| | | | POSES Eee a eee Tce en ny Madonna, Ingrid ( Jennifer Lopez. milli ATM DO ca for murder and bank robber his dazzled supporters called ita shame that his New York past was eatehing up with him. PET ER r outh Beach insiders, SUZANNA ANDR the full scope of the ea prosecutors say that he owed his glitte waterfront palazzo to Mafia backing, and that ae: alten Island was prelude to a hotMIAMI VICES Above, the nightie on South Beach's Ocean Drive. Right Pacillo, Jenifer Lopes, Sean “Pally” Combs Emilio and Gloria Estefan, and Casares at the Joia opening, 1998 BOSOM BUDDIES Cocks fm fr ee Paciello with is 1998; Paco's former Flamingo Drive mansion; Juliane Moore, Rupert Ever, Madonna, Casares, and Pacillo, 1999, fhe Ceremonial Hal of the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, « cavernous, high-ceilinged room, was almost empty on the aflemoon of March 24, wher Cais Paciello was led in, flanked by armed guards. The handful of aitomneys and EB. agents sitting in the spectators benches waiting for their turn be B fore Magistrate Judge Joan Azrack in the vast wood.paneled courtroom P barely slanced atthe prisoner as he P wvas brought in. Dressed in bagey blue cotton regulation prison pants, a Vnecked shirt, and laeless sneak ers, his hands clasped behind his back, the 28-year-old Paciello was hardly distinguishable from the five 10 had preceded him be fre the jue, one tight after the other, during the last hour and a hal. It vas he fifth time that Paciello had been ing on his and the feral pros ail ers, 1d absolutely stil, head bowed, ees blinking hard as if to hold ba This scene was a world away from Po ciel’ first court appearance in Miami, just two weeks aller his arrest on December 1999, on a racketeering charge of felony murder and bank robbery. According to government prosecutors, Pacicllo, whose real name is Christian Ludwigsen, had com. mitted these erimes seven years cal Staten Island, New York, when he was part of a violent Mafia crew associated wit the Bonanno crime family. That day limousines pulled up in front ofthe fe parade of celebrities and leading Miami ar, the Spanish language television personality, yas ther as was Ingrid Casares, the Miami party isl most famous for being Madonna's bestfriend, Ingrid’ father, Raul Casares, one of Miami's wealthiest businessmen, and the real-estate developer Gerry Robins showed up, along with Oowan Drie maga zine’s publisher, Jason BinnFt a er Paciello had moved to Miami Beach from Staten Island only five years earlier, ‘ut in that time he had become one of the city’s biggest success stories. He owned two of the resort community’ hotest night- clubs, Liquid and Bar Room, as well as Jia, one ofits hippest restaurans, and he ‘was already a milionare. He drove a Mer- cedes and a Range Rover; he owned a 50- foot yacht and a massive Italianate palazzo ‘on Flamingo Drive. ‘A well-respected member of the South Beach community, Paciello had donated to charities, hosted Mayor Neisen Kasdins reelection party at Bar Room, and helped several people, including Ingrid Casares, kick serious drug habits. “Ingrid was a to- tal disaster for many years, until she met Cis,” her father testified tearfully ‘During his years in Miami, Pacillo had ‘made many famous friends: Sean “Pufly” Combs, Hugh Hefner, Donald Trump. And the women in his lif included Vergara, the actress Jennifer Lopez, MTV VJ. Daisy Fuentes, the model Niki Taylor, and Madon na herself, with whom he was rumored to have been, briefly, more than friends. F people in South Beach were shocked by the charges against Pa- cielo, they were also convinced, at least at frst, that if he had done what the government claimed, he hhad put his past behind him. Heid hed a troubled youth, hs friends be- lieved, and he had come to Miami “to clean up his act,” says one Miami businessman, Unfortunately, it has become clear dut- ing the last few months that the govern ‘ments prosecutors do not believe Paciello's bbad behavior is a thing of the past. Act cording to the government, Paciello had a known mobster threaten a business com- petitor, He also allegedly bribed an under- ‘cover cop to arrest another rival, and paid several thousand dollars to a Mafia contact, to intimidate a witness, At least one of his clubs, itis claimed, was set up with diny ‘money. “The evidence is overwhelming that Mr, Ludwigsen was attempting to bring the intimidating and violent tactics of La ‘Cosa Nostra here to Miami,” the lead as- sistant US. attorney, Jim Walden, has sad ‘Today most of Paciell’s wealthy and famous friends refuse to speak about him Publicly, and they do not turn up at his court appearances. On March 24, only his grandfather Louis Paciello and his aunts Barbara Tafuri and Bernadette Zdanowice ccame to support him. They waved to him, and although both aunts tried to smile their encouragement, one had teas sream- ing down her face. Until his trial this September, Paciello is living under 24-hour-a-day guard at his familys small town house in Staten Island His phones ate tapped, his visitors vetted by the US. Attorney's Office. Today most of Paciell's Miami friends and former em ployees are deeply torn about what has happened, “So maybe he Killed someone, fr drove the getaway car. liked him,” says fone club owner. “He had a very’ good head for business” “Chris was @ smalhtime guy who may hhave done some bad things,” says one Mi- fami businessman, “But his celebrity? He deserved it. He earned it. Despite his back- ground” “Chris came to South Beach and he helped revive it,” says Max Blandford, a manager of Level, one of the city’s newer and more spectacular clubs. “For him (0 pull off what he did was really remark- able. The stupid side of him is he has a big mouth and a lack of contro,” Bland- ford says, “I cant imagine Chris in jail How can someone go from having so rach to losing it all?” “Oh, please, he was a thug” says long- time observer of the Miami Beach scene. “He succeeded because we have no stan dards here, For God's sake, we hala street [Leomar Parkway] named after a drug dealer.” Paciellos club Liquid opened on the Friday night after Thanksgiving 1995, “It ‘was a relly really big night,” recalls Tom ‘Astin, the noted chronicler of the South Beach party scene. "The erowds were push ‘ng against the ropes to get in. People were shouting at us because we got in and they ida, Some