Angelo Errichetti was the hub. He was mayor of Camden and a New Jersey state senator, and he brought the operatives Myers and Lederer. Howard Criden, a Philadelphia lawyer, and his law partner Louis Johanson, a Philadelphia city councilman, brought Thompson, who in turn brought Murphy and Murtha, and named the Philadelphia council members. Joseph Silvestri, a New Jersey businessman, raised Senator Pressler’s name. Eugene Ciuzio and Stanley Weisz brought Kelly. John Stowe brought Jenrette. Alexander Feinberg, a lawyer, was Senator Williams’s partner in the titanium venture. [1][2][3]
They were paid. The Senate report records Criden receiving $5,000 on 10 January 1980 for delivering Murtha to a meeting three days earlier, and middlemen keeping shares of the cash the members took. [2]
Their claims were often false. Of 24 officials the FBI authorized for bribe meetings, every one except Representative William Hughes of New Jersey had first been named by a middleman who said the person was corrupt. Several never showed up, and some who came, like Pressler, refused. [2]
Errichetti, Criden and Johanson were convicted with Myers in August 1980. Errichetti died in 2013. [3]
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