Mafia chief ‘had own guards inside prison’

Press, 7 November 1978, Page 8

Mafia chief ‘had own guards inside prison’

(NZPA-Reuter New York The reputed head of much organised crime in the United States, Carmine Galante, fearing for his life at! the hands of rival mobsters, I managed to place two bodyguards outside his cells at I prisons in New York and Connecticut, according to “Time” magazine. “Time” said yesterday that two Mafia “soldiers” had been permitted to enter the Metropolitan Correction Centre with unidentified inside help nightly to protect Galante shortly after his arrest last (northern) spring. However, the “New York Post,” quoted Galante as saying the alleged death threat was “baloney” and merely harassment on the part of Government officials. Lieutenant Percy Pitzer, 1 correctional supervisor at the centre, said of the magazine report, “That’s wrong . . . we would never let

: something like that go on.” ; The police recognise Gaillante, aged 68, as ruler of ;(the Joseph Bonanno crime (family, one-time heir appar (ent to the title of boss of .(bosses of organised crime. ( Galante was returned to : prison to serve the final 11 years of a 20-year sentence 11 for narcotics trafficking. He had been on parole for three years, but was picked up I again for associating with t known criminals. i Before being transferred ■ to an isolation cell at the : Federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, on October 18, “Time” said, Galante had re- : ceived word an attempt y would be made on his life I According to the “New 1 York Post,” Galante claimed ■ the death threat was a plot (hatched by Federal proba- , tion officials to damage his q reputation so the courts ■ would not grant his appeal ;■ concerning the parole violattion.