Coppola called `Lee Iacocca' of drug trade
Government's closing arguments presented in racketeering trial

BYLINE: EPSTEIN, GAIL Gail Epstein Staff Writer STAFF 
DATE: April 9, 1987
PUBLICATION: The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution
EDITION: The Atlanta Constitution
SECTION: LOCAL NEWS
PAGE: A/1

Accused racketeer Carl Coppola ran his alleged criminal enterprise with such "initiative, drive and determination" that jurors should "consider Mr. Coppola as the Lee Iacocca of the drug business, and the murder business, too," a prosecutor said Wednesday during closing arguments in Coppola's federal trial. Comparing Coppola to the chief executive officer of a burgeoning corporation, prosecutor James Deichert said Coppola filled his ``job openings" with contract killers and thugs, had them use U zi machine guns, pistols and sawed-off shotguns as "tools of their trade," and used murder to "terminate" unwanted employees like Joseph Cam, Coppola's former partner. Accused racketeer Carl Coppola ran his alleged criminal enterprise with such "initiative, drive and determination" that jurors should "consider Mr. Coppola as the Lee Iacocca of the drug business, and the murder business, too," a prosecutor said Wednesday during closing arguments in Coppola's federal trial.

Coppola also used his "guile and cunning" to profit handsomely from his position as an alleged drug kingpin, failing to report most of the millions he made to the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors said. Referring to testimony that Coppola used profits from a series of cocaine deals to purchase yet more cocaine, Deichert said, "It was kind of like a cocaine IRA. He just kept rolling the profits over; he didn't want to take them out."

During four hours of arguments in a crowded courtroom, Deichert and co-prosecutor Jim Kesler summarized testimony and evidence introduced against Coppola and his three co-defendants during the past 12 weeks. Coppola is accused of heading a 13-year racketeering enterprise that included marijuana and cocaine smuggling, murder conspiracy, money laundering, public corruption, fraud and ties to organized crime.

Despite the focus on Coppola, Deichert said all four men on trial formed a racketeering partnership and therefore share responsibility "like the Three Musketeers - all for one, one for all."

Nevertheless, prosecutors Wednesday devoted the bulk of their arguments against Coppola and co-defendant Tommy Papanier, both of whom took the witness stand to dispute testimony by 57 government witnesses who linked them to charges in the seven-count indictment. "Mr. Coppola was caught in lie after lie in this case, as was Mr. Papanier," Deichert said. "They're not worthy of belief," echoed Kesler.

Deichert traced Coppola's admitted rise from major South Florida marijuana smuggler in the early 1970s to successful Atlanta businessman by 1978, when Coppola started funneling his marijuana-smuggling profits into the now-defunct She strip club and his Jilly's rib restaurants.

Deichert also outlined the "domino effect" of Coppola's alleged murder conspiracies: Cam threatened Coppola with incriminating recorded conversations, so Coppola hired Danny Forgione to kill Cam. Forgione then began extorting money from Coppola, so Coppola hired co-defendant Darrell Brown to kill Forgione. Papanier helped plot Forgione's slaying, so Coppola hired Brown to try to kill Papanier.

"It's like a Roman tragedy," Deichert said. "Once you have a person killed, you now have to kill the killer. And it continues, time after time after time."

In their testimony, Coppola and Papanier implicated a key prosecution witness, Alexander Biscuiti, in the slayings of Cam and Forgione. But Deichert contended Biscuiti had no reason to kill either man.

As witnesseshad testified, Deichert said Coppola hired Papanier as his bodyguard ard because Papanier had close ties to New York's Gambino organized crime family and offered an "umbrella" of underworld protection. The government is not alleging Papanier is a member of the Mafia, Deichert said. "He didn't need to be a member, he just needed to have contacts with these people."

Jurors should not believe Papanier's denials about his Gambino connections any more than they should believe he fatally shot his pet Doberman pinscher out of a sense of love and concern, Kesler said. Papanier testified he killed the dog himself because his veterinarian told him it needed to be put to sleep, but the doctor denied ever saying that.

"You've got a comparison of night versus day, black versus white," Kesler said. "Who's got an interest or a stake in the outcome of this trial?" Papanier or the doctor, he asked.

Both prosecutors urged jurors to disregard defense contentions that government witnesses had "come up with a big lie" in their testimony. The witnesses "recall places, dates and events because they were there," Deichert said.

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Jury deliberations are scheduled to begin Monday in racketeering trial of
Coppola

BYLINE: EPSTEIN, GAIL Gail Epstein Staff Writer STAFF 
DATE: April 11, 1987
PUBLICATION: The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution
EDITION: The Atlanta Journal Constitution
SECTION: LOCAL NEWS
PAGE: B/1

In his summation Friday morning, prosecutor James Deichert responded to defense contentions that he allowed government witnesses to fabricate their testimony. He told the jury those assertions were "a bag of manure."

