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Identity and aliases

The continuation affidavit sworn by the FBI agent Thomas Gates describes Bacow as "recognized as the 'back door liaison Teamsters connection to the movie industry'" and cites an earlier affidavit for the description. The same paragraph records a date of birth, a Studio City residence and telephone number, no employment address, and "no known criminal record."¹ The affidavit lists his aliases as William Martin, Frank Harris, Frank Walters and Frank Price, Jr.²

A later paragraph reports that a Frank Harris of El Cajon, California, took part in a 1982 stock-inflation scheme that used surrogates and fictitious names to buy shares. The affidavit states that Bacow had used the name Frank Harris in intercepted calls, that Bacow said he owned property outside San Diego, and that the affiant asked the San Diego division of the FBI to check whether the El Cajon Frank Harris was Bacow.³

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit later described Bacow as a "labor consultant."⁴

The 1987 Los Angeles wiretaps

Seymour described Bacow as a friend of Giaquinto.⁵ William Knoedelseder wrote that investigators led by Stavin, unable to tap Giaquinto's office telephone, installed a wiretap on the telephone of a Giaquinto confidante named Marty Bacow, "a self-styled labor negotiator with ties to Teamster president Jackie Presser" who was suspected of trying to extort Hollywood film companies in exchange for labor peace.⁵ Gates's affidavits of March 27, May 20, June 25, July 15 and August 3, 1987 were attached to a continuation application before Judge J. Spencer Letts of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. The continuation sought to intercept the telephones of Bacow, Eugene Giaquinto, Angelo Commito, Edward Sciandra, Michael Del Gaizo, Joseph Garofalo and Robert Booth Nichols, and covers intercepts through September 1, 1987.¹

The affidavit lists the investigations the FBI was pursuing in Los Angeles. Agents were investigating whether Bacow, through his influence with Teamsters General President Jackie Presser and local officials in the entertainment industry, performed labor favors for money, and whether he threatened or caused strikes to extort money from movie and television production companies. Agents were also investigating whether Commito offered Bacow a kickback to steer labor benefit-plan business, whether John St. John of the Los Angeles Police Department was revealing investigative information to Bacow, whether Bacow and others manipulated stock prices, and whether Bacow and others were using extortion to ensure that Music Corporation of America executive Giaquinto retained his position as president of the home entertainment division.² The affidavit lists the suspected offenses, which include the extortion and obstruction provisions of Title 18 and Section 186 of Title 29.² Among the stated objectives of the interception were the identities of purchasers, couriers and sellers of narcotics and controlled substances, the source of funding for their purchase, and the allocation and use of the proceeds of the trafficking.⁶ The affiant's belief, stated in paragraph 155, is that Bacow, with Giaquinto, Edward Sciandra, Commito, Michael Del Gaizo, Garofalo and Nichols, committed violations of Title 21, sections 841, 844 and 846, which concern controlled substances, as well as Title 18 sections 371, 1343, 1503 and 1951.⁷

Commito and the benefit-plan scheme

Commito was then the president of Labor Health and Benefit Plans, Inc., a company that administers employee benefit plans for unions and private companies.¹ On March 12, 1987, Commito told a Chicago-area contact that he had spoken with "Marty" Bacow, who was making a movie that Giaquinto was going to distribute. In a second call the same evening, Commito and Bacow discussed film casting and a union official, and Bacow said that the official was insecure and that nothing he had touched outside the union had worked.⁸

On August 31, 1987, Bacow said that a man the affidavit calls the "Fat Guy," who had once owned the Chez Paris in Chicago, was to be involved in a takeover, possibly of the Teamsters.⁹

