The Heart of an Assassin (15 page)

“What do you mean illegally?” she asked.

“Well, I didn’t make him sign for anything.
Plus, I sold him silencers with the gun, which are illegal,” he
finished.

“So what?” she said.

“Well, I think he is going to use the guns to
kill someone,” he responded to her.

“What! You really think this guy is going to
kill someone? Can the guns be traced back to you?” she asked.

“Maybe, maybe they can. I don’t know,” he
almost screamed.

“What was he like, this guy who bought the
guns?” she asked.

“Irene, he was cold. I mean scary cold. He
looked right at me before leaving the shop and told me that I
better be careful or suffer the consequences,” Eric told her.

“What does that mean?” she asked him.

“You know, suffer the consequences. I think
he meant I could get killed if I screw up. I’m sure that’s what he
meant,” Eric responded.

She sat there staring at her husband. She
could see that this guy really scared him. This was really serious.
“Eric, you could go to jail for selling the gun,” she told him.

“Yeah, I know,” he responded. “But . . . but
if this guy kills someone, I can be held as an accessory, I think.
Oh god, what have I done? How could I be so stupid?” he said
aloud.

“What if you call the police and tell them
that he scared you and you had no choice?” she asked him.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what they would
say,” he responded.

“Honey, its three o’clock in the morning.
Let’s sleep on it and decide what we are going to do in the
morning,” she advised.

“I can’t sleep, I’ve tried. I keep thinking
this guy is going to come after me, or that he is going to kill
someone and the police are going to arrest me,” he responded.

“Then call the police,” she said. “Tell them
that he threatened you and that you had no choice.” He stared at
her for a moment, realizing he had no choice.

“Okay, I’ll call them. I’ll call them right
now,” he agreed.

After getting out of bed, Irene went
downstairs to make some coffee while Eric got dressed and joined
her in the kitchen. The local police immediately sent out a car to
get the information about the gun transaction. Officers Andrew
Washborn, known to his partner as Drew, and Stephanie Rusnock
arrived around 5:00 a.m. to take Eric’s statement.

After two hours of questions, both officers
were convinced that they had a real concern. Though the officers
did get a good description, they wanted Eric to come down to the
station to see if they could have the stranger’s face sketched by
one of their artists. Eric agreed to go down in the morning after
he showered and got dressed.

At 7:45 a.m. the police officers left the
Shamoski home. With their shift being over in fifteen minutes, they
headed back to the station to file their paperwork. They didn’t see
any reason to hang around since Eric would be coming down to the
station shortly. What they should have seen was the black car
across the street watching their every move.

When the police vehicle had disappeared from
view, Nick stepped out of his car and walked over to the Shamoski
house. He looked around to make sure no one was watching as he
tried the front door; it was locked. He knocked and waited as he
heard Irene, who was in the kitchen.

Thinking the officers forgot something she
said, “Just a minute, be right there.” As she opened the door, Nick
raised the gun to her head and pulled the trigger. A burst of blood
hit the wall behind Irene as the bullet exited the back of her
head.

Closing the door behind him, he walked into
the living room and then into the kitchen. Hearing the shower
running upstairs, he went up. A few seconds later, he was in Eric’s
bathroom.“Hey, you’re letting the cold in,” Eric yelled back,
thinking his wife opened the door. Nick fired once into the
abdominal area of the silhouette behind the shower curtain. He
pulled the curtain aside and fired three more shots, one into each
eye and the third into Eric’s mouth as Eric stared in horror
grasping his stomach.

Nick was back in his car and was gone within
a minute of entering the house. Across the street, a neighbor,
looking out of an upstairs window, noticed Nick get into his car
and drive off. Later on, he would be describing the car and driver
to the local police.

A New Identity

June 7-12, 1984

Nick realized that it was time for a complete
makeover. He would need to return the rented car, change his
appearance, and get new identification. In this business, you could
never be too careful.

