The Quiet Don: The Untold Story of Mafia Kingpin Russell Bufalino by Matt Birkbeck Page A

Hurricane Agnes. DeNaples had rented equipment to Lackawanna County to help with cleanup from the damage caused by the devastating hurricane, and the county timekeeper, Louis Coviello Sr., fixed the books by crediting more work time for the equipment. The county investigated and found the discrepancies, and DeNaples, Coviello and two others were charged with fraud. DeNaples’ trial surprisingly ended in a hung jury, and several years later, Bufalino underboss James Osticco was convicted of bribing a juror and fixing the trial.
    DeNaples had other secrets, and to prepare for his background investigation, he hired a team of consultants, several of whom had close and long-standing ties to Governor Rendell. Among them were Kevin Feeley, who was Rendell’s deputy mayor for communications during his tenure as Philadelphia’s mayor, from 1992 to 2000. Feeley was a pro at crisis management, and given the potential pitfalls ahead for DeNaples, Feeley was the perfect choice to serve as a strategist and spokesman for DeNaples, especially when it would come time to publicly explain a recent episode in DeNaples’ past known as the “exploding Katrina Trucks.”
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    THE FREIGHTLINER COLUMBIA tractor truck looked brand new. It had little mileage, was clean in and out and the engine purred. It also came with a clean title and full warranty and a price of $75,000, which was far below the $125,000 someone would usually pay for a similar truck. The reason for the discount, said the salesman, was that the truck had been in water, but not to worry because the water reached only halfway up the tires and never touched the engine.
    Richard Rothstein thought he found a bargain he couldn’t pass up, so in December 2005, he wrote a check to DeNaples Auto Sales, and for the next three months, he drove his new truck up and down I-81. Within weeks of his purchase, Rothstein developed a nasty cough that just wouldn’t quit. So he hired a driver to work his route and then went to Florida to convalesce for a month or so.
    But one cold night in March 2006 as the truck was heading north on I-81 with a new load, the engine burst into flames. The driver escaped injury, and the truck was taken to a local repair shop. Rothstein quickly returned home, but when he arrived at the auto shop, he was told that the “full warranty” he was given by DeNaples Auto Sales had been voided some six months earlier. The repair shop had some other news for Rothstein. When they removed the dashboard, mechanics found dead salamanders encased in dried mud, and there was mold throughout the cabin. The truck, said the mechanics, had been underwater.
    Irate, Rothstein called DeNaples Auto Sales, which agreed to buy the truck back for $68,000. But Rothstein was still perturbed, and he called the truck’s manufacturer, Freightliner, to inquire about the truck and its history. Freightliner said the warranty had been voided in 2005 because the truck was one of thirty that had been parked in New Orleans and completely submerged by seawater when Hurricane Katrina struck. The trucks had been leased by Air Products and Chemicals of Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, and were at an Air Products facility when the hurricane hit and the levees subsequently broke, with the rushing water filling the Air Products lot with a toxic, oily paste.
    Rothstein spoke to the chief mechanic at Air Products, who told him he had circled around the submerged trucks in a rowboat. The leasing company, LeasePlan USA, asked Air Products to help find someone who would buy the trucks at salvage, and one of those contacted was Louis DeNaples, who offered $180,000 for the thirty trucks, or $6,000 each. The check was originally written from DeNaples’ Keystone Landfill Inc., but it was not accepted because LeasePlan required a check from a certified auto dealer. So the check was instead cut by DeNaples Auto Sales, with the paperwork clearly indicating that the trucks were water damaged and sold as