The Heart of an Assassin (13 page)

The 5:00 a.m. explosion could be heard over
half a mile away. By 5:10 a.m. FBI agents burst into Jay Messina’s
home only to find he was gone with over a ten-hour head start.
Though his car was still in the driveway, they noticed that the
motorcycle he never used was no longer there.

An all-points bulletin went out for someone
riding a Harley Davidson FXRT 1340 Sport Glide motorcycle. The
authorities quickly moved to freeze his checking and savings
accounts only to find that Jay had transferred over $25,000 to an
offshore account the previous night. They also discovered that he
had other accounts under a different name totaling over $50,000,
which were depleted soon after his disappearance.

The motorcycle was later found parked at the
Baltimore Washington International Airport, over a hundred miles
away . No one using his name or fitting his description were ever
found boarding any flights out of the country. Jay Messina simply
disappeared.

Agents, using forensics, were able to tie the
murder weapon used to kill Bolnaldo Costellino to Jay Messina’s
shop. An intense investigation of Jay Messina ensued. At first,
they suspected him of committing the assassination, but were later
disappointed to learn that he was placed at his shop when the
shooting occurred. Next, they began to look into his military
record to determine with whom he served and had formed friendships
with during that time. They came up with seven names whose profiles
fit the person they were looking for. Five were identified and
cleared. The remaining two, Nick Costello and Theodosio Gresco,
were unaccounted for.

Most interesting was that Nick Costello and
Theodosio Gresco had become members of the Giovanna family,
responsible for most of the major crimes in Chicago from 1955 thru
1959, including numbers and prostitution rackets. In early 1959,
Frank and Emilio Sabrisio were found shot in their family vacation
home in Florida. Four of their top lieutenants were also found dead
two days later in their Chicago headquarters with over $180,000
missing from the safe. However, missing until the 1964 drive-by
shooting of Sylvia Santiago were the two victims, Theodore
Enzinola, also known as Uncle Ted, and Joseph Bolano, otherwise
known as Fat Man. As for Nick Costello and Theodosio Gresco, they
simply disappeared from the face of the earth.

In Early News

June 4-11, 1984

“John, coffee is on,” shouted Stephanie up to
her husband.

“Be right down, honey,” John responded.

It was 7:00 a.m., and the O’Malley household
was coming to life. “Dad, hurry up, I got to use the bathroom,” his
daughter Julie, knocking on the bathroom door, shouted out to
him.

“Okay, okay, I’ll be out in a minute,” he
answered.

A few minutes later, John was on his way
downstairs for his morning breakfast, stopping by his son’s room to
knock on the door and tell him it was time to get up. “Uh . . .
okay . . . Dad . . . I’m up,” John heard as he continued on his
trek downstairs.

As usual, Ingrid, the youngest, was sitting
at the table, wide awake. John always wondered whose child this was
since all of them were not early risers. “Hi, Dad,” Ingrid
announced.

“Hi, sweetheart,” he nodded.

Walking by the stove where his wife stood
making eggs, he smiled, giving her a kiss and then walked over to
the counter to pour his morning coffee. He was about to sit down
when he noticed the morning paper was not on the table. “Where is
my paper?” he inquired.

“Oh, sorry, honey, forgot to bring it in,”
Stephanie said. John got back up and walked over to the front
door.

There sitting on the porch was his morning
paper. I like this newspaper boy or girl, whoever it is that now
delivers the paper, he thought to himself. They were punctual,
unlike previous kids who never seemed to get the paper there before
he left in the morning.

Now sitting down at the breakfast table, he
began his daily ritual of going over the paper while having idle
conversations with Stephanie and the kids. Ingrid announced that
she had been nominated as the monitor of the week, which entailed
keeping all the kids in a straight line. “I see. That is quite a
feat,” John acknowledged.

A few seconds later John Junior joined the
family for breakfast. “Morning everyone,” he announced as he came
rushing down the stairs. Grabbing a glass of juice, he sat down and
began to drink. “I got gym practice today, Mom,” he said.

