A year and a half prior, DelaMontaigne had rented a hardware store next door to The Roma and began hanging around the restaurant’s bar, purporting to be a professional criminal and cocaine-dealer. Over the course of his undercover work, he became close with both DiGiacomo and Spagnolo. DelaMontaigne and Spagnolo ran illegal card games and sold drugs together throughout 1985, 1986 and parts of 1987. On one occasion in 1986, Spagnolo got into a verbal altercation with a patron at The Roma and DelaMontaigne had to stop him from stabbing the man with a 12-inch hunting knife he was brandishing.
Spucky’s name surfaced in the investigation into the October 28, 1985 slaying of Jimmy Limoli, a North End Boston wiseguy and close friend of another Russo protégé, Vincent (Vinnie the Animal) Ferrara. Limoli had allegedly angered his superiors in the mob by operating drug rip-off scams and was said to have stolen $100,000 worth of cocaine from Spagnolo in September of that year. Spagnolo went to Limoli’s capo and childhood pal, Ferrara and complained about Limoli boosting his coke and attended numerous sit-downs with syndicate administrators and Limoli himself to try to resolve the issue, according to police records.
Ferrara and Limoli had come up together in the North End, Boston’s Little Italy neighborhood, working for longtime Patriarca underboss Gerry Angiulo, allegedly both taking part in the 1977 murder of Jackie DiFronzo and the 1979 murder of Anthony (Dapper Tony) Corlito, a pair of rivals and bitter enemies of Ferrara that were robbing Angiulo-backed underground casinos.
Ferrara was inducted into La Cosa Nostra in 1983, eventually inheriting the crew of Danny Angiulo, Gerry’s brother and his former capo, and aligning with Russo crosstown in East Boston in an intra-Family war against Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme and Raymond (Ray Rubber Lips) Patriarca, Jr.