Matthew Louis Guglielmetti Jr., also known as "Matty" (born 1948), is the former underboss or sottocapo of the New England-based Patriarca crime family of La Cosa Nostra. Guglielmetti is closely aligned with former family boss Luigi Mannochio.
Guglielmetti is a second-generation gangster who began his documented criminal career in 1984, when he and his father, Matthew L. Guglielmetti Sr. were arrested for hijacking a truckload of Canadian whisky. However, the case was later dropped. In 1989, while the Patriarca family was in the midst of an internal factional war, Guglielmetti came to the attention of law enforcement authorities when it was discovered that he had attempted to act as a peace broker. In return for his efforts, he inherited the rackets previously overseen by the murdered underboss William Grasso. On October 20, 1989, Guglielmetti was recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) while the Patriarca family conducted a Mafia induction ceremony in Medford, Massachusetts. [1] As a result, Guglielmetti ended up doing nearly five years at Federal Correctional Institution, Sandstone in Sandstone, Minnesota during the 1990s after pleading guilty to federal racketeering charges in Hartford, Connecticut. After his release, he resumed his criminal activities and soon presided over gambling and loan sharking for the Patriarca family. [2]
In April 2002, the FBI launched a probe into the Rhode Island construction industry. As part of the investigation, they created a fake company called Hemphill Construction in Johnston, Rhode Island. At the time, Guglielmetti served as steward for Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) Local 271. After Hemphill opened, an undercover FBI agent met with Guglielmetti and offered him the chance to buy into the company. According to an FBI affidavit, Guglielmetti became a silent partner in Hemphill and started taking company funds, "including a share of the profits from laundering what Guglielmetti believed were drug proceeds through the undercover business."
In 2003, Guglielmetti was appointed by the Laborers Union to serve as union steward for Capital City Concrete, a union Women Owned Business (WBE/DBE). H.V. Collins was the successful low bidder on the Kent County Courthouse Parking Garage project. Capital City Concrete was the part of H.V. Collins' Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) plan. In accordance with the MBE plan, the General Contractor - H.V. Collins in this case - is challenged to meet certain goals in hiring Minority and/or Women Businesses to participate in the work. The MBE plan is a requirement on all publicly funded projects. Capital City Concrete was the subcontractor for concrete formwork and flatwork as part of this new $5.8 million parking garage at the Kent County Court House in Warwick, Rhode Island. Only after the award of the contracts and as work progressed, state court officials pressed the subcontractors already on site to furnish BCI reports for all of their respective employees. None of this was part of the original Bid Solicitation process nor was it part of any contractual agreements. In its legal rights and as instructed by its counsel, Capital City Concrete was among the last subcontractors to comply with this request. Nothing emerged in the state files - apparently, Guglielmetti had unspecified charges expunged. [3]
In October 2003, Rhode Island and Massachusetts police visited the Warwick construction site to tell Guglielmetti that he and Manocchio had been recorded on undercover wiretaps discussing the collection of gambling debts and the mediation of a mob dispute. On January 20, 2005, FBI agents and Rhode Island State Police detectives raided the headquarters of the RI Laborers Union - Local 271 and multiple other Contractors including Capital City Concrete in Cranston. Earlier that day, Guglielmetti and a pair of associates were arrested in Johnston on unrelated drug charges.
On March 31, 2005, Matthew Guglielmetti signed a plea agreement admitting that he conspired to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine. [4] Later in 2005, Guglielmetti was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
In May 2005, FBI officials went to the home of the Owner of Capital City Concrete and informed her that there were no charges against her and/or her company. Further, they expressed that Capital City Concrete was, in fact, found innocent of any and all allegations that were made public. Both agents expressed their sincere apologies for the unfortunate events that Capital City Concrete was wrongfully accused of and publicly humiliated by. Unfortunately, the FBI was not able to make a public statement as such because the investigation was ongoing.
On June 10, 2014 Guglielmetti was released from Fort Dix Federal Prison. [5]
The Gambino crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. The group, which went through five bosses between 1910 and 1957, is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963, when the structure of organized crime first gained public attention. The group's operations extend from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, and fencing.
The Mafia Commission Trial was a criminal trial before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in New York City, United States, that lasted from February 25, 1985, until November 19, 1986. Using evidence obtained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 11 organized crime figures, including the heads of New York City's "Five Families", were indicted by United States Attorney Rudolph Giuliani under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) on charges including extortion, labor racketeering, and murder. Eight of them were convicted under RICO, and most were sentenced to 100 years in prison on January 13, 1987, the maximum possible sentence under that law.
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This article is about events in organized crime in 1984.
Anthony Megale, also known as "The Genius" was a mobster, caporegime and later acting underboss of the Gambino crime family. His base of operations was in southwest Connecticut.
The Patriarca crime family, also known as the New England Mafia, the Boston Mafia, the Providence Mafia or the Office, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family operating in New England. The family consists of two distinct factions, one based in Providence, Rhode Island, and the other in Boston, Massachusetts. The Patriarca family is primarily active in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, with other territory throughout New England.
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Luigi Giovanni "Baby Shacks" Manocchio was an American mobster from Providence, Rhode Island. He was the boss of the New England-based Patriarca crime family, which is part of the American Mafia.
The Lucchese crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata; borgata is Mafia slang for criminal gang, which itself was derived from a Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese family members as "Lukes".
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To become member of the Mafia or Cosa Nostra – to become a "man of honor" or a "made man" – an aspiring member must take part in an initiation ritual or initiation ceremony. The ceremony involves significant ritual, oaths, blood, and an agreement is made to follow the rules of the Mafia as presented to the inductee. The first known account of the ceremony dates back to 1877 in Sicily.
Raymond Joseph Patriarca, known as Raymond Patriarca Jr., is an American former gangster from Providence, Rhode Island, son of mob boss Raymond L. S. Patriarca, after whom the Patriarca crime family was named. The crime family has a faction in Providence and another in Boston, Massachusetts, and he was boss of the family for six years after the death of his father in 1984.
