23 lines
No EOL
2.4 KiB
Markdown
23 lines
No EOL
2.4 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: "Organized Crime"
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tags:
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- Person
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- OrganizedCrime
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summary: "Thompson was originally hired by Patrick Moriarty at $10,000 per month to bodyguard Michael Riconosciuto."
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---
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[[Philip Arthur Thompson]], also known as PAT or Jason Smith, was an individual involved in government drug-sting operations and had connections to [[Michael Riconosciuto]] and [[Patrick Moriarty]]. He worked as an undercover informant for [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent [[Robert Barnes]] at the San Francisco Bureau.[^1]
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Thompson was originally hired by [[Patrick Moriarty]] at $10,000 per month to bodyguard [[Michael Riconosciuto]]. Moriarty was unaware that Thompson was an undercover informant for [[Robert Barnes]]. Thompson was arrested on June 16, 1983, for an unrelated murder and is incarcerated for life in a [[California]] prison.[^1]
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### Involvement in Drug Operations and Murders
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Thompson was involved in a methamphetamine operation. [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s statement from February 16, 1984, detailed how [[John P. Nichols]] directed Riconosciuto to have PAT recover [[Ben Kalka]]'s assets, which included amphetamine production chemicals and acid. Thompson, along with [[Steve Finley]], drove vehicles containing these chemicals from the Oakland area.[^1]
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Thompson was suspected of involvement in the murder of [[Paul Morasca]]. Detective [[Eddy Erdelatz]] investigated Morasca's homicide and placed a comprehensive report within the "Paul Morasca Homicide Investigation File" relative to Thompson's suspected connections to the murder. [[Robert Booth Nichols]] and [[Peter Zokosky]] claimed that Thompson was not creative in his killing style, preferring to use a gun for quick kills, implying he was not responsible for Morasca's torture. However, they also stated that [[Michael Riconosciuto]] was responsible for Morasca's torture and death, and that Thompson worked for the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] under the code name "Jason."[^1]
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Thompson talked to Detective [[Sue Todd]] in prison about "kick-backs" to powerful people being handled by [[Michael Riconosciuto]] on his computer. He also told Todd that he had withheld one of [[Michael Riconosciuto]]'s computer coded cards for himself, which were allegedly connected to the deaths of [[Paul Morasca]] and [[Mary Quick]].[^1]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Seymour, Cheri. *The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro’s Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal*. First Edition. TrineDay, 2010. |