New witness in 1981 mob slays at Queens bar
The feds have a new witness to a 30-year-old mob double-murder that will help them make the case against a top Gambino crime-family boss, prosecutors said yesterday.
Bartolomeo Vernace, a Gambino capo who is one of three made men sitting on the crime family's ruling panel, has been charged as one of the trigger-men in the 1981 Queens bar rubout where one victim was shot point-blank in the face and another in the chest.
"There is an eyewitness to the crime that identified the defendant as the shooter," Assistant US Attorney Evan Norris said in Brooklyn federal court.
Vernace, 61, was acquitted in a 2002 state-court trial of the murders of John D'Agnese and Richard Godkin in the Shamrock Bar on Jamaica Avenue after an argument arose over a drink spilled on a wiseguy's gal pal.
A Gambino associate who was involved in the dispute left the bar and later picked up Vernace and a third accomplice, prosecutors say.
The three allegedly returned and opened fire on D'Agnese and Godkin, who owned the bar.
The US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn also says it has two informants who will testify that Gambino member Frank Riccardi implicated himself in the shooting shortly after leaving the bar.
Bartolomeo Vernace, a Gambino capo who is one of three made men sitting on the crime family's ruling panel, has been charged as one of the trigger-men in the 1981 Queens bar rubout where one victim was shot point-blank in the face and another in the chest.
"There is an eyewitness to the crime that identified the defendant as the shooter," Assistant US Attorney Evan Norris said in Brooklyn federal court.
Bartolomeo Vernace
Vernace, 61, was acquitted in a 2002 state-court trial of the murders of John D'Agnese and Richard Godkin in the Shamrock Bar on Jamaica Avenue after an argument arose over a drink spilled on a wiseguy's gal pal.
A Gambino associate who was involved in the dispute left the bar and later picked up Vernace and a third accomplice, prosecutors say.
The three allegedly returned and opened fire on D'Agnese and Godkin, who owned the bar.
The US Attorney's Office in Brooklyn also says it has two informants who will testify that Gambino member Frank Riccardi implicated himself in the shooting shortly after leaving the bar.
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