The April 1987 wiretap application against Commito was authorized by Chief Judge Peckham, sitting as a magistrate. Bacow was among the people named in those April affidavits, along with Commito, real estate developer William Richard Baldwin, and others.⁴¹⁰ Michael Rudy Tham, a Teamsters official in San Francisco who was a defendant in that matter, argued on appeal that the affidavit had left out a March 12, 1987 call in which Commito told Bacow that he did not want to talk to Tham or involve him in further discussions about an eye-care insurance kickback scheme. The court held that the omission was at worst negligent and that Tham had offered no proof that it was intentional or reckless. The court also wrote that Tham had continued calling Bacow, among others, as late as mid-April 1987, and that "Bacow, in turn, stayed in frequent touch with Commito."⁴¹¹ Judge Patel had suppressed the April wiretap in Commito's own trial, and the Ninth Circuit later reversed that ruling in United States v. Commito.¹²

The MCA intercepts

On June 30, 1987, Giaquinto told Bacow that Irving Azoff, in charge of the record division of MCA, was planning to take over the whole operation. Bacow told him to wait, because "it's warfare."¹³

Intercepts in early July 1987 record Bacow discussing a proposed film about Meyer Lansky. In one call, Bacow reported that a visitor had come to a third party's house to say that some people wanted to talk to Bacow and wanted to produce the Lansky film with "Jimmy Caan." Bacow said that people from Florida and Chicago were involved and that Chicago was backing off. The affiant concluded that La Cosa Nostra figures from Florida or New York City were trying to get involved in the Lansky film, noted that Bacow had said he would resist them, and recorded that Bacow and Giaquinto had each obtained a gun.¹⁴

On July 13, 1987, Giaquinto said he had told Commito, who had asked whether to hold a sit-down meeting with certain people, not to do anything, and to call "Frank," the Frank Harris alias that Bacow had used. Bacow said that the detective the affidavit identifies as St. John had told him that a permit application had to go through a small-town office or the sheriff's office.¹⁵

In an intercepted call, Bacow and Giaquinto discussed a figure the affidavit identifies only as Policar and the film laboratory Movielab. Bacow said he would ask Policar whether he knew Giaquinto. The two men speculated that Policar might be another messenger on the Lansky film. The affidavit reports that "Jimmy Caan" had attended a luncheon with eight members of a local La Cosa Nostra family. The affidavit reports that Giaquinto and Bacow stated that at the luncheon Caan was overheard to say that the movie would never be distributed. It also reports that Bacow said the local family had been instructed never to come near him, and it identifies Russell Massetta, an organizer for Teamsters Local 848 in El Monte, California, as the son-in-law of Peter John Milano, whom it describes as indicted and sent away.¹⁶

The affiant's opinion, stated in a paragraph on Giaquinto's contacts with unions, is that Giaquinto would use his influence with the unions through Bacow and or La Cosa Nostra through an associate to threaten MCA and its top executives if they moved to end his employment. The affiant wrote that the conversation "may also indicate" that Giaquinto was using his telephone in furtherance of a stock fraud by furnishing MCA inside information.¹⁷

On a call of July 7, 1987, Giaquinto told Bacow that he had held a meeting in New York and had whatever he wanted from number one. Bacow asked whether that was "the G guy," and Giaquinto said yes; the affiant stated his belief that the reference was to John Gotti, boss of the Gambino family. Bacow told Giaquinto that the guy downtown, whom the affiant bracketed as St. John, was tied up with them and was their friend. In a separate intercept Bacow said that their friend St. John was in charge of the whole country, which the affiant read as a reference to St. John's position gathering La Cosa Nostra intelligence for the Los Angeles Police Department nationwide.¹⁸ Knoedelseder wrote that the same call, as quoted in the affidavit, had Giaquinto saying he could put certain people "all on planes," and that on July 8 Giaquinto spoke of carte blanche with "G."¹⁹

A July 7, 1987 call recorded in the affidavit refers to a meeting of June 18, 1987 at the Bistro Gardens attended by Bacow, Giaquinto and Edward Sciandra, and to a contract with Michael Del Gaizo's Northstar Graphics.²⁰ On July 8, according to Knoedelseder, the conversation covered retiring Sciandra and "the younger guys are taking over," and whether Sidney Sheinberg might "break a leg." On July 12 Bacow asked whether Azoff had something on "S.S."²¹