"Even if you believe everything that was said here, you still can't find Frank Church guilty because he wasn't connected with the enterprise," Delaney said.

During closing arguments Thursday, Coppola's attorneys had charged that "zealous" federal prosecutors, motivated by an obsession to snare Coppola after a three-year investigation, cut deals with government witnesses to obtain damaging testimony.

But Deichert said none of the witnesses' plea agreements allow them to commit perjury. He said he built his case, in part, around the testimony of admitted thugs and drug dealers because those are the people with whom Coppola associated.

"You don't find swans in the sewer," Deichert told the jury. ``We're down in the sewer; I take what I got."

Coppola, 44, is accused of heading a 13-year racketeering enterprise that included marijuana and cocaine smuggling, murder conspiracy, money laundering, public corruption, fraud and ties to organized crime.

Turning to co-defendant Tommy Papanier, Deichert gave a parody of Papanier's testimony that he shot his dog to death out of love because the pet had become violent and a veterinarian recommended he be put to sleep. The veterinarian testified that he never made that recommendation and said the dog had a gentle nature.

"This is like Lassie, Ol' Yeller and every other movie you've ever seen about a boy and his dog," Deichert said, mimicking Papanier's testimony about loving the dog. "He can't resist embellishing on the truth

Coppola co-defendant denies crime family ties

BYLINE: EPSTEIN, GAIL Gail Epstein Staff Writer STAFF 
DATE: April 3, 1987
PUBLICATION: The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution
EDITION: The Atlanta Journal
SECTION: LOCAL NEWS
PAGE: B/2

Tommy Papanier, a co-defendant in the trial of accused racketeer Carl Coppola, took the witness stand Thursday and disputed previous testimony that he was connected to New York's Gambino organized crime family. Papanier also denied previous testimony that he conspired to distribute cocaine with Coppola and hosted a series of meetings at his Dunwoody home during which the murder of an associate was planned.

The testimony of Papanier, a tall, strapping man with a thick New York accent, and his wife, Margaret, contained several references to his devout Christian beliefs. Ten members of his Norcross church lined the courtroom benches, and his attorney, Alan Begner, unsuccessfully sought permission for Papanier to hold his Bible while on the witness stand.

Papanier said he worked for a New York poultry firm owned by Castellano's family and had been Bilotti's friend since 1968. When Bilotti admitted belonging to the Gambino family, Papanier said he broke off their friendship. But Biscuiti testified that Papanier bragged about killing someone for Bilotti.

Biscuiti said Papanier asked him to kill Forgione.

Papanier said he moved to Atlanta in May 1983 to work for Coppola's Jilly's rib restaurants. He said he eventually became Coppola's bodyguard, too, and admitted to carrying a weapon because Coppola's life had been threatened. As a convicted felon, Papanier is prohibited from carrying a weapon.

He also admitted to shooting his dog to death, but said the pet had become violent and a veterinarian suggested it be put to sleep.

"I said, `No, I love the dog, I'd rather do it myself,' " Papanier testified. "I got the .38 . . . I just walked up close to the dog, put the barrel to his head and shot him once."

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Witness links Coppola to death plots involving remote-control bombs

BYLINE: EPSTEIN, GAIL Gail Epstein Staff Writer STAFF 
DATE: February 3, 1987
PUBLICATION: The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution
EDITION: The Atlanta Constitution
SECTION: LOCAL NEWS
PAGE: D/3

Testimony Monday in the federal racketeering trial of Carl Coppola linked him to two murder conspiracies, in both of which Coppola intended to use homemade, remote-controlled bombs, according to a key prosecution witness. In his sixth and final day on direct examination, Alexander Biscuiti, an unindicted co-conspirator, said Coppola and his business associate Thomas Papanier repeatedly had asked Biscuiti to kill Danny Forgione in a dispute over money.

In January 1984, Coppola and Joseph Lee, another associate, built a remote-controlled bomb in Coppola's house near Lake Lanier and told Biscuiti to kill Forgione by placing the bomb under Forgione's car seat or in a garbage pail at Forgione's home in Florida, Biscuiti testified.

Also on trial are Papanier, Darrell Brown and Frank Church. The remaining defendants have pleaded guilty or are fugitives, including Charles Brown.

Around the same time the murder conspiracy against Forgione was being planned, Biscuiti testified, Coppola and Papanier had had a falling-out that climaxed when Papanier "backhanded" Coppola during a meeting in a Jilly's restaurant in Atlanta. Coppola decided to take Papanier off the Jilly's payroll and stop paying rent on his Dunwoody home, Biscuiti said.