The story of Sammy and Gotti

[~Wizeguy~]

Chap 1-
TALENT RISING
If ever there was an incubator for crime it was the Italian Harlem tenements of the South Bronx. In one of those crowded dirty apartments, a young John Gotti eked out an impoverished existence with his parents and eleven sisters and brothers. His father rarely worked and then, only at menial jobs, risking the little money the family had by gambling.

Eventually the family moved to central Brooklyn, which was known as East New York. In East New York, for a poor boy like John Gotti with nothing in the way of prospects, the Cosa Nostra represented something to which he could realistic aspire to gain the power and respect he craved.

He started as many young boys did, running errands for the gangsters, molding himself into a young bully with a future. His first major incident with the police occurred when he tried to steal a cement mixer and it fell on his feet, an injury that affected his gait for the rest of his life.

He quit school at sixteen and rose to leadership in a local street gang of thieves called the Fulton-Rockaway Boys, named after two streets in their neighborhood. At an early age he exerted his bad temper, dominance and readiness to engage in fistfights. These were just the right characteristics to develop his potential as a Mafia boss.

A couple of these Fulton-Rockaway boys would follow him for the rest of his career as loyal soldiers. One was Angelo Ruggiero and another was Wilfred Willie Boy Johnson, an amateur boxer of American Indian descent.
In 1962, when Gotti was 22, he married Vicky DiGorgio whose hot temper matched his own. It was hardly a shotgun marriage since the first child from their union was born in 1961. It was a tumultuous marriage marred by constant fighting. She made it clear to him and others that she disapproved of his life of crime and the hours he spent away from home drinking and gambling. Things got so bad that at point she went on welfare and took him to court for nonsupport.

In spite of this marital disharmony, they had four more children. Their relationship eventually settled down as each developed separate pursuits. Vicky became addicted to soap operas and John to gambling and pretty girls.

John Gotti speaks to a soldier while Angelo Ruggiero listens.
In the mid-1960's, Gotti's boss Carmine Fatico moved his headquarters out to Ozone Park near JFK Airport. Gotti, his brothers, Angelo and Willie Boy became relatively successful hijackers. That is, until they got caught in 1968 and landed in prison.
In 1972, when Gotti got out of prison and went back to Ozone Park, the headquarters had been imaginatively renamed the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club. Two important things happened in his life to significantly lift his status in the Cosa Nostra. The first was that his boss Carmine Fatico faced a loansharking indictment, so Gotti became Fatico's man on the street to keep him informed about what was happening at a grass-roots level. The second was that Gotti met Neil Dellacroce, an important under boss to Carl Gambino. Neil accomplished Carlo's violent dirty work from a headquarters in Little Italy's Mulberry Street called the Ravenite Social Club.

Neil, who was disappointed that his only son Armond became a drug addict, saw in Gotti a young protege who was a younger version of his own violent, macho self. Like Gotti, he had a weakness for gambling and one such episode got him in trouble with the IRS. Neil ended up in jail for at least a year.

Aneillo (Neil) Dellacroce, the Gambino family underboss who was John Gotti's mentor.
With both Fatico and Dellacroce in the slammer, John Gotti was handed a lot of new responsibilities. For one thing, he gained incredible visibility by reporting directly to Carlo Gambino while Fatico was in jail. Before that opportunity, Carlo did not particularly value Gotti's crowd in Ozone Park. To the sophisticated Carlo, they were just a bunch of hotheaded thugs. This was a chance for Gotti to show himself in a different light.
Gotti brought home to the Ozone Park crowd Carlo's prohibition on drug dealing. But the warnings fell on deaf ears. Many of the men very close to Gotti were dealing and using heroin and cocaine. But Gotti kept the faith by warning them: "If you're dealin,' you're Managiain'playin' with fire, and if you get caught, you're Managiain' dead."

Through Neil Dellacroce, Gotti and his Ozone Park boys had a chance to vastly improve their status under Carlo. Carlo had lost a nephew in 1973 to a kidnapper who collected the $100K ransom and then murdered the boy. Gotti was given the opportunity to get revenge for Carlo.

The kidnapper was a man named James McBratney. Gotti, Angelo Ruggiero and another one of the Bergin soldiers dressed up as cops and shot McBratney is a pub in front of several witnesses. Angelo was arrested first and later, the police also arrested Gotti for the murder.

