John Paul Spica

Day of Reckoning

"The guys got it done. The kid's dead." - Paulie Leisure

At 8 a. m., the next day, Nov. 8, Spica paid the ultimate price for his duplicity when he stepped on the brake pedal. It was a tremendous blast. Part of his body was found inside the car, part outside, and his legs were severed. He was alive when the first neighbors arrived. One of his shoes was a distance away. The passenger door was blown 30 yards and pieces of debris were hurled 75 to 100 yards. Windows rattled and dishes shook in buildings two blocks away. Passersby on foot or in cars would have been injured, if not killed, but there had not been any. Spica was killed the day after Giordano had assured him of his safety.

Prater was at work that morning when Leisure received a telephone call from Giordano reporting Spica's murder. Prater recalled, "Paulie says to Tony Giordano, 'Oh, my God, I wonder who could have done that.' When he hung up, he said to me, 'The guys got it done. The kid's dead'."

For the first few hours after he heard about the bombing, Giordano believed Civella had done it. But it didn't take him long to learn that Flynn was responsible. He summoned Berne and Stoneking to a meeting in a restaurant in Fairmont City. Stoneking remembers it well. They went outside.

Stoneking recalled the confrontation. Giordano accused Flynn of the hit, but Berne denied any knowledge. Giordano glared at him through the thick lenses of his glasses that distorted his eyes. "Tony says, 'Don't f--- with me, Art! We've been around too long. It was Flynn who did it. I got the word'." Berne continued his feeble denial. "'He's your man, Art. You're responsible for him. Let me tell you something about that Flynn. He don't show no respect to nobody, especially us. He forgets who we are and that ain't right. He's getting ready to take over everything. Including your outfit'."

Berne continued to defend Flynn, explaining, "He's just a hot-headed Irishman, that's all." But Giordano was adamant. Never before had Stoneking seen him so angry. "Can't you see what's happening? Flynn's over there with them crazy Leisures. They're out to take over everything. They'll start a war that nobody's gonna be able to stop. And you and Jesse are gonna get caught in the middle. They're not gonna give you a pass because you'll be in their way."

Then Giordano gave Berne an unmistakable warning. "I gotta tell you, Art, Flynn's gonna get hit. He's gotta go. I just hope he did it on his own because anyone else who was with him will get hit, too."

Berne conveyed the threat to Flynn, who shrugged it off. Berne told Stoneking that he was considering disassociating himself from Flynn because of his belligerence. "'I'm gonna be like that guy, what's his name? Pilate. I'll just say, Okay, where's the soap, I want to wash my hands of him. Ray ain't got me with my arm around him. Once he's on his own, he ain't got no protection. When that's taken away he's got nothing. He's dead'."

From then on, Flynn went nowhere without at least two armed bodyguards. He managed to stay alive. The alliance with the Leisures was sealed.

Paranoia ran deep in the underworld after Spica's murder. Mob leaders had no idea what else the unpredictable Flynn had in mind, but they knew of what he was capable. And the threat from Kansas City remained a reality. Stoneking said Giordano and several associates had installed remote starters in their cars. Berne didn't go to that expense and trouble. He had his wife start his car each morning. Even the imperturbable Stoneking checked his car before starting it.

The Spica bombing eventually became a "cold case," written off as an unsolved gang murder. It would take several years before investigators would know the truth about who had killed Spica. Until Stoneking became an informant and Prater put the bomb in Flynn's hands, they would continue to believe the Kansas City Outfit had ordered the hit. Prater later reported that Paul Leisure was confident Civella would be blamed for it and that there would be no retaliation against him and his gang from the Italians. The conflict with the Kansas City outfit couldn't have been more opportune.