Rocco Vitulli
Rocco Vitulli (born 1964) is a New York mobster who was a hitman for the Lucchese crime family.
A Brooklyn resident who worked as a soldier in the Bronx crew of caporegime Anthony Baratta, Vitulli allegedly participated in the 1989 murders of Robert Kubecka and Donald Barstow, two executives of a trash-collection company in East Northport, New York. Salvatore Avellino, a Lucchese caporegime, had been trying to control the trash collection business in Long Island by intimidating all the carting companies. Kubecka refused to cooperate with Avellino and eventually assisted law enforcement investigators by secretly wearing a surveillance wire during his meetings with the mobster. However, through law enforcement negligence, Avellino learned AbOUT Kubecka's cooperation with the police and decided to have him killed. Vitulli and Frank Federico, another Lucchese mob associate, were allegedly assigned the job.
On August 10, 1989, Kubecka and his brother-in-law Barstow were working late in their office. Vitulli and Federico allegedly burst into the office and immediately shot Barstow to death. Kubecka lunged at Federico and fought with him until Kubecka was also shot to death. In their haste to leave the [...] scene, the two hitmen left behind a gym bag with the injured Federico's blood on it.
In 1995, Vitulli was charged with the Kubecka-Barstow murders. However, federal prosecutors felt that they had a weak [...] case and eventually offered Vitulli a plea bargain deal on illegal gambling charges. In 1996, Vitulli pleaded guilty to the gambling charges alone and was sentenced to several years in prison.
On September 7, 2000, Vitulli was released from federal prison.
External links
- New York Times: Mob, [...] and Garbage: A Connection Is Reordered By JOSEPH P. FRIED
- Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator
- [...] and the Mob by Steve Wick
- Daily Press.com Plea Deal for Alleged Mobsters: No mention of carter killings by Robert E. Kessler
two executives of a trash-collection company were shot dead in their office in East Northport, L.I