of them even spat at us.” Not since Miami Beachs heyday in the 1940s and 50s as the American Riviera, a play: sround for Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich, and Meyer Lansky, had there been a scene in fown quite like this. Are lights played across the sky as a glitering array of Hol- Iywood's elite-Madonna, David Geffen, ‘Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Barry Dill, Michael Cuine, and Gloria Estfan-—alight- ced from their limousines and swept past the velvet ropes into Liquids two.stary Art Deco building on Washington Avenue at {Sth Street. The evening, Austin says, Was “the South Beach club equivalent of Tru- ‘man Capote’ Black and White Ball” South Beach is a town as famous fr its nightie as it is for its palmetined white beaches, its pastekcolored Art Deco archi- tecture, and its magnificent heliotrope-blue sky at dusk. It was filled with nightclubs ‘when Paciello opened Liquid, but most of them were modest, No one had managed to attract the kind of erowds and media hype that Chris Pacello did at Liquid, “Chris put Liquid in a place that was famous for failing,” recalls Blandford, who was running a club called Warsaw at the.time, “but [he] pulled it off.” From the start, Pacielo appeared to understand what made a club successful. He not only filled his VIP. room with eelebrites, but hired the best promoters and the best D.Js-Hex Hector, Victor Calderone, and Lord G—bringing many of them down from clubs in New York. “From a music perspective he was a leader in this ety, says Gerry Kelly, a wellknown club im- presario. ‘On Liquids opening night, Pacillo was, he was on most nights at is clubs, the perfect host, “He was totally smooth, po lt, fetching drinks for you himself.” says Anstin,Paciello, people say, was enormous- ly charming. He racy said much, but there was a. gentleness about him. “He was al- most lyrical,” says a man who worked for him, He was aso with his bedroom eyes and soft, beestung mouth-considered to bbe one of the most beautiful young men in a city where physical beauty is worshiped “Its amazing how far that took him,” says cone former associate, “I've seen women jump him (in his clubs)-it unbelievable Models. I've seen women grind their pel vises against him.” "He was hot,” says one ‘man. “A Marilyn Monroe of men, a mag- net,” says Blandford. But even early on, there were people in ‘Miami who wondered slout where Paciel Jo had come from. “There was something ‘abit skitish about him,” says one journale jst who covered the clubs. “People always said he might have some connection to organized crime.... IF he did what they say he did, imagine living with that—dat- ing supermodels, making tons of money, hhaving so much fame, and wondering all the time: What if they catch me?” acillo arvved in South Beach sometime in the summer of 1994, around the time of his 23rd birthday. He came down with a few friends from Stat- en Island, determined, one of them ier testified, o tart bis own nightclub. “He was,” says a club owner who befriended him early on, “a rough kid when he came here.” Mary D., 1 club promoter who met Paciello shortly after he moved to Florida, says, “He used to wear warmup pants and tank tops.” “He was very guido,” recalls a friend, ‘One of the first people Paciello went to see was Carlo Vuccarezza, who, with the actor Mickey Rourke, owned a Washington ‘Avenue nightclub called Mickey's. Before he moved to Mian, Vaecarezza had been the river of the Gambino “family” don, JohnARRESTED DEVELOPMENT Above, Pacelo’s ‘mug shot from a 1995 Miami DULL atest, Rgh, the Sten Island home, second from right, where Pacillo is under house arrest. Gotti Sr. Vacearerzas link to the Gambinos was no secretin South Beach; pictures of Gott were plastered allover the club. “Peo ple used to pitch pennies outside Mickey's real goomibahs ike they were in Brook recalls one former patron. “Chris already knew Carlo” when he arrived in Florida, according to Mary D., who says she fist met Vaccarezza in New York through her father, who owned a club, Within a couple of months, Vaccarezza had sold the lease on the location to Paciello, who closed Mickey's and reopened it as a new club Risk, On his application fora liquor license for Risk, Paciello said that he had beea an assistant manager of @ Staten Island night- club—although later, in a deposition, he conceded that his work experience in clubs had been as a doorman. F claimed that it had cost him $141 assume Vacearezzas lease, which he had paid for witha $125,000 loan from Robert a Staten Island gym owner, Currie later told The Village Voice he thad never lent Paciello the money Paciello's partner in Risk was Mi- chael Caruso, @ well-known Man- hattan nightclub promoter who called himself “Lord Michael” He had gained some notoriety promot ing events for Peter Gatien, who owned such Manhattan clubs as Limelight and Tunnel, As it would later emerge, during Gatien’s 1998 trial on charges that he distributed drugs in his clubs, Caruso was also a drug dealer, had robbed an A.TM., and may have been in- volved in at least one murder. Compared with the later glory of Liquid, Risk was a shabby club “Ie was & hole-in-the-wall,” says ‘Andrew Delaplaine, who founded ay nightlife paper isk Was aso, for at east a season, one of the Beach's hot- ter and more decadent clubs. That vas largely Caruso's doing. With his New York connections, Caru- so promoted the club and de- signed many of its events, inclu ing its popular gay night “Risk Your Anus” but he stayed out of spol. “You've been the face that everybody knows, you know how to deal with people,” Caruso later suid that Pacillo had told him, “Tm a goon, Pm not & high: fashion pretty-boy iL 1995, just six months after it ‘opened, Risk was destroyed by a fire. A eile, wedged between two seat cush- was said to have started the blaze et Stafford, South Beach’ pre-eminent elub doorman, was working for Paciello a the time of the fre, “I went over to the 1b right away Ils. “Chris was siting on a barstool. The man was shat tered." The Miami Beach Fire Department arson but could not prove it, To- day, federal prosecutors say they have & witness who claims that Pacelloarran ‘to have Risk burned in order to get the in- surance money, although many people are not so sure, Gossip around the New York club scene vas that Caruso hiad arranged for the fire. He