Rocco Musacchia

The FBI claimed Musacchia was linked to the highest levels of New York's Genovese crime family. He was employed by the production company, ABC Motion Pictures, while Prizzi's Honor (1985) was filming in Brooklyn in the fall of 1984. "I have no idea what (Musacchia) did on the movie; I didn't hire him", said John Foreman, the film's producer. He added that Musacchia "works on most of the pictures that go to New York as sort of a local contact. He knows his way around Brooklyn." A spokesman for Capital Cities/ABC, the broadcasting company that no longer operates that film company, said: "Virtually no one connected with the movie is still connected with this company. All I can tell you is that he was not hired on the West Coast." According to copies of a number of sworn FBI affidavits obtained by The Times, he was an alleged "lieutenant" of Frederick (Fritzy) Giovanelli, a Genovese capo who reports directly to Vincent (the Chin) Gigante, the acting boss of the Genovese family. In addition to Prizzi's Honor (1985), Musacchia also worked on Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986), the feature film version of Neil Simon's play of the same name, produced by Rastar Productions. Published credits for that movie list Musacchia as assistant location manager. While Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986) was filming in 1985, his telephone conversations were intercepted by federal agents under court order. He was overheard on several occasions handing out jobs on the movie set, according to the FBI documents. Joseph M. Caracciolo, associate producer and production manager of Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986), and an employee of Rastar Productions, said he hired Musacchia, with whom he had worked on The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984). "My association with him goes back to years ago, when he was working in the (film production) business with his uncle and I was doing prop work. After his uncle died, he was out of the business for a while. He's called me many times looking for work and the (Brighton Beach) job fit the bill because it was near his home." Caracciolo said he was unaware of Musacchia's alleged organized crime ties. Law enforcement sources said Musacchia was also under investigation in Los Angeles and Newark, New Jersey, for his part in an alleged extortion of a Philadelphia-area budget record distributor in 1985. The distributor, John LaMonte, joined the government's witness protection program in 1986 after he allegedly was beaten for refusing to pay for a load of 4 million out-of-date records originally purchased from Los Angeles-based MCA Records. According to one FBI affidavit filed in court, "Thomas Vastola and Morris Levy, the latter of whom is under the direction and control of Vincent Gigante, Dominick Canterino and Frederick Giovanelli, have been exacting extortionate payments of money and other property from John LaMonte with the assistance of Rocco Musacchia."