The next day, Nick made a call from a nearby
phone to his contact, Gene Tyler, in San Francisco, who took care
of Nick’s needs when it came to acquiring new papers. Gene, like
Jay Messina, had known Nick for over twenty years. Though they did
not serve together, Gene too was a veteran of the Vietnam War.

Nick met Gene when he came out to San
Francisco in the early sixties. They immediately established a bond
over a weekend when they both got shit faced on whiskey and beer.
Nick was more relaxed back then and trusted more people. Though
time had changed him, made him more of an introvert who trusted
fewer people, Gene, like Jay, had remained in his life.

Nick explained to Gene what he was looking
for and that he needed the papers as soon as possible. Gene was to
mail them to his present location, care of Neal Galuchi.

Gene didn’t need any photographs of Nick or
any other information as he already had all the data he needed to
create the paperwork. He knew Nick was good at his word and also
knew that Nick would not be calling him if it wasn’t urgent.

While Nick waited for the papers, he called
Felicia for an update on any news on the whereabouts of his mark.
Fabio answered the phone and told Nick that there was information
coming in all of the time, but nothing concrete as yet. All they
knew was that the judge went underground and was being protected by
the FBI and by two local detectives. Also, the judge was expected
to be testifying on July 9 at the federal courthouse in downtown
New York City; exactly where, was still unknown.

Nick informed Fabio that before he could move
forward he needed to know exactly what car the mark was in, what
the agents and detectives looked like, and where they were last
seen. Fabio acknowledge that he understood and assured Nick they
were working on it around the clock. Fabio asked Nick for a number
at which he could be reached. Nick said he was constantly moving
and could not be reached, but would call back in a couple of
days.

June
11-14, 1984

As Nick waited for his new identity in New
Jersey, Tyler and Sheila were approximately 140 miles north of
Manhattan, ordering takeout from a local McDonalds in Ravena, New
York. Meanwhile Eric, Sam, and the judge were holed up a few miles
down the road in a motel, which they had settled into a few days
ago.

Sheila told Tyler that she had to call in,
but they would need to drive as far away from this location as
possible. Tyler became fond of Sheila over the last couple of days,
realizing how professional she was and how serious she took her
responsibilities. After handing her the keys, they drove several
miles before she found a pay phone she was comfortable using.
Pulling up to a gas station in Coxsackie, New York, approximately
eight miles away from Ravena, Sheila made her call.

“Sheila, dump the car!” John almost shouted
into the phone.

Sheila immediately hung up and, without any
indication that anything was wrong, walked over to Tyler. “We got
to dump this car,” she told him. Tyler stared at her for a few
seconds.

“Shit! How stupid could I have been to use my
own damn car?” he asked himself aloud.

Driving toward the New York Thruway, they
decided to dump the car at a nearby train station. With the
assistance of the local police, they were able to obtain a car from
a local dealer without revealing who they were or where they were
going.

At the local precinct, they finished up their
transaction as a news broadcast came over the wire that the police
were looking for a 1984 black four-door Accord with the license
plate of 47KPDT. The captain stared at both Tyler and Sheila as
they all listened to the announcement.

“What the hell,” Tyler remarked. “We need to
get the hell out of here as soon as possible,” he told the
captain.

The captain, a thirty-year veteran of the
police force, advised them to stay off the main roads. As soon as
Tyler and Sheila were on their way, the captain called the TV
station ordering that the broadcast be immediately suspended.

Back at the motel in Ravena, the owner on
duty saw the license plate number over the broadcast and reported
to the local police that the driver of the car checked into the
motel several days ago and was still there. This information hit
the Giordano family within fifteen minutes of the call. They
immediately dispatched some of their people to the motel.

Tyler and Sheila, now driving a 1983 blue
four-door BMW, headed back to the motel quickly with lives now
hanging in the balance. Twenty minutes later, they were knocking at
the front door of their room.