Fortunately for Gotti, Carlo gave the McBratney case to his talented lawyer Roy Cohn who was able to get the charge reduced to manslaughter. While Gotti was in jail in 1976, Carlo Gambino had a heart attack and was dying. Carlo made a decision that was to create problems for the crime family for almost a decade-he named his brother-in-law Paul Castellano as his successor.

Castellano was not respected and admired like Carlo. Perhaps his insecurity caused him to keep Neil as his under boss in charge of all of the more violent activities, such as hijacking. While Paul would focus the family efforts on the more sophisticated criminal activities like union rackets and bid-rigging in construction projects.

This decision created two separate branches of the Gambino family: Paul's branch and Neil's branch. The schism did nothing to strengthen the family and ultimately brought about the assassination of Paul in 1985, when after Neil's death, Paul sought to demote Gotti and his men and promote his own favorites.



www.dark-horse.co.uk/john/johnrank.htm

[~Wizeguy~]

Chap -2
SAMMY THE BULL
While John Gotti was climbing up the ranks in Neil's branch of the Gambino family, Sammy Gravano was distinguishing himself in Paul's branch. In many ways his life was similar to Gotti's and other ways quite different.

Sammy was born in the mid-1940's to Gerardo and Katarina Gravano of Brooklyn. Unlike Gotti, he was not born into poverty. His father owned a dress factory and made a good living for his family. They had solid middle class expectations for him and invested some attention and discipline in him.
Unfortunately, Sammy did not rise to their expectations and did poorly at school. They did not understand it at the time, but Sammy suffered from dyslexia, which made schoolwork difficult for him. School was also an ordeal for him because he was small in stature and couldn't hold his own with the kids his age. After Sammy failed eighth grade, he was sent to a special school for kids with learning problems, but he didn't like it and dropped out of school the next year.


He started to hang around with the wrong friends and got into trouble. Stealing turned into car theft and finally into armed robbery and he was only sixteen. Finally he did get caught and had the choice of going to the Army or going to jail. He took the Army.

For two years he stayed out of trouble and was honorably discharged from the Army. He was fortunate to have never been sent over to Vietnam. He went to work in the construction trades with his brother-in-law Edward Garafola.

You couldn't stay alive being a criminal in Brooklyn without mob connections, so when Sammy decided to concentrate less on construction and more on robbery, he had to get himself "mobbed up." A buddy of his got him into a gang of burglars headed by a man named Shorty with associations to the Colombo crime family.

By that time, Sammy wasn't the lightweight that he had been in school. While only 5 feet 5 inches tall, he built up his body with weights and steroids. He was a strong man now, strong as a bull.

Shorty asked Sammy for a favor. He wanted Sammy to kill an enemy of his. Sammy said yes and did it competently and professionally. This got him some attention from the big guys in the family.

At this point in his life he married Debra Scibetta. Unlike the Gotti's, they got along well and produced two children. But then, Sammy was not a man to go out gambling, drinking and looking for girls every night. He was a family man.
Because of the jealousy of one of the members of the Colombo family, Sammy was released from that family to go to work for Salvatore Toddo Aurello, a capo (boss) in the Gambino family. This was a lucky move for Sammy because Toddo made Sammy his protege, much like Neil Dellacroce did for Gotti.

Through Toddo, Sammy was able to cultivate another important boss, Frank DeCicco, a clever man who was one of the few who could stay on good terms with both the Neil side of the family and the Paul side.

Sammy also met John Gotti who was very different in style to Sammy. Gotti dressed flamboyantly in very expensive suits with elaborate silk ties, while Sammy was comfortable in jeans and a leather jacket. Gotti was loud and overbearing, Sammy was just the opposite.

Sammy was becoming distinguished by his earning ability. He used the money he made in one enterprise to invest in other businesses. He quietly owned interests in nightclubs, restaurants and bars, as well as construction companies. In 1977, he was finally "made," the term used for formal induction into the Cosa Nostra.

Sammy was tested when he was told about the impending murder of his brother-in-law Nicky Scibetta for dealing and taking drugs. When they found parts of Nicky's dismembered body in a dumpster, Sammy went through all of the proper motions of an aggrieved brother-in-law. Practiced in deceit, he went to Nicky's wake, funeral and burial and mourned with his wife the loss of her brother.