had left South Beach a month before it occurred, ater a fight with Paciello in which, he later testified, Paciel Jo had put a gun in his fee and threat- ned him. “The allegations concerning Risk have been circulating for many years now without any evidence whatsoever lo support them,” says Pacielo's attorney, Benjamin Brafisan, “The fire at Risk was determined by the insurance company to be accidental However Risk burned, Paciello did even tally get an insurance payment of $250,000, Using that money, he opened Liquid seven months after the fire. Before he did that, however, there was a “third party who got money from the insurance proceeds,” says fone man who knew of the transaction. ‘When Cris bought the lease from cearezza, I don’t think he paid all cash someone had a note.” This man says that all be can emember is that Pacillo had to pay it back to “a guy in Fort Lau Tust who the “third party” was became 4 key question for the PB.L., the Miami Beach police, and prosecutors as the in vestigation into Paciello's Mob connec tions heated up. The only public record which suggests that any creditor to Risk was repaid is @ mention in Florida cor porate records of a company called “Ki Asthur Inc," which lent money co Risk fand then was removed as a creditor two twoeks hefore Pacillo officially dissolved Risk as a corporation, A friend, rea to law-enforcement allegations that Pac lo was a froat for the Mob, says that if Pa ciello had any business dealings with the Mob it was only briefly and in the past. “I think maybe there was Mafia money, but ‘it was a Mafia Toan—they give money, but took a note,” says this friend. “I don’t think Chris was fronting for the Mob.” Others disagree, “I don't think you go down to Miami, get into business with Mob help, aad then get out,” says Joseph Cofley, speaking generally from his experi cence Working on organized-crime cases for the NYPD. and the New York State cielo met Ingrid Casares during the time he was eu ning Risk, when she was known principally for bei the lover of famous women. She frst hit the gossip col: umns around 1992 as the Girlfriend of comedian Sandra Bernhard As the story went, Bernhard introduced Casares to Madonna, who then stole her away. Casares’s relationship with Madons was given a public airing in Madonna's 1992 book, Sex. “Pm gonna have to go now ceause T have t0 finger Fuck Ingrid or she’s gonna feak,” Madonna wrote in the book In Miami, where she grew up, Casares, now 35 years old, was regarded as some thing of alost young conzisuen ow race nres Ui > i . “Tmagine | having so much fame, , __ and wondering: » What ifthey catch me?” | aa 1 _ oe |MT inet the Hig. sof ving “de L Dok otic and he pul be ters sto cing ers, “he vho the Alice Neel conrinueD rxow rag ise an elder hepeat than a member ofthe Salvation Army. Neel credited the psychiatrist she began seeing in 1958 with helping her turn her ea- reer around, As Naney remembers, the ther- apis said something like “Why dont you go {o soine of those openings and ak some of those important people to sit for you?” The idea clicked with shrinks like that, who needs agents or dealers? The body of work that followed, and that preoccupied Neel for much of the rest of her lif, i a vigorous record of artists, critics, writers, historians, and other art. world figures ofthe time. This move fon Neel’s part-to start to repre sent the powerful instead of the powerless has been interpreted as a careers step. But that’s over sim plistc. In fact, Nee! seems to have been born to paint this world, ‘world in which she had one foot in and one foot out ‘As Nancy says, t's nota if she had compromised by doing portraits of CE.O/s and presidents of the ‘board, oF [members of] the Harvard (Chub Looked at together, these artsvord pice tures area fascinating collective portrait. Her paintings of poet and curator Frank O'Hara, artist Robert Smithson, curator Henry Gold- ‘ale, writer and editor Cindy Nemset, and critic Davi Bourdon, wit his over and flow ttc Gregory Battcock, are classics. From a contemporary vane poi, there’ something touching in the sense of selFimportance that fan come across in these images of people who once wielded great authority but are in ‘many cases now forgotten. And yet it's the ‘avkwardlooking painting ofa shires and scarred Andy Warhol, done in 1970, aftr he was shot inthe chest and abdomen by Valerie Solanas, that s the masterpiece of this period. Itaso serves ay a testament to both Nest and Warhol 10 her for being able to gst so deep into his emotional and physical being, and to him fr allowing himself to be represented in ‘a manner that must ave gone agains ll his ‘beings of shyness and vay, (i work noting ‘that Warhol ako allowed his sears to be pho- AST LOOK Alice Nee, photographed in New York Gy by Robert Mapplethorpe shortly before her death in October 1984, Both image ‘makers ran afoul of censors. tographed by Richard Avedon, and thatthe result proved more gamorizng than piercing) By the time Neel died she had not only painted a kind of archacology of the Ameri- fun art Word i the 608 and 70s but also pro- duced a sizable number of nudes and paint ings of pregnant women, In addition, she had done portraits of people such as Che Gue vara and Kate Milett who were intrinsic t0 the era (Neel painted Milett as a commis- sion for Tine in 1970, back in the days when the magazine used serious painters regularly for its covers.) Her portraits of such icons, done fiom photographs, can be a tad 1 i usta to have the real Nee! punch; a oth er times her work from this period can feel covery folksy, or cramped, (It shouldn't be forgotten that Neel worked in modest cic cumstances, in a oom in her apat- rent; her views weren't conducive to the sense of infinite space that one fees, say, in the work of Jack son Pollock, who had those wide ‘open Long Island horizons to gaze at.) But when Ned is at her bes boom! Take her 1970 double por trait of the Manhattan transvestite Jackie Cutis and her boyfriend at the time, Rita Redd, both of whom ‘were part of Warhof's circle. What makes the painting unforgetable is that Nes! doesn't sensationalize the fact that these are men breaking taboos in multiple ways. She depicts the ordinariness that was such a part of what Curtis and Redd were after. In the painting itself, Curtis comes across as all woman, while Redd, who has been called & part time transvestite, Tooks like much more ofa “pu.” This portrait of thet rla- tionship never goes forthe cheap shot. Ie pure Ne-honest, diret, and human, ‘She once sui, “IfI have any talent in res tion to people apart from planning the whole cama it is my identification with them, 1 get so identified when I paint them, when they 20 home Hel fight ful, Thave no sel T've gone into this other person, And by doing that, there's a kind of something I get that other artists don't get. I is my way of overcoming the alienation. 