South End Syndicate - How I Took Over the Genovese Springfield

On a hot November day in 2003 in Springfield, Massachusetts, local Genovese family Captain “Big Al” Bruno got shot five times with a .45 caliber handgun as he walked out of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel social club—a lit cigar smoldering next to his lifeless body. Since Vito Genovese took his empire north from New York City, a string of mobsters dating back a hundred years have operated in the Greater Springfield area. With this migration came murders, mayhem, treachery, criminal trials, and constant corruption. Not until 2010 did authorities charge new Springfield Genovese boss Anthony “Bingy” Arillotta with Bruno’s murder. At the time, Arillotta’s connections spanned the Northeast—from the Patriarca family in Rhode Island to the Angiulos in Boston to the Gambinos and Bonannos in New York, and from Billy Grasso and Whitey Tropiano in New Haven to Whitey Bulger’s Winter Hill Gang. During his seven-year reign, Arillotta had beautiful women, total power, and millions in cash. But it eventually came with a devastating price. South End Syndicate tells the untold story of a young man infatuated with Springfield wiseguys who rose from being a street criminal to becoming his city’s Mafia boss. How did a young Italian-American kid from Springfield work his way up the chain to become a Made wiseguy in charge of Western New England? Arillotta, now a free man, tells a timeless tale of power, money, and murder. Table of ContentPROLOGUE Killing GaryCHAPTER 1 Getting My ButtonCHAPTER 2 Making of a MobsterCHAPTER 3 Old Time Wiseguys CHAPTER 4 Salvatore “Big Nose Sam” CufariCHAPTER 5 Becoming an AssociateCHAPTER 6 Francesco “Skyball” Scibelli CHAPTER 7 Passing The TorchCHAPTER 8 Adolfo “Big Al” BrunoCHAPTER 9 My Springfield CrewCHAPTER 10 Banging with BrunoCHAPTER 11 Pinched for TraffickingCHAPTER 12 My Head on a PikeCHAPTER 13 Manzi MayhemCHAPTER 14 Kill Them AllCHAPTER 15 We Smell a RatCHAPTER 16 Clipping the Boss (Al Bruno)CHAPTER 17 It’s Good to be King (Becoming the Boss)CHAPTER 18 Full of BolognaCHAPTER 19 Death by Lethal InjectionCHAPTER 20 Striking First (My Cooperation)CHAPTER 21 Hard TimeCHAPTER 22 Hell, Hath No Fury Like A Woman ScornedCHAPTER 23 A Family TragedyCHAPTER 24 The End of an EmpireCHAPTER 25 My New LifeAFTERWORD: Joe BradleyBiographical NoteAnthony Arillotta is the former boss of the Springfield, Massachusetts, faction of New York City's Genovese crime family. Joe Bradley is a former Springfield, Massachusetts, police officer and worked on the city's gang unit. He lives in Connecticut.PROLOGUEKILLING GARYThe first time I met Gary Westerman was in 1995 at Antonio’s Grinders in the South End. I noticed Freddy Geas with another guy who was a fairly good-sized decent looking character. He wore a brown leather coat and dress pants.“Freddy, what’s going on?” I gave him a quick hug.“Nothin’, just getting a bite.” Bingy, this is Gary.”“How ya doing?” I shook his hand.“Good to meet you,” he said. “You’re a legend in the prison system. I figured you to be around six-foot-five and two-hundred-and-fifty pounds. The stories on the inside made me think you were a much bigger guy.”“Well as you can see, I’m not. But don’t let my size fool you.”I was flattered that I had such a reputation in the system, so I took a liking to Westerman. Ty Geas had connected with Westerman while doing time, and he eventually introduced him to Freddy.Westerman moved to the Springfield area in his late teens. He was first arrested when he was nineteen years old for robbing stores at the Eastfield Mall in Springfield. He and two other guys gained access to the roof and slithered through air conditioning vents to get into the mall. They had stolen more than twenty-eight thousand dollars in jewelry, furs, leather coats, and pharmaceuticals. He was sentenced to prison in 1973 for robbery, and this would be the first of many trips to state penitentiaries throughout his life.In 1986, Westerman was arrested for transporting cocaine from Florida to Springfield. He was arrested along with Frankie Campiti, a suspect in several gangland murders, and he was sentenced to do his time in Norfolk Prison in Dedham, Massachusetts.When he got out in the early Nineties, he hooked up with Freddy, and they began robbing drug dealers, committing robberies, and selling large quantities of narcotics. Their crime spree ended when they were arrested in 1996 for stealing a trailer truck filled with computers. Freddy was concerned that Westerman was going to talk to get a reduced sentence and told me he wanted to kill him. “Two can keep a secret if one is dead,” he said.A week later, Louie went to Westerman’s apartment to ask him to come along for a robbery while we waited in a van with a gun. His girlfriend answered the door and said he had gone out and she didn’t know where he went, so he left.Freddy, Louie, and I had planned on picking him up to ask him if he wanted to help us rob a drug dealer. We figured he would jump at the chance for a quick score, and we knew he liked the thrill of the action. Once we got him into the van, Freddy would shoot him in the head, and we would dump his body.Anyway, that was our plan, but at that point, we knew we couldn’t whack Westerman after his girlfriend saw Louie’s face. We had no way of knowing she would be at his place when Louie went to the door. If he ended up murdered, his girlfriend could identify Louie in a photo array and line-up.Less than a year later, Freddy was sentenced to three years in prison, and Westerman got four. The hit didn’t happen at that point.My wife’s younger sister Sandra was a wild nineteen-year-old who enjoyed doing drugs and having sex with many partners. She was into ecstasy, cocaine, and penis. While I was separated from Irene, I banged her several times.After Westerman got out of prison in 2002, he ended up going steady with her, and her parents weren’t happy about it. Freddy had gotten out a year earlier, and he and Westerman were back together, committing crimes on the street. It was all about making money. Westerman was one of those guys who was always up to making moves on the street and he was pretty good at pulling off capers..Freddy didn’t like or trust Westerman—none of us did. He was a snake in the grass, and we knew eventually we would have to cut his head off.