By 1983, Sammy's careful investments and ability to play by Cosa Nostra rules made him into one of Paul's most powerful men. He was in fact essentially running all of Toddo's operations on a daily basis and he was only 38 years old.

www.dark-horse.co.uk/john/johnbull.htm

[~Wizeguy~]

Chap - 3
MR. MACHIAVELLI
The assassination of Paul Castellano was a brilliant coup on the part of Gotti, not just in the way the ambush was executed, but also in the preparation of the Gambino family and other crime families for the event itself.

When John Gotti made his decision that he was going to eliminate Paul, he determined who he would recruit to join him in the conspiracy that was ultimately called the Fist. Gotti had to be very careful, because if in trying to recruit other key members of the Gambino family, word got back to Paul, Gotti himself would be sanctioned and executed.

First Sammy was approached, not by Gotti directly, but by Angelo. Sammy realized that Castellano would never survive an all out war with the Bergin crew. Sammy, in spite of his "by the-rules" approach to most things, understood that Paul was not leading the family in the right direction. By Gotti's invitation to Sammy to join up with him, Gotti was signaling that he wanted to unify the family again and heal the schism that had broken the family into two camps. Sammy was behind the idea of new leadership of a unified family.

Sammy told Angelo that he would see how DeCicco and Robert DiBernardo would react to such a proposal before he made a firm commitment. After DeCicco agreed, the three key players were committed: Gotti, Gravano and DeCicco. DiBernardo, a very rich and influential man with strong Teamster connections, signed on shortly afterwards.

Now Gotti needed someone of the older generation, a traditional capo in the family. Joseph Armone fit the bill. By getting Armone to join the Fist, they reduced the possibility of a civil war within the family.

Gotti and his co-conspirators knew that they had to lay the groundwork for their plan well beyond the Gambino family. In Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain's book Gotti: Rise and Fall the strategy is described:

Members of the Fist contacted influential men in three other Cosa Nostra families -Luchese, Colombo, and Bonanno -- and asked for support if "something happened" to Paul. They approached men they regarded as the next generation of leaders, because most of the current leaders had fallen victim to the RICO (racketeering law) sword and were awaiting trial and facing life in prison without parole. For obvious reasons, Paul's friend Chin Gigante was not contacted.

On the day of Paul Castellano's assassination, DeCicco carried on some important political preparations. He went to the Sparks restaurant to make sure that the other capos there did not think that their lives were endangered and to do his best to prevent them from taking any retaliatory action against whoever they thought was responsible.

A couple of days after Paul's death, elderly consigliere Joe Gallo called a meeting of all the Gambino family capos at a restaurant owned by Gravano. Gallo had already warned Gotti that his contacts with the younger leadership of the other families didn't count. Only the Cosa Nostra Commission could have a leader removed. Consequently, Gotti and the Fist must never admit what they did, regardless of what conclusions were reached by other Gambino family members or other crime family members.

Capeci and Mustain captured the spirit of the dialogue:

"It's terrible, what's happened," Gallo began. "But we don't know who killed Paul, we're investigatin'. Nobody feels worse for Paul's and Tommy's families than me. But we're a family too and we have to stay strong. So that's why we called you here.

None of the captains believed him, of course. But the armed sentries and seating arrangements made reassurance more important than truth. Nobody had any questions about the murders; Gallo, speaking for Gotti, gave them the only answers they wanted.

The other Cosa Nostra families were given the same message and did not threaten any trouble. The sole exception was Chin Gigante, the boss of the Genovese family who reminded the Gambino capos that eventually someone would have to pay for breaking the Commission rules.

When the Gambino capos met again before the end of the year, John Gotti was formally elected boss of the family. Fist co-conspirator Frank DeCicco made his nomination.

As a student of Machiavelli, Gotti had a good sense of who in his organization to put into positions of power. DeCicco became his under boss and he made Angelo head of the Bergin crew. Sammy officially took over all of Toddo's operations. Sammy was a very powerful man, but he preferred to remain a shadowy background figure, while Gotti and DeCicco visibly ran the show. Joseph Armone, the elderly capo who had become a member of the Fist, was given new sources of income. And consigliere Joe Gallo remained in his position under Gotti as he had under Paul Castellano.

