Gabriel Panatello

Gabriel "Pan" Panatello was the owner of Don't-Shoot-the-Messengers, a messenger service he inherited from his "jerk brother-in-law" at his wife's insistence. Pan used the company as a front for small-time drug deals and transportation contacts.

In order to facilitate his escape from Los Angeles after assassinating Martin Webb, the anarchist Zapata orchestrated a plan to deliberately shut down the L.A. freeway system, a contingency he first developed during a previous attack in the city. Consulting a map of the area, he chose six key locations and hired Panatello and his messengers to crash their cars at the appointed locations at the same time. At 4:41pm, Pan drove north on the 405 Freeway and rammed into another car about a hundred yards short of the Mulholland Avenue exit. Meanwhile, Pan's ex-convict friend Doogie did the same on the 101, along with four others on major freeways and surface streets. Combined, this had the effect of bringing traffic throughout the city to a complete standstill, confounding employees at the Department of Transportation.