Gerlando Sciascia

Infobox Person
name=Gerlando Sciascia

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caption= FBI surveillance photo of Gerlando Sciascia
birth_date= 1934
birth_place=Cattolica Eraclea, Sicily, Italy
death_date=March 18, 1999
death_place=New York city, New York, USA

Gerlando Sciascia aka George from Canada (1934 - March 18, 1999) was a New York mobster and a caporegime in the Bonanno crime family who was a major narcotics trafficker in Canada.

Sciascia was born in Cattolica Eraclea in the province of Agrigento, Sicily, the same area as Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto. In 1955, Sciascia immigrated to the United States and moved to New York City. On May 5th, 1981, Sciascia participated in the murders of dissident Bonanno capos Dominick Trinchera, Alphonse Indelicato, and Phillip Giaccone at a social club in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

In 1983, Sciascia was indicted for heroin trafficking and fled the United States to Montreal. In the 1980s, while living in Montreal, Sciascia served as the liaison between the Montreal Mafia and the Bonanno family in New York, managing drug trafficking between the two countries. On the New York side, he worked closely with Gambino mobsters Gene Gotti and John Carneglia. In 1986, Sciascia was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). In 1988, after two years in Canadian custody, Sciascia was deported back to the U.S. Very wealthy from his heroin trafficking days, Sciascia moved back to New York and established a jewelry store and small construction company in the Bronx.

In 1989 Sciascia, Gotti, and Carneglia were tried on narcotics trafficking charges, but only Gotti and Carneglia were convicted. After his acquittal, Sciascia applied for readmission to Canada, basing it on his son's residence in Montreal. In 1997, after a long legal battle, the Canadian Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada dubbed Sciascia a "public menace" and denied him readmission to Canada. In the late 1990s Sciascia began complaining to other Bonanno family members about the alleged cocaine addiction of Bonanno capo Anthony Graziano. However, when new family boss Joe Massino heard about Sciascia's complaints, he felt Sciascia was attacking his leadership as he had made Graziano a capo. Before leaving on a Mexico vacation with his wife, Massino ordered Sciascia's murder. Sciascia was reportedly invited to a "sit-down" with fellow capo Patrick DeFilippo and was shot to death.

On March 18, 1999, Sciascia's body was found on a Bronx street with three bullet wounds to the head. Upon returning from Mexico, Massino reportedly remarked "It served him right for telling me how to run the family." In June, 2005 Massino, now a cooperating witness with the government, confessed to ordering Sciascia's murder and was given two life sentences.

References

*Sifakis, Carl. "The Mafia Encyclopedia". New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3

External links

* [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/nyregion/24massino.html?scp=4&sq=Gerlando+Sciascia&st=nyt New York Times: Bonanno Crime Boss Is Sentenced to 2 Life Terms] By ROBERT F. WORTH
* [http://www.ganglandnews.com/column344.htm This Week in Gangland: Dark Days For Joe Massino & Peter Gotti] by Jerry Capeci
* [http://members.fortunecity.com/sosdie/mob/family/bonanno/montreal.htm Dieland: The Montreal Family]
* [http://www.nicaso.com/pages/doc_page99.html Toronto Globe and Mail: Family ties trip up would-be immigrant] by Estanislao Oziewicz