Charmed

On the tapes, Traficant tells Carabbia that he received cash and checks from Policy's best friend -- DeBartolo Jr. -- and then laundered $10,000 in illicit bribes through Policy's law firm via his business partner, Flask.

"Don't forget now, see, I had taken $10,000 down to Flask," Traficant says. "Ten of our thousand down to Flask for him to give me some checks to cover up some of my contributions." When Carabbia worries whether they can trust Flask, Traficant reassures him, "I don't think Flask would say a thing."

Policy is not directly implicated in the scheme, but it raises some interesting questions. Like how could such a smart man not know that mob money was being laundered through his law firm, when the two people closest to him, outside of his wife and children, were directly involved? Is it possible to be selectively brilliant?

Whatever the circumstances of Flask's and Policy's involvement -- or lack thereof -- there were no legal repercussions after the tape transcripts were made public in 1983. "Nothing was ever done to either of them," notes the Citizens League's James Callen.

Policy's name comes up at other points in the conversation, though usually in oblique references. In one conversation between Traficant and Orland Carabbia, the aspiring sheriff says he talked extensively with DeBartolo Jr. about the family contributing to his campaign.

"You see, all I have to do is tie Eddie and Carmen to this," Traficant tells Carabbia, referring to the campaign contributions. When Carabbia worries about the authorities discovering their scheme, Traficant assures him: "Eddie will be no problem. Eddie's OK."

At another point, the Carabbias challenge Traficant's loyalty, asking if he received money from Pittsburgh mobsters Prato and Naples. Traficant denies taking money from them -- though later he admitted to accepting $55,000 -- and, in an attempt to reassure the Carabbias of his loyalty, openly muses about arresting their criminal rivals on the day he is sworn in.

"What if I were, on January the 5th, 12:01 a.m., if I would dispatch the troops and arrest Jimmy [Prato], Joey [Naples], Vic [Calautti], and [Charles] O'Nesti? Do you realize what this town's going to be like if that would happen?"

Traficant asks rhetorically who would oppose such a brazen move, then answers his own question. It's an answer that places Policy alongside some of the state's political heavyweights and nails him -- at least in Traficant's mind -- as an ally of the Pittsburgh Mafia faction in Youngstown.

"They have Policy and Flask, Celebrezze, Attorney General Brown. They got the Republicans. Rhodes," Traficant says.

At yet another point, Traficant says that Bill Cafaro and J. Philip Richley, who was mayor of Youngstown from 1978 to '80, are closely tied to Prato and Naples. Later in the conversation, Traficant identifies the duo as "the Policy faction, which is Cafaro and Richley."

So what does it all prove? Maybe nothing, except that, in a town as small and corrupt as Youngstown, it's tough to swim there long without getting sucked into the morass. Indeed, when Traficant was indicted in 1981 on federal charges of accepting the aforementioned mob payoffs, it was Policy who first represented him. But it was a brief stint, with Policy dropping him after Traficant called a press conference to accuse the FBI of forging the confession in which he admitted accepting $163,000 from mobsters.

"The sheriff is pursuing the problem he's facing in a manner that's contrary to the advice that's been given to him," Policy told the Youngstown Vindicator. "A football team can't run with two quarterbacks playing at the same time."

It was a prophetic statement.

Blaming Little Joey
Traficant, who is now a congressman, is just one of several Scorseseian characters to emerge from Youngstown during the second half of this century. Almost all of them -- save Policy -- have been taken out by legal problems and, in some cases, untimely deaths. Many were represented at one point or another by Policy.

One of the most notorious was Joey Naples, whom Policy first represented in 1975. For years, the Naples name was synonymous with Youngstown crime. Naples' older brother Sandy was killed in 1959, shot to death with his girlfriend while the pair sat on a porch swing. Two years later, "Little Joey"'s other older brother, Bill, was killed by a car bomb.

On the surface, Naples ran United Music Inc., a vending and jukebox company. In reality, he and Jimmy Prato ran Youngstown for the Pittsburgh crime family. A slight man with a bald head, Naples appeared harmless, but according to federal agents, was responsible for ordering at least seven executions, including that of Charlie Carabbia.

Naples was not without some perverse sense of gangland honor. When a pair of aspiring thugs raped two teenage strippers, Naples had one culprit killed and the other wounded, police say.