1 my ticket to reality’ “This identification shows, and i's what rakes the work really something. Chris Paciello conriwuep raow race ian woman, The daughter of a wealthy Cuban-American bus inessman, she was smart and funny and partied hard. She developed a serious co faine problem and didn't do much other than lve off her father’s money. Being Ma onnals fiend, people say, was, fora while, the biggest thing in her life. “There was a period when she was going around the De- Jano [hotel] telling pcople, ‘Madonna said this? ‘Madonna and I did that “Madonna ‘wants this and ‘Um her best fiend,” says ‘man who has known hee fr years, “Amar ingly, she got avy with it” Meeting Pavel some say, was a big turning point in Casares’ life. “He helped her reinvent her- self” says a fiend of Paciello’. TP Risk was rough and decadent, largely the vision of Michael Caruso, Paciello’s next three ventures~Liguid, Bar Room, and Joia-bore Casares’s stamp. He hited her ‘and basically turned over to her the re- sponsibility of making Liquid a far more upscale and sophisticated club than Risk had ever been. If people in Miami Beach had snickered at Casares’: friendship with Madonna, her “social climbing,” and her “statfucking” they suddenly saw how hand= somely it had paid off. Working her con- nections she packed Paciello's elubs with famous people, such as her friends Donatel- la Versace and Gloria Estefan and such stars as Bette Midler and Cher, Withcaaes Posi za to bece something of a eelebrity himself. She ‘overhauled hit wardrobe and took him to parties where he was photographed with her and Madonna. “Ingrid sort of pimped for says one society reporter, She report= edly intoduced him to Niki Talon, whom Pacillo dated in 1996, Pacelli longest and most serious relationship, however, was with Sofia Vergara. But uler he met Casares, Pac ciello was swarmed by women. A man who worked for him remembers one night at Lige uid when he spent most of the evening try- ing to keep Vergara, Taylor, and Daisy Fuentes avay from one another. “In that world, Chris became somewhat ofan object of desire,” says one friend “I dont think that Chris and Ingrid sleptChris Paciello together" says this fiend, “They are... cok Iaboratos, on a mission. They are also both very cold, they are both hunters, They are diferent in many ways, but at a point they connect. He had seats and she needed a place to sit. He gave her an identity, a plat- form. There was an ineredible magie there, Ifyou think about che nighteldb world and what those two created in their collabora- tion, their energy, it’s prety remarkable” By the time they opened Bar Room on Lincoln Road, in the beginning of 1999, with financial backing from Ingrid’ father, Paciello and Casares seemed an unbeatable team. A hnge success, Bar Room was more Jounge than dance club, catering to an old of, wealthier clientele than Liquid did. Joia, the open-air, Mediteruneanstyle restaurant fon Ocean Drive, which opened in 1998, vas also a big success. Even now, with Pa ciello under house arrest, Joia is filled to overllowing most nights with models and Eurotrash and wealthy Miamians, thei Navigntors, Mercedeses, and Roll-Royces parked atthe cub, Paciell worked hard, regularly putting in sour days. “He ran his els lke a busi nes,” says Mary D. He dida't drink much, didnt smoke, and never touched drugs, more than once banging down the bathroom door wine he thought one of his employees might be snorting or injecting himself. “He hates that,” says Gilbert Stafford, “He hates peo- ple doing drugs” Stafford, as was the case with many people who worked for Pacillo, liked him. “He has a very democratic nas tue,” Stalfond says. “I remember siting at the Delano, atthe pool, and there was Chris siting around with his queens, the guys who ‘uit the [ay] night at Liquid. Chris treated these queens with utter respect, and they ‘worked their ases off for him.” (Cates ae ambi ink te really wanted respectability,” says one ‘man who knows her. “Ingrid was in the trenches, doing the work,” says Madonna's publicist, Liz Rosenberg. “She did inter~ views, she went to radio stations. Ingrid promoted her clubs in a big, big way. 1 think she was very proud that she accom plished something in her own right. By the end of 1997, Sleve Lewis, a top New York club promote, wanted to hire Casares to help him reopen Studio $4 in New York, “Ingrid,” says Lewis, “seemed poised to be the next Steve Rubell.” Lewis remembers flying down to Miami to meet with Casares. [My] rules were dat I would ‘not meet with Chris for the fist halChowg” says Lewis. "I had to explain my postion that Cheis would never get a (liquor) li- cense in New York because he had reputed ‘Mob connections. Ingrid could come in as a partner—she would be the font. The kick- er was that Chis could never come to the club,” says Lewis, who is awaiting sentenc- jing on charges that he permitted drug deal jing in nightlubs owned by Peter Gatien, Even though she eventually turned down the offer, the episode angered Pacielo, On December 29,1997, and aguin on Fanuary 1, 1998, Paciello had conversations with Domi- nic “Big Dom” Dionisio that were reconded by the EBLL The tap had apparently been pput on the phone used by Dionisio, an old friend of Paciello’s who, prosecutors say, i fan associate in the Colombo family, In the first conversation, according to the govern rent’ transcript, Paciello and Dionisio talked about Lewis's offer to Casares, and what they should do about it “But, ya know, she's, Uey'e gonna try and pump her up" Paciello std, “And fuckin start offi’ al kinds a money, and no matter Waal, even if she's loyal and dont leave me or whatever. Her head just gets fuckin, tke, ya know right avay, she wanis everything” “I don’t know how ya wanna handle i” sys Dionisio. “She's gonna be lke, wel, ya know, Pm ‘gettin’ offered allthis stuf” Pacielo says, cause I'm already in this argument with her right now” ‘Fuckin’ people, that’s how people get and that’s the sad part, ya knows” says Di nisio. “Pl go to the club tomorrow nigh Dionisio tells Paciello, referring to Life where Lewis worked. “I'l grab him, I don't care, I'l hiss Tanna talk him Fl ll hi, Steve, what are you doin’ with this In- sid, stay away from her.” In the second conversation, Dionisio {els Pacello that Lowis refused to see him, “So that cocksucker won't come out, huh?” says Paciell, and Dionisio tells Paciello What he's going to do with Lewis. “I'm gonna terrorize him a little too, ‘cause fuckin called and leave him a fuckin’ mes- sage, the fuckin’ jerkoff.” The wiretap tran- seript ends with Pacillo deseibing an inci- dent at one of his clubs the night before, when the police were called, “I didnt hit the fuckin’ kid,” says Pacillo. “I grabbed him by his neck, and I just, ya know, ‘gt the fuck out,’ and T flung him, and he slammed the floor, and he just laid the for like ten minutes. Sometime after this conversation, Lewis says, he was approached by several men, who had a message for him. “The message was I had fucked up,” Lewis says, “that (Chris was really upset at me, and it wast jing to happen again.” was no seoret i South Beach that Ps cello had problems with the kw, The First “offense incident report” in his fle at the Miami Beach Police Department was logged on December 9, 1994, just two months after he opened Risk. On that date Paciello is alleged to have stolen a 1994 BMW parked in the garage of his luxury apartment building on Collins Avenue Three days before, police had found » 1993 BMW Paciello had been driving burned “as a result of an arson,” according to the police. It had been reported stolen in New York sometime earlier. Paielo was ares ed and charged with grand theft for the 1994 BMW, but the case was settled out of court, In early 1996, Paciello allegedly beat up an employee, Carton Barton, who, he tld Police, had mouthed off to him. In Marc, according to a police report, Pacello got involved in a fight with « group of Arab- American patrons at Liquid, which left one of them with blood streaming. from his eas, ‘That case, too, was settled out of court. In June, again at Liquid, Paciello beat and kicked Michael Quinn, a weight liter and former Mr. Universe, when he allegedly overheard him using the word “nigger” in refering to another Liquid patron. Quinn, ‘who says he was knocked out when Paciel Jo hit bim with 2 botl, sued Paciell, He Tost hie case last month when a jury deter- mined that Paciello was acting in self defense, Shortly before Christmas 1996, Pa- ciello was at the South Beach club Bar [None with Sofia Vergara when he was re- ported to have beaten up Niki Taylor's ex- Inosband, arena-football player Matt Marti- rez, “Suspect is now tling people that he is going o take victim out.” the police re- port says in an account of what Martinez (old officers. “Suspect comes fom NY. and flew twenty men from NY. to Miami to et vietim” There was something exciting, people in South Beach say, about Paciello’s violent edge. The whiff of Mob connections, the hint of dangerousness, made him all the ‘more alluring. “He hadn't much of a per- sonality, but what he did have was very caciting because there was a thuggishness about him,” Andrew Delaplaine wrote in the South Beach Review. Pacillo's friends, however, began to become concerned about the violent episodes. Says one, “You had this big, very attractive, quiet guy, who was soft in a way, and you knew had trouble in his past, and you wanted to help him.” he first glimpse for many people into Cris Paciello’ past came in January 1998, when Michael Caruso took the sand at the US. Courthouse in Brooklyn during Peter Gatiens trial. A star government wit- ness, Caruso had been granted limited im- munity to testify against Gatien, his former ‘boss, on charges of conspiracy to distribute drugs in his clubs. Caruso didn't say a ‘great deal about Paciello-whom he re-st two a date, 2 1994 uxury 2 1993 nuened to the in New for the ed out eat up he tld March, lo got “Arab: ek one ut. Tt at and er and eeedly er” in Quinn, Paciel 0. He deter n sell: 96, Pa b Bar Maré hate ie re mn NY, ami to ope in violent 2s, the al the a per s very shness ote in ends, about ut had ible in je ito riuary stand during nt wite cd im ormer ribute saya he re- ferred to as Chris Ludwigsen—but what he said provided the first public allegation of 4 link between Paciello and the Mob. Caruso claimed to have met Pacelo in the summer of 1994, and he described him a a sort of protector, his muscle on the streets, “He was known as a tough, tough uy.” Caruso said. “IE you get into a fight with him, you're going to lose. Definitely going to Tose and get a beating.” At the "New York club Sound Factory that sum- mer, Caruso said, Pacello had smashed a ‘bouncer’s head with an ax handle when he ‘gave Caruso trouble at the door. He also said that Paciello, who had told him he ‘would not get involved in drugs personally, nevertheless had leat him $10,000 to caver Caruso end of an ecstasy drug deal. Cae ruso also said that during his fist weeks with Paciello in Miami Beach, Pacillo was visited at Risk by Johnny Rizz9, 2 top mem beer of the Gambino family, Shorly after Caruso testified, The Village Voice revealed that investigators believed Rizzo and John Jackie Nose” D'Amico, a top Gotti lew tenant, had helped to finance Risk. Today, Benjamin Brafinan says, “There is no truth ‘whatsoever to the preposterous allegation that Risk was a front for any organized. frime group, anywhere. Nor is there any {uth to the suggestion that money was ob- tained from any organized-erime group to ‘open or operate Risk” Gatien was acquitted ofall charges. Un- der cross-examination by his defense attor- ney, who also happened to be Brafinan, it ‘became clear that Caruso's credibility 8 a witness was weak, Indeed, prosecutors say that Caruso will not be called as a witness in Pacielo' upcoming tril. But the Feds have not ignored what Caruso has to say. ‘nristian Ludwigsen was the second of three sons born to Marguerite and George Ludwigsen, Until he was I6 years od, the family lived in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn. George, friends say ‘worked, among other jobs, at @ local gym and as a doorman at a