Meese, St. John and the obstruction question

Cheri Seymour reproduced reports of conversations between John Cohen and Gates, in which Gates said that the wiretap revealed a conversation in which Giaquinto told Bacow that he would call Edwin Meese and have the FBI investigation of MCA stopped. Gates also said the wiretap revealed "there was a close working relationship between the Board of Directors of MCA, Attorney General Edwin Meese, and the White House."²² Seymour wrote that the investigation was shut down afterward by the Department of Justice. Knoedelseder wrote that what the agents overheard convinced Stavin and Gates that the Gambino and Genovese families were engaged in a dispute over control of MCA's home entertainment division.¹⁹

Richard Stavin, the strike force attorney, confirmed in an e-mail to Seymour that the wiretap had recorded Giaquinto telling Bacow that he would call Meese and have the FBI's investigation stopped, in reply to what was already in the public record. Stavin said that he and Gates had handled the wiretaps. Marvin Rudnick said that he did not handle the wiretaps and had no involvement in their management.²³

Stavin left the strike force in May 1989. Seymour wrote that Michael DeFeo had threatened him about talking about the circumstances of the case. Seymour also wrote that the wiretaps were shut down around September 1988 and that Stavin's investigation was unofficially closed around January 1989, when the first draft of his prosecution memorandum was given to John Newcomer.²⁴

The wiretap material reportedly gathered enough evidence to justify seeking indictments of St. John, Giaquinto and Bacow for obstruction of justice. No indictment was issued. Seymour quoted Stavin saying that any indictment would have had to be approved by the then U.S. Attorney, Rob Bonner, and Main Justice, including David Margolis and DeFeo. Stavin neither confirmed nor denied that such approval was given. Stavin's surmise, as Seymour quoted it, was that the prosecution did not go forward because no one at the Justice Department in Washington wanted all the wiretap affidavits in the case released.²⁵

Seymour wrote that Bacow boasted to Giaquinto about St. John's status within the OCID, which allowed St. John to obtain intelligence reports on organized crime figures across the country that Bacow could pass to Giaquinto. Seymour wrote that a grand jury investigation into the mob's involvement in the motion picture industry was being opened at that time, which would have included a close look at Giaquinto, Bacow and others.²⁵ Seymour also wrote that St. John told Bacow he would listen, not give up too much, and try to learn what the investigators were looking at, and that Bacow then relayed this to Giaquinto, who replied that he would call Meese.²⁵²⁶

Indictments and aftermath

On December 15, 1987 the Los Angeles Times reported the indictment of Commito on labor racketeering charges, described as another organized crime figure and Bacow associate, and the next day MCA relieved Giaquinto of his responsibilities pending investigation.²⁷ Knoedelseder wrote that by early 1989 Stavin had presented 95 percent of his evidence to the grand jury and was ready to seek indictments of Giaquinto and Bacow, and that his prosecution memorandum stalled on the desk of strike force chief John Newcomer, after DeFeo and Margolis had approved the theory.²⁸

Knoedelseder also wrote that DeFeo and Margolis rebuked Stavin for granting informal "pocket" immunity to Sylvester Stallone without Newcomer's written permission. Stallone apparently knew Bacow, and Stallone's production company, White Eagle, had employed Bacow as a consultant on the film Over the Top.²⁹ As of the book's 1993 publication Giaquinto had never been prosecuted in the Hollywood labor racketeering case, and the wiretaps of his conversations with Bacow remained sealed.³⁰