“Okay, dear. I’ll pick you up after the
practice,” she responded. “John, how do you want your eggs,
scrambled or sunny-side up?” she asked him.

There was no response as John was transfixed
on an article he found on the second page of the newspaper. It was
about the attorney Mike Angelino. It seemed as if he had a fatal
freak accident. “Mr. Angelino was hit by a passing car while
crossing between parked cars. The driver, who happens to be around
seventy-five years old, said he didn’t see him. Police are
presently reporting this as a tragic accident pending further
investigation,” the article reported.

“John. John, what’s wrong?” Stephanie asked.
John looked up at her and nodded.

“Nothing, dear. Nothing is wrong,” he
answered. John made it a point to never discuss any of his work at
home. Never bringing the work home makes for a happier marriage, he
thought. Stephanie, on the other hand, knew him. She knew him well
and was very much aware anytime something was bothering him; and
whatever it was that he read was bothering him.

She walked over to him and gave him a hug
from behind. “Eat your breakfast before it gets cold,” she said to
him. He looked up at her and smiled. He knew she knew something was
annoying him, but for her sake and the kids, he put the paper down
and concentrated on eating his breakfast and the task of conversing
with his kids. The matter would keep until he got back to the
office.

In briefings over the next few days, John
Connolly discovered the following:

- Old members of the Giovanna family
identified a picture as that of Theodosio Gresco, a soldier in
their organization. It was believed he was dead, killed by Nick
Costello. Both Theodore Enzinola, a.k.a. Uncle Ted, and Joseph
Bolano, a.k.a. Fat Man, were also supposed to be dead, also killed
by Nick Costello. After reviewing the military photographs of both
men, it was confirmed that the person in the picture was in fact
Theodosio Gresco.

- Military records of Mr. Gresco indicated
that during his tour in Vietnam, he became a highly decorated
sniper for the military. He was well versed in the art of deception
and self-defense. In fact, it was believed that he was responsible
for the death of over fifteen high-profile Vietnamese politicians
bent on advancing communism and driving the French out of Vietnam.
At one time, he was being considered for appointment to the Navy
SEALs; however, it was later determined that it would not be in our
best interest, reasons unknown.

- Mr. Gresco was born and raised in Chicago.
His parents owned and operated a mom and pop corner store in which
his dad was killed when it was bombed. Young Gresco, then eight
years old, provided pictures of two men entering and leaving the
shop just before the bomb went off. His father had given him a
camera, which he used constantly, and took hundreds of pictures of
his neighbors and friends up and down the blocks surrounding their
neighborhood. Though the pictures were given to the police, there
was no way to tie in the date and time they were taken since there
were no pictures after the bomb went off.

The men were never arrested though they were
identified as members of a thug gang operating in the lower east
side of Chicago. Mrs. Gresco took her son and moved out of Chicago
to whereabouts unknown. On the thirteenth anniversary of the
bombing, the two suspects identified in the picture were found
dead. Both had been shot once in each leg, once in each arm, with
their mouths stuffed with rocks and taped up. They were found tied
to a lamppost on the corner of where Mr. Gresco’s shop once stood,
where they had bled to death. Of course, there were rumors of young
Gresco returning for revenge, but they could never be
substantiated. Military records showed that young Gresco joined the
military out of Chicago two days later, at the age of
twenty-one.

June
11, 1984

Both Felicia and Fabio were sitting at the
head of the table when they had their next meeting. Though they
were kept informed throughout the week, it was at this forum that
details of the events that unfolded over the last week would be
unveiled. Though they had the room screened for any listening
devices or phone tabs on a weekly basis, they tried to be as
cautious as possible on what was said. As a precaution, Felicia
recently had all phones removed from the conference room as well as
any electronic devices. Additionally, during the weekly scan for
listening devices, she had the drop ceiling checked for any hidden
cameras or other intelligence devices. Though all of these
precautions were taken, Felicia insisted on speaking in cryptic
dialogue, just in case.

Felicia turned to Leo Russo. “Leo, I read the
other day in the papers that our attorney had a freak accident. Can
you elaborate?” she asked him.