Brooklyn nightclub, He also, according to court records, was ar- rested numerous times in Queens and Brook lym on charges that included auto theft, burglary, and possession of a hypodermic syringe The Ludwigsens’ neighborhood was largely Italian in those days, a working: class community of tidy row houses with vinyl siding and imitation-brick facades. ‘The area was considered home tur forthe Bonanno, Gambino, and Colombo Mob families, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt High, which Ludwigsen attended until he dropped out at 16, was where many chil dren of the Mob went to school. Recalls & 3tyear-old man who grew up two blocks away from the Ludwigsens and went to FDR, “A lot of people's dads were in the ‘Mob, but you dida’t talk about it. They were “in the trash busines’ or ‘in stockbroking.”” he says. “The kids had fancy cars, real nice cars, We called them the cugines those were the male guidos with their hair slicked buck-and the cuginettes, the girls with teased hair” ‘The Mob was present in the lives of kids such as Ludwigsen. “You see a lot of these young guys riding around in flashy cers and no gainful employment and this is what attracts people to that kind of Hi So what do they do? They start hanging fout in the clubs these guys hang out in, they do things, to gain favor, they want to get noticed,” says a former NPD. detec- tive who worked organized-erime eases in Brooklyn, According to prosecutors, three of Chris Ludwigsen’s friends be- ‘came linked to the Mob: Dionisio, Enrico Locasio, and Thomas Reynolds. Dionisio, who is currently awaiting sentencing on racketeering charges, and Locasio, whose smother was Ludwigsen’s elementary-school teacher, are said by prosecutors to be Colombo-family “associates.” Reynolds, who has been indicted with Ludwigsen, was allegedly associated with a Bonanno family subset, known as “the Bath Avenue Tn 1987 the Ludwigsen family moved across the Verrazano Bridge to Staten Is- and, to a tiny town house behind the Stat- cen Bland Mall, For alot of Brooklyn fam- lies, the move to suburban Staten Island, with its open expanses of land and many lovely neighborhoods, was considered a step up. It was also considered a step up the ladder for mobsters. Sammy “the Bull” Gravano lived there. Paul Castellano, the Gambino boss who was murdered in 1985, had his “White House” on wealthy Todt Hill. Anthony Spero, the reputed former consiliere to the Bonanno family, also named in the indictment with Paciello, lived there. he fist arrest that shows up, aecording to prosecutors, on Chris Ludwigsen’s record—for auto theft-took place shortly ‘after he moved to Siaten Island. Ludwigsen, friends say, had a very troubled relationship With his fther. Drug use by a family mem- ber, these frends say, also made things dif ficult. Eventually, Chris and his father both left home, At some point after that, the son took his mother’s maiden name, Pacielo ‘When Steve Lewis first met him, Lud- wigsen was “basically hanging with a erew of thuggy guys,” Lewis says. “A crew of ‘guys who hung with Lord Michael” The night in 1985 when Lewis worked the open ing of the Manhattan club Palladium, he Femembers, the group showed up and start- ced “shoving people and starting fights. It seemed obvious to me they'd been sent. T walked up to Chris and said he wasn’t ‘acting lke a man, that this was cheap. It wasn't an honorable thing to do,” says Lewis. “Whatever I said, he talked to his Friends and they left. I thought AC least this guy has a sense of honor.” On December 4, 1992, aocording to the federal indictment, Ludwigsen, along with Thomas Reynolds and other mein bers of the Bath Avenue crew, robbed a Chemical Bank in the Staten Island Mall and made off with $300,000, Two months later, on February 18, shortly before 10 PM, according to prosecutors, Reynolds, accompanied by at least one other man, rang the doorbell of 9S Meade Loop, ia the wealthy Richmond Valley area of Stat- en Island. Inside the house, Judith Shem- tox, 46, and her husband, Sami, were hav- ing a cup of tee together. Judith answered the door, assuming it was her daughter's boyfiiend. Her husband overheard her tak- ing to the young men. As he got up to see who was there, according to prosecutors, Reynolds put a 45-caliber handgun in Ju- dith Shemtov's face and fired it. She died ‘vo hours later ‘Shemtov's murder haled police for sev en years. “It was very strange. Meade Loop wast a place you would go to for any rea son. I's prety isolated,” says Dean Bal- samini, who covered the murder for The Staten Island Advance. “I remember it was a very cold night, arctic. That's probably Why there were no witnesses.” It was only around the beginning of 1999 when the EBL, in the midst of a Mob investigation of the Bonanno family, stumbled across people thought to be witnesses to both the robbery and the murder, including some who had participated in them, After inter. viewing these people, the government concluded that Shemtov had beea killed in a botched robbery by members of the Reynolds group, who believed that there vas up to $1 million ina safe in her house, and that Chris Ludwigsen had helped or- chestrate both this erime and the bank rob- bery and had driven the getaway car on the night of the murder, “It was a horrible crime,” says a former NY.PD. detetive. “We're talking about a total innocent vie~ tio here.” Sy the early part of 1999, things were go- ing well for Chris Paciello. Liguid and Bar Room were hits, and he was making plans to open 2 branch of Liquid in West Palm Beach. Like most South Beach club owners, Paciello hired off-duty Miami Beach police officers, who patrolled his clubs in uniform for added security. One of them was Andrew Dohler, formerly withthe NYPD, whom Paciello befriended. “TheyChris Paciello were both from the same neighborhood,” says one M.BBPD. detective. According to lav-enforcement officials, Dobler persuad- ed Paciello that he was a dity cop. To prove his loyalty, he agreed 1 tip Paciello ‘off to impending police raids of his clubs and do other “fivors” for him.,As federal investigators began (0 close in én Paciell, the Miami Beach police began their own investigationwith Dobler as their mote. By the spring of 1999, Pacillo, says a fiend, knew that some of his former asso- ciates were talking to the Feds, “Chris was scared,” this friend says, In June he talked