Mob turncoat caught in lie at Colombo boss trial
He’s a killer at lying.
A Mafia hitman-turned-government witness was caught in a series of misstatements, contradictions and an outright lie today — as a defense lawyer suggested he was concocting tall tales about reputed Colombo boss Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli.
The turncoat, Joseph “Joey Caves” Competiello, has testified at Gioeli’s ongoing Brooklyn federal court murder and racketeering trial that Gioeli was at two meetings about hits on Colombo capo William “Wild Bill” Cutolo and ex-Marine Richard Greaves, a mob associate.
But defense lawyers repeatedly showed Competiello never mentioned Gioeli’s presence when he was interviewed at length by federal authorities after he began cooperating in 2008.
“Had you always said Tommy Gioeli was present at the meeting?” asked Gioeli lawyer Carl Herman about a pow-wow in a gas station after Greaves’ murder in 1995.
“Yes,” Competiello replied.
But then the admitted killer was shown a record of his interviews with the FBI in late 2008 — in which he talked about the gas station meeting without mentioning Gioeli being there.
“I know what I said, and I don’t see it on there,” Competiello said.
After Herman pointed out an identical discrepancy involving Gioeli at a meeting preceding the Cutolo hit, the lawyer noted, “I suggest over time you remembered Tommy Gioeli was there?”
“Right,” Competiello replied.
Competiello also has a suspect memory regarding the 1997 murder of NYPD officer Ralph Dols.
He initially failed to tell the feds that he had acted as a lookout for the hit men, Gioeli’s co-defendant Dino “Little Dino” Saracino, and Dino “Big Dino” Calabro.
Gioeli is charged with ordering Dols’ murder at the behest of Colombo mobster Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace, whose ex-wife Dols had married.
Asked yesterday if he had given two different versions of a key meeting about Dols that occurred in a bagel store before the slaying, Competiello said, “No.”
He earlier testified in this trial that the meeting occurred a day or two before Dols was murdered.
But Gioeli’s lawyer pointed out yesterday, when Competiello first spoke to federal authorities in 2008, he had told them that bagel store meeting occurred a few months before Dols’ slaying.
Asked by Saracino’s lawyer whether he had ever asked his wife to help concoct on alibi for him for Greaves’ murder — which admittedly participated in — Competiello again replied “no.”
But Competiello changed his tune, and admitted he had done so after defense lawyers played for jurors an audio recording of Competiello asking his wife in a phone call from jail to provide him with an alibi.
A Mafia hitman-turned-government witness was caught in a series of misstatements, contradictions and an outright lie today — as a defense lawyer suggested he was concocting tall tales about reputed Colombo boss Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli.
The turncoat, Joseph “Joey Caves” Competiello, has testified at Gioeli’s ongoing Brooklyn federal court murder and racketeering trial that Gioeli was at two meetings about hits on Colombo capo William “Wild Bill” Cutolo and ex-Marine Richard Greaves, a mob associate.
But defense lawyers repeatedly showed Competiello never mentioned Gioeli’s presence when he was interviewed at length by federal authorities after he began cooperating in 2008.
“Yes,” Competiello replied.
But then the admitted killer was shown a record of his interviews with the FBI in late 2008 — in which he talked about the gas station meeting without mentioning Gioeli being there.
“I know what I said, and I don’t see it on there,” Competiello said.
After Herman pointed out an identical discrepancy involving Gioeli at a meeting preceding the Cutolo hit, the lawyer noted, “I suggest over time you remembered Tommy Gioeli was there?”
“Right,” Competiello replied.
Competiello also has a suspect memory regarding the 1997 murder of NYPD officer Ralph Dols.
He initially failed to tell the feds that he had acted as a lookout for the hit men, Gioeli’s co-defendant Dino “Little Dino” Saracino, and Dino “Big Dino” Calabro.
Gioeli is charged with ordering Dols’ murder at the behest of Colombo mobster Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace, whose ex-wife Dols had married.
Asked yesterday if he had given two different versions of a key meeting about Dols that occurred in a bagel store before the slaying, Competiello said, “No.”
He earlier testified in this trial that the meeting occurred a day or two before Dols was murdered.
But Gioeli’s lawyer pointed out yesterday, when Competiello first spoke to federal authorities in 2008, he had told them that bagel store meeting occurred a few months before Dols’ slaying.
Asked by Saracino’s lawyer whether he had ever asked his wife to help concoct on alibi for him for Greaves’ murder — which admittedly participated in — Competiello again replied “no.”
But Competiello changed his tune, and admitted he had done so after defense lawyers played for jurors an audio recording of Competiello asking his wife in a phone call from jail to provide him with an alibi.
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