DOCUMENT: Investigation, Crime

Mafia Plot To Kill Giuliani?

Informant: Mob commission nixed hit on gangbusting U.S. attorney

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Mafia Plot To Kill Giuliani?

OCTOBER 25--A top echelon mob informant told the FBI that the Mafia's ruling commission once discussed killing Rudolph Giuliani, but that despite support for the hit from John Gotti and Carmine 'The Snake' Persico, the proposal was voted down.

Details about the alleged murder scheme against Giuliani, then a New York federal prosecutor, were provided to the FBI in September 1987 by snitch Gregory Scarpa, a bloodthirsty Colombo family captain. A memo memorializing Scarpa's claim was placed in the gangster's voluminous informant file, a copy of which was marked into evidence yesterday at the criminal trial of Lindley DeVecchio, a former FBI agent facing charges that he leaked confidential information to Scarpa and helped arrange underworld rubouts. A copy of the Scarpa informant report can be found here.

While the late hoodlum's unsubstantiated claim will surely be used by Giuliani's political supporters to buttress his image as a fearless gangbuster, we're offering another FBI informant report worthy of discussion. That document, a copy of which you'll find here, alleges that the underboss of the Genovese crime family, Bobby Manna, was 'getting information' from an assistant prosecutor in Giuliani's office.

The information about the purported turncoat in Giuliani's ranks was provided to investigators in October 1989 by Philip Leonetti, former underboss of the Philadelphia crime family. According to Leonetti, who turned government informant following a racketeering conviction, Manna shared his Giuliani news with Nicky Scarfo, then boss of Philadelphia's Mafia family. (2 pages)