ONE WAY OUT

Chapter 1

Doc was very concerned and a bit scared that one of the felons convicted would be at Mr. Rose’s Memorial service hoping to get their hands on him for assisting Federal Agents for their arrests and convictions some years previously. He could not help thinking he was placing himself in a targeted position by attending the ceremony, however, valor over fear prevailed because this man, Charles Rose, saved doc’s life, his family and his career. Mr. Rose kept Doc’s family as a single unit by getting his family into Witness Protection (WP) with him and then advising him as to what to do after leaving WP to be safe from being slaughtered by members of the Gambino Crime Family and the Sicilian mobsters threatened his and his families life to participate in criminal fraud. He also defended Doc’s career with the hospital administration where he worked as the Senior Vice President in the hospital wanted him fire because he viewed him as a threat for the hospital.

One man Doc came to know from the Sicilian Mafia through his wife’s family connections, was a shady character that beat a conviction in the Pizza Connection case, know as United States vs Badalamenti et al., prosecuted by Rudolph Giuliani for the distribution of drugs and the laundering of the money from drug proceeds. This person made Doc feel threatened to be involved in check cashing frauds and money laundering schemes. Doc’s moral compass, intellect and obedience of the laws of this country were paramount in having him exonerated of the potential crimes for which he was initially implicated.

The “Pizza Connection” as it was known commonly, was a scheme where heroin from Southeast Asia and cocaine from South Africa was being transported to Italy and ultimately to the United States for sale. This was went on from 1975-1984. The Sicilian Mafia from Sicily was managing the operation.

The heroin and cocaine was being shipped or transported initially to places in the Northeast and Midwest. It was then being distributed through privately owned Pizza Parlors hence the “Pizza Connection”. The proceeds from the sale of these illicit drugs were laundered through banks and brokerages as well as any private mafia related businesses both here in the US and in Switzerland. Local MAFIAs assisted the Sicilian mobsters running the operation. In New York it was the Gambino Crime Family in spite of the head of the family telling his people drugs were off limits. It was the lower level MAFIA soldiers that were doing all the footwork of distributing, selling and collecting the money. The money was laundered through private businesses, mostly owned by the higher ups in the MAFIA or shipped outside the country by people involved in international business enterprises into Swiss bank accounts.

This was orchestrated in New York by Gaetano Badalamenti and his son Vito Badalamenti and Pietro Alfano. These MAFIA bosses were working under the guise of Salvatore Riina. This case ultimately was prosecuted both in the United States and in Sicily.

Rudolph Giuliani was the prosecutor in New York and Giovanni Falcone was the prosecutor in Italy. The FBI by their investigations and sources inside the mob, was out arresting all the lower level guys that fingered the upper level MAFIA bosses involved.

As it turned out Sergio who brought this money laundering to Doc’s mother-in-law was directly involved with Riina in Sicily. Sal Caruso was associated with Riina in Sicily prior to coming to the United States to escape prosecution for other crimes in Italy. It was Doc’s understanding that Sal’s brother was convicted and in prison in Sicily mainly because he chose not to flee Italy or was caught before he could flee.

What was even more interesting about the entire scenario was that Pietro Alfano who was apparently running things here in the US was gunned down but survived. He was paralyzed from the waste down and ended up in a wheelchair the remainder of his life. It was Pasquale Conte who was fingered as ordering the hit on Alfano. Although he was initially charged in the botched killing attempt and the story made the front page of the New York Post as he was caught leaving the country with a significant amount of cash, however, he never went to trial and Doc believed they were never able to get enough evidence to convict him on that specific case. As it turns out Pasquale Conte was Doc’s wife’s Godfather and Conte’s mother was her mother’s Godmother. Doc’s wife’s father and mother met via Pasquale Conte’s parents where the father was a lieutenant in the Gambino Crime Family under Carlo Gambino. Pasquale Conte was made a Captain in the Gambino Crime family soon after his father’s death. Doc’s wife’s father as it turned out was a made member of the Gambino Crime Family. He initially worked as a butcher for the supermarkets Conte and his father before him owned.

Sal Caruso escaped prosecution in the “Pizza Connection” trial mainly due to Giuliani’s political ambitions. It had been reported because of the political timing, Giuliani ignored the requests of the FBI for more time before arrests were made and Giuliani ordered them to make the arrests and not wait. As a result, seven of these criminals arrested in the “Pizza Connection” were set free and removed from the trial in 1986. Sal Caruso was one of those Sicilian mobsters that went free.

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Mr. Charles Rose, a former United States (US) Attorney in the Eastern District, had worked with a group of U.S. Customs agents who identified Doc as a co-conspirator in an additional scheme involving check fraud and money laundering being organized by Sal Caruso. The agents working on the case considered Doc a potential link between the money launderers and the source and as a result he was targeted. It wasn’t until they detained Doc, were they able to connect the dots as to those actually involved having no idea that any MAFIA related mobsters were involved. Charles Rose was the only one who ultimately found out that Doc was already working with the FBI on these cases, with Doc approaching the FBI of his own volition prior to him being detained.

As it turned out, Doc became an extremely valuable, cooperative informant who delivered wire-recorded evidence and direct testimony strong enough to help put away numerous MAFIA related soldiers from The New York mob and Sicily in the “Pizza Connection” as well as others related to the check cashing scheme and money laundering working under an assumption the money was intended to go to John Gotti’s appeal.

Chapter 2

In New York City, circa 1998, pay phones had become` sparse on the streets and even fewer Checker Marathon Cabs remain. They were the overbuilt, V8-engined steel dinosaurs hulking up and down the city’s streets in French’s Mustard Yellow, able to execute single-carload deliveries of five or six fares at a time, were infrequent. Doc, a distinguished looking middle-aged man, dressed for the occasion in a dark gray suit, would have normally walked the distance to the church where the service was being held, but since he was still very paranoid someone from the mob might be aware he would be attending the ceremony, he hailed the first cab a Marathon Cab and headed to the memorial service in honor of the late Mr. Rose.

