THIS IS TOM's TESTIMONY FROM 1996 through 2000

I was making millions, and I was worried about forty or fifty thousand dollars. And then I reasoned with myself, "Well, he's not a drug dealer. Drug dealers kidnapped him." So, I said I would help. The position that I had, and the networking, the contacts that I had, within 72 hours I found out who was behind the kidnapping, who kidnapped him. I knew the whole story. There was one man in the Mafia in Detroit, Michigan. Another one in Miami, Florida, organized and arranged this whole thing, and they hired three drug dealers to kidnap him. I called these two men, and I asked them to meet with me. They met with me. And we sat down and I asked them about this kidnapping. And they were really proud about it. They were telling me how easy it went, and they had this man. And they were sure that they were going to get the million dollars. And they were probably going to kill him anyway, because he was a nobody. And that's when I surprised them. I said, "He's not a nobody, he's with me. And I own a percentage of the restaurant." I said, "Now, I want him set free immediately. And I want an example set of those three men that kidnapped him. And if an example is not set, I'm coming back here and setting an example with the two of you." I got home. Within two days, I was told two of the kidnappers were found dead in the street with bullets in the back of their heads. The third man had evidently seen his two friends were killed, and he just ran away and went into hiding. The man that owned the restaurant called me up and said, "Tom, I understand it was you that got me set free. I don't know how I can ever thank you." I said, "I do. We're going to increase my percentage in your business." Increased it. It went up a lot more each month. A few months had gone by, and he called me up again. This time, you could tell by his voice, he was very, very nervous.

AND THIS IS THE ACTUAL TRUTH!

Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Witness says Coppola paid for protection: Court told of meetings with crime families

Accused racketeer Carl Coppola, having been kidnapped and released by a business associate, sought protection from numerous organized crime families during a series of meetings in Atlanta and around the nation, a prosecution witness testified during Coppola's trial Wednesday.

Biscuiti testified that Joseph Cam, Coppola's longtime business partner, kidnapped Coppola in November 1982 after the financially strapped Cam discovered that Coppola intended to cheat him out of his 50 percent interest in the Jilly's restaurants.

After Coppola was set free and Cam was arrested for the kidnapping, Coppola "was talking that he'd like to have him Cam killed," Biscuiti testified.

Cam, who had been released on bail, was found fatally shot in Oakland Park, Fla., in May 1983. Coppola is not charged in the slaying.

Fearful of a second kidnapping attempt, and aware that Cam had recorded years' worth of incriminating phone conversations between them, Coppola worked out a settlement under pressure from the organized crime families who mediated the dispute between him and Cam, Biscuiti testified.

Coppola agreed to pay Cam $250,000 and use his "political connections" to see that Cam served no prison time for the kidnapping. In exchange, Cam would give the tapes to Coppola and turn over his Jilly's stocks.

DID TOM ACTUALLY ARRANGE MOB PROTECTION FOR COPPOLA, LIKE HE HAS TESTIFIED TO FOR OVER TEN YEARS AND TAKEN YOUR $$???? NO!

ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION ARCHIVES:

SEARCH: FORGIONE
DATE: 1985 through 87

Forgione, president of a Broward County, Fla., labor union, had arranged organized crime protection for Coppola after he was kidnapped in November 1982, according to Biscuiti. Coppola hatched the plot to kill Forgione after Forgione threatened to take over some of Coppola' s Jilly's restaurants in lieu of payment for the protection debt, said Biscuiti, a cooperating witness.

For more than 13 years, law enforcement authorities followed the career of Carl Louis Coppola. But when he was kidnapped in 1982 by a longtime friend and when the friend's body turned up six months later dumped on a Florida playground, the investigation began in earnest.