It's really no surprise that Genovese crime family big Anthony (Bingy) Arillotta decided to switch sides in the war on crime this year.
Secret FBI documents show that back in June of 2008, when Arillotta had just gotten out of prison, things were so bad for him that it's almost a wonder that he didn't immediately apply to join Team America back then.
For starters, Bingy was a key suspect in the murder of capo Adolpho (Big Al) Bruno, the Springfield Massachusetts mobster whose spot Arilotta had taken atop the Genovese family's New England rackets when Bruno was whacked in 2003.
Then there was a long list of gut-wrenching problems - ranging from money to troubles with both his families - that, in the summer of 2008, Bingy laid out to a fellow gangster.
As it happens, his sympathetic listener was recording everything for the feds. But, as described in a series of secret FBI memos obtained by Gang Land, here are a few of the things weighing heavy on Bingy's mind right after he finished up a three year state prison stint for gambling and loansharking:
--Because he'd been locked up at the time, he'd only been able to spend a single day with his father who was dying of cancer at the time. His dad died the day after his visit.
--He came home to learn that the family business, B & A Produce, was doing lousy. He was fighting with his mother and his two sisters who controlled the business. He worried that if his mother "didn't do the right thing," he'd lose his home. And his wife wanted "to get out of Springfield."
--Federal and state officials were listening to all his calls and, thanks to his parole restrictions, he couldn't talk to any "felons," which meant most of his pals.
--A guy named "Jimmy the Fag" who ran a strip club wasn't "doing anything for anybody" as the FBI reported it. (We're willing to bet that the actual words were more along the lines of "nothing for nobody" - the term of art in Gang Land for ingrates.)
--Even a hooker at the club had "connections with the feds."
He had every right to be worried. State and federal probers were, naturally, looking to bring Bingy down for whacking his predecessor. They had already indicted and jailed Fotios (Freddy) Geas, the mob associate Bingy had assigned to handle the hit. As a result, the law was watching Arillotta like a hawk. This made it almost impossible for him to reap the benefits - namely the cash - he felt he rightly deserved for having overseen Bruno's murder, and then taking over his slot.
To make matters worse, his New York superior, capo Arthur (The Little Guy) Nigro was reaching out to him from his own prison cell, and ordering him to meet up with his emissary for some important high-level mob discussions.
Then there was the trusted old pal from New York who, unbeknownst to Arillotta, had already fingered him for Bruno's murder, according to the FBI documents.
Some nine months before Arillotta was released from prison, longtime Genovese associate John (Big John) Bologna had implicated Bingy in Bruno's murder. Big John was Nigro's emissary from New York and he had spent many days in Springfield with both Bingy and Bruno (before he was whacked). Records show that as early as September, 2007, Bologna began tape-recording talks with Nigro and other cohorts.
So when Bingy arrived home the following June, the FBI sent Big John out to see him. The wired-up associate began reaching out to Arillotta at his home and at his family-run wholesale fruit and vegetable business where he ostensibly worked, according to reports by agents Joy Adam and William Inzerillo.
"I can't talk or hang around any felons," Bingy whined when Big John finally reached him on July 14, 2008. "I got state probation, state parole, federal supervised release. I got three different ones. They're all over the place and they're waiting for me to reach out and talk to somebody so they can violate me," he said.
After several phone conversations in which Arillotta begged off meeting Bologna - including one call in which Bingy first pretended to be a guy named McDougal who didn't know where Anthony was - Bingy finally agreed to meet Big John at the last westbound rest stop on the Mass Turnpike on September 14. But he didn't show.
Two weeks later, at a scheduled meeting at a mall about 40 miles from Springfield, Bingy sent an emissary who told Bologna that Arillotta, apparently concerned that Nigro was looking for tribute money, had instructed him to tell Big John that he needed "time to get back golden."
"Money is not the issue," replied Bologna, stating that he was "under the gun" to get answers from Arillotta to important questions from Nigro and that he was not authorized to discuss the matter with anyone except Arillotta.
"In this life," said Big John, "even if you have problems, you have to go to give answers."
After his own arrest, Bingy quickly learned how he'd been played by his pal Big John. Between that, the failing business, the nagging family members, and the damn feds who just would not go away well, it's enough to make even a true tough guy start singing. Which is what he did.
These days, Bingy Arillotta is spilling his guts about mob murders and mayhem from New York to New England. Last month, he led the FBI to the body of a low level gangster who was killed a few months before Bruno. In November, he is expected to be a key witness against Geas and Nigro, a former acting Genovese boss charged with orchestrating Bruno's November 23, 2003 killing.