BOSTON, March 3 -- Nicole Brown Simpson's sister, Denise Brown, met socially with a former Mafia enforcer turned FBI witness during her Boston visit this week, the Boston Herald reported Friday. Brown was greeted by Anthony 'Tony the Animal' Fiato when she arrived in Boston Wednesday to promote a domestic violence foundation. On Thursday, Brown and Fiato were seen leaving a Boston hotel together. Brown, 37, came to Boston this week for a national television interview to promote the domestic violence foundation she started after her sister was murdered in Los Angeles. Brown reportedly agreed to be interviewed by 'CBS This Morning' host Paula Zahn, but only if the interviews were done in Boston so she could visit with a 'boyfriend.' Fiato, 50, a Boston native, was described as a former enforcer for the Mafia in Los Angeles. Fiato became an FBI witness in 1984 and helped the government get indictments against Los Angeles Mafia figures in 1987. He is now in the government's witness protection program. The report said former Los Angeles FBI chief Richard Bretzing said Fiato's two years of tape recordings dealt a severe blow to the crime family known as 'the Mickey Mouse Mafia.' Fiato and Brown reportedly met at the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, where Brown was being briefed on her sister's case. Fiato reportedly was in Los Angeles at the time to testify in a trial on the murder of actor Frank Christi. Fiato's tapes and testimony sent reputed former Los Angeles crime bosses Carmen and Peter Milano and four dozen others to prison during the 1990s.
The newspaper quoted a source as saying Brown and Fiato are 'at least very good friends, and they stay in contact with each other constantly.' This was not the first alleged Mafia connection to the Simpson case. It was reported last August that Simpson's friend, Al 'A.C.' Cowlings, had been linked to Joseph 'Joey' Ippolito, a reputed member of the DeCavalcante crime family of New Jersey. Ippolito, according to Cowlings' attorney, Donald Re, helped Cowlings overcome an addiction to free-base cocaine, but denied Cowlings had served as a driver and bodyguard for the Mafia figure.