Most importantly, Gotti understood the value of public relations. Unlike his predecessor and some of the other family bosses, Gotti realized that favorable publicity would enhance his standing with other Cosa Nostra families, with the members of his own family, and, very importantly, with potential jurors and witnesses. By charming the media, he was able to create a public image of himself as a legendary, almost heroic rogue. Yes, he was a gangster. That could not be denied. But to the public he was a popular and likeable guy -- the way Al Capone was revered on the streets of Chicago in 1930. Gotti was very media astute, a fact which confounded his enemies in law enforcement.

www.dark-horse.co.uk/john/johnpower.htm

[~Wizeguy~]

Chap - 4
WITNESS INTIMIDATION 101
Despite John Gotti's love affair with the media, occasionally the real man, a hotheaded bully, showed through the charming veneer. An excellent example was the incident with the refrigerator mechanic Romual Piecyk. Before Gotti became boss of the Gambino family, he was involved in a fight with the man outside the Cozy Corner Bar, one of his hangouts. He got annoyed at Piecyk for laying on the horn of his car outside of the bar and punched the man in the face. Then Gotti's buddy reached in the mechanic's pocket and took out the $325 that constituted his week's earnings. Piecyk called the police and Gotti was arrested like a street criminal.

Later Piecyk worked with the DA to get Gotti indicted before a grand jury. When he saw all the publicity on Gotti after the Castellano assassination, Piecyk began to be concerned. He was being followed, harassed and endangered. Someone had even ruined the brakes on his truck.

Intimidation worked well. Piecyk was justifiably frightened. From his hideout, he wrote to his wife "I feel I have been lied to by the laws that are supposed to protect us. I have been a pawn in the power game between the government and the mob...I can't and will not live the rest of my life in fear." He decided to appear at the trial on Gotti's side: "I'm not going to go against Mr. Gotti. I'm going in his behalf. I don't want to hurt Mr. Gotti."

It was interesting what the jury finally heard about the incident from Gotti's attorney: Piecyk was the drunken aggressor, not Gotti, who only tried to protect Gotti's friend from Piecyk's violent behavior.

When asked to tell the jury about the men who assaulted him, Piecyk had amnesia: "To be perfectly honest, it was so long ago, I don't remember...who slapped me. I have no recollection of what the two men looked like or how they were dressed.""Not surprisingly, the case was dismissed.

Gotti loved the media coverage of this trial. It made him feel very powerful. What better way of dramatizing to the public that "nobody bettter mess with Gotti. "He never gave a thought to how this trial might boomerang on him later on.

www.dark-horse.co.uk/john/johninti.htm

[~Wizeguy~]

Chap -5
REVENGE
Gotti had lulled himself into thinking that his handling of Paul's assassination precluded any retaliation by members of the Gambino and other Cosa Nostra families. In reality, Vincent (The Chin) Gigante, the highly eccentric boss of the Genovese family, began to plot revenge for his friend Paul immediately after his death.

Chin Gigante walked around the streets of New York City in his bathrobe and slippers muttering to himself. Allegedly this behavior was prompted by the belief that if the FBI thought he was crazy or senile, it would provide him a good defense in court.
Gigante was one of the Cosa Nostra's old guard. He and the late Paul Castellano represented a set of old and inflexible rules. When the brass young Gotti killed Gigante's friend, "illegally" according to Cosa Nostra traditions, and usurped his place as boss, Gigante felt that he had to punish Gotti and his under boss for their crimes. If such crimes went unpunished, they would be repeated and would threaten the whole traditional fabric of the organization. Gigante limited the punishment to the taking out of one boss (Gotti) and his under boss (DeCicco), as quid pro quo for the assassination of Castellano and his under boss Bilotti.


Gigante approached two of the Gambino capos to get their support. Daniel Marino and James Failla were both Paul Castellano loyalists. If they supported Gigante's plot, Failla would be rewarded by being the new boss and Marino would be the new under boss. They both bought into The Chin's plan, but did not have any role in carrying out the plot.

