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Shooting at Lennys Clam Bar on Main Street in Smithtown

August 20, 1979 Frank Viserto Sr. , 51 of 21 Williams Blvd in Lake Grove was shot while eating in Lenny’s Clam bar at approximately 2115 hours. The gunman walked up to the victim, who was dining with Paul Settimo of 9 Alma Drive in Selden, fired 5 shots from a handgun with a silencer, and clamly walked out. The victim was hit 5 times and was expected to survive. There were approximately 80 patrons within the restaurant at the time, many of whom did not realize that anything had happened. The gunman, described as a tall white male, about 30, with dark hair and wearing a green or blue warm up jacket, walked in, leaned on a railing near the victims table. Viserto was facing the rear of the restaurant. The gunman fired from what police believe was a long nosed 22 caliber pistol. The gunman reportedly fled east on Main Street and down a nearby alley. Police said that Settimo is a construction worker in NYC and Viserto has worked as a short order cook and taxi driver. All information here is from a Newsday Article dated 8/21/1979.

In a follow up Newsday story on 9-6-1979, police say that they are virtually certain that the victim belongs to an international heroin ring and has been in hiding on Long Island for more than a year.
The article states that the victim was uncooperative with police. The article states that Viserto has a warrant for his arrest for holding up a high stakes card game in New Rochelle in February of 1978. Police state that the victim sustained the following injuries: 2 bullets to the chest, one in the right arm and one in the back. At the time of the article, one bullet was lodged in his spine. The article says that police believe that the victim may have been teh target of the Purple Gang, a group of drug dealers and killers that dominates an area of East Harlem. The gang, which has ties to several Cosa Nostra families, has been linked to more than 20 gangland slayings, most of which were handled with the same caliber of silenced automatic used against Viserto. The article goes on to say that Viserto is a former enforcer for Vincent Papa, the New York end of the famous French Connection heroin ring. Papa was murdered in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary while serving time on drug charges. The article also cites a federal source, working on Visertos case, who says that Viserto has been hiding out in Lake Grove since his son, Frank Viserto Jr, 31 of Yorktown, was convicted in US District Court in Brooklyn on charges arising from participation in a 300 pound heroin transaction in Fort Lee, NJ. The article says that Viserto Jr. is a member of the Purple Gang who has graduated from ordinary street crime into the ranks of the contract killers. The article says that police and DEA sources said that Viserto Sr. also had been a partner in a sanitation business in the Bronx with Quido Pinosi, a major narcotics trafficker, who at the time of this incident was living in Florida, who has been described as arranging 100-kilogram heroin transactions. They said that Viserto Sr, was a middle-level member of the Angelo Tuminaro narcotics organization of teh Lucchese Cosa Nostra crime family. He has also been identified as a close associate of Joseph Pagano, a Vito Genovese crime family captain who has used Purple Gang members to enforce his control of the sanitation industry in Rockland County.

Point of interest:
Some of the the players and relationships in this shooting are also similar to those in a shooting that takes place on March 17th, 1980 on Hy Place in Lake Grove.

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