committee. While the other mobsters refused to testify by repeatedly invoking the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provides legal protection against self-incrimination, the garrulous Moretti told jokes, spoke candidly, and generally played it up for the cameras. For example, when asked how long he'd been in the Mafia he replied, "What do you mean, like do I carry a membership card that says 'Mafia' on it?" And when asked how he operated politically he said, "I don't operate politically, if I did I'd be a congressman." The Senators and spectators in the room often broke out laughing at his snarky and sarcastic responses. Death As it was being alleged that Moretti's mental condition was possibly deteriorating from advanced-stage syphilis, it was feared that he was becoming too talkative. An open contract was placed by the mob commission to have him killed. Twelve years later, government witness Joe Valachi described a conversation with Genovese crime family boss Vito Genovese about the Moretti murder: It was supposedly a mercy killing because he was sick. Genovese told me, 'The Lord have mercy on his soul, he's losing his mind.' On October 4, 1951, Moretti was lunching with four other men at Joe's Elbow Room Restaurant in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. The waitress remembered the men, the only patrons in the restaurant, joking together in Italian before she went into the kitchen. At 11:28 am, the restaurant staff heard shots fired and ran into the dining room. Moretti was lying dead on his back on the floor with bullet wounds to the face and head. By some accounts, the shots to his face were a sign of respect. The gunmen had already fled the restaurant. The waitress was able to tentatively identify the man who brought him to the restaurant as Anastasia Crime Family capo John "Johnny Roberts" Robilotto. The shooters are suspected to have been Antonio Caponigro and Joseph "Pepe" LiCalsi. On the day of Moretti's murder, Martin and Lewis had a lunch date scheduled with Moretti. However, earlier that morning, Lewis learned that he had contracted the mumps and both men totally forgot about lunch. Later, while trying to reach Moretti to apologize and explain, they learned from the television news that he was dead. Moretti's funeral service was conducted at Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Moretti was buried at St Michael's Cemetery in