cold case: accidental death or homicide?

this was published in the tampa tribune on june 24th, 1998:

recycling plant crew discovers corpse

tampa - workers at a recycling plant discovered a body in a stack of paper products tuesday. employees of metro recycling inc. at 2702 second ave. notified authorities at 11:30 a.m., said tampa police spokesman steve cole. investigators couldn't determine the victim's age, sex or cause of death, cole said.


the police report with autopsy results can be seen here. [38 pp, 7.6 mb]




in 2002, after 3 1/2 years, [2 1/2 years after the iafis database was put into service] the fbi used an inked fingerprint to identify the badly decomposed body as that of don lee taylor. the cause of death is unknown.

the autopsy report is silent as to the manner in which the absent pelvis and lower extremities were separated from the torso.

taylor's death certificate failed to be amended in a timely manner by the hillsborough county medical examiner until july 2013, eleven years after the fbi identified the remains.

taylor's death certificate and letter stating its amendment here. [2 pp, 1.3 mb]




metro recycling's then owner, eugene calabrese, pictured above, has ties to the colombo crime family.

calabrese was listed as a partner with joe ardolina and neil pirozzi at all-rite recycling.

ardolina and pirozzi operated another florida company, rite-way sanitation corp., a name taken from a new york sanitation business operated by frank carione.

frank's brother joe pleaded guilty in a case involving andrew russo, a cousin of colombo mob boss carmine persico.

taylor's death is unlikely to have anything to do with calabrese or the mob, but shouldn't all angles be explored?

additional sources:

visa check/mastermoney antitrust litigation. no. cv-96-5238. [exhibit j, p. 9] nyed 21 mar 2006. www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f215100/215178.pdf. [65 pp, 2.2 mb] frank carione at rite-way sanitation corp. [ny] and grand carting. [see brutkoski story below]

brutkoski, donna & lempinen, edward w. "a court littered in guilty pleas / illegal hauling netscarters." newsday [new york] 19 feb 1999. article linking then owner of grand carting, joseph carione, to colombo crime boss andrew russo. [usa v. hickey. no. 0:1996-cr-00693]

block, alan a. 1994 space, time & organized crime. (2nd ed., p. 250). transaction pub. anthony carione, brother of frank carione.

orange county sheriff's report 01-015905. [3 pp, 206 kb] 23 feb 2001. neil pirozzi, formerly of rite-way sanitation corp. [fl], allegedly assaults man with screwdriver.

destefano, anthony m. "feds allege mob shakedown scheme." newsday [new york] 07 nov 2002. colombo associate brian matney allegedly enjoys using screwdrivers in a manner similar to neil pirozzi.

colombo crime family fdle records request 2012-965. [363 pp, 2.5 mb] documents on file with the fdle relating to the colombo crime family.


note: this post is a work in progress so expect change.

Carmine Persico is your Little Pal