As a daily routine, Doc would alternate entering and leaving the hospital from different entrance and exit points to get to his car in the hospital parking lot. When traveling within the New York City, he would routinely walk a few blocks and then hail a cab to save time if he was running late and did not want anyone to follow him. Doc did just that having the cabby pull over a few blocks from the hospital. As cab approached Doc’s destination, the church where the memorial was taking place, he had the cabby pulled over to the curb a block away from the century-old church so as not to stop directly in front of the requested destination. After paying with cash, Doc exited the cab. Checking for signs of being followed by a member(s) of the Gambino Crime Family or a Sicilian mobster, a routine procedure. He took the risk and walked toward the church.

At the church, Doc pulled the huge wood and metal door open and was not surprised at what he found. The church was already packed with standing room only. The eulogies had just begun when he entered. He took a quick glance around to see if he could recognize anyone. Standing inconspicuously in back, knowing nearly no one else present yet wanting to remain as unseen as possible. The church’s magnificent Romanesque cave of an interior was impressively filled beneath the towering vaulted ceiling. He recognized only Elaine Banar. Elaine who sat on the stage with a number of other invited speakers. Elaine was the lead US Customs agent on his criminal case. Since the end of the case Elaine graduated law school and when Charles resigned from the US Attorney’s office Charles Rose recommended she take his position at the US Attorneys office because she was extremely dedicated and believed in strict law enforcement and therefore perfect for the position.

Attendees delivered heartfelt testimonials to Mr. Rose. Doc did too, internally, as he realized his own good fortune (within a nightmare) all over again. If someone, of lesser character than Mr. Rose, had overseen his coerced role in the situation, he would have possibly attended his own funeral because the word could have been leaked and without Mr. Rose’s approval for protection during the acquisition of evidence, the mobsters would have ended his life because without him there was no case. He knew anyone speaking would be saying only the best possible things about Charles. They would relate their stories of him going to crime scenes in person, doing his own investigating of the issues surrounding the crimes and how he considered the people that were arrested, detained and the uninvolved family members left behind when there were long-term incarcerations or death. He was always extremely fair and knowledgeable of the law and always treated people, even criminals, with respect. He also did not mince words. He told you what he was thinking and what the plan was based on the law and his experience.

Charles was a man of his word, followed the law and yet had respect for those he was prosecuting who in no way mislead him or the agents he was working with. He maintained all the best qualities. The invited speakers were friends, coworkers and family. Doc anticipated hearing about a man that lived his life with the greatest respect for the law and was able to take into consideration not just the criminal event but also consider all the surrounding influences that may have created the events causing these people to break the law. Charles understood the system entirely and worked the system to his advantage to get the best result out of his prosecutions. These are the accolades Doc anticipated hearing from all these invited speakers.

He stood at the rear of the church where a tall fluted pillar separated him from the hundreds of attendees in the church when he recalled a lunchtime meeting just a few blocks away. It was at the Hanrattys restaurant a block away from the hospital. Besides Elaine, that’s where he met Matt Raffa who became a key person in Doc’s life.

"I see, I see smarter people than me and you’re making big mistakes." That was Matt talking: Smooth, knowledgeable, good-looking with his Master’s degree in banking and deep trove of European contacts who knew how to get toxic, big-figure checks successfully routed through the system, rendering Matt himself a major player to cash checks. However, that was not Matt’s

Chapter 3

Doc was born in Brooklyn, NY on the hottest May 6 on record in 1949. He was born in the same hospital his grandmother many years earlier had apparently taken her own life jumping from the roof of the hospital to her death. His parents were first generation Americans whose parents immigrated in the early 1900s from Russia to escape the Czarist Regime. His father met his mother and soon after was drafted into the US army and fought in the front lines in Germany during World War II. His mother was extremely loyal and waited for over three years for him to return from overseas. They were married approximately two years after he returned.

In Doc’s early childhood he lived with his parents and five years younger sister in a three room apartment in a four apartment house owned by his maternal grandfather for the first seven and a half years of his life.

Doc’s father was a carpenter, originally trained as a furniture and cabinetmaker, who worked primarily on Long Island where house construction was booming during the post WWII era. His mother was a stay at home mom. His parents were able to save enough for a down payment for a new house on Long Island closer to where his father worked by doing extra jobs beyond his daily union job. The house they purchased was a small 1200 sq. ft. three bedroom ranch house on one-half acre of property. Besides having three bedrooms there was a small eat in kitchen, connected living and dining room and even a small den with a single car garage. Compared to the apartment they lived in for the first 7 years of his life, it was huge.

Doc never forgot the day he and his family moved from the Brooklyn apartment to the Long Island house in a major snowstorm the first of February 1957. The next day he remembers waking up to a beautiful sunny day and outside was two feet of snow around the house. After breakfast, he recalled putting on his winter clothes to play outside in the snow. While outside the three children from the farm across the street walked over to introduce themselves and ask if he would like to go sledging with them in the back part of their parents’ farm. With permission from his mom, he left and went with Bill, Howie and Barbara to trudge through the snow to sled next to the big red barn out in the field that surrounded the large farmhouse and barns. They became friends from that day forward.

The following day when school was back, Doc began to take the bus to his second grade class, a very different experience from walking a block to the elementary school in Brooklyn. On the bus he met a number of other kids most of which lived right around him. The same was true in his second grade class, although most of the class had children from other areas of the town also. Doc was able to make lifetime friends in school as well as when playing Little League Baseball in the summer months.

