‘Springfield Sam,’ 83, accused in car lot shooting

Keith Paul

Friday, Sept. 13, 2002 | 10:55 a.m.

Sam Manarite didn't look like he would follow through with threats to come back to a small Las Vegas car lot with a gun and shoot up the place.

The owner never really took Manarite seriously when the man would come to the car lot yelling at his son who worked there. Manarite, with a shock of white hair, talked big, but he was 83 years old.

What the owner of the car lot didn't know was that Manarite has a criminal record dating from 1947 and was a reputed mob soldier in the Genovese crime family.

What most people had forgotten was that the elderly 5-foot-6, 150-pound man was a reputed debt collector who was once accused of using a golf club on someone who had fallen behind in payments or that the man had threatened to use acid on another person's face if payment wasn't soon made.

"He's what?" said Dino Boggino, who was shot in the hand Monday when Manarite allegedly came into Astro Auto Sales with a gun and started firing. But even after learning of the man's past, Boggino said he had no idea why Manarite would come and shoot at him.

Some in town who still knew the name were surprised, not that he was arrested Monday and charged with shooting at people, but that he was still around.

"Springfield Sam, I didn't know he was still alive," said former FBI Agent George Togliatti, former head of the organized crime unit for the Las Vegas office. "He was a notable figure back in the heyday."

In 1993 Manarite was nominated to be included on Nevada's List of Excluded Persons, otherwise known as the Black Book, which lists people barred from the state's casinos. He only avoided inclusion because he was about to begin serving a 10 1/2-year federal prison term, said Keith Copher, chief of enforcement for the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

"After he got out of prison, we didn't think he posed a threat to the casino industry anymore," Copher said.

But Springfield Sam, who looks like any other 80-something guy, faces charges alleging that he is still a threat to others.

Manarite had his initial appearance in Las Vegas Justice Court Thursday on two counts of attempted murder, being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm, burglary and possession of an altered firearm charges. He is being held in the Clark County jail without bail.

On Monday, police allege, Manarite, who got his nickname from being born in Springfield, Mass., went into the downtown Las Vegas car lot, and starting firing at two men -- Boggino and John Pasqualone -- in the reception area.

A Metro Police arrest report says Boggino fled into his office, but was hit in the hand. Boggino came out of the office with his own gun and started shooting at Manarite, hitting him in the arm. The shooting stopped when Manarite emptied his gun, which had all the identification markings removed, the report stated.

Manarite entered the building about 2:40 p.m. Monday with a silver handgun in his hand, told one person in the building "to get out" and started shooting, according to the report.

Boggino said he had no idea why Manarite, whom he knew as the father of one of his employees, would shoot him.

Manarite has a reputation for violence and loan sharking. He was convicted in 1947 in Connecticut for assault with a deadly weapon and perjury. He was convicted in 1984 for loan sharking.

Most recently he was convicted in 1993 in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on money laundering and other charges. His sentence of 10 1/2 years in federal prison was reduced in 1998, and he was released in late 1999 or early 2000.

Boggino said Thursday he knew nothing of Manarite's past or his alleged connections to an organized crime family.

"He's an old man and he would tell stories, but you didn't know what to believe," Boggino said. None of the stories ever mentioned any mob connection. Manarite would just make threats, Boggino said.

The police report states the dispute that led to the shooting was over a car sold to Manarite's son, but Boggino said he had never sold Manarite's son a car.

Manarite's son worked for Boggino and Manarite would come to the lot and argue with his son, Boggino said.

"Most of the time the anger was directed at his own kid," Boggino said. "He said sometimes he would come back and shoot everyone and burn the place down. But I would just tell him to calm down. I told him every time he comes and argues with his family, it runs three people off the lot."

Boggino said he never had any problems with Manarite. He said Manarite even called him last Friday to apologize for coming to the car lot and yelling at his son.

Manarite fled the car lot in his white Cadillac after the shooting, according to the police report. Officers found him about 20 minutes later at another nearby business with a gunshot wound. The gun was found in his car, according to the report.

Manarite was treated at University Medical Center and then booked into the jail, police said.