o Dobler about what he should do. Ac- cording to court documents, Paciello al- legedly told the undercover cop that the witnesses cooperating with federal investi- gators should be killed, along with their families Paciello may have been nervous, but, a cording to prosecutors, not that nervous. ‘Around the time of the conversation with Dohler, according to prosecutors, the two took Paciell's yacht to a waterfront restau- rant to meet Alphonse Persico, the acing head of the Colombo erime family. Invest- ‘ors will noe reveal what was said at the neeting, but Pacello’s contact with Persico ‘gne them powerful ammunition, It now appeared they had a portrait of a young ‘man—an “earner,” in Mafia parlanee—who moved easily among the Gambino, Bonan ro, and Colombo file. Unlike New York-which is famous for fis Mob tue wars—Miamni has aways been considered an “open city” by New York's Mafia families, run for decades by the South Florida boss, Santo Traffcante, who died in 1993. Today no single family con- lwols it. “All ive of them can go in there and do busines,” says Joe Coffey. “They split up the money.” Corruption in Miami's booming construction industry, its restau- rants, and its clubs, along with the drug ‘trade, have made the city big proit center for the Mob. If investigators are right, a young man like Paciello was the perfect front. “A charming, good-looking guy, good with the ladies, and a semiclean record,” speculates one investigator, “He could be valuable as ong as he's putting money in their pockets” Paciello’s relationship with Dohles, how- ever, makes some wonder just how power- ful he was. “He's making friends with a ‘dinty’ cop?” says this investigator. “IF he really had power, he'd hire a strong arm” On September 28, 1999, Paciello had an- ‘ther conversation with Dohler, this time in Pacicllo’s office on Lincoln Road. Dohler showed up at the meeting in uniform, weat- ing a wire. They talked briefly about Doh Jer gesting into the narcotics unit, “You get- ting there could help me lot,” Pacielo said, according to the wiretap iranscrpt, “We could put some pressure on those clubs and also I'll know when there's pres sure on me." The conversation then turned to Gerry Kelly Fer he ptvions seven months the re owned South Beach promoter had been working for Pacello, putting his sty ‘sh, flamboyant stamp on Liquid, Bar Room, and Joia. But the day before Paciello met Dohler, Kelly had quit to become @ partner in Level. It was a devastating blow for Pac ciello. Level was going to open in one of the biggest and most spectacular spaces on ‘Washington Avenue, and by any measure it was going to threaten Ligud’s busines. To day, Kelly says that he asked Paciello to lose Liquid and go into the Level partnet= ship with him. But, afer several months of negotiating, Paciello, according to Kelly, got cold feet. “He fet the club was too big, that’s what he stig,” says Kelly, “But ... 1 ddon't think he wanted to share the lime- light” Kelly never spoke to Paciello afer he resigned, so it wasn’t until much later when Florida law-enforcement officals told him that they'd had him under protective surveillance that he learned how furious Paciello vas. “This guy [Kelly], what do you want to do?” Dobler asked Paciello when they met fn September 29, according to the wiretap Uwanscript. “This fucking [Kelly], he's got a bad drug problem, he's always got drugs ‘on him,” Pacielo responded. “He always dives drunk; you ean arrest him... I rel ly want to hurt this guy; you get this guy ‘good and I'l take care of you big time.” (Kelly has denied using drugs or driving ‘under the influence.) Paciello was also an- sry at Kelly's partner Noah Lazes, accord: ing to the transcript. “Tm telling you the fowwner of the club, we got to get his head fucking. broken in,” Paciello told Doble. "We got to get him beat up. got to get him whacked” ‘There is no question that Paciello was under growing pressure. Two weeks after his meeting with Dobler, on October 15, ‘Thomas Reynoldswho has maintained his innocence—was arrested in New York for the murder of Judith Shemtoy, and the NYPD. told The Staten Island Advance that a search was under way for his ace ccomplices, AA the end of October, Pacillo had an- ‘other conversation with Dobler. Tey spoke boiefly about how Dobler had not yet been able to arrest Kelly, but Pacielo seemed ‘more upset about other matters. “Oh, bull shit... All the shit goin’ om this year” Pa- ciello said, according to the transcript. “There's 15 clubs opening-millions and ‘lions they're putting in all these cubs, God, I mean nonstop ... Ah, fuck every fone... 1 fel lke putting on my costume goin out trick or treatin,” says Paciello, re. erring, according to prosecutors, to doing “home invasions,” the sort of robbery in which Shemtov vas killed. “I'm tli’ y sys Paciello, “I gotta come out of fuckint retirement. 've become a big pussy down, haere... A big sucka,” If prosecutors are right, a month after talking to Dobler, Paciello did something that, alone, is probably enough to put him in jail for years to come. Around that time, they allege, Pacillo paid $5,000, through an intermediary, to “John Doe 2,” a Malia associate of “John Doe,” who on Novem ber 17 threatened a family member of a witness against Paciello. Ifthe witness con tinued to cooperate, the family member was allegedly told, “everybody is dead” Paciello was finally indicted, along with Anthony Spero and seven others, on No- vember 23, and he was arrested on De- ember 1. If convicted on all counts, Pa ciello Faces sentence of life in prison. As for Andrew Dohler, on January Il he was named “Officer of the Year” by the Mia- ‘mi Beach Police Department and com- mended for his efforts to “ink Paciello to traditional Italian organized crime. ‘Benjamin Brafman offers a very dllfer- ent assessment of Dohler’s work. “A careful review of the Dohler tape record ings,” Brafman says, “will make it ab- solutely clear that Dohler is untrustworthy and that the governments interpretation of these conversations is simply not suppert- ced by the actual facts" Bratman specifical- ly dismisses the government’ allegation that Paciello puid to have a witness intimi- dated, “Is absolutely false,” he says. But Brafinan does say, “We do not intend to respond to every baseless allegation that surfaces, but will concentrate our efots on, the only two