Doc remembered being very anxious over this experience because he never really had any friends living in Brooklyn. However, he did make another life long friend with one person beyond the farmer’s children, Angelo, who moved into a house in another section of the same housing development as his. They are still friends to this day very much like the farmer’s children.

Most of Doc’s friends besides Angelo and the farmer’s children, were from school, but only in school. However, he would not see many of these friends again for at least a year because he started a new school for sixth grade down the street from where he lived. During his sixth grade experience, he made some additional friends with the new kids from the area. They would play baseball in spring, summer and fall behind the school. During his sixth grade experience, he clearly changed his focus specifically on academics. He began to realize how important grades and a good education could help him achieve his goals in life. He realized it would be his way out of his relatively economically poor upbringing. His father would not work very much in the winter when house construction was extremely limited and therefore the family could be categorized as middle to lower class, middle class at best was a stretch.

It was that summer he started to work on the farm regularly rather than just watching his friends Bill and Howie work with their father. He remembered at one point they let him steer a truck moving slower than any of them walked. It was designed to go that speed to stay alongside the potato picker loading potatoes. It was exciting and a completely new experience. It was also that summer a migrant worker, who worked on the farm, taught him how to pick string beans, fast. He knew he had to work because it was the only way he could have money to do anything like bowling in the winter because his father was just not making enough money for food, mortgage, electric and water bills to give him money for entertainment A fifty cent weekly allowance was not maintained. Doc learned to understand the value of money and what it took to earn it.

As he grew older into his teens, he was occasionally able to make some money working and helping his father with his side jobs when he had them. However, his father did not want to teach him carpentry. He refused to let Doc work in his shop in the basement of the house. He would always say, “You need to work with your head and not your hands.” However, He wanted to learn and the way he would learn was by watching what his father was doing from the doorway, his father did not stop him from doing that.

Both his mother and father taught him right from wrong and how to follow the law. His father would frequently tell him if he broke the law and got arrested, not to expect his father to come to bail him out. A strong incentive not to do anything bad! However, with school, athletics and working he did not have the free time nor the desire to do anything to break the law.

In 7th grade he was reunited with other school friends when he again was taken by bus to yet a third elementary school used for 7th- 10th grades on split session because the school district did not have a middle or high school. The high school was being built in this relatively new community. It was at this point he truly began to excelled academically, knowing he had to do well in school to be able to work in the fields of medicine, his ultimate goal.

The following year he finally went to the new high school as an 8th grader. As it turned out he was in this school for five years until graduation. He did extremely well academically and excelled in sports that included baseball, basketball, football, gymnastics and soccer.

During his time in high school he knew education was the key. He did very well but education was not enough. He needed to be active. He was a three-sport athlete, meaning he participated different sports in all three seasons. It was initially football, basketball and baseball. However, in his junior year, he moved from basketball to gymnastics and from football to soccer. Knowing he was shorter and slighter, he realized just being able to run fast would not make up for being short and relatively thin regardless of being quite strong. Luckily he had practiced with the gymnastic team during the summers in prior years, the coach wanting him to learn and perform in the all around which meant doing routines on five events. He initially didn’t heed to his advice to move to gymnastics until his junior year. Payback for making a wrong decision! As a result, he was never able to master the pommel horse and the tumbling was difficult for him. He competed in the other three events. Looking back, he should have listened to the gymnastics coach and did gymnastics and not basketball. He could have gone to Syracuse on a full scholarship rather than his offer of a half scholarship and was not able to pay the difference. Everyone makes mistakes along the way. That is how we learn and Doc learned the hard way. With the move to soccer, it was a pure challenge to learn the skills of the game as well as compete. As it turned out, all was good since baseball was his primary sport focus and he knew the game through and through and was excellent at it.

Following the saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” Doc’s work ethic was defined by not having anyone giving him money for things he wanted. To do what he wanted, he had to earn the money because his parents could not afford to give him money, especially in the winters when his father was out of work. He was less than 12 when he started to pick beans on the farm to earn money. Once he reached 12, he was both strong enough and able to help during the winter with potato grating with the farmers by dumping the 100 pound burlap bags of potatoes onto the grader after school. During the summers he would continue to pick beans and helped with picking corn and other vegetables the farmer grew as long as his asthma did not stop him.

Later on in his high school years, when not playing sports, he was working with his father and his father’s friend with carpentry jobs and in the summer after his junior year in high school worked in his friend Angelo’s father’s restaurant doing most of the chores of cooking, cleaning and even closing the restaurant many nights.

In school, in addition to the academics and sports, since he did not play football and basketball anymore, as part of the student council he ran the refreshment stand for the football and basketball games. That entailed making orders for soda, chips, candy, hotdogs etc. as well as setting up before games and assisting if necessary with the sales when enough students did not show to help.

In his junior year he was inducted into the Honor Society based on his academic sports and service achievements. His senior year in high school was a breeze academically and had lots of fun playing sports. He earned a Regents Scholarship based on testing in the spring of his junior year and did well on his SATs for college. He applied to five colleges and was accepted to all. However, he knew he would only be able to attend a state school because he could not afford a private school since his parents did not have the money and he was not going to make them take loans. He was not able to afford the difference at Syracuse where he was offered a half scholarship. He felt he could get the right education from a state school. He ended up choosing SUNY at Stony Brook close enough to commute to and save the cost of living in the dorms. He had great plans to excel in the sciences. He knew this from his chemistry teacher who was a recent graduate of the school and was in the school during its infancy.

His first semester in college was a real eye opener. During summer orientation he met with the soccer coach and decided to play soccer. Practices started at the end of August and classes began after Labor Day. He took a very difficult academic program for the first semester not realizing that 67% of the class came from NYC where all the students had taken AP classes, meaning they had previously taken the college type courses and it was a second time around for them because those days you didn’t place out of the course. They would be at the high end of the curve and get the best grades. For him, it was yet another uphill challenge. With classes being graded on a curve, he was frequently within the peak and not at the front of the curve with the A students who in most cases were taking the course material for the second time. He knew this was not going to fly to get into medical school, especially when most students, many of which, had no interest in medicine would be applying to medical school to avoid the military draft for the Vietnam War (Conflict). They all had 2S status as college students and they knew it would end at graduation unless they were accepted to graduate school.

