Crackdown in New Jersey

I want to come home. I want my home to be in a decent city, a place my wife, my children and myself can be proud of.

The words were spoken by Hugh Joseph Addonizio in 1961 when he returned from 14 years as a Democratic Congressman and was sworn in as mayor of Newark, N.J. His ambitions for Newark were as commendable as they were formidable. Lying across the Hudson River in sight of Manhattan's towers, Newark is a grimy, sprawling industrial ghetto, heir in full measure to nearly every urban malady of modern America. Its rich are few, its poor numerous, its population of 405,000 nearly equally and often acrimoniously divided between black and white. The miasma of the oil refineries in the nearby Jersey meadows hangs over the city, and so, too, does the pervasive smog of crime and corruption.

Addonizio is an affable, portly first-generation Italian American, now 55, and on one count he seemed a good man to tackle Newark's problems. He brought to his mayoralty the reputation of a promising politician whose liberalism on the race issue could serve as a bridge between the city's blacks and whites. By another yardstick, he was not the man for the job. He had been launched in politics in 1946 by Newark Democratic Boss Dennis Carey, who was in search of a congressional candidate. "I figured," Carey once said, "that I needed a guinea with a name that long." Addonizio, a much-decorated war hero, met Carey's callous specifications. Carey delivered the nomination, and Addonizio edged out the incumbent Congressman by fewer than 1,800 votes. En route to an eighth congressional term, Addonizio amazed friends and opponents when he gave up his safe seat in the House to make the race for mayor of Newark. He won, mocking an opponent's charge that the "invisible hand" of the Mafia was behind his candidacy.

Claim of Immunity. Addonizio's hopes for Newark were shattered in the city's bloody racial upheaval in 1967, which lasted six days and left 26 dead and more than $10 million in property damage. A special Governor's commission set up to look into the causes of the riot laid much of the blame for the upheaval to the "pervasive feeling of corruption" in the city. Last week Addonizio's own career and reputation stood in sharp jeopardy. The mayor was summoned before a grand jury to answer questions about his ties to the Mob. Federal investigators wanted to know whether Addonizio knew Mafia Capo Ruggiero ("Richie the Boot") Boiardo or his son Anthony ("Tony Boy"). They also wondered whether he had discussed with members of the city council a contract awarded to the Valentine Electric Co., for which the younger Boiardo is a salesman. Claiming the protection of the Fifth, Sixth and 14th Amendments, Addonizio refused to answer every question put to him--including whether he was mayor and when he was elected.

Addonizio's claim of immunity did not amuse U.S. Attorney Frederick B. Lacey. Lacey marched Addonizio before Federal Judge Robert Shaw and asked him to order the mayor to answer. Shaw declined to issue the order, but did demand that Addonizio explain his refusal in open court. Addonizio justified his silence on the grounds that he felt his answers might help forge a chain of evidence that could incriminate him. He knew the younger Boiardo, he said, and believed that he was under investigation. "Well, I guess that disposes of that one [question]," Shaw commented dryly.

Addonizio is not the only Newark official in trouble. Speaking in Florida the night before Addonizio's grand jury appearance, Attorney General John Mitchell revealed that he soon expected "a massive indictment of public officials on a local level" in a state corrupted by organized crime. He also disclosed that federal authorities were on the verge of cracking "probably the largest gambling syndicate that's ever been broken up in this country." Although Mitchell's unusual advance buildup did not identify the state, Justice Department officials said it was New Jersey.

Strike Force. It would hardly be surprising if it is. New Jersey was for years the domain of the late Vito Genovese, and since his death its rackets have been under the suzerainty of Gerardo ("Jerry") Catena. Nearly two years ago, the office of Essex County Prosecutor Joseph Lordi began to study the relationship between city officials and Mafiosi. In January, the Federal Government got into the act. A strike force of investigators from several agencies descended upon the state. Working with state officials and information developed by Lordi and the Essex County probe, it secured bribery and conspiracy indictments against two IRS officials, the head of a local contracting company and an accountant.

Whatever comes out of the continuing investigations, Addonizio--and Newark--is in trouble. Federal authorities have left to State Attorney General Arthur Sills the decision of whether to enforce a New Jersey law providing for the removal from office of public officials who refuse to waive immunity before a grand jury. Addonizio faces tough opposition if he decides to seek re-election in May. While the city's blacks are politically divided, Addonizio has a determined challenger on the right. City Councilman Anthony Imperiale, an Independent whose anti-black stand has won him wide support from Newark's white lower middle class, has already announced his intention of running for mayor. For Newark voters who truly want to make the city a community of which they can be proud, the election shapes up as not much of a choice.

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