Footnotes

Affidavit of Special Agent Thomas G. Gates in support of an application to continue interception of wire communications of Martin Bacow, Eugene Giaquinto, Angelo Commito, Edward Sciandra, Michael Del Gaizo, Joseph Garofalo, Robert Nichols and others, before Judge J. Spencer Letts, C.D. Cal. (continuation affidavit citing intercepts through September 1, 1987), paragraphs 5(b) and 5(c), citing Exhibit D, paragraph 53 for the "back door liaison" description. Danny Casolaro papers, folder "Gates." https://archive.org/details/casolaro-notebooks (file Gates.pdf). ↩︎
Gates affidavit, the section listing the investigations in Los Angeles, which follows paragraph 155 and names Bacow's aliases, the Presser, Commito and St. John matters, and the stock and controlled-substance offenses. Same source as note 1. ↩︎
Gates affidavit, paragraph 68. Same source as note 1. ↩︎
United States v. Tham, 948 F.2d 1107 (9th Cir. Nov. 5, 1991), superseded by the amended opinion at 960 F.2d 1391 (Apr. 7, 1992), factual and procedural background. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/571500/united-states-v-michael-rudy-tham/ and https://static.case.law/f2d/948/cases/1107-01.json. ↩︎
Cheri Seymour, The Last Circle (TrineDay, 2010); William Knoedelseder, Stiffed: A True Story of MCA, the Music Business, and the Mafia (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 435. ↩︎
Gates affidavit, paragraph 5 (objectives of the interception). Same source as note 1. ↩︎
Gates affidavit, paragraph 155 (the affiant's belief on the offenses for which interception was sought). Same source as note 1. ↩︎
Gates affidavit, paragraphs 58 and 59 (March 12, 1987 calls). ↩︎
Gates affidavit, Commito exhibit, paragraph 96 (August 31, 1987 calls), with paragraph 58 for the identification of the "Fat Guy." ↩︎
United States v. Tham, 960 F.2d 1391 (9th Cir. Apr. 7, 1992), background to the April 1987 affidavits. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/580895/united-states-v-michael-rudy-tham/ ↩︎
United States v. Tham, 948 F.2d 1107 (9th Cir. Nov. 5, 1991), discussion of the omitted March 12, 1987 call and of the frequent-contact passage. Same source as note 4. ↩︎
United States v. Commito, 918 F.2d 95 (9th Cir. 1990), reversal of the suppression ruling as stated in the note to United States v. Tham, 948 F.2d 1107. https://static.case.law/f2d/918/cases/0095-01.json. ↩︎
Gates affidavit, paragraphs 14 and 15 (June 30 and July 6, 1987 calls). ↩︎
Gates affidavit, paragraphs 19 and 20 (Lansky film, Florida and New York involvement, gun). ↩︎
Gates affidavit, paragraph 41 (July 13, 1987 calls). ↩︎
Gates affidavit, paragraphs 56 and 57 (calls concerning Policar, Movielab and the Lansky film, the luncheon, and the Teamsters Local 848 organizer). ↩︎
Gates affidavit, paragraph 70 (the affiant's opinion, not an intercept). ↩︎
Gates affidavit, paragraphs 23 through 25 (July 7, 1987 call) and the paragraph following the Wasserman and Villano discussion (St. John "in charge of the whole country"). Same source as note 1. ↩︎
Knoedelseder, Stiffed, p. 435. ↩︎
Knoedelseder, Stiffed, p. 437. ↩︎
Knoedelseder, Stiffed, pp. 438 and 440. ↩︎
Cheri Seymour, The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal (TrineDay, 2010), pp. 347-348 (reports Seymour attributes to John Cohen, Reports 5 and 6). ↩︎
Seymour, The Last Circle, p. 358. ↩︎
Seymour, The Last Circle, pp. 358-359. ↩︎
Seymour, The Last Circle, pp. 359-360. ↩︎
Seymour, The Last Circle, p. 368. ↩︎
Knoedelseder, Stiffed, p. 436. ↩︎
Knoedelseder, Stiffed, p. 439. ↩︎
Knoedelseder, Stiffed, p. 442. ↩︎
Knoedelseder, Stiffed, p. 464. ↩︎

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