Columnist Jeff German: FBI report reveals more street tales from reputed mob underboss

Tuesday, Sept. 1, 1998 | 11:18 a.m.

THE STREETS ARE ABUZZ with the incredible story of Carmen Milano, the reputed Los Angeles crime kingpin who broke the mob's code of silence.

The story has surfaced in a secret FBI investigative report of a debriefing of Milano at a Primm hotel-casino in May 1997.

Milano, while acknowledging being the underboss of the Los Angeles mob, offered information on his pals in the crime family, as well as wise guys in Las Vegas and Cleveland, the FBI report says.

Among those Milano reportedly talked about was his older brother, Peter Milano, whom he identified as the boss of the Los Angeles La Cosa Nostra.

If you listen to Carmen Milano, he'll tell you that most of what's contained in the five-page report is inaccurate.

His court-appointed lawyer, Kevin Stolworthy, however, acknowledges that Milano, under the threat of arrest, agreed to cooperate with FBI in 1997. But Stolworthy insists Milano later changed his mind when he decided he had nothing of value to give the FBI.

At the time of his debriefing in Primm, Los Angeles and Las Vegas FBI agents had busted Milano on money laundering charges out of Southern California. Agents, however, decided against taking him into custody after he agreed to cooperate.

Milano later was indicted in Los Angeles. And in February, he was charged in Las Vegas with 16 other suspected Los Angeles and Buffalo crime figures in a massive racketeering indictment.

The indictment was the result of a lengthy undercover FBI investigation that smashed an attempt by the Los Angeles mob to muscle in on Las Vegas street rackets. Local underworld figure Herbie Blitzstein was murdered in the takeover bid.

Months earlier in Primm, Milano had offered to help FBI agents go after drug dealers and loansharks in Las Vegas, the report says.

But that's not all.

Milano, according to the report, also told agents he could identify "loansharks, bookmakers and drug dealers" in Cleveland.

He rattled off the names of numerous Las Vegas and Cleveland crime figures.

One person he mentioned was Dominick Spinale, who ended up becoming a co-defendant in the racketeering case.

The FBI report quotes Milano as calling Spinale a "real sleaze," a characterization that apparently stemmed from Milano's belief that Spinale, a onetime Blitzstein associate, had never treated him with respect on the street.

Milano also talked about two other wise guys who later became co-defendants, Peter Caruso, the man the FBI alleges arranged the Blitzstein murder, and Louis Caruso, whom the FBI has identified as an "acting capo" in the Los Angeles mob.

Milano linked the Carusos, who are not related, to a Las Vegas limousine service, owned by Anthony Valentino, who has since been indicted with Milano on money laundering charges.

A sting of Cleveland hoodlums, some of them "made members," were identified for FBI agents, the report says. Milano, however, expressed concern about traveling to Cleveland, his hometown, to help the FBI in person. He told agents he was afraid his brother might find out about the trip.

The FBI report, meanwhile, has been circulated among defense lawyers, which means by now most of Milano's co-defendants know of his one-time dealings with agents.

Even if you assume Milano didn't reveal any of the Los Angeles family's dark secrets, the fact that he spoke on the record with agents illustrates how badly the mob's image has slipped in recent years.

"The precedent has been set to roll on your buddies," says one Mafia watcher. "It's every man for himself."

Breaking the mob's longstanding code of silence, it seems, has become commonplace in crime families across the country, as more and more mob bosses wind up in prison.

"La Cosa Nostra, as we know it, is finished," the mob expert says. "There's just no honor left anymore."