...And Never Let HerGo

proper.
    That was only a jumping-off point for Louie and, of course, Joey, who had joined him in the business. Tom had never been interested in Capano & Sons, and his lack of interest continued. Lou’s will stipulated that his three older sons were to pay Marguerite, Marian, and Gerry a monthly stipend, and give Gerry shares of the estate when he reached twenty-one, and again at thirty-five. Marian was given no share.
    Eventually it had become apparent that Gerry didn’t have the slightest aptitude for construction, and even less patience in dealing with clients. It was agreed that he should operate his own business,one that would complement Capano & Sons’ many real estate holdings. Gerry started a landscaping and lawn care business. Among other contracts, his work crews took care of the grounds at Cavalier.
    Since Gerry eschewed Wilmington in the summer in favor of the shore, he rarely took a hands-on approach during the peak months of his business. Indeed, he would one day hire a gardening service in Stone Harbor to take care of the house he bought there. His brothers feared that Gerry was still involved with drugs, but they tried to keep that from Marguerite.
    Marian had two early marriages that were short-lived, but she finally made a match that seemed to make her happy. In the early seventies, she married L. Lee Ramunno, an attorney who practiced in one of the historic, one-story brick buildings on French Street near the courthouse in downtown Wilmington. They had three children together.
    Lee, who obviously doted on his attractive wife, did not feel as kindly toward her brothers, particularly Louie. He may have resented the fact that Marian, the oldest child and for five years the
only
child of Lou and Marguerite, had been omitted from her father’s will, except for a monthly dole at the pleasure of her brothers. It may have been some other dispute over money, but beginning in 1982, there was very bad blood between Lee Ramunno and Louie Capano.
    Lee initiated a lawsuit against Louie, and Louie was served with it as he was having a good time acting as a guest bartender at a Wilmington restaurant. Outraged and embarrassed, Louie stormed out to the Ramunnos’ home in Forest Hills Park. He hadn’t come to visit and he didn’t use the front door; he smashed a wooden chair through a sliding glass door and stepped in through the broken glass.
    Louie grabbed Lee by the throat and began choking him, as Marian, nearly hysterical, tried to pull him off. The brothers-in-law fell to the floor and continued to struggle, while Marian tried to separate them. When she couldn’t, she called the police. Louis, twenty-nine at the time, eventually entered an Alford Plea (no contest) to charges of second-degree reckless endangerment.
    Family celebrations that included Louie and Lee were sparse after that, and the incident put a big strain on their espoused belief that family was family, no matter what. Tom got along well enough with his only sister’s husband, but then, Tom got along with almost everyone.
    D AN F RAWLEY ran for mayor again in 1988 and Tom worked hard to get him reelected. He had a great deal of positive impact on Frawley’s campaign, and it was assumed that Tom would continue as chief of staff. But it didn’t work out that way. In mid-January, Tom resigned from his city position. Everyone who knew him well was surprised to hear that he was leaving to join Capano & Sons.
    Louie needed him. The family business needed him, and as much as he dreaded the thought of working in the construction business, Tom had acquiesced to his mother’s pleas. He had a knack not only for getting along with everyone, but also for dealing with the sometimes onerous details that kept a company going. In 1989, the details were not onerous; they were scandalous, and his mother had begged him to help his brothers, to help the family.
    Tom had promised her 365 days, and 365 days only.
    Louie had the genius and the vision to make Capano & Sons boom, but along the way he had taken some shortcuts to grease the wheels of county government on a rezoning issue that he needed badly. County council members were the ones who voted on rezoning bills, and Louie had given Councilman Ronald J. Aiello $10,000 in 1987, in what was essentially an illegal campaign contribution. A year later, Louie went further over the line and gave Aiello $9,000 in an outright payment for a rezoning vote favorable to one of his developments.
    Federal agents had