Read The Coffey Files for Free Online Page A

Horse” took two steps to his left. “Sally Balls,” skilled assassin that he was, undoubtedly realized in those last moments of his life that he had just been set up.
    But before his alcohol-laden brain could command his body to react, a car pulled up in front of him and four shots were fired. Each .45 caliber bullet struck the hit man in the chest. Staggering, he fell backward onto the sidewalk. As his blood spread along the street, one of the men from the car walked up to his heaving body and put a bullet into his brain. “Sally Balls” was taken out in the grand style he deserved, according to the lore and tradition of the Mafia. Teamsters Union Local 560 was going to need a new business agent.
    A block away, two detectives from the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Division, who were trailing Ianiello, witnessed the entire shooting.
    Unfortunately, Coffey’s detectives Dick Joyce and John McGlynn found a very cold trail of clues when they finally got to Mulberry Street about three weeks after “Sally Balls” was gunned down.
    â€œThe two Intelligence Division cops who witnessed the hit could have done two things that might have really helped us later,” says Coffey. “They could have chased the killers or detained ‘Tony Pro’ and ‘Matty the Horse’ for questioning. They did neither.”
    What they did do was try to question other witnesses. But people who encounter a murder on Mulberry Street at 10:30 at night are usually smart enough not to cooperate with the police.
    â€œI would have loved to be in the place of those two cops, but they apparently just took it as vermin killing vermin and did nothing useful,” Coffey reflects.
    So Joyce and McGlynn had to start from scratch. The first thing they did was make appointments to talk to Ianiello and Provenzano. Joe went along for the interviews but got the same answer from both: “See my lawyer.”
    Next Coffey’s gang set out to canvass the entire area again. Going back at 10:30 at night, the time of the shooting, they scoured the crowded sidewalks for four square blocks around Benito’s. The hope was they would find someone who was usually on the street at that hour.
    After about two weeks of returning to Little Italy every night, Joyce and McGlynn hit pay dirt. They stopped a Chinese teenager and asked him if he had seen anything unusual on the night of March 21. The young man, whose identity is being protected to this day, said he did know something about the murder.
    He recalled that he was on Baxter Street, around the corner from Mulberry, returning home from his classes at St. John’s University when a car skidding to a halt almost ran him down. Two men jumped out of that car and jumped into another waiting at the curb. Both cars then sped off. He said that he came face to face with one of the men.
    â€œWould you recognize him again?” the detectives barked in unison.
    â€œI’m not sure I would,” the young student responded.
    Neither McGlynn nor Joyce bothered asking why he had not come forward before. The formula for survival on the streets of New York did not include talking to the police about the Mafia hit you just witnessed. However, the detectives reported to Coffey that the teenager appeared to be willing to help.
    He turned out to be very helpful. First from mug shots provided by Coffey’s gang he picked out a Genovese button man named Joseph Scarborough as the guy who almost knocked him over. Scarborough’s description matched the one provided by the two Intelligence cops. Coffey believed Scarborough was the one who gave the coup de grace to “Sally Balls.”
    The young Chinese student also agreed to be hypnotized to help develop further descriptions. Under the spell of a police hypnotist he remembered the type and license plate of the second getaway car. It was a 1978 Lincoln Versailles that was eventually found in a small town