Tape of Alleged Mafia Rite May Be Entered in Trial, Judge Rules

A secretly recorded tape of an alleged Mafia induction ceremony can be used as evidence against purported crime boss Raymond J. Patriarca and six of his lieutenants, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

The tape is the first of an alleged mob initiation. On it, a convicted killer and three other men are heard allegedly swearing allegiance to the Mafia with blood drawn from their trigger fingers and pledging to murder any person who could pose a threat, including their own relatives.

U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf, who said the tape could be admitted into evidence, acknowledged its importance to the case.

“Absent the evidence intercepted (by a hidden microphone), there may not be a prosecutable case against some of the defendants, including Raymond Patriarca, the alleged ‘boss’ of the Patriarca family,” Wolf said.

Patriarca’s lawyer said he may ask the judge to reconsider the decision. Procedural motions are still being heard in the case, and no trial date has been set.

Tuesday’s ruling also sets a precedent that could affect a trial in Hartford, Conn., of nine other men reputed to be linked to Patriarca. Their attorneys have raised similar objections to the secret tape.

Seventeen alleged Mafia members from Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts attended the ceremony in October, 1989, at a home in suburban Medford, the government says.

“I enter alive into this organization and leave it dead,” each inductee swore in a ceremony spoken mostly in Italian, the FBI said.