“Yes, it was quite unfortunate. It appears as
if some elderly gentleman lost control of his car, running poor
Mike Angelino over, killing him instantly. The police are
investigating the matter; however, it seems like it will be deemed
a tragic accident,” he responded.

Fabio, looking concerned asked, “How is the
elderly gentleman who was driving the vehicle taking it all?”

“Not so well, I understand. He was so
traumatized with the incident that he went on vacation, deciding to
take a tour around the world. Probably won’t be returning to New
York for quite some time. I think I heard that he might decide to
settle somewhere in Sicily, where he is originally from,” concluded
Leo Russo.

“Make sure we send our condolences to the
family,” Fabio ordered.

“Of course,” said Leo.

Fabio now turned to John De Luca and Erin
Romano. “Has anyone any information on the whereabouts of the
judge?” he asked.

“It was recently brought to my attention that
the judge has definitely gone missing, with the assistance from the
FBI,” John De Luca said.

“How was this determined?” asked Felicia.

Erin Romano added, “Two of our men approached
the head priest at Riverside Church after they received word that
the judge had been spotted there. The priest, thinking the men were
FBI agents, asked that they move the car left by the other two
agents. It was still parked in front of the church. The car was
removed as he requested. Further investigation unveiled that the
car was assigned to the OCTF office out of Manhattan. The name John
Connelly is associated with this office.

“Prior to the arrival of our men, the area
was swarmed with several police officers who were called by local
residents reporting gunshots heard coming from the vicinity. But
the hot dog vendor they interviewed reported no such occurrence and
they left. The same vendor reported seeing someone who looked like
the judge getting into a black four-door Honda Accord with four
other people, three men and a woman, heading south on Riverside
Drive. He was able to get the first three digits of the license
plate, 47K. We ran the numbers and came up with fourteen
possibilities. Of the fourteen, only one—47KPDT—belonged to a
detective out of the Twenty-Sixth Precinct by the name of Tyler
Santiago, and get this, no one has seen Mr. Santiago since
then.”

Both Felicia and Fabio were no longer
impressed with the expertise of their employees. They had paid
handsomely for their services and, over the years, had made it a
point to educate them in the world of criminology. The Giordano
family’s ability in intelligence gathering was the envy of every
crime family.

“Get me all the information you can gather on
this Tyler, including family ties and pictures,” Felicia
ordered.

Adriana Romano, raising her hand, politely
interjected, “Felicia, Fabio, it was reported to me, by two close
friends, that they thought they had spotted the judge and two other
people, a woman and a man, going into Riverside Church on the
afternoon of June 7. They weren’t a hundred percent sure, so they
stuck around to see. Unfortunately, they were approached by a man
they believed to be an undercover agent. There was an exchange of
fire forcing them to leave the scene.”

“Did they get any information on who this
undercover agent was?” Felicia asked.

“No, ma’am,” replied Adriana.

“Dammit!” remarked Felicia.

“Pass the word that we need to identify who
is watching over the judge. Even if you have to get arrested, get
the name of the agent who arrested you. This could help us track
the judge down,” Fabio ordered.

“So they headed south on Riverside Drive,”
remarked Felicia.“They wouldn’t go to anyplace that is crowded.
They know we have too many eyes out on the streets. So where would
they go? Probably got onto the Henry Hudson Parkway and headed
north, away from the city. They could have crossed the George
Washington Bridge, or continued up to the Bronx. Does anyone have
any ideas?” she asked.

“If they crossed the George Washington Bridge
we should be able to pick them up on the cameras that are
overhead,” said Fabio.

“I’ll look into that,” Leo volunteered.

“In the meantime, put the word out that they
may be hiding uptown and that there is a reward of $25,000 for any
reliable information. Also, we will feed any new information down
the line as it becomes available,” added Felicia. “Make sure that
the vendor who was kind enough to keep his eyes opened for us gets
a reward. I want everyone out there to know we keep our word and
that we pay promptly. Also, Adriana, have your two friends come in.
I would like to speak with them,” Felicia ordered.