At the end of the semester he decided to speak with an admissions director who was also a student advisor and a few years before was a teacher in his high school and his JV baseball coach. Mr. Frisbie advised him to take a less challenging number of courses the 2nd semester with fewer credits and he could make up the credits later when he would be focused on his major. He also suggested he get tutoring help if he felt he was falling behind and not play baseball in the Spring and concentrate on his academics. It would have also helped if he did not have to work Sundays at a gas station pumping gas, but it was the only way he could pay for his gas to commute to college. Doc accepted his advice and made it work and as a result his grades were significantly improved that second semester.

Doc was able to put together enough work in the summer following his freshman year to earn enough to not have to work on Sundays and he could either rest or study more during his sophomore year. This also made it possible for him to play soccer and baseball for Stony Brook. The flip side was that now he caught up to all those students from NYC and could compete with them on level ground. His grades were excellent throughout the remainder of his college years, even with competing on both soccer and baseball teams.

Stony Brook turned out like many other schools to have a radical group of students that protested the war in Vietnam. As a result, in at least three semesters, finals were interrupted because of these demonstrations and bomb threats etc. Doc knew he had to have grades when other students were getting pass/fail, it was an uphill battle with departments in the college that didn’t want to help. In a number of classes he had to settle for passing rather than a grade and he knew it would hurt his chances at acceptance to medical school but he had no choice.

Luckily he became aware of undergraduate classes being given on campus in the newly formed medical school and Allied Health Professions. He took a course in cardiopulmonary technology. He took the course with three other main campus students. They all became good friends. They found out a local hospital was looking for people in what was called respiratory therapy (now termed Cardiopulmonary Technology). They applied as a group and were all accepted. They would work nights and weekends. During the summer he and Joe agreed to cover the entire weekends. This made it possible for Doc to not only work the weekends, but he could also do carpentry and some farm work during the week. It turned out to be a very educating experience working in the hospital and even helping out in the emergency room and ICU when the staff was short.

As seniors they had lots of free time so they all worked different days and different shifts based on our class schedules. During the fall they all took the MCATs for medical school. They all knew it was going to be very tough to get in to medical school because of the war and everyone trying to continue with their student status. It was that year the military draft lottery was instituted. After having his physical for the military draft that December, because he was graduating from college and would lose his 2S status upon graduation, Doc’s number was 155 in the draft lottery. However, he was never sure it would apply because after his physical where he reported having asthma and with his treating doctor’s notes documenting treatments monthly from his allergist and the presence of hemorrhoids, it would be unlikely he would get drafted. As it turned out his draft board only got to 153 and he was close, but off the hook.

While he was involved in the undergraduate, BS, program at SUNY Stony Brook and his graduate and medical program, he played softball with his old friend Angelo’s team. Angelo asked him if was interested in playing on the same team so it could be improved. He agreed because he needed an exercise outlet at the time having spent way too much time in class, studying, in the laboratory and writing his thesis. It was playing with this team he met the guy that played centerfield for them, Ernie James. He played pro baseball for a number of years. They became good friends. Doc found out Ernie was going into the police academy to become a police officer.

The following fall while walking on campus, he ran into Ernie. When he asked Ernie what he was doing on campus he told Doc he was taking classes. He knew that had to be bull. Stony Brook, those years was considered the Berkeley of the East with protests and drugs. However, it was a relatively small population of students involved in those activities. Doc surmised he was working undercover to find students doing or selling the drugs.

Doc commuted to Stony Brook, the following day he returned home from college classes and found Ernie sitting in his house and talking to his mother. He was initially upset and put off by this. He was thinking, what the hell was he doing here? He knew he did nothing wrong. He came into the house and Ernie stood up and Doc’s mother excused herself. He started the conversation by asking him why he was at his home. He started to explain, Doc was right in his thinking of the day before, he told him he was working undercover on campus and his boss asked him to make sure Doc would not expose him. Ernie then asked if he was interested in working with the police. He told Ernie he would never expose him. He thought to himself that he had little contact with students that lived on campus and surely did not befriend any of those students that were on drugs or involved with demonstrations. He then explained just that to Ernie an indicated it was mainly because he was a commuter. Ernie then said he was not just referring to him informing on campus, something that crossed his mind, but he was sure it was exactly what Ernie wanted him to do. He told Ernie he would think about it and Ernie left after giving Doc his telephone number to be able to reach him with his answer.

Doc thought about the proposal for a couple of days. He knew there was no way he would turn in students on campus in a similar thinking that he would not expose Ernie. But he thought it might be a way he could earn some money just being a wallflower. So on the following Monday he called Ernie and told him he would be glad to work with the police, but he would not do anything on campus. Ernie told him he would bring his response to his captain and get back to him.

A couple of days later Ernie called the house and left a message because Doc was in classes. When he got back home he got the message and he called Ernie back. Ernie asked him when he could stop by the police station. He told him it was on his way to and from his commute to Stony Brook and he could stop the following morning about 8 am since his class was not until 10 am. Ernie told him he would meet him at the station at 8 am.

At 7:30 am the following morning Doc got into his car and was off to the police headquarters in Hauppauge. During the 20 minute drive he thoughts went to speculating as to what might go on at the police headquarters. Will Ernie or the police Captain try to convince him to inform or would they go along with what he was willing to do? Would they try to convince him to do something he would not do?

