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Just for people judging people so badl wrong:
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S.I. basement packs surprise
Suspect is known as a 'nice guy,' but cops say he had cache of guns, pipe bombs, and Nazi paraphernalia
BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA AND DARYL KHAN
STAFF WRITERS
April 30, 2004
Police found a cache of guns, pipe bombs and pictures of Adolf Hitler and Nazi literature in a Staten Island basement, but yesterday neighbors of the man living there described him, swastika tattoos and all, as a "nice guy."
"He always talked about America, what it means to be a good American," Thomas Janul, 28, said of Anthony Boshi.
Boshi, 43, was arrested Wednesday night along with Anna DiCamillo, his longtime girlfriend, after police found 13 guns, seven pipe bombs wrapped in aluminum foil with nails glued to them and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition in a converted basement study, police said.
Boshi and DiCamillo, 39, were arraigned yesterday on charges of criminal possession of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child, their 1-year-old son.
"If the fuses are ignited and explode, they can kill people within 5 feet," Assistant Staten Island District Attorney Adam Silberlight said during the arraignment.
Boshi was ordered held without bail and DiCamillo held on 0,000 bail.
Police heard about Boshi's weapons from a tip related to a narcotics probe launched in November, said Capt. Glen Morisano, the commanding officer of the department's Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Although police had a no-knock warrant, officers staged an argument about a car accident in front of Boshi's house on McClean Avenue. They screamed at one another until Boshi came out. They arrested him when he got close.
Once inside the house, officers found DiCamillo cradling her son while looking out the living room window, a heavy scent of marijuana in the air, Morisano said.
Boshi's lawyer, John Murphy Jr., accused the district attorney's office of exaggeration in its description of the cache.
"They are fireworks," he said of the alleged pipe bombs. "They're used for fishing. No question about it."
Murphy said it is a common practice for fishermen to weigh down M-80s, drop them in the water and blow up bunker fish, which are chopped up and used as bait to catch bluefish.
The lawyer grew agitated when asked about his client's stash of Hitler literature, Nazi war paraphernalia and swastika tattoos. He said there are many libraries that carry Hitler's "Mein Kampf," one of the books police found in Boshi's basement.
A family member said suggestions that Boshi is a Neo-Nazi were inaccurate.
"That is not a fair characterization," said the family member, who declined to give his name. When shown photocopies of the Nazi literature and photographs of Hitler, the man said: "I don't know what to say. That's not the man I know."
Neighbors said Boshi, an unemployed electrician, displayed an effigy of Osama bin Laden with a target painted on the chest after the Sept. 11 terror attack.
"He told us that he was going to move to Washington state where the real Americans are," said neighbor Michael Frazer, 23. "He didn't like that all the immigrants were moving into the neighborhood. He likes people who are red-blooded, born here, real Americans."
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