Philadelphia mob associate facing murder for hire and witness intimidation charges
Ron Galati, the Don Corleone of the South Philadelphia auto
repair business, was arraigned earlier this week on murder-for-hire, conspiracy
and witness intimidation charges.
The wannabe wiseguy pleaded not guilty. He is being held
without bail pending trial. He is also the target of two other investigations,
an insurance fraud probe in Philadelphia and another murder-for-hire and fraud
case in New Jersey.
Galati, if the District Attorney's allegations prove true,
has apparently turned an insurance fraud pinch that could have landed him in
jail for from five to six years into an attempted murder-witness intimidation
fiasco that could result in a prison sentence of up to 30 years. That's not a
pleasant prospect for the 63-year-old mob associate who underworld sources say
always talked a better game than he played.
Two reputed hitmen allegedly hired by Galati have given him
up in what investigators say was a plan to murder two rival auto body shop
owners -- a father and son -- who may have been cooperating with the DA's
office. Those hits were never carried out, but a third shooting in Atlantic
City is still under investigation.
The target that time was Andrew Tuono, the boyfriend of
Galati's daughter Tiffany. The attempted hit went down. Tuono was shot three
times in the stomach outside his Atlantic City home on Nov. 30. He survived.
The two shooters were arrested within minutes of the assault and quickly rolled
on Galati, whom they said promised to pay them to kill Tuono and had also hired
them to rub out Joseph Rao and his son, Joe Jr., because Galati believed --
correctly -- that Rao Sr. had testified against him before a grand jury in an
insurance fraud probe.
"This guy is ratting on me on an insurance thing,"
alleged hitman Ronald Walker told investigators Galati told him.
Walker and Alvin Matthews have been arrested for the Tuono
shooting. They have also admitted, according to an affidavit that is part of
the pending Galati case, that they were tapped by Galati to shoot the Raos.
"They gotta go," Walker said Galati told him.
The affidavit of probable cause, the basis for Galati's
arrest in December, was sworn to by Philadelphia Police Det. Robert DiFrancesco
and Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael Romano. DeFrancesco is assigned to the
District Attorney's Insurance Fraud Unit. Romano is part of an Organized Crime
Task Force.
They jointly interviewed Walker and then Matthews who were
being held in the Atlantic County Jail after their arrests by Atlantic City
police.
During his interview, which took place on Dec. 6, Walker
told the investigators that "sometime before Halloween" he met with
Galati and Jerome Johnson, a Galati associate who has also been charged in the
case. The meeting took place outside American Collision, the auto repair shop
Galati runs at 1930 S. 20th Street.
Walker said the meeting was set up by Johnson, a lifelong
friend who told him "Galati had a problem" that he wanted to discuss
with them. Walker said the three of them walked up the street from the auto
body shop, pausing in front of what appeared to be an abandoned house nearby.
There, he said, Galati asked him to kill both Raos.
"Galati wanted him to go to the garage and shoot both
of them in the head," according to the affidavit. Galati also asked how
much it would cost. After Walker told him $20,000 for each, Galati allegedly
replied, "Alright."
Walker told authorities Galati reached in his pocket and
pulled out a wad of cash -- $800 -- which he handed him. Walker considered it a
down payment for the murders.
What neither Galati nor Walker realized at the time was that
the state police, who had begun an insurance fraud investigation a year
earlier, had a surveillance camera mounted across the street from American
Collision.
Romano, the state trooper, spent hours after the first
interview with Walker reviewing tape from October 2013. The tape, according to
the affidavit, includes video from October 23 that shows Galati meeting with
Walker, Matthews and Johnson outside the auto body shop between 1:45 and 2:45
that afternoon.
While there apparently is no audio, that kind of evidence
could be effectively used by prosecutors to support Walker's story if and when
he takes the witness stand against Galati.
Walker and Matthews also told the investigators that after
they were assigned the murder contract on the Raos they did "recon,"
visiting Rao's auto body shop at 9th and McKean Streets in South Philadelphia.
In fact, it appears Joseph Rao and his son unknowingly stared death in the eye
at one point.
Matthews told the investigators that it was Johnson who
solicited him to get involved in the Rao contracts. He said Johnson told him
that Galati wanted Joseph Rao Sr. killed because he was "testifying
against him...or trying to get him indicted or something along those
lines."
Mathews said he knew the Raos from another body shop they
once owned at 24th and Wharton in South Philadelphia. Matthews said he was
promised a car and some money, but he said he didn't know how much, for
carrying out the hits. He said he visited the shop at 9th and McKean pretending
that he was interested in a job cleaning cars.
