to stop until the Mafia and thus him were destroyed.
Fortunately, though the Calvi case had given him enough evidence to arrest Gigante and Scopo for wire fraud. Gigante wasn’t talking, knowing his buddies in the Mafia would break him out but Scopo was less hesitant to talk. Soon after he was indicted for wire fraud he was indicted for racketeering, extortion, and theft. Furthermore, the cement union was crippled by the arrest as most of the leadership of the concrete union had resigned in disgrace and Scopo was looking at over one hundred years in prison. Scopo was given a choice by Giuliani, cooperate or face the rest of his life in prison. He decided to cooperate much to the shock of Giuliani. On May 5th the first of many conversations were recorded. For the next two hours Scopo discussed the plea deal which promised to reduce Scopo’s sentence to 25 years in prison with the option of parole after five years (which he believed he’d get due to him taking down the Mafia). The next two hours were what revealed the Unholy Alliance to Giuliani. The gist of what Scopo revealed was that the Mafia and the NAR in Italy were working together to cement each other’s power. He listed Salvatore Riina and Stefano Chiaie as the two main culprits of the plan but also mentioned that Thomas DiBella was the main smuggler but also that there were always some “shadow people” with him. The people Scopo were referring to were government officials who were oddly numerous and powerful.
Scopo after testifying in New York V. Vincent Cianci (1989).
At this point Giuliani realized that the main threat was the government, but he did not know how dangerous those in the shadows were. Even more dangerous were those who walked in the light rather than hide in the shadows. On May 10th, right before he planned to interrogate Scopo for the second time he received a call from D.C.
“Rudy Giuliani how may I help you?”
“Listen Rudy, you’re in danger. The Mafia isn’t the only one after you.”
“Who the hell is this?”
“One of your enemies' captives. What you need to know is there’s a hit on you tomorrow on your way to work. There’s a bomb planted under your new car.”
“Again, who the hell is this?”
“That’s not important. If you know who I am I’ll be killed just like Gayle Redick and Cicchitto. I beg of you, get the hell out of New York City for a couple of days.”
“First of all, who the hell is Gayle Redick? Second of all who is after me?”
“A woman who knew too much about one of Cianci's crimes. Second, it’s the President and Licio Gelli, the leader of a Masonic Lodge. They’re out for blood as things are heating up.”
Rudy Giuliani couldn’t help but laughing and hung up the phone. “These kids have no respect nowadays. When we played pranks on each other in the 50s we didn’t make shit up about killing people” he said to Adams.
“What did the caller say?” Replied a very concerned Adams.
“Something about President Cianci and some freemason is trying to kill me and there being a bomb under my car.”
“The first one sounds like a pile of bullshit, but we should make sure your car is safe. You never know what the Mafia is going to do.”
Ten minutes later three NYPD officers searched Giuliani’s car and found a bomb under it which made Giuliani believe that maybe the man who called him wasn’t a liar. Once the bomb was defused by the bomb squad he went home and began to research the name Gayle Redick. Though it wasn’t easy as the case had not been publicized in the slightest outside of Milwaukee. Still, Giuliani managed to find an article from The Weekly Investigation, a newspaper that was made by a couple of drug addicted conspiracy theorists with a journalist degree. The newspaper was known for its focus on anti-government conspiracies, that included stories about how the CIA was assassinating regular Americans and how Satanists were in control of NYC. But one article will always stand out is the one ran on Gayle Redick. Officially, her death was a suicide, but The Weekly Investigation accused the government of murdering her, claiming she was about to expose a Satanic plot at the local elementary school. Now the article was obviously ridiculous, but the article brought Giuliani’s attention to the Redick case. On May 11th, Giuliani would contact the Redick family to discuss the phone call he had gotten from the mysterious man. Redick’s family was hesitant, but they wanted answers that they didn’t get from the police. Giuliani was planning on having the Redick family come to NYC to discuss her death and figure out how Redick was intertwined with the Mafia. But that wouldn’t happen for another month.
Helicopter racing towards the Diamondhill Power Plant.
On May 14th Redick’s mother booked a flight to NYC to meet with Giuliani the next day. But at 9:45 AM she turned on the TV to see a military helicopter over Providence Rhode Island. At the same time in NYC Giuliani was discussing strategies on how to move forward with an increasingly dangerous, complex, and massive investigation. The TV in his office was on the weather channel and was muted. But then an EAS warning pierced the ears of all in his office.
‘WARNING’
‘STAY CALM. THERE’S BEEN AN INCIDENT IN DIAMOND HILL AND CUMBERLAND RHODE ISLAND THAT COULD AFFECT NEW YORK CITY. DO NOT PANIC AS THE SITUATION IS UNDER CONTROL BUT THE STATE AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NEED COOPERATION AS THE SITUATION COULD CHANGE. REMAIN CALM AND DON’T BLOCK THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE OR DOCKS. THERE’S BEEN A FIRE REPORTED AT THE DIAMONDHILL POWER PLANT’
What can I say. The temptation was too strong. That paragraph probably sums up how interesting America is.
Thank you!
Not just Boston but the entirety of America who wonders how did the government fuck up so bad? Of course making a sketchy nuclear power plant is one of the least evil things Cianci has done.
