man on November 8, 1965, and he survived a car bombing in August 1966, although he lost his right leg and his wife Evelyn was also critically wounded. Roberts subsequently decided to cooperate with the FBI, and he and his wife entered the witness protection program. Pierce and Speditz also disappeared afterwards; investigators believe the pair were murdered by gangsters in order to stop them from cooperating. On October 7, 1966, Kapatos was convicted on two counts of theft from an interstate shipment for his part in the attempted jewelry heist and sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison. His four accomplices in the bungled robbery were never identified. While imprisoned at Atlanta, Georgia in December 1968, he was indicted for the 1964 bank truck robbery along with Callahan, Pierce and Speditz, and the deceased Campbell. Callahan was arrested by the FBI in New York City on December 17, 1968, while Pierce and Speditz were never located. None of the $513,509 stolen was ever recovered. Kapatos and Callahan went on trial on conspiracy charges in New York before judge Thomas Murphy in June 1970. Charles Roberts, walking on a prosthetic leg, served as a witness for the prosecution. Both men were convicted of conspiracy and transporting a stolen automobile in interstate commerce, and each sentenced to ten years' imprisonment – consecutive five-year terms on each count. The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld their convictions on March 22, 1972. Murder Kapatos became a chief lieutenant and enforcer for Hell's Kitchen crime boss Mickey Spillane. During the 1970s, a conflict arose between Spillane's Irish mob and the Genovese crime family over control of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which was being built in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan just south of Hell's Kitchen. As Spillane's gang had been successful in denying the Mafia from being involved in the Javits Center, the Genovese family retaliated by contracting freelance Irish-American hitman Joseph "Mad Dog" Sullivan to secretly eliminate Spillane's associates. On the afternoon of January 27, 1977, Kapatos was gunned down on West 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan by a hired assassin in the employ of Genovese boss Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno; he was the third member of Spillane's inner-circle, after Tom Devaney and Eddie "the Butcher" Cummiskey, who had been killed in a six-month killing spree. Spillane himself was ultimately shot dead outside his apartment in Woodside, Queens on May 13, 1977, allowing