New York Newsday
August 16, 1995
By Patricia Hurtado
Staff Writer
MaspethLt. Thomas
Williams,
firefighter
died in
the blaze.
A Manhattan businessman reputed to be one of the city's worst slumlords was convicted yesterday of conspiring to set a Queens fire that killed a veteran Fire Department lieutenant. Jack Ferranti, 42, was found guilty of federal conspiracy, arson that resulted in murder, witness tampering and mail fraud stemming from the fatal Feb. 24, 1992 fire at Today's Styles, a boutique he owned on Grand Avenue in Maspeth. Lt. Thomas Williams, 51, a firefighter for more, than 30 years, died, while trying to rescue tenants above the store.
Prosecutors Lauren Resnick and Sean O'Shea charged Ferranti hired his 37-year-old brother, Mario, to set the fire with another man. But the federal jury convicted Mario Ferranti only of conspiracy to commit arson.
During the trial, prosecutors charged that Jack Ferranti conspired with his brother and an associate, Thomas Tocco, to set the blaze and collect insurance. Witnesses testified that Jack Ferranti had not paid his rent for four months and had let his insurance lapse - only to reinstate it just two weeks before the fire. One former employee testified that in 1991, Jack Ferranti told an employee he'd set the store on fire, if business didn't improve. Prosecutors charged that the brothers had planted a portable electric heater to make it appear, as if it caused the blaze.
Mario Ferranti faces up to five years in prison, while Jack Ferranti faces up to life in prison. They will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein Oct. 19. Investigators testified that the burn patterns indicate a flammable liquid had been used to set the blaze. And a long-time associate of the defendants testified that Tocco later confessed he set the blaze with Mario Ferranti.
"I don't think I've ever felt as good about removing such an evil person from the streets of New York," O'Shea said of the verdict. Said Fire Marshal Jim Kelty, the lead investigator instrumental in tracking the suspects: "Maybe now, after three years, Tommy Williams can rest in peace."
