18 Facts About Richard Cantarella

Richard Cantarella was married to Lauretta Castelli and they had a son, Paul Richard Cantarella.

From 1988 until 1991, Richard Cantarella was a so-called "tail man", a worker who rides on the back of the delivery truck and unloads the newspaper bundles.

However, Richard Cantarella never showed up for work; he paid a laborer $20 a night to do his job while Richard Cantarella collected his $700 a week in wages.

Richard Cantarella told Mazzeo that a newspaper vendor at the Lower Manhattan terminal was operating an illegal sportsbook operation.

Mazzeo started using illegal drugs and Richard Cantarella started worrying that Mazzeo might become a government witness.

Richard Cantarella extorted $250,000 from another businessman, using part of the money to purchase a Pontiac convertible automobile for Lauretta.

Vitale approached Richard Cantarella and asked him if he would murder Perrino.

Vitale then told Bonanno consigliere Anthony Spero that Richard Cantarella wanted to eliminate Perrino.

Richard Cantarella was eventually convicted of grand larceny for his "no show" job at the Post and served seven months in prison.

Unknown to Richard Cantarella he had become a target of an unorthodox FBI investigation.

Richard Cantarella ultimately persuaded his bosses to let him borrow Jeff Sallet and Kim McCaffrey, a pair of forensic accountants normally used on fraud cases, believing that they could pinpoint participants in the family's money laundering schemes.

Richard Cantarella believed that enough conspirators would be frightened by the prospect of long prison terms that they would easily be willing to cooperate.

Richard Cantarella's stake was held in the name of his wife, Lauretta.

Largely on the strength of Weinberg and Scozzari's tapes, on October 2,2002, Richard Cantarella was arrested and indicted on a 24-count RICO indictment.

Coppa told investigators that Richard Cantarella had bragged about his role in setting up the Perrino hit, as well as being the getaway driver in the Mirra hit.

In early 2003, Massino realized that Richard Cantarella had become an informant.

Also in 2004, Richard Cantarella testified that he attended the Bonanno family induction ceremony for Perry Criscitelli, who was then the president of the Feast of San Gennaro Association.

In July 2007, Richard Cantarella testified at the murder and racketeering trial of Bonanno mobster Vincent Basciano.