“We need to get out of here,
right
now
!” Sheila ordered. They scrambled out of the room and jumped
into the BMW and headed out of the complex.

At the same time, the owner of the hotel was
advising two strangers claiming to be from the FBI the room number
of the ”suspects”. As they were exiting the office, a blue
four-door BMW passed by going in the opposite direction. Sheila,
who was sitting in the front passenger side, glanced at the two men
as one of them met her eyes for just a second. Both parties
continued on their way in opposite directions.

A minute later, the two men were walking past
the room, pretending to be chatting with one another as they did a
quick glance through the window. They could see no one was there.
Just then, the owner came running up to them, excited.

“Hey, fellas, they just left in that BMW that
passed you,” he shouted.

“What BMW?” asked one of the men.

“The blue one that went right past you as you
left the office,” the owner responded.

“How the fuck do you know?” they asked.

“Cause I saw them. I saw the guy who rented
the place driving the car. They obviously switched cars,” the owner
added.

“Shit. We got to call it in,” said one of the
men. A minute later, the Giordano family was receiving word that
they had switched cars.

The Giordano family found out that the
broadcast had been cancelled per a request from a police captain in
upstate New York, around the town of Coxsackie. All were ordered to
keep an eye out for a 1983 blue four-door BMW with five passengers.
Within the hour, Nick called to see if there was any progress in
locating the judge. They advised him that they were spotted in
upstate New York around the towns of Ravena and Coxsackie.

Having received the package he was waiting
for, the transformation took approximately one hour. Nick’s new
identity, that of Joseph Drummer, a sales person out of Kansas
City, called for him to change his appearance completely. He bought
some hair dye from the local drugstore, changed his hair color to
black, and shaved off his mustache. He also got some tinted contact
lenses, resulting in the appearance of him having green eyes. Nick
walked away from the motel, never checking out, and took a cab to a
nearby car dealership where he paid cash for a 1980 black Buick
Century Sport Coupe.

Using the Nick Galuchi, and later on Robert
Edwards, ATM cards, he withdrew a few hundred dollars from each
account at several ATMs. He made sure to park out of camera view
and never looked directly into any of the cameras. Finally, after
discarding all of the Nick Galuchi and Robert Edwards
identification and credit cards, he jumped into his car and headed
toward Ravena, New York.

Giordano Family Mobilizes

June 11-14, 1984

Realizing the urgency of the situation, Fabio
dispatched all available vehicles, now equipped with mobile phones,
to Ravena and Coxsackie. All were advised to look for a blue BMW
with five passengers, consisting of four men and a woman. Within
thirty minutes, there were over fifty cars headed upstate.

Jimmy Russo, John De Luca, and Encino Russo
coordinated from the Giordano home in New Jersey, instructing the
various drivers which roads to take so that they could cover a
larger area. Some cars were told to remain at strategic spots
looking for any cars fitting the description in case they decided
to return to the city.

Unknown to the Giordano family, Tyler had
jumped onto the New York Thruway heading north and then onto the
Berkshire Spur Road heading east toward Boston, Massachusetts,
approximately 150 miles away. Running on half a tank of gas, they
were forced to stop at a local gas station to fill up. Not having
any cash on them they decided to let Sheila pay for the gas using
her credit card, a mistake they would later regret.

Back at the Giordano home, information was
pouring in on who the detectives and FBI agents might be. The two
guys who almost caught up with them at the motel described Sheila
to the Giordanos. Felicia knew instantly who she was and ran over
to her purse and pulled out Sheila’s calling card.

“Talk about screw-ups,” Felicia said aloud.
“Get all the information on this bitch. Her partner’s name is
Williams. Don’t remember his first name, but it shouldn’t be too
hard to find out,” she said.

A few minutes later, Nick called in for
updates at which time the Giordanos informed him that they could
provide him with a mobile phone so that they could keep him up to
date as the information came in. Nick agreed that this would speed
up the process and that he would call back about the location of
the drop.