A cousin recently sent me some things that Joseph Papin had given to one of his brothers. One was a publication I had not seen before – the U.S. Federal Marshals Service journal, The Pentacle. It included a drawing Joe Papin had done of the Pizza Connection trial; another was a copy of a cartoon he drew for Judge Pierre Leval at the end of the trial.
“The Pizza Connection Trial (in full, United States v. Badalamenti et al.) was a criminal trial against the Sicilian and American mafias that took place before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in New York City, U.S. The trial centered on a number of independently owned pizza parlor fronts used to distribute drugs, which had imported US $1.65 billion of heroin from Southwest Asia to the United States between 1975 and 1984. The trial lasted from September 30, 1985, to March 2, 1987, ending with 18 convictions, with sentences handed down on June 22, 1987. Lasting about 17 months, it was the longest trial in the judicial history of the United States.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_Connection_Trial)
The Papin drawing below depicts the beginning of the trial. The text reads: “‘Pizza Connection’ Trial – Government opens with remarks by A.U.S.A. Robert Stewart.”
The article, Courtroom Drama: The Role of the Marshals Service in the “Pizza Connection” Case, in the U.S. Department of Justice, United States Marshals Service publication, The Pentacle (Vol. 7, No. 2, Summer, July 1987) describes the trial in more detail.
“It was no ordinary trial. The case started with 23 defendants and before it was over, one was murdered; one was shot and paralyzed; two pleaded guilty; and one died of natural causes. Final tally – 18 guilty and one acquitted.” (Pentacle, 1987)
“It was dubbed the ‘Pizza Connection’ case and involved a complicated tale of cooperation between the Sicilian and American Mafia. Under the scheme, according to testimony, morphine paste was brought from Turkey to laboratories in Sicily where it was converted to heroin. It was then smuggled to the U.S. and distributed through pizzerias.
“The conspiracy also involved importing cocaine from South America, and after the drugs were sold, banks and brokerage accounts were used to transfer ‘suitcases full of cash,’ according to testimony. More than $40 million went back to Sicily in a laundering scheme involving banks in New York, Switzerland, Bermuda, and the Bahamas.” (The Pentacle, 1987)
The drawing that appears in The Pentacle is below; the caption and credit reads: “Prosecutors introduce weapons as evidence in a “Pizza Connection” trial scene. One hundred and twenty-five weapons were seized during the investigation. Joseph Papin/Daily News.”
The Pentacle article draws heavily on an interview with Federal Marshal Romolo Imundi, friend of Joe Papin and pictured in Joe’s drawing of him at “The Commission” trial (photographed at an angle to avoid reflections from the glass over the drawing):
“‘The trial required us to use every ability of the Marshal service – transportation and custody of prisoners, protection of the court and witnesses, carrying out international extraditions, and pursuing and arresting fugitives,’ said Marshal Romolo Imundi, U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of New York.” (The Pentacle, 1987)
“While the trial was in progress, the courtroom looked like a crowded movie set. A large booth was set up for interpreters in one corner of the room; wire and cables from the booth snaked across the floor. Translation was given almost simultaneously to the defendants who spoke Italian. Actors were also hired by the prosecution to read the dialogue from the wiretaps.
“The 22 defendants (sometimes less) with their 26 attorneys lined three tables and several benches on the right side of the room. Defendants in custody had a Deputy Marshal seated on each side, and their lawyers sat on benches in front of them. … The media and the courtroom illustrators crowded into several benches left open for them near the front of the courtroom.” (The Pentacle, 1987)
The drawing below includes a drawing of “Chief Marshal Romolo Imundi” in the lower left hand side (published in the Daily News, Ocober 31, 1985):
Marshal Romolo Imundi describes needing to get a message to one of the jurors in the trial and finding them at the production of Cats at the Winter Garden Theatre, “home to the original Broadway production of Cats from 1982 until the production closed in 2000.” (https://catsmusical.fandom.com/wiki/Broadway_Production/Winter_Garden_Theatre)
One of my family members recalled that our father was able to purchase tickets for Cats with the help of one of the actors hired to read the transcripts of the wiretaps were connected to the Cats play.
“Professional actors, hired by the prosecution, read the transcripts to the jury. The discussions were originally in Sicilian, which was translated into English.” (https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/27/nyregion/tapped-phone-call-offered-in-pizza-connection-trial.html)
“The government’s case relied upon nine volumes of transcribed intercepted conversations, seventy-seven volumes of telephone toll records, and the testimony of a host of FBI and local police agents who had spent years following, photographing, and listening to the defendants. To present the wiretaps to the jury, the government hired four actors, known in the court as the “pizza players,” to read the intercepted phone calls. For months, the jury listened to the reenactions of translations of cryptic Sicilian conversations.” (Worthington, Jay, et al. Busting the Mob: The United States v. Cosa Nostra. NYU Press, 1994. Project MUSE. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/193/oa_monograph/chapter/170527)
The length and sheer mass of the trial is reflected in the cartoon that my cousin kindly sent. I believe that the original was given to Judge Leval. The text reads:
“February 25, 1987
“And thus… it did… in its own good time… come to pass…
“… With the rumblings of summation done, the great mountain was sundered! And lo! From a fissure, not unlike that of an endless mineshaft, Judge Pierre Leval burst forth… leading the now aged jury to the final… sunlit instruction.
“The (Lost) Pizza Connection band emerges from the seventeenth month of its desert journey.”
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