This article says Giuseppe Baldinucci, was a suspected member of the New York Mafia family headed by Salvatore Catalano


UPI ARCHIVES FEB. 11, 1986
Mafia trial still in procedural stage

PALERMO, Sicily -- Six names were struck from the list of defendants Tuesday in the trial of more than 460 people accused of helping build the Sicilian Mafia into a global crime syndicate.

Three of the six have connections to the 'pizza connection' Mafia trial in New York and the others are serving sentences in foreign jails. Authorities hope to try the six later.

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Released from the trial, which began Monday, were Gaetano Badalamenti, a former president of the supreme 'tribunal' that rules the Sicilian Mafia and a key figure in the pizza connection trial of Cosa Nostra leaders who ran a drug trafficking ring with links in Sicily, Spain, New York and New Jersey.

Badalamenti was arrested in Madrid in 1984, along with his son Vito and Pietro Alfano. All were later extradited to the United States and imprisoned.

The other key defendants with pizza connection links struck off the list of defendants are Badalamenti's nephew Vincenzo Randazzo and Giuseppe Baldinucci, a suspected member of the New York Mafia family headed by Salvatore Catalano.

The other three defendants dropped from the list are serving life sentences in Egypt after being arrested on a ship in the Suez Canal with 513 pounds of heroin from Thailand. Judge Alfonso Giordano said he struck the six from the list because they are 'legitimately prevented' from attending the Palermo hearings.

The court's action reduced the number of defendants from 474 to 468, of whom 111 are still being hunted by police and will be tried in their absence.

Because of the threat of a Mafia counterattack, a force of 250 Carabinieri national police have guarded the courtroom complex and another 500 police, including sharpshooters on the roofs of nearby buildings, were stationed at the perimeter.

The trial is the largest ever staged against the Sicilian Mafia. It stems from the confessions of former Palermo Mafia godfather Tommaso 'Don Masino' Buscetta and 29 others who broke the Mafia code of silence to turn state's evidence.

The trial is now centering on procedural matters, and no testimony is expected until March.

In a related development, people claiming to be from the Red Brigades -- who assassinated a former mayor of Florence Monday -- issued a statement Tuesday saying the murder was related to the trial.

The terrorists ambushed former mayor Lando Conti, 52, on a country road outside Florence late Monday as he was driving from his home to a meeting of the city council.