Upon arrival he parked in the lot across from the entrance and walked to the doors. He could see Ernie standing and waiting for him just inside. Ernie ushered him to a back room where he told Doc to get comfortable and he was going to get his commander. Ernie returned within five minutes with a tall middle-aged man wearing a police uniform his badge over his breast pocket and his rank, lieutenant on the other side with his name. Ernie introduced him and they sat down at the table across from him. The lieutenant started to speak, “So I understand you are interested in helping Ernie and the Suffolk County Police identify people breaking the law.” Doc responded by say he was considering it. However, he wanted to make it very clear he would not do this kind of work on campus. The lieutenant said he understood his position, but hoped he would change his mind to help them. However, he said Ernie believes in you and therefore he was willing to have you trained. They know you have classes during the week and you have to study. So please give Ernie a schedule and they will work around your schedule for your training if you are still willing to participate. He agreed and told the lieutenant he could have the schedule by the end of the week. He said just arrange to get it to Ernie and they can go from there. With that, he excused himself saying he had another meeting. Ernie thanked him and he walked him out to the car. He told Ernie he would contact him that Thursday eve so they could meet on Friday to turn over his schedule. He drove away to get to his class. During the drive he was thinking about what exactly they would want him to do especially if it was not going to be informing on campus activities.

Friday Doc met Ernie and turned over his class schedule. Ernie told him to stop by police headquarters on Monday and they would have his training schedule at the front desk. He told Ernie it was great and this time he was on his way home from school. He had to go to work at Smithtown General Hospital where he was one of four Stony Brook students working at the hospital as respiratory therapists while taking the course at the new Allied Health professionals program which started the year before with the inception of the new Medical and Basic Health Sciences program.

In short, he completed the training and began working with the undercover squad mainly identifying drug users and dealers in various places throughout Suffolk County. It was relatively easy work. He just had to go to places the police identified for him and document whether specific persons were present and what they were doing. Most of the places, since he would not work on campus, were bars and other public places. Some of the best places were the strip bars that became legal a few years prior. At least there he could be entertained rather than just having a drink at the bar or hanging in a park, restaurant or library. Doc juggled school, the job at the hospital and doing this work for the police for about two years.

As it turned out, he was not accepted into medical school after applying to six schools, all he could afford because of the cost of the applications. He was not sure at that point, what he was going to do professionally with his life. The other three students that worked with him at the hospital were also not accepted. However, two decided to go to the medical school in Mexico and the other to Italy. Doc had no plans of leaving the US, he had inadequate funds to pay for these schools as the other students were getting money from their parents.

At that time Doc had been working in a second hospital where he had the opportunity to become the chief therapist when the chief was fired. However, the administration chose to hire a woman with no experience in the field to run the department. Doc decided not to stay under those conditions working for someone quite incompetent. It was at that time that he moved jobs to a third hospital, working the Midnight to 8 am shift. At the same time Doc moved into a house in Setauket with two of his college friends. They told him to check in the Pathology Department in the new medical school about doing research to get into the medical school. He did just that and he became a volunteer working in Dr. Lane’s laboratory doing both clinical diagnostics and research on the development of lung cancer. He would work that year during the day at the lab, take graduate classes in the evening and work at the hospital in the graveyard shift as a respiratory therapist (Cardiopulmonary Technician). The down side to this was that he had to steal time to sleep.

It was during the time he was working at Southside Hospital nights when he was introduced to Gloria who did the pulmonary function testing in the department. They would frequently talk about work in the early morning before Doc left for the lab at Stony Brook. One morning she mentioned she had a friend that had a friend looking to meet a nice guy. He told her he would be interested since he was not dating anyone at the moment. Helene and he met on a blind date with Gloria, her husband and Gloria’s friend and husband and they hit it off. They dated regularly on weekends, the only time he was available.

While working in the lab, Dr. Lane suggested he apply to the Ph.D. program, get the degree and then apply to medical school again. So he took his advice and was accepted into the Ph.D. program when his roommates had been accepted in the first year of the new medical school. As it turned out they all started together in the same classes. Doc was in all the same basic sciences classes. He also chose to ultimately take their hospital clerkships with them knowing it would put him in front when he got into the medical school.

Doc finally stopped working at the hospital nights because it was just becoming too much and he was not getting enough sleep. The funny part of it all was in his classes he was given grades and the medical students were pass/fail. He was able to give up the job because he was listed as both a teaching assistant and a graduate assistant with tuition remission. Meaning he got paid to teach and do the research and did not have to pay tuition.

One afternoon he walked into police headquarters and was filling out his paperwork when he heard yelling in the back room. Ernie was standing in the hallway, so he went over to him and asked what was going on. He said there was a big drug case and one of the undercover cops who was working the case with the FBI screwed up and apparently blew two years of undercover work on the case. Stupidly, he asked if there was something he could do to make it right. Ernie thought for a minute and then said to him, “I will be right back I will pass this by the lieutenant.” He thought Ernie would just say no, but he must have known something. When he returned, he said that the lieutenant would be out to speak with him.

He and Ernie were in the hall talking baseball when the lieutenant came out and asked for Doc to come to one of the interview rooms. The lieutenant started by stating that Doc asked Ernie if he could help with this situation. He told the lieutenant he knew nothing about the situation, but he was willing to help if possible to take get the bad guys as he referred to them. The lieutenant responded by saying this was a coordinated effort between the county police and the FBI. “This is a very dangerous operation and we almost lost one of our best undercover cops. Are you sure you want to even consider it?” He then asked him if he could explain to him what might be entailed so he could make a more educated decision. He said, “This is a major drug distribution ring we have identified and been looking to put away. You have been identifying some of the people involved with your work you have been doing for us and that is the only reason I am even speaking with you because we never use people in your capacity for this work.” Doc responded by asking, “What would I have to do?” He said, “You would be introduced as a buyer for another major distributor and you would have to set up a major buy. When the buy goes down and you test the product and it is good you will hand over the cash, they will put the product in your car after you give them the money. As you and the drug dealers get back into their car(s), the drug dealers and you would hand cuffed by the FBI agents and taken in. You of course will ultimately disappear after the car with you were put in leaves the scene. Other people may be watching so we do not know and there could be gunfire. You are risking being shot because you cannot wear anything to protect yourself. This is a real risk and you have to understand what you’re getting into. We cannot predict what will happen nor will we be able to protect you if things go sour very fast.” He told the lieutenant he agreed to do the job in spite of the risks. Doc’s thinking was not because he wanted to do this for the excitement but because getting these drug dealers off the street will save lives, many of which will be children.

