Early years Farace was born on June 21, 1960,
Relationship with organized crime It was in
prison that Farace first met Gerrard "Jerry" Chilli, Sr. As Robert Stutman writes in
Dead on Delivery: "Blamed for some infraction of the inmate’s code, Petrucelli was about to be killed with a set of barbells in a weight room brawl when Farace interceded, saving his life." Chilli unofficially "adopted" Farace, who at that point was in his late twenties, as a
protégé, and stayed in contact when Chilli got out of prison. Farace used his contacts with old friends, and new ones he met in prison, to start a marijuana selling business, which soon expanded into other drugs. In June 1988, Farace was released from prison. By June 3, 1988, Farace had become partners with his friend
Gregory Scarpa, Jr. who worked out of his criminal headquarters at Wimpy Boys Athletic Club. Scarpa's father,
Gregory Scarpa, Sr., was a secret FBI informer. Farace married Antoinette Acierno, a sister of a criminal associate. During the course of the drug transaction, Hatcher got separated from the surveillance team. When the team finally found Hatcher, he had been shot through the head three times in his unmarked
Buick Regal. The window was rolled down and the Regal's engine was on, but Hatcher's foot was on the brake. Police theorized that Farace shot Hatcher from a van as it passed Hatcher's car. The van was found abandoned three days later on a street about two miles northeast of the murder scene. This location was less than half a mile from the
Arthur Kill Correctional Facility, where Farace had spent the last two years of his manslaughter sentence. It is not known why Farace killed Hatcher; one theory is that Farace had become suspicious of Hatcher from rumors he had heard.
Manhunt Hatcher's death was the first murder of a DEA agent in
New York City since 1972. He was also believed to have been the first law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty on Staten Island. After Hatcher's slaying, a nationwide
manhunt for Farace commenced. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation placed Farace on the
Ten Most Wanted list. Local and federal law enforcement increased their surveillance of
Cosa Nostra members, stopping them to take photographs and ask questions. As pressure increased on the
Bonanno family, its leadership decided to kill Farace. Following the Hatcher murder, Gregory Scarpa, Sr. told David Krajcek of the
Daily News that the Farace and Scarpa families were no longer close. No one from the Scarpa family had gone to Farace's wedding to Toni Acierno a few months earlier. Scarpa feared that a strong connection would send his convicted drug dealer son, Gregory Jr., to a distant federal prison. Meanwhile, Farace was hiding with friends and criminal associates around the Greater New York area. He first stayed with Margaret "Babe" Scarpa, an old girlfriend who was Chilli's daughter. Soon after Farace had departed, the police raided Scarpa's house and arrested her; at the scene, DEA official Stutman told Chilli he could blame Farace. At this point, an aggravated Chilli wanted Farace killed. A new mob associate with the
Lucchese family, John Petrucelli, was helping Farace find places to hide. Chilli met with Petrucelli and Lucchese capo Mike Salerno to discuss the situation. Chilli demanded that Petrucelli kill Farace, but Petrucelli refused. Two months later, Petrucelli was found dead with a hood over his head, which is a Sicilian message for "never keep secrets from the family".
Shooting and death Less than ten months after the Hatcher murder, the manhunt for Farace would be over. At 11:08 p.m. on November 17, 1989, police dispatchers received a
9-1-1 emergency call about a car parked at 1814 81st Street in the
Bensonhurst section of
Brooklyn. The car contained one male occupant, with another male lying face down on the sidewalk, both of whom had just been shot. (The call came in as "shots fired", no other specifics.) Police rushed to the scene and found the two men, one dead and the other seriously wounded. The dead man was identified as Costabile Farace. He had gunshot wounds to the head, neck, back and leg. According to witnesses, a van had driven alongside Farace's car and shot the two men nine times. This was the same method Farace had used to kill Agent Hatcher. The survivor in the car was identified as Joseph Sclafani, a member of Farace's organization. Sclafani said he fired two shots at the assailants. In a different version of this story, per the responding officer, Farace was still breathing when police arrived. They placed him in a trauma suite, but he died
en route to the hospital. Sclafani was outside of the vehicle, having been shot out of his shoes. Officers handcuffed him on the scene for weapons possession.
Aftermath The
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York refused to grant Farace a public
funeral mass, citing his notorious life and death. However, the Archdiocese did permit his remains to be buried in the church-owned
Cemetery of the Resurrection in
Pleasant Plains, Staten Island, the same area where Hatcher was murdered. On September 17, 1997, Lucchese family soldier
James Galione and Lucchese family associate Mario Gallo admitted in court to murdering Farace. A third mobster, Louis Tuzzio, who was slain in 1990, was the third member of their team. Daniel "Dirty Danny" Mongelli was convicted of killing Tuzzio in 2004 and was released from prison in 2020 after catching
COVID-19. The movie alleged that the mob was trying to kill Farace before the FBI could apprehend him. The movie
Out for Justice starring Steven Seagal was based on Gus Farace's manhunt. ==References==