Gigante selected Anthony Casso, an accomplished assassin from the Luchese family, to handle the execution of Gotti and DeCicco. The instrument was a remote-controlled car bomb placed in DeCicco's car outside a restaurant in which DeCicco and Gotti were supposed to be meeting. At the last minute, Gotti changed plans and told DeCicco to meet him in New York City.

When DeCicco and his soldier, who had gray hair like Gotti, opened DeCicco's car, the man who had been watching them gave the order and the car blew up, killing DeCicco and badly injuring the soldier.
Gotti was shaken by the assassination of his next in command and his own narrow escape from the "justice" of the Cosa Nostra. However, he was a good enough leader to understand how to respond. Everyone in the Gambino family was required to attend the wake. He told them, "Who the Managia did it, they got to know we ain't afraid. They wanna play some more, let 'em Managiain' try some more. We gotta be strong against people who are strong."

Gotti put Sammy Gravano in charge of investigating the car bomb, but Sammy never did get a lead on who was responsible. Apparently, Gotti did not particularly suspect Chin, at that time since Chin was known to be against the use of car bombs.


The bombed car of under boss Frank DeCicco


But, Chin Gigante didn't give up. He planned another assassination attempt on Gotti. However, one of the FBI's bugs picked up the entire plan. In a highly controversial decision, Bruce Mouw of the FBI dispatched one of his agents to warn Gotti. Gotti's first reaction to this information, after the agent had left, was to order Chin's assassination. However, he settled for the killing of Chin's under boss. Chin got the message and the two men decided to resolve their differences peacefully from that

www.dark-horse.co.uk/john/johnreve.htm

[~Wizeguy~]

Chap- 6
RICO
RICO was an acronym for the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. RICO had been law since 1970, but its powers were never fully utilized until the Justice Department under Ronald Reagan began its concerted assault on organized crime. RICO changed the focus from prosecuting individual criminals to prosecuting individuals who committed crimes which benefited "corrupt" organizations -such as crime families.

Capeci and Mustain describe the impact of this powerful tool for prosecutors:

RICO introduced two new concepts: "criminal enterprise" and "pattern of racketeering." A criminal enterprise was any group "associated in fact" whose members committed crimes for group purposes. A racketeering pattern was two or more violations of state and federal laws regarding murder, kidnapping, hijacking, extortion, fraud and twenty-seven other crimes.

The penalty for a RICO conviction - up to twenty years in prison for each count - was much more severe than most of those provided under the state and federal laws covering the crimes that a prosecutor could allege as part of the pattern of racketeering.

Another RICO provision was especially ominous to defendants like Gotti. It permitted prosecutors to charge crimes for which a defendant had already been convicted and punished in state court - on the theory that the enterprise nature of the crime had gone unpunished.

This statue was not good news for Gotti, considering his prior convictions for attempted manslaughter and hijacking, all of which could be fit into a framework of racketeering on behalf of a criminal enterprise. Armond Dellacroce had already admitted to the existence of that criminal enterprise -the Bergin crew of the Gambino family - when he was busted for drugs.

Diane Giacalone, the U.S. attorney preparing the federal racketeering case against Gotti was very concerned that he would intimidate witnesses in her case the same way he intimidated Romual Piecyk. Using the Piecyk experience, she was able to get Gotti's bail revoked and he went back to prison to await his court date on RICO charges some ten months later.

A breakdown in the working relationship between two of the federal groups pursuing Gotti doomed Giacalone's case even before it went to trial, but she didn't know it.
Bruce Mouw, who was heading up the FBI's campaign against Gotti, received a crucial bit on intelligence through one of his informers, a mistress of one of Gotti's capos. She found out from her boyfriend that the reason that Gotti was so confident about being acquitted is that he had bought off one of the jurors. This particular juror was subsequently elected foreman.

Mouw did nothing about this information and predictably, Gotti was acquitted. Later, when the story came out, Mouw was harshly criticized for withholding the information about the juror. Had Giacalone known about this, a mistrial could have been forced and a new jury selected.


Howard Blum in his book Gangland: How the FBI Broke the Mob describes how Mouw's hands were tied:

How could he announce he had learned a juror had been bribed without revealing his source? Giacalone had already demonstrated her willingness to sacrifice informants (she had not protected Gotti's old time friend Willie Boy Johnson's identity as an informant). Who could guarantee that she would not reveal... (the informant's name) in open court? An extremely productive source of information on the Gambinos would be shut off, and a life would be put in jeopardy. Operationally and morally, Mouw had no choice but to keep his peace.