The would-be hitman said he gave Joseph Rao Sr. a phony name
and telephone number. When questioned by investigators, Rao said he remembered
a black male stopping by the shop sometime in late October or early November
looking for a job "cleaning out cars or detailing a cars," according
to the affidavit.
Rao said he thought that might be a good idea and told his
son, who was also in the shop, that it would "save you from doing it.
Matthews told authorities he did not want to carry out the
hit that day because there were others in the shop. He said he went back to a
car where Johnson was waiting with a gun and told him that Rao wasn't there.
He and Walker also told authorities that they went back to
the shop in November to carry out the murders and found it had been padlocked,
apparently as part of a city investigation into insurance fraud.
At that point, Matthews said, Johnson told him "it's
time to concentrate on the young boy (Tuono) now."
Both Walker and Matthews told authorities that they had
previously been hired by Galati to vandalized cars. Those cars would then to
brought to Galati's shop for repair work. That scenario was similar to what
authorities alleged Galati was doing in the early 1990s. He was convicted in
1995 and served 37 months in a federal insurance fraud case.
Mob associate Louis "Bent Finger Lou" Monacello
told a jury at the recent trial of mob boss Joe Ligambi and his nephew George
Borgesi, that he and Borgesi worked similar scams for Galati. He said Galati
would make copies of keys to cars of customers. After the cars were repaired,
Monacello said, Borgesi, using keys provided by Galati, would steal the cars
and crash them into other vehicles that also belonged to Galati customers,
creating more work and potential insurance windfalls for the auto body shop owner.
Monacello said he was paid $100-a-night.
Walker and Matthews both told investigators that Galati paid
them for their vandalism work. Walker estimated that he had damaged about 20
vehicles for Galati and was paid between $500 and $1,500. Matthews said he was
involved in 50 incidents and was paid from $20 to $50 per event. Matthews said
he also was paid to "set numerous fires on boats" and at least one
house, according to the affidavit.
Sources said that federal authorities in New Jersey have
taken up the case there against Galati which includes the attempted murder of
Andrew Tuono and insurance fraud connected to at least one boat fire and other
acts of vandalism.
The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, meanwhile, is
expected to drop another shoe with an indictment that focuses on the insurance
fraud that precipitated the investigation of Galati. That case could include
multiple defendants. Whether any of them are tied to organized crime is open to
speculation.
For years Galati has basked in the low-life celebrity of
knowing and being around mob figures including Borgesi, Ligambi and Joseph
"Skinny Joey" Merlino. Sources say the insurance fraud case could spill over on to members of Ligambi's
family, both his relatives and mob associates.
From Florida, Merlino recently said that "the only
thing Ron Galati can say about me is that my hair is black."
Authorities have long believed that it was in Galati's auto
body shop that a stolen van was converted into a "hit machine" by
members of the Merlino organization. That van, with two portholes cut in its
side, was used to carry out the infamous shooting of mob boss John Stanfa on
the Schuylkill Expressway in the middle of morning rush hour traffic on August
31, 1993.
Stanfa's car was strafed by fire from two machine pistols
that morning. The mob boss, in the front passenger seat, ducked. His son
Joseph, riding in the back seat, took a bullet to the cheek. But the younger
Stanfa survived. The statue of limitations on that shooting has long expired. Unless
authorities were able to roll it into a racketeering case, anything Galati
knows about it might be useless.
What's more, District Attorney Seth Williams has made
witness intimidation cases a high priority in this office. Philadelphia has a
long history of witnesses being killed, particularly in the drug underworld.
Kaboni Savage, convicted last year and sentenced to death, was charged with 12
murders. Eight of those were linked to witness intimidation, including the
firebombing of a home in which two women and four children were killed.
It may be that the District Attorney's Office doesn't want
to make a deal with Galati who may have placed himself in a position to be the
poster boy for the DA's war against witness violence. In that case, whatever --
if anything -- Galati can say to tie some Ligambi associates to insurance fraud
might not be enough to get him out from under his own problems.
The attempted murder of Andrew Tuono adds another
"family" twist to the building Galati saga. Sources said Galati,
acting like Don Corleone, held court in an Italian restaurant outside of
Atlantic City shortly before the shooting and may have discussed what was
planned with others that night.
More troubling, say both underworld and law enforcement
sources, is that the attempted hit was carried out in front of Galati's
daughter. Both Tiffany Galati and Tuono are believed to be cooperating with
investigators.
http://www.bigtrial.net/2014/02/more-problems-ahead-for-auto-shop.html#cig7uESovobtR3zU.99
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