In short, he did what he was asked to do and all went well and he was able to get all drug dealers arrested, indicted and convicted. It was then Doc was approached by the FBI agent and asked if he would work with the FBI and with the FBI contacts on cases. He agreed because it was a good way to earn extra money and he really did not feel the work would put him at risk. Although most of the time he worked with them, he was not at risk, but there were a couple of take downs that turned out badly.

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One of the biggest mistakes Doc ever made was to get married the first time. He ended up marrying Helene who he had dated for the previous two years mainly on weekends and did not live with her before marriage. His mistake was based on her being Jewish and willing to have sex and not true love. He was clearly too young, too ensconced in his education and trying to please his parents. What was interesting was that his parents were not enthused about Helene or her parents. However, his parents were never enthused about anyone he brought home to meet them, his thinking was that no one was good enough for him, but they never express their feelings to him. It was unfortunate but they never expressed any feelings toward him. Within the first year of the marriage, he knew it was going to fail. She worked and he was in school and working in the lab and occasionally doing a project with the FBI. She had too much time to do nothing. She worked for one of the most famous cancer pathologist that came to Stony Brook to basically retire.

She constantly complained there was not enough money. Knowing that, Doc went to the Medical Examiners office in Suffolk County and learned how to do autopsies to make up for what he was led to believe was a monetary deficit. This made it possible for him to assist with autopsies at the Northport Veterans Hospital with Dr. Lane, his preceptor for the Ph.D. program he was enrolled. Eventually he was doing them not only for him, but other pathologists who also participated.

A few years passed and all he was doing was marking time with regard to the marriage. He knew the marriage was over, but continued to play house until he felt he could get by on his own again. He had completed his research and had a hard time getting through his thesis defense because one of the people on his committee didn’t approve of a technique he used to document his results and conclusions. The technique was a modification of one the committee member developed, but he believed it was not possible to get the results he was interested in. Instead of calling Doc’s preceptor, he called the department chairman and created a mess that could have been resolved with one sentence as qualification of the modification of the technique he made that allowed it to work. Also of interest was he did not take the time to come to hear Doc’s preliminary findings for his thesis. If he had come to hear the presentation he could have dealt with the issue then and it could have been resolved immediately. Instead he waited to call two weeks prior to his defense. As it turned out, his thesis was then delayed about six months. It took a 12 page rebuttal document to make this committee member understand what Doc did with modifying the protocol and proving the data was not made up. He finally defended and all went well. This was a true example of “what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger”. This event has helped him endure the business of science and life.

Doc had not only taken all the basic science courses for the medical school but also got straight A grades when the medical students only got pass/fail. He also took all the clinical rotations at the hospitals with the medical students. Doc had hoped that his application to the medical school would be accepted having done so well and then the plan was just to take all the exams to receive his MD. However, one of the Department members who only did research as a Ph.D. was on the medical school admissions committee and he was opposed to me being accepted because he did not want Ph.D. grad students back door into medical school. So I was turned down. This meant that I would have to wait for another round to apply to other medical schools.

Doc then began working as a research assistant in the lab and an instructor in the department. However, his boss and preceptor told him, based on the faculty meetings, there was not going to be any new appointments at the Assistant Professor level or at any other level for a few years and he should look for a job elsewhere. Luckily one of the salesman from the JEOL Electron Microscopy companies came to visit the lab, they were friendly. He asked if Doc would be interested in an Assistant Professors job in NYC. He said he was. The salesman then told him some details about the new chairman at Mt. Sinai Hospital and that he was looking for someone to do lung research and also knew electron microscopy and would get back to him about an interview. The next week, John Bonnici, the salesman, called and gave him the info to make the call to make an appointment for an interview. This was just after Thanksgiving. Doc called and made the appointment for the first week in December.

Doc went into the city without anyone knowing what he was doing and had the interview. Dr. Kleinerman, the Pathology Chairman was very impressed and told him he had the job and he could get back to him with an answer within a week. He asked about the pay and he gave him a number. After thinking about it, he was going to take the job, but was going to ask for a little more money checking it out with his current boss, Dr. Lane. He called back and spoke to Dr. Kleinerman and indicated he would need two thousand dollars a year more to be able to live. He agreed and told him to start work January 1, 1979.

That same week he had a conversation with his friend George and he recommended Doc speak with George’s divorce lawyer. Later that day he called the lawyer and made an appointment for two days later. He met with the lawyer and Myron, the lawyer, explained the process and told him when he was ready, he would start the procedure. Myron advised him to cancel any credit cards in both names as soon as possible. He also told him to take out an ad in the newspapers stating he was no longer legally responsible for Helene’s debts and a whole lot more. Since he did not have any intention of making a claim to the house and the only things he wanted was this personal items, he figured there would be little to fight about. Boy, was he so wrong.