So with the help of the government, John Gotti beat the government's case. If ever Gotti needed a boost to his ego and prestige, this was it. A few months later, he celebrated his triumph by giving a huge July 4th party in Ozone Park with free food and enormous fireworks display. Echoes of Al Capone's gifts to the neighborhood, which made both gangsters into local folk heroes.

www.dark-horse.co.uk/john/johnrico.htm

[~Wizeguy~]

Chap -7

THE BUREAU
After the Giacalone fiasco, relations between the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office and other state and local law enforcement agencies were strained. Bruce Mouw, head of the Bureau's efforts to bring the Gambino family leadership to justice, was becoming concerned that there was a high-level mole involved in the case who was keeping Gotti informed about investigations and possible indictments. Consequently, the Bureau kept it cards increasingly close to its vest -sometimes with alarming consequences.
The FBI efforts were mostly focused on getting wiretap evidence. Somewhere, Gotti who was running this huge crime family of allegedly 3,000 member would have to have business meeting about its operations. The challenge was to find out where these meetings were taking place and plant bugs to record the evidence of criminal operations.

Gotti was well aware of the FBI goal and took many steps to protect himself and his lieutenants from wiretaps. During the week, Gotti had set up headquarters in New York City's Little Italy in Neil Dellacroce's old headquarters, the Ravenite Social Club. On the weekends, he held court in his old neighborhood, theBergin Hunt and Fish Club in Ozone Park.


The Ravenite appeared impregnable, almost like a fortress. Mouw's wireman didn't see how he was ever going to get into the place to plant the bugs. Night after night, the guys of Mouw's C-16 team, as they were called, sat in a van outside the Ravenite Club looking for opportunity. Eventually, they lucked up.

An elderly man named Mike Cirelli was the official caretaker of the Ravenite. His nephew Norman DuPont helped out his uncle by opening up the club every afternoon at 4 PM and closing up each night. Several times, they saw DuPont bring different women to the club late at night after everyone else had left.

One of these women, it turned out, worked for the IRS. Mouw's team approached her and she agreed to help them. Not only did she draw up for them a detailed floorplan of the club, she left the door open on one of her visits with DuPont so that the C-16 wireman could get in to plant bugs. In mid-January of 1988, Mike Cirelli died and Gotti was heard on a wiretap telling DuPont to change the locks on Cirelli's apartment above the Ravenite.

The excitement of being able to get into the Ravenite Club and plant bugs eventually waned. The bugs were ineffective operationally. Even when they overcame various technical problems with white noise and microphone failures, the fact was that Gotti was simply not talking business there. Now, three years after Gotti had taken over the Gambino family, the FBI was nowhere in getting a case against him.

In January of 1989, Gotti was arrested by Robert Morgenthau, the Manhattan DA for assaulting John O'Connor, a vice president of the carpenter's union. This time the FBI had promised to tell Morgenthau if it became aware of any attempt to tamper with the jury.

In the meantime, Mouw figured out why the Ravenite bug had been so unproductive. The business meetings were being held upstairs in Mike Cirelli's apartment, which was now inhabited by his 78-year-old widow. The old lady hardly ever went out of the apartment, but when she was at a wedding one day, the wiremen got in and bugged the place.
Mouw and the C-16 were very encouraged by the early results of the Cirelli bugs. It appeared that the apartment was a vital spot for Gotti's conversations with his capos. Not only that, Mouw received confirmation about the mole. "Listen," Gotti whispered to Sammy Gravano about his encounters with the government. "We know everything." The mole told Gotti through an intermediary that Gravano's construction office and club were bugged. Even more importantly, the Cirelli apartment tapes revealed that Gotti had bought another juror. Even though there had been promises to Robert Morgenthau to tell him if there had any inkling of jury tampering, the Bureau did not make good on its commitment.


