Man Wanted for Sniper Questioning Pertaining to John Mohammad

NEW YORK (AP)--A man wanted for questioning about the Washington-area sniper suspects is being held in a New York jail on passport fraud charges.

Peter John Gianquinto Jr., a 53-year-old felon who has used several aliases, was arrested Nov. 4 as he left his doctor's office in Manhattan.

He appeared in federal court the following day on charges he submitted a bogus Rutgers University ID card to obtain a passport.

Authorities in the Caribbean island of Antigua have linked Gianquinto to sniper suspect John Muhammad, saying that the two men were seen there together several times.

``They purchased things together like TVs, VCRs. They were both scam artists,'' said John Fuller, head of a government task force investigating Muhammad's activities.

He said the men bought items together using checks that bounced, then resold them.

Muhammad, whose name then was John Allen Williams, was detained by police in Antigua on March 13, 2001, on suspicion of using falsified documents to smuggle people into the United States, authorities said.

He escaped from a police station the same day, and authorities believe he traveled to the United States soon afterward.

He returned to Antigua on May 20, 2001, using the name John Allen Muhammad and went to stay at the Pineapple Beach hotel, where Gianquinto also was staying, Fuller said.

Antiguan investigators suspect Gianquinto may have temporarily served as guardian for Muhammad's kids, Fuller said.

Gianquinto left Antigua and moved to the United States on May 27, 2001, and Muhammad left five days later with his three children and a fourth person who investigators believe was co-defendant John Lee Malvo, Fuller said.

According to court records, Gianquinto went to Seaside Heights, N.J., where he had an apartment.

Fuller said Gianquinto had a legitimate U.S. passport but before it expired had applied for another one using falsified documents.

At the Nov. 5 hearing, magistrate judge Gabriel Gorenstein initially granted Gianquinto $50,000 bond, but prosecutors in South Carolina persuaded a judge to rescind the bail before he was released. He was charged in South Carolina because his passport application was processed in Charleston, S.C.

Court documents make no mention of any involvement in the sniper attacks, but Lt. David Szalkowski, a Seaside Heights detective, said FBI agents had been seeking Gianquinto for questioning in the case.

His landlord in Seaside Heights, Edna Mazzanti, described him as a meticulous, well-dressed man who tried to impress people with purported music industry connections.

At various times, Gianquinto--who had bleached blond hair _ said he worked at MTV, was a lifeguard, was a dancer with Michael Jackson, and was related to the owners of Mellon Bank, she said.

It wasn't entirely hard to believe, Mazzanti said. Sometimes, she said, a limousine would pick him up for trips he said were to New York, a two-hour drive from the New Jersey shore community.

Mazzanti said she found his apartment trashed after he apparently left the area in late October, shortly after the sniper suspects were captured. Someone ripped out linoleum and wall coverings, drilled holes in the sink and tore a heating register out of the wall, she said.

Mazzanti said FBI agents came to Seaside Heights on Oct. 31 to ask about Gianquinto, but never mentioned any link to the sniper suspects.

Gianquinto's criminal record includes numerous arrests on fraud and larceny charges and two felony convictions, according to an affidavit filed by federal investigators. He has used at least six aliases, the affidavit said.

He had no contacts with police during his time in New Jersey, according to Szalkowski, the Seaside Heights detective.

FBI agents said they wanted to question him in the sniper shootings investigation, but didn't say why, Szalkowski said.

Every so often I read folks complaining about law enforcement going about its regular activities - pursuing people who run various types of scams, smuggle and sell drugs, etc. - while we are faced with terrorism. But the fact of the matter is that these regular, garden variety criminals are the people terrorists hang out with. I suspect that serious attention to these people will often lead to the finding of terrorist individuals or organizations.

This guy sounds like your basic crazy flim-flam artist who has gotten away with a bunch of small and not so small stuff for years. I'd be surprised if he has any interest in terrorism. But he's obviously at home in the underworld, and this is a very useful thing to terrorists, who need those "connections" to keep their financial and paperwork activities hidden.

Man Linked To Sniper Suspect Arrested Antigua Connection Cited in Passport Case

When Gianquinto was arrested, he seemed to be living like a pauper, far from the high-roller life that he boasted about on the Jersey shore. He had a New York state food coupon and a state benefit card, indicating that he was on public assistance.

Sally Osgood, owner of a flower shop in Cranford, N.J., said Gianquinto was a regular customer who once bought flowers for rock star Jon Bon Jovi and who would sometimes pull cash from a blue bag. "He would carry so much cash that I would say to him, as a mother would say to a child: 'You really should not carry that much cash. Somebody is going to bop you in the head,' " Osgood said.

Eventually, Osgood said, Gianquinto ran out of money. He purchased flowers on credit and hasn't paid all his bills, she said.

The Mazzantis said they noticed that Gianquinto seemed obsessed with appearing youthful. "He loved surf and beach clothes. He liked to dress like a younger person. He looked like a beach boy," Guy Mazzanti said. "Every day, he would dress in a Hawaiian shirt and a blue cap and blue sunglasses and go to the beach. He was very tanned."

Toward the end of his stay at the apartment, Guy Mazzanti said, Gianquinto befriended five Russian students who were living in one of the apartments. The Russians eventually moved but kept spending a lot of time with Gianquinto, prompting the Mazzantis to ask him if he was putting them up. The relationship with their tenant soured after that, they said.

Before he moved out, Gianquinto stole the kitchen table and curtain rods, among other items, Guy Mazzanti said. He sprayed black paint on a wall, ripped the thermostat off the wall and apparently used a box cutter to carve up the linoleum flooring in the kitchen and bathroom, the landlord said.

At the Windjammer Motor Inn in Seaside Park, the owners said Gianquinto had stayed at the motel off and on for about a week at a time during the last year or so, always during the off-season.

Local police visited the Windjammer and took one of Gianquinto's registration cards and information about a credit card he had used to pay for rooms and other hotel charges, including large telephone bills, said the motel's general manager, Joseph DeFilippis.

DeFilippis said Gianquinto was polite, neat and private. He also offered to give DeFilippis concert tickets and said that if he ever wanted to meet Bruce Springsteen, he could arrange it because he was "great friends" with the rock star, DeFilippis said.

"He told me he had access to concert tickets and that he could get them for me. He asked me if I wanted to go to Britney Spears last year in Philadelphia. He asked me if I needed tickets," DeFilippis said.

He said he had declined Gianquinto's offers.

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