charges aguinst Mr, Pacillo in the indietment~ charges be is not guilty ‘of Brafman continues, “Mr. Paciella vig ‘orously denis the allegations in the feder- al indictment and looks forward to his day in court” here is not much left now of what Pa- cielo built. Bar Room was sold in April for a reported $2 million. Today, Lig Lid is a shadow ofits former self, On most nights i is nearly empty, atracting mostly ids; the V.LP. area is usually deserted. Po ciello's magnificent canalfront palazz0 on Flamingo Drive and his house on San Marino Island have both been sold. He (old the judge that his yacht had been “piv- cn uway” Only Joia, now run by one of Pe- ciello's partners, Nicola Sirvo, is still bz ing, the last reminder of Paciello's success in South Beach,ne Ingrid Casares has moved on. She is row trendily pregnant, along with Madon 1, and is doing a smatering of consulting work and managing the D.J, Vietor Cal: drone. She has professed her loyalty to Paciollo, and, according to Liz Rosenberg, she continues t0 be very concemed about im, But few people know what she has re vealed about him in her grandjury tes ony. She was given immunity, which pre sumably will shield her from the govern ents allegation that she received “over & hundred thousand dollars” in cash pay ments from Paciello and Liquid that she did not disclose to the LR.S. It is also a leged that Casares, in a conversation in prison last December 14, told Paciello that she would lie to the grand jury about the payments although she eventually did not Casares's lawyer, Bruce Mafic, declined to comment on the goveramen ‘other than to observe.” he sy, Casares has not bs (5 allegations, ‘that Me rn charged.” “She will survive,” says Andrew Delapaine, echoing the sentiment held by many people in South Beach. “We're talking opportunistic here-it's one of Ingrid’ charms.” As he emerged from the courthou Brooklyn on March 29, Pacello was g by a svarm of reporters and photographers. After months of bitter arguing between his {lorneys and US. prosecutors over the jrms of his bail, Paciello was final leased from prison and on his way to house tarrest in Staten Islnd until his trial, Before be got into the car that awaited him, Pace lo turned to the gathered reporters. “Its i God's hands now,” he said, as the two guards who will watch him around the clock stood by ‘You know" says one reporter, “i i weren't for Madonna and Jennifer Lopez and Ingrid, held be just another guido in federal court.” Perhaps, ifthe prosecutors right, But he would also be a young ‘man who, if only for one shining mome showed how talented he was and what he right bave been, C) Amis and Amis now race 14s What Became of Jane Austen? (1920), Kingsley wro John D, MacDonald is by any standards a better writer than Saul Bellow, only Mac Donald writes thrillers and Bellow is @ hhumar-heart chap, so guess who wears the top-grade laurels?” With his father dead, the reverent nods in Experience to th “radiance of Ravelstein” Ravelten, that Tuesdays with Morrie Tor highbrows-and the “prince” of More Die of Heartbreak ascend to intimate rapture, He ad dresses Bellow Do you remember 1 called you on the day my father ded? And you were reat, You said the only hing that could have po sibly been of any use to me. The only thing that ‘would Belp me through to he other side. And I said duly, "You'll have to be nny father now” T worked, and sill works. A longa youre alve Til never ntl ethers. Tes still working, in 1999, But F mustn't em roach on the terttory ‘occupied by Gregory, Adam and Daniel and by fourth child, expected at the end of he millenium. 1 feel itis okay to, quote from a letter 1 wrote Janis (Bellow’s fifth wife]... because T am only quoting my fae thee: “The greatest difficulty 1s believing in the baby's resilience. But they ave resilient fanatically resilient... You do. know this, don't you, about Saul? You will have a bit of him, half of him, forever be a lacuna in my emotional reper ut [find allthis gooey and unseer iy. Martin Amis is litle old to be Bra ddon de Wilde chasing after Shane Assassins of Kingey Amis in terviewed him for this magazine in 1989), I dreaded the prospect of his pubs lished letters even a8 Tas pawing to get at them to see whom he slagged. After al he publication of his pal Philip Larkin’s letters in 1992 muddied Larkin’s reputae ion, transforming the poet laureate of late night loneliness ("Deprivation is for_ me for Wordsworth,” he FAMILY AFFAIR “Martin and Kingsley Aris fk Kingsley’s second wile, Elizabeth lane Howard, at thet home in Hampstead, England, ciea 1980. famously remarked) into a dirty lech pant. ing after naughtyschoolgel porn and teem ing with jolly pr Keep up the cracks about niggers and wogs,” he en ‘couraged Amis.) If Larkin's letters gave high-minded sorts the suiffies, Kingsley ‘Amis’ were certain to be even more li 3, because he had devoted so much more print space during his career to needling women, minorities, and leftving robs, His hazy and rudely uncharitable Momoirs of 1992 offered the spoutings of a beachedwhale Tory. Also, there is the matter of sheer quanlity. As Amis himself once formulated, “MoRE wil mean WORSE: Where Larkin’ letters ran 790-some pages, inchuding index, Amis's balloon to 1,200 plus packed pages, scrupulously annotated by Zacbary Leader to the point of insan- ity. (When Amis compliments his hosts h served at_dinner, a footnote forms us that it was “fried mealie (maize) bread” stout work, She Jock!) When Amis refers to an allwomen’s college as “that eunt-only plac oF to his penis as his ‘pork sword,” one’s fre: bodings return Most of the humor and invective in the let ters from Amis to Larkin are in tho classic English saucy-bottoms tradition that stretches from Ch cer to Benny Hill to the cartoon mag Viz. They end most of thei letters to each other by attach ing the word “bum” 0 fof some current cliché or plat , such as “Anthony Burgess’s gusto tnd exuberance springs [i] from his be ant bum’ and “The laner Cities are Full of frustrated blacks looking for burn.” Al cap phrases such &s “DREADFUL STENCH OF ANUS” and “A PORRIDGE BOWL. FILLEL ‘wir aren surr” suddenly boom, al with brisk bulletins such as "Have just de- liveted a recking billet of turd into the lavatory pan.” The lavatorial byplay in Larkin's and Amis’ letters can be defend- ed in theory. The concentration required