John Aratico was 22 when he was shot four times in the chest and killed near his Mapleton neighborhood home in Brooklyn on April 9, 1982. The case quickly became controversial because the detective assigned to the investigation was Louis Scarcella and the prime suspect was Scarcella’s uncle, Nicholas Nicky Black Grancio, a captain in the Colombo crime family. Scarcella reportedly interviewed his uncle and was aware early on of his likely involvement, yet no arrest was ever made.

An NYPD internal affairs inquiry examined how the case was handled, but Scarcella faced no significant discipline at the time. Later reviews of that internal report noted missing key details, and Scarcella later described the killing on a podcast as a public service killing tied to allegations that Aratico had introduced Grancio’s daughter to drugs. The murder remains officially unsolved.

If anyone knew John Aratico or has information about his death, please share what you know.