The Nation: Silent Goes the Don

In his younger days, Gerardo Catena was convicted of eight felonies, ranging from hijacking to bribing a federal juror, but those inconveniences did not slow his steady rise through the Mafia hierarchy. By the late 1960s he was boss of 600 button men in northern New Jersey and heavily involved in gambling and loan-sharking. Thus it was only logical for the state commission of investigation to summon him in 1970 for questioning about organized-crime activities. Granted immunity from prosecution for his answers, Catena still refused to talk, so a superior court sent him to jail. Under civil contempt procedures common to all states, Catena could have freed himself at any time by answering the commission’s questions. Instead, he vowed: “They’ll have to carry me out of here feet first.”

The aging mobster (now 73) never broke his silence. But last week the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered him freed. The justices concluded that there was “no substantial likelihood” that Catena would ever cooperate with the commission; therefore, he must be released because further imprisonment would amount to unjustified punishment. Lest other Mafiosi rejoice too much, the court limited its decision to his case alone. As a result, three other recalcitrant witnesses remain in the Clinton Reformatory, and the commission can continue to coerce silent mobsters with threats of imprisonment. To get out of jail without talking, they will have to use the same long and costly appeals route followed by Catena, since the court stopped short of answering a question raised by its own reasoning: After how many years does coercion become punishment?