When the prosecutor asked Mr. Bufalino if he was a member of La Cosa Nostra, the crime syndicate, he replied firmly, ''No, sir.'' But he acknowledged knowing several reputed crime leaders.
The main prosecution witness, Aladena James Fratianno, said he and Mr. Rizzitello had been asked by Mr. Bufalino to kill Mr. Napoli in 1976. Mr. Fratianno, who admitted participating in several gangland murders, said Mr. Bufalino told him that Mr. Napoli lived in Walnut Creek, Calif., and that ''we want to clip him.''
Mr. Fratianno testified that he had searched for Mr. Napoli, but failed to find him, and that he had reported back to Mr. Bufalino at a meeting with Mr. Rizzitello, whom he called ''a soldier in the Los Angeles family.''
The prosecutor stressed that, when the police arrested Mr. Rizzitello on an unrelated charge in 1976, they found a piece of paper in his pocket that said Mr. Napoli was living in Walnut Creek. A copy of the paper was presented as evidence.
Mr. Napoli, who was in the Federal Witness Protection Program, testified in a 1977 extortion trial that Mr. Bufalino had threatened to kill him for failing to pay a $25,000 debt to a jeweler in New York.