He recalled the time, just before Chanukah, she indicated to him she did not want to go another summer without central air conditioning. Doc understood this since Helene gained about 70 pounds within the first 9 months they were married and probably got bigger in the years following. However, he was too wrapped up in his education and making money to realize what was really going on. She told him when her parents were coming out to visit and she was going to ask for a loan. However, just prior to them coming she started talking about getting pregnant as well. He told her that was not happening in the near future because he knew he was planning a divorce at a future date and did not want any issues of children. They argued about it and then her parents walked in. They came to visit almost every weekend, thinking, he guessed, they believed it was their country house because Helene’s father knew the people that had sold the house. It was just too much. Doc would disappear to the lab. This time they sensed there was an issue and while he was at the lab she asked for the loan. They turned her down. When he got back he could feel the tension, but nothing was said.

It was during the next week when she told Doc that her parents turned her down for the loan. She said she was going to get the AC anyway because she had the money in an account. At the same time she brought up the issue about getting pregnant again. He told her no way since they had been barely speaking. He asked her where the money came from in the account. She told him her father had told her to take money and just put it aside in an account she only knew about. Doc was livid she would ask him to work harder so she could put money away for herself. He then told her there was no way in hell they would have a child under these conditions. She lost it and grabbed a knife and came after him and cut his arms in a number of places. He left the house with towels on his arms yelling that he wanted a divorce and he would be back for his things.

Doc spent the night sitting in the emergency room of the hospital. He was finally taken and they cleaned and fixed his arm. He gave them the information of what transpired and he filed a police report. First thing in the morning after being released from the hospital, he called his friend George and hired a U-Haul truck to take his things. He backed the truck up to the garage and loaded it and went to his parent’s house and unloaded it there. He asked George to meet him so he could take him back to the house to get some of his tools he left behind he could not fit in the truck and his small boat. The two of them went back and he found his in-laws there. When he tried to get into the house he found Helene had changed the locks. He told them he would break the door down, but they still did not open it. His adrenaline was flowing and he was madder than hell. His father-in-law was blocking him from getting into the garage where his boat was stored and the entrance to the basement to get the remainder of his tools. George held him back from picking his father-in-law up and throwing him thru the garage door when he tried to block him from getting into the garage. Doc smashed the windows to the garage to get in to get his boat and the remaining tools. He was then able to get the boat out of the garage but noticed that all his electric carpentry tools he put into the trunk of his car were gone. He knew his father-in-law must have taken them and put them into his car because they were not anywhere in the house either. He was about to break into the car when the police arrived as a result of a call from Helene. He told them what had happened and the police told Helene she had no right to change the locks. Doc and George took the other car with the boat attached to store at George’s house.

He was not very happy about having to stay at his parents, but there was nowhere else he could go, since he had no money, no bank account and therefore no choice. He knew he would hear the, “I told you so,” from his parents, but there was nowhere else to go. He was literally going to change his entire life. He left his wife, home and job. He was starting over from scratch. It was both very sad and stressful, but yet a very exciting time in his life to basically start over.

Doc started the following week to commute by train into NYC for his new job that started on Monday January 2, 1979. When he got to the hospital via the LIRR and the subway he was greeted by Dr. Geller, who had been the acting Chairman before Dr. Kleinerman had taken the permanent position. Dr. Geller showed him around the department and showed him where his office would be. By this time the Chairman had arrived and Dr. Geller took him in to see Dr. Kleinerman. He directed Doc to his secretary to fill out forms and go to HR. From what he could remember it took the remainder of the day.

The following day he met with the technician running the electron microscopy unit prior to his being hired. They spoke and he told him what his expectations were and how they would work harmoniously together. Knowing what his job entailed, doing the clinical electron microscopy, doing the chairman’s research and the expectations he would write grants to get funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for his own research. From that time on he was off doing all of the above.

Based on the train schedule he would arrive very early at the hospital and this was until he could get a place to stay in NYC. The chairman’s secretary was helping him find a place. Frequently, very early in the AM, not ready to dive into the workload, he became friendly with the secretary to the Director of Neuropathology. She was friendly with the people in Neurology located on the floor below. She suggested he should try to date the Neurology Chairman’s secretary who was single. She told him she would set up a blind date.

It was on June 7 approximately six months after to coming to Mt Sinai, he had this blind date with Maria. He went down to the Plaza Hotel to the Oak Room, where he was introduced to Maria by one of the techs he knew working with the Neuropathology group who also knew Maria. After about an hour, the tech who set up the blind date, left to go home leaving them to talk alone. Maria was a beautiful young woman and was very pleasant. Our conversation covered a broad range of topics including his pending divorce, a component that in retrospect should not have been discuss.

Doc thought things went well and asked her for a second date. She told him she would get back to him. That was a red flag, he was well aware that if someone really likes you they would respond immediately in most cases. At this point he was not getting excited because he wasn’t sure he would ever see her again except for passing in the elevator, possibly. However, a few days later she did call and they arranged a second date. However, much later he found out she was not sure she wanted to have a second date, but her friends convinced her to give it a second try knowing people on a first blind date can be nervous or hold back on a lot.

Chapter 4

Maria and Doc dated continuously and they even commuted to work together into the city once he gave up his apartment in NYC because he could no longer deal with the cockroaches that roamed the apartment as soon as the lights were out. He moved to Queens about one mile away from where she lived with her parents. He moved into a basement apartment and what was great was that the landlord did his wash and Doc cleaned the apartment. Our time together was the best. She was beautiful inside and out and he loved being with her. They did not do much travelling because he worked seven days a week trying to get his professional career going. When he wasn’t at work they did lots of things together, things like cooking together, visiting friends, seeing shows, sleeping together. Sex was amazing. He would say it was the best time of his life.

