Murder as the Go-To Solution for Putting the Mob in Jeopardy

“Although Ocera had managed to survive for more than a month after his loansharking records were seized, on November 13, 1989, [his] luck ran out. Earlier that month Orena ordered Giachino ‘Jack’ Leale to kill Ocera primarily for failing to retrieve the loansharking records, and for skimming money from loansharking and gambling operations. As the court noted in Orena v. United States, ‘Orena, as Acting Boss, directed subordinates to murder Ocera. One of these subordinates was Scarpa.’ At that point, the execution of Tommy Ocera was inevitable and imminent.

“As Ocera headed for The Manor on Monday morning, November 13th, he stopped off at Patty Amato’s house in Merrick, apparently having been lured there by Jack Leale. When Ocera arrived, Amato threw him to the ground and Leale garroted him with a piece of metal wire. Ocera’s body was then dumped into the trunk of a car belonging to Leale’s brother-in-law and Colombo associate Harry Bonfiglio, which Leale had borrowed. That night, Bonfiglio, Michael Maffatore, who was another Colombo associate as well as Leale’s driver, and Leale buried Ocera’s body in Forest Park, Queens. Bonfiglio later testified that he did not know at the time that Amato and ‘Leale had killed Ocera; a few weeks later, Leale told him that “Patty” [Amato] held down Ocera while Leale garroted him.’ At a dinner one month after Ocera was murdered, Vic Orena bragged to Alphonse D’Arco, who was then the acting boss of the Lucchese crime family, that ‘”we whacked Tommy Ocera. We gave him a luparo bianco,” [sic] meaning that they made his body disappear.’ Orena’s boast turned out to be an empty one. Tommy Ocera’s body was located about two years later with the wire used to garrot him still around his neck.”