Bruno upset mafia, club owners

Editor's note: In the months leading up to his death in November 2003, mobster Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno's control of organized crime in Western Massachusetts was falling apart. With the pressure on him and monitoring by members of the New York-based Genovese crime family who traveled to Springfield, Bruno faced a coup by an up-and-comer in his organization. This is the first of a two-part series tracing what unfolded in Bruno's final months.

SPRINGFIELD - During the spring of 2002, Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno inflamed local mafia wiseguys and club owners by muscling them for increased "rent" to revive illicit revenues choked by a law enforcement crackdown on organized crime in Western Massachusetts, police reports show.

In the end, Bruno could well have been a victim of his own tough tactics. A gunman in the parking lot of a South End social club fatally ambushed the longtime mob boss 18 months later. The shooting occurred on the night before Bruno's 58th birthday.