A Good Rat Is Hard to Find -- These Days

Colombo captain Reynold Maragni gets fired as a government rat.  >
Reynold Maragni
The NY Daily News reports that two Mafia informants were recently kicked off their respective trials, indicating perhaps the spark of a trend that law enforcement officials certainly would not be fond of. Many a trial has been won through the use of informants. Or at least that has been the case...

Bonanno associate Joseph Galante Jr., who was supposed to be "the star witness" in the extortion trial of reputed Genovese captain Anthony "Rom" Romanello was thrown off the case.

Another would-be star witness, Reynold Maragni, was to take the stand against two fellow mobsters -- Colombo consigliore Thomas Farese and associate Pat Truglia -- charged with money laundering.

"But after two previous appearances on the witness stand ended in disastrous verdicts for the government [the Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli and Francis (BF) Guerra Colombo trials, both of whom were acquitted of murder], prosecutors apparently decided to cut their losses and call an end to Maragni's singing career," the News reports in another article.

Although the informants were fired, tapes that they recorded were still allowed into court and played for the jury.

It is not known what infraction Galante committed to get kicked off Team America.

Maragni was nailed for selectively recording his confederates by turning the tape recorder on and off when he wanted to. He also passed them secret messages.

My question - were these "rats" really rats -- meaning, were they deliberately sabotaging the trials?

Comments

  1. Rats become rats for one reason: self interest. If it is in their self interest to tell the truth they will; if it's to lie they'll do that too. If turning off a recorder helps hide money from the FBI, that's an easy one. No one sacrifices a reputation to go in as a sabateur of the government's prosecution. That's overthinking the simple.

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  2. But he is passing them messages too -- won't that alert people that he's a rat?

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  3. He could have easily written a note that said he was afraid they were bugged nearby; that he was hot. We'd have to know every conversation and read the notes. He became a rat to save himself then danced around trying to pull in cash for himself.

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  4. I think you're right -- I am over thinking it!

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  5. Joseph " Cry Baby" Galante has been a longtime rat. This isn't the first time, but hopefully it will be the last. He is an absolute disgrace especially to his family.

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