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BACK IN THE DAY - 4/20/2008
Sex ed, smoking, racketeering and murder
NORTH JERSEY – Here’s a look at what was published in Suburban Trends around mid-April over the years.
1963 – Sex ed
Even back in the innocent good ol’ days we weren’t above lurid headlines.
“Sex Gets Prominent Part in Health Study at Wayne,” was the eye-catching headline for the top story in the April 14, 1963 edition of Suburban Trends.
The story starts off like many stories about Wayne did back then – with thinly veiled criticism about school board Trustee Newton Miller. We just did not like him, as numerous negative stories over the years show. We must have been grinding our teeth watching his political star rise to eventually become mayor of Wayne despite our best efforts to discredit him.
This time, Miller failed to convince the majority of the school board to vote with him to prevent “objectionable” subjects from being taught.
“Miller said the mentioned curriculum contained subjects that he felt should be discussed fully by the board before any such approval. Some of the subjects involved included: dating and procedures; dating behavior; drinking on dates; family understanding during the dating period; social diseases and their origin; behavior during the engagement period; pre-marital examination; the honeymoon, and Gentile-Jewish marriages,” it was reported.
That last subject is of particular note since four years later Miller got into some trouble when he said publicly, “Most Jewish people are liberals, especially when it comes to spending for education. If (they) are elected it would take only two votes for a majority, and Wayne could be in real financial trouble. Two more votes and we could lose what is left of Christ in our Christmas celebrations in our schools. Think about it.”
But back to the sex flap, the school superintendent said the school board had already been sitting on the health education issue for six months and that it was time for the board to make a decision. He said he personally felt that the subject matter was inappropriate for school, and better reserved for families and church, although he acknowledged that some families and churches did not talk about the issue.
Miller had also objected to the subject matter three years prior, because the lesson was being taught by a single 21-year-old teacher. The superintendent said that the lesson was being “better controlled” than it had been the first time it made Miller mad.
The majority of the school board trustees voted to let the sex lessons be taught, despite Miller’s protestations.
Students smoking
Over in Bloomingdale, the school board members agreed that it was wrong to allow the students at Butler High School, where Bloomingdale then and now sends its high school students, to smoke on school grounds. But, they felt they were powerless to tell Butler how to run the school district.
“It is not our school, and we have no say in the matter, but we should make our sentiments known,” said Trustee Joseph Connell.
The discussion about the kids smoking came during a larger discussion about whether or not to sign a 10-year agreement to continue sending Bloomingdale kids to Butler High School.
“We are raising a rumpus about a proposed poolroom in our town which will be properly supervised, yet we sit by and condone smoking by 13-year-olds,” he said.
The school board unanimously agreed to let Butler know that they did not approve of letting the kids smoke at school.
Caboose finds a home
Did you ever notice the caboose at the “Partners in Research” facility on Hamburg Turnpike on the border of Pompton Lakes and Wayne? Well this is the story of how it got there.
Tony Citro owned a restaurant named after himself at the site 45 years ago. According to an old article, one day he decided he wanted to own a caboose, so he went ahead and bought a 23-ton railroad caboose that had been a part of the Erie Mainline.
It wasn’t that easy to buy the caboose, and it was by no mean as easy to get it from the railroad yards in Paterson to its home in Wayne.
But, Tony said, “When I want something, I go and get it.”
Five weeks prior to bringing the caboose to his restaurant, he made up his mind that he wanted the caboose as part of the refurbishing he planned to do.
The next step was to pick one out, then buy it. He got in touch with a railroad friend at the Paterson station who referred him to officials at the Hoboken railroad yards. Tony got permission to scan around, and finally in Secaucus he sighted No. 04927, which struck him as just right as the future home for an elegant Victorian-style cocktail lounge.
Through railroad channels from Hoboken to the Erie headquarters in Cincinnati, approval was finally obtained for Tony to get his caboose.
Tony spent $800 on the caboose itself (about $6,000 in today’s money), but there were further costs associated with moving it from the railroad yard and situating it on his property.
He also had to tear out everything inside to make the caboose able to accommodate four dining patrons. He planned to center his whole restaurant around the Victorian-style caboose, even going so far as to rename the restaurant, “The 1900s.”
“It will be the only thing of its kind around here,” said Tony. He invited the mayor to drive in a golden spike to cement the caboose permanently on the tracks in Wayne.
1993 – Racketeer
A Bloomingdale man was convicted of operating a racketeering conspiracy to illegally obtain $53 million in demolition and construction contracts from the government.
State Attorney General Robert Del Tufo said Frank Moscato, 57, of Union Avenue, president of City Construction Company of Jersey City, was convicted on 28 counts including racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, multiple counts of theft by deception, and forgery.
