More Greek than Italian
If there’s one thread of the Abramoff scandal that really demands attention at this site, it’s the story of Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis, a hard-working and short-tempered Greek immigrant entrepeneur whose gangland-style assassination forces us to admit that Republicans and the Mafia are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, the story of Abramoff and Boulis is not about Republicans or the Mafia– it’s about that very special place where the line blurs and slimy GOP corruption actually overlaps with gangland style crime! A twofer!
Abramoff and a partner of his, Adam Kidan, bought SunCruz Casinos from Boulis under shady circumstances in 2000. Check out the details of the deal here. The long and the short of it is that Kidan and Abramoff didn’t get along with Gus. In fact, two months before Boulis got whacked, he stabbed Kidan with a pen during an altercation in a SunCruz boardroom. You can’t make this stuff up!
In what may have been an act of revenge (it may have been sheer coincidence– we report, you decide) Kidan hired two former Gambino family associates (I’m not joking here) to provide “catering” services as well as security for SunCruz. Those two men, Anthony “Little Tony” Ferrari and Anthony “Big Tony” (still not joking) Moscatiello, were among the three people indicted for the Boulis murder.
Boulis bought it Santino Corleone-style behind the wheel of his car. He wasn’t quite as full of piss and vinegar as Sonny, who got out of the car and rolled around for awhile after being riddled with tommy-gun bullets at the entrance to the Long Beach Causeway. But he was pretty feisty. The pen-stabbing is evidence of that. Further evidence is that after Gus was shot up behind the wheel of his Beemer he managed to drive a few blocks before wrecking into a telephone pole. Our hats are off to him. Sonny would’ve been proud.