So far, informants Roche, Felix Tranghese, of East Longmeadow, and John Bologna, of New York, have received prison sentences of 14 years, four years and eight years, respectively.
NEW YORK - A federal judge is scheduled to sentence Springfield gangster-turned-informant Anthony J. Arillotta March 20 in connection with the 2003 murders of rival Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno and a police informant, according to court records filed in a Manhattan courthouse.
Arillotta is the last and highest-profile defendant in the long-running case, which captured the public's attention in Western Massachusetts and ultimately served to virtually erase the ranking mobsters from the local landscape.
Testifying against his former cohorts in two trials in New York in 2011 and 2012, Arillotta delivered unflinching testimony about Mafia life and murder plots, including against Bruno, the longtime head of the Genovese crime family in Greater Springfield and northern Connecticut.
Arillotta told two juries he and a group of young upstarts convinced New York bosses to approve Bruno's murder, then paid Frankie A. Roche, formerly of Westfield, $10,000 to gun Bruno down "cowboy style" on Nov. 23, 2003.
He also said he and his onetime enforcers, Fotios "Freddy" and Ty Geas, formerly of West Springfield, shook down business owners for tens of thousands of dollars monthly and shot and bludgeoned to death low-level associate Gary Westerman three weeks before Bruno's death because they learned he was a police informant.
The Geas brothers are serving life sentences, as is former New York Genovese acting boss Arthur "Artie" Nigro, whom Arillotta testified green-lighted Bruno's murder. That trio was convicted in 2011. Arillotta testified in a separate trial against Longmeadow loan shark Emilio Fusco, whom he implicated in the Bruno and Westerman plots.
Fusco was acquitted of murder but convicted of racketeering and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
In addition, Arillotta testified he and the Geases shot New York union boss Frank Dadabo several times in 2003 at Nigro's behest, although Dadabo lived.
"(Nigro) said we had to get better at head shots," Arillotta told jurors in 2011.
So far, informants Roche, Felix Tranghese, of East Longmeadow, and John Bologna, of New York, have received prison sentences of 14 years, four years and eight years, respectively.
It is unknown what Arillotta's prospective sentencing range will be.