Robert Winter, director of the Division of Criminal Justice, said Moscato headed a conspiracy to obtain construction and demolition contracts from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, while he was debarred by the US Department of Labor from bidding on or accepting such contracts because he failed to pay workers the prevailing wage in 1986.
Despite the order, Moscato would bid on federally funded Newark Housing Authority projects by falsely certifying on HUD documents that he had not be debarred.
He conspired to obtain HUD contracts valued in excess of $25 million from 1986 to 1989 and actually received contracts totaling $5.5 million.
In 1988, after HUD learned of Moscato’s debarment, he formed Slash Construction and used it as a front company to continue to bid on HUD contracts, said Winter.
Moscato eventually did two years for his crimes, and died soon after being released.
1998 – Gas station murder
Pequannock Township was reeling from the slaying of a 33-year-old gas station attendant at the Route 23 South Gulf station.
According to Police Chief William A. Montano, because of the murder of gas station attendant Mohammad Akhtar Anjum on a Wednesday night, he received a number of queries from parents of students who worked in gas stations in and around town. He said they wanted a risk assessment on whether their children would safe.
“I tell them the truth – we ask our guys to make frequent passes by gas stations and convenience stores,” Montano said. “These kinds of robberies are crimes of opportunity. I also tell them there is no certainty but that with the heightened police awareness the chances are good that criminals won’t target this area.”
In regard to the crime itself, police arrested John Kenny DiLoreto, 19, of Jefferson for the murder of Anjum, which occurred around 7:43 p.m. on April 9, according to Morris County Prosecutor John B. Dangler.
DiLoreto was charged with murder, robbery and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, Dangler said. He was arraigned before Superior Court Judge Reginald Stanton who set bail at $1 million.
Fairfield police apprehended DiLoreto Thursday night after the car he was apparently living in was spotted in the parking lot of the Fairfield Executive Inn on Route 46.
With the mobile data terminals in their patrol cars, the Fairfield officers ran a check on DiLoreto’s license plates and it turned up that he was reported missing for almost a month from his brother’s Jefferson home. This in turn led them to question DiLoreto, police indicated.
“The Fairfield offices went the extra step and it led to an arrest,” Montano said. “The use of car-board computers led to the solving of a very ruthless murder. It elevated the officers’ alertness. The suspect was reported as a missing person back in March by his brother.”
The Fairfield officers apparently did not immediately know they had apprehended the suspected murderer. They quickly began to piece it together when DiLoreto was asked to sign some forms and he signed them with his left hand, police said.
The murderer on the station’s security tape had used his left hand when firing the gun. The prosecutor’s office said they also recovered what they believe was the murder weapon, which Montano said was legally obtained.
During their evening roll call, the Fairfield officers had been given the information that the suspect they sought was of the approximate height, age and weight of DiLoreto, as well as left handed.
From the gas station’s security tape, which the prosecutor’s office released, it was determined that the suspect had waited as much as ten minutes until the gas station was free of customers before attempting the robbery.
Police said the DiLoreto approached the other attendant, had words with him and took a shot at him as he fled from the robber. He then approached Anjum inside the station’s office. After Anjum handed over his money, the suspect’s first shot missed and he left.
“You never know how you are going to react in a situation, but if the guy had played possum, he might have lived,” Montano said.
Instead, the tape shows that DiLoreto saw that Anjum was still standing, returned and unloaded several shots into him. Montano added that there was nowhere for Anjum to run since there was not a back door.
“He was trapped,” the chief said. According to Montano, DiLoreto still has not given a reason why he shot Anjum. The prosecutor’s office said because of the remorselessness of DiLoreto and the manner of the killing, they may seek the maximum penalty for him.
“The prosecutor is considering the death penalty,” Sgt. Stephen Foley said Friday.
Montano commended the Fairfield Police Department for nabbing the suspect so quickly. He added that it was the intelligence that his department gathered at the scene, as well as the quick work of the prosecutor’s office investigators to gather information and get it out, that led to the suspected killer’s apprehension.
“While I am happy that a killer is off the streets, a man is dead and this is not a cause to celebrate,” Montano added.
Anjum’s body was flown back to Pakistan at the request of his family, officials said. He was married with two children there and was sending money back to help support them. He lived in a nearby apartment with a co-worker who Montano said provided information about the suspect that helped lead to an arrest.
“The information he gave to our intelligence teams was pretty good,” Montano said. For instance, from the information gathered, police had been searching for the assailant who they said had fled the scene in either a Toyota or Nissan hatchback. DiLoreto was found in a blue Toyota hatchback.
The prosecutor sought the death penalty, and DiLoreto eventually confessed to the murder, but was given life in prison.
But, in a later appeal it was found that the police had violated DiLoreto’s Fourth Amendment rights twice by ordering him out of his parked car and patting him down without cause to fear for their own safety. The police were warned not to do it again, but DiLoreto’s sentence stands.
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