Valin Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 Friends of Ours03/12/2016Cosa Nostra had plans to assassinate Mario Cuomo during the New York governor's 1992 trip to Italy according to imprisoned hitman Maurizio Avola, and "the attack was only called off when the scale of Cuomo's security detail became apparent"as reported by Lorenzo Tondo for The Guardian. During this period Cosa Nostra was engaged in a terror campaign against the state which included the assassinations of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in separate bomb attacks in 1992, and further wanted to target American officials: Targeting a prominent American would also send a warning to the law enforcement agencies who had allowed several prominent mafia turncoats to start new lives in the US under assumed identities, Avola said. "Cuomo was a symbol of America which during those years hosted collaborators who wanted out of Cosa Nostra and then got their bosses arrested. His death would have sent a strong signal to New York. It would have made them understand what happens to those who stand in the Mafia's way," he said. Ironically, Mario Cuomo was a Mafia denier, and his administration did little to target the crime families. Indeed, he once infamously said that the Mafia's existence is "a lot of baloney" and it's just "a word invented by people" as reported by The Associated Press. When Gambino boss Paul Castellano was whacked in 1985 in front of Sparks Steak House in Manhattan the governor even "urged reporters to refrain from invoking the word Mafia in reference to the hit" as reported by Sam Roberts for The New York Times. Cuomo then criticized the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York for refusing to bury Castellano in sacred ground as reported by Crime TV. (Snip) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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