Maria, in her teen years, had to return home from school and helped prepare dinner for her parents, cared for her brother, five and half years younger and later her sister that was 11 years younger. When she was not in school, Saturdays and early Sunday, she would work with her father at his meat store he owned and no longer worked as a butcher for Conte Key Foods Supermarkets. Like many Sicilian houses, the father ruled the roost and he forbid her from having boyfriends until she was older. It was only after turning 16 she was allowed to date one of the sons related to the Conte Crime Crew. She dated him into her early twenties when she finally broke off an engagement with him while he was in DO school. As it turned out Maria knew the relationship would not work, he was not for her and only pursued it because he was basically the only guy that his father/ parents approved. According to her he was boring and too tall! He was attached to his mother and she ran his life. For her, it was a relationship from hell that she was almost forced to commit.

It was very evident that knowing and understanding what these criminals were all about did not faze her. This was normal for her and also fit all the criteria of psychological studies of these Mafia families. Maria fit the entire dynamics of these families where they would not ask questions would only follow and respect their mothers and fathers demands.

Maria after high school worked and was in a medical assistant program. She also had a few jobs other than working as a cashier in Conte Key Foods. First as a secretary in a non-medical business and then for a private doctor. In 1974 she began working at Mt. Sinai Hospital as a secretary and ultimately as the secretary to the Chairman of Neurology, the position she was in when Doc met her.

It was very clear to Doc that although he loved her very much, they were taught and raised with very different values and most importantly very different ideas of right and wrong. He was taught to follow the law and show respect for his elders. His parents did not control everything he did. He was allowed to make mistakes based on his own decisions. However, it was very obvious based on what she told him, she feared, but loved her father and would never do anything against his or her mother’s will!

It was six months after starting work at Mt. Sinai that Doc met her in the late spring of 1979. She was still in some way involved with one of her brother’s friends, but told him the relationship was completely over. However, he recalled being on a date with Maria in Manhattan and it was if this prior boy friend was following us. They were walking in Manhattan when he stopped his car, got out and started to harass her. It was a very uncomfortable situation, but as it turned out it was the last time since she told him to stop stalking her.

It was during our initial dating he met her parents, but was also introduced to her unrelated family. It was not uncommon for him to join Maria and her parents visiting her mother’s Godmother’s house on a Sunday. It was during and after these visits he learned her Godfather Pasquale (Patsy) Conte was a Captain in the Gambino Crime Family. It was through these events he learned Conte’s father was a lieutenant under Carlo Gambino. This was very scary to him having been brought up in a very law abiding household where he was told over and over again, “Don’t get into trouble because no one will be there to bail you out.” I always avoided even hanging with anyone that had a bad reputation because he was told over and over again by his father, you are treated as one of them if you are with them even if you do not know what, if anything, they are doing. Doc equated this with, “you are who you associate with”.

Doc found it amazing Maria was not fazed at all by these people and what they do and stand for. He guessed, being brought up with these people and never seeing what they actually did or do led to this. Clearly, Maria was brought up very differently from him. Maria’s life as a child was very controlled. Her mother worked and her grandmother basically raised her. The grandmother was very protective and she was only allowed to go to school and had to return home and stay there where her grandmother could watch over her. The only outings were when she joined her mother and her mother’s godmother, Patsy Conte’s mother, on Saturdays going to Little Italy in Manhattan for lunch all dressed up. Her friends were restricted to when she was in school. Sundays, almost every Sunday, her parents were at her godmother’s house. They were there because Patsy Conte’s father wanted all the guys in his Mafia group to be there, a means of control and for business discussion. Maria’s cousin was married to Patsy’s sister who was also Maria’s Godmother. They lived in the same big house with Patsy’s mother. Antoinette and her children would come across the house to be with the group and it was not uncommon for her cousin Tony, who worked initially as a butcher with the Contes’ trained by Maria’s father, and ultimately became a partner in the Key Food businesses, probably based on Antoinette’s inheritance from her father when he died. Patsy’s younger two brothers would also appear at the house on Sundays. The younger brothers were also involved with the business. However, the youngest brother, Anthony (Tony) worked part time because he went to college and ultimately to law school. It appeared that Patsy’s sister, brother-in-law, Tony, and his two brothers were not in anyway part of the Conte crew under the Gambino Family. When she first told Doc about this he always wondered whether this was because of her mother’s relationship with her godmother, her father’s relationship with the Conte Crew or both. This came from the understanding her mother and father met at this house.

It was approximately six months later, during our dating, Maria’s mother’s cousin, Sergio, by marriage arrived from Sicily and stayed at Maria’s parents’ house. Her mother and brother were shuttling him around Brooklyn and Queens. At this point, they had no idea what was going on, but before long, Sergio started to bring lots of cash into the house. Maria and her mother would count the cash, stack it according to denominations and put it together as $2500, $5k and $10k with rubber bands. A percentage, 0.5%, was removed from the total for confirming the counting and delivery. They were returned to duffle bags and suitcases and delivered to Peter Schler on 47th Street in Manhattan. This would happen as much as twice a week. Maria seemed unfazed by this kind of thing even when Doc expressed his concern this had to be illegal. He will never forget Maria telling him she met Carlo Gambino and he was such a nice old man! This was very interesting since the people that knew him, knew he was probably the most vicious head of the five Mafia families in New York.

Doc believed that Maria knew this was illegal, but would never say so or admit it to anyone because she was taught that nothing said or done in the house goes outside. She had to live with the situation and she expected me to be totally silent as well with what was observed. It was extremely hard to live knowing that this money had to be coming from something illegal.

Doc loved Maria, she was kind, loving, considerate and loved to be out doing things. However, he was extremely concerned about this lack of concern for this illegal activity, as he was brought up to obey the law and stay completely clean. He just believed she was naïve to all of this and her mother, Catherine, who was in charge of this for Sergio when he was back in Italy. Her mother was either extremely naïve or was so used to seeing all this illegal stuff go on. Catherine had to have been exposed both in Italy when she was a young child and then again when she was here in New York, understanding what these people did.

Chapter 5 COMING SOON..