Post by Hyfler/RosnerAdmitted mob hitman Raymond Ferritto dies at 75
The Associated Press
SARASOTA, Fla.
Admitted mob hit man Raymond Ferritto, who
participated in the 1977 bombing death of a Cleveland
mobster, has died, his wife said Wednesday. He was 75.
Ferritto died Monday at his home of congestive heart
failure, Susan Ferritto said.
"If you were to meet him and not know about his past,
you would never believe he was involved" in the mafia, she
said. "He was a very good man."
Hilarious. His wife was a working prostitute when he
married her. He pimped her ... well into her forties.
Plus, you couldn't help but know about his "past" ...
because he reminded *everyone*.
Post by Hyfler/RosnerFerritto testified in a trial in 1978 that he was under
contract by a mob family in Ohio and participated in the
murder of Cleveland mobster Danny Greene, who died
when a remote-control bomb blew up his car.
Ferritto was driving when (supposedly) Ronnie Carabbia, a
Warren, Ohio mob guy, blew up his own car, parked next to
Greene's, by remote. Two days later Ferritto began
cooperating with the FBI. Ray Ferritto never committed a
crime unless he had a list of ten guys he could tell on if
he got caught. He was never a *made* guy. He was always a
rat.
Post by Hyfler/RosnerFerritto also claimed responsibility for the 1969 slaying
of Cleveland gangster Julius Anthony Petro. He served
less than four years in prison for those two murders.
Ferritto moved from his hometown of Erie, Pa., to Florida
in 2000 to "retire from the business," his wife said.
"He always said, `When you live by the sword, you die by
the sword,'" she said. "He always expected something to
happen. It never did."
Ferritto never got hit for snitching on Carabbia because
financially, it worked out so well for mafia families from
Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Cleveland and Toledo.
Ferritto had named someone else as the bomber until a day or
so before the trial began. Carabbia became the fall guy,
and spent more than twenty years in prison, probably for a
murder he didn't commit. It was rumored that Edward
DeBartolo issued a "hands off" because of how well *he* made
out on Ferritto's tattle-telling.
After Carabbia's trial, Ray Ferritto entered the Witness
Protection Program ... He left the WPP after two years and
returned to Erie. He knew no one but "Ronnie Crabs" was mad
at him ... and Carabbia was in prison. Ferritto ran a
sports book until the late 80s ... when he was arrested
again. For a petty gambling arrest, he told on every judge,
cop, bookie and loan shark he could think of. He stayed out
of prison ... but he was, for the most part, washed up as a
... "mob" guy after that arrest.
Aladena "Jimmy The Weasel" Fratianno, who wrote a couple of
mob-tell-all books ("The Last Mafioso") was the one who
recommended Ferritto for the Greene hit. When a contract
was offered on Fratianno because of his recommendation ...
he also became a rat.
http://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_6.html
Cops and FBI agents used to joke about Ray Ferritto: "He
was a guy you had to slap once to make him talk ... and slap
twice to shut him up."
Post by Hyfler/RosnerIn addition to his wife, Ferritto's survivors also include
a
Post by Hyfler/Rosnerdaughter, three sons, two stepchildren, a brother, two
sisters and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Ferritto didn't ... "retire" to Florida as much as he *ran*
to Florida ...
Locally, people used to laugh and say, the character, Fredo,
from "The Godfather," was based on Ferritto.
---
FROM: The Erie Times-News ~
Admitted mob hit man Raymond W. Ferritto, formerly of Erie,
died Monday in Sarasota, Fla.
He was 75 and reportedly had a heart condition. He died at
home, according to his obituary.
Ferritto testified he was under contract by "a family" in
Ohio and participated in the 1977 murder of Cleveland
mobster Danny Greene, who died when a remote-control bomb
blew up his car. Ferritto, according to published reports,
also told investigators he was involved in a separate murder
in California.
In exchange for testimony against Greene's convicted killer,
Ronald Carrabia, Ferritto was offered immunity and
relocation in the federal Witness Security Program.
He turned it down, returning to Erie, where he again gave
key testimony after finding his friend, Frank "Bolo"
Dovishaw, dead in 1983 in a house where Dovishaw took sports
bets.
Ferritto also was a gambler, convicted of misdemeanor
gambling charges in 1990. A felony charge conducting and
maintaining a corrupt organization was dropped at that
time in a plea deal.
Ferritto, who lived in the 700 block of Brown Avenue and was
accused of bookmaking from a second-floor apartment on Hazel
Street, was sentenced to six months to 231/2 months in
prison.
He ended up serving a few days of that sentence and was put
on 60 days of electronic monitoring. When that was over, he
was granted permission by the Erie County Adult Probation
Office to "winter" in Florida. He rarely returned to Erie
after that, a friend said.
He married Susan Ferritto, who once led the Westside
neighborhood watch in the section of Erie known as Little
Italy. She owned a beauty parlor in the heart of that
neighborhood, Beautiworks Haircraft & Tanning, at West 16th
and Cherry streets and had previously owned another salon,
Hollywood Classics.
No one answered a phone listed under her name.
In his obituary, Ferritto listed lifelong friends among
survivors, including well-known Erie crime figure Anthony
"Cy" Ciotti, who was with Ferritto when they discovered
Dovishaw's body. Ciotti, once listed among the U.S. Marshal
Service's "15 Most Wanted," is the former owner of the
Calabrese Club and was the "entertainment director" for
Reflections Bistro, the now-closed club at 15th and State
streets raided by police in August 2003 because it lacked a
valid liquor license.
Raymond Ferritto's family planned a private memorial
service. In addition to his wife, Ferritto is survived by a
daughter, three sons, two stepchildren, a brother, two
sisters and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
The National Cremation Society in Sarasota is handling
arrangements.