With at least one juror in his pocket, Gotti was acquitted the third time in a row. "The Teflon Don" was what they called him. He was cheered by crowds every where he went. Howard Blum sums up the situation in Gangland: "That afternoon when the jury foreman, after three days of deliberation, had read the not guilty verdict, he might as well have been announcing that the Teflon Don was beyond the law. No one could touch him. Gotti was having the last laugh, and now the crowd wanted to share it."
Eventually Mouw's group determined that the mole was Detective William Peist, who had a grudge against the government when a pension ruling didn't go his way. Even though they weren't able to get him to confess, they did succeed in neutralizing him. There would be no more leaks from Peist back to Gotti.


In the late spring of 1990, it appeared that the Cirelli bug had outlived its usefulness. Gotti had not been in the apartment for a number of months. Mouw decided that it was time to package up what they had and present it to the Justice Department higher ups. They had several remarkable conversations on tape; enough they hoped to put an end to Gotti's freedom forever.

However, they keenly realized that Gotti had beaten the odds three times before. "You know why they can't win, Sammy?" Gotti told Gravano in the Cirelli apartment. "They got no Managiain' cohesion. They got no unity."

Throughout the remainder of 1990, the Justice Department wrestled with which prosecutor would get to try the case since the case spanned several jurisdictions. The delays cost at least the life of one hood that Gotti ordered murdered. Mouw was unable to warn him of the impending hit without exposing the wiretap. Eventually, the Justice Department gave the case to Andrew Maloney in the Brooklyn office instead of Robert Morgenthau in the Manhattan office.

www.dark-horse.co.uk/john/johnbur.htm

[~Wizeguy~]

Chap - 8
PURGE
The Bureau's extensive wiretapping activities gave unique insight into Gotti the executive as he purged what he considered undesirables from his organization. Gotti was pretty direct and decisive when it came to people that he didn't like or didn't trust.

One of the early ones was Robert DiBernardo, a member of Gotti's conspiracy to kill Paul Castellano. DiBernardo's crime was that he bad-mouthed Gotti while the Boss was in jail after his bail was revoked in the Giacalone federal case. DiBernardo was also a very rich man with extremely profitable businesses. Gotti wanted the wealth for himself as well as control of the businesses.

Gotti's order to "whack" DiBernardo was given to Angelo Ruggiero who then shared it with Sammy the Bull. At first, Sammy was reluctant since DiBernardo was a long-time friend, but when he realized that Gotti wouldn't change his mind, Sammy handled the execution.

Sammy invited his friend over to his place on Stillwell Avenue after work and they sat in Sammy's basement office. Joe Paruta, an elderly soldier, was told to serve the coffee to the two capos, so he went over to the coffee machine. The old man picked up a revolver and shot DiBernardo in the back of the head.

Somewhat later, one of the Gambino family soldiers was convicted of a crime that carried with it the potential for a long jail sentence. Strangely enough, the sentence was extremely light. Gotti interpreted the light sentence as cooperation with the government so the man was shot full of holes.

Badmouthing the Boss was a very dangerous thing to do in Gotti's "family." Negative comments coming from a dangerous man like Louie Milito could lead to action which could threaten Gotti. Sammy urged Gotti to get rid of Milito, despite the fact that Gravano and Milito had been friends since childhood. Sammy organized the hit, but Johnny Carneglia, one of the soldiers, carried it out.

As the Chief Executive Officer of this vast criminal enterprise, Gotti was very well compensated. The government estimated that his tax-free income was somewhere around $10 million a year, but could be as high as $20 million.

The downside to Gotti was that as far as the IRS was concerned, Gotti was still only making less than $100,000 a year in his "job" as a salesman for plumbing supplies. So no big houses, nothing spent that couldn't be easily explained to the IRS agents who watched his finances like hawks. There were a few extravagances, such as a speedboat and a vacation home, but nothing inconsistent with his "legitimate" income.

Even though Gotti had beaten three indictments in a row, there was always the threat of another indictment and possible conviction. He was particularly concerned that the government was building a case to indict him for the murder of Paul Castellano. From a worst case perspective, he could still be the Boss from jail, but the fortunes of the Gambino family would then rest in the hands of whoever he had running the day-to-day business.

The best man for the job was Sammy Gravano who had demonstrated time and again his expertise in running both criminal and legitimate enterprises. As much as what he perceived as Sammy's greed and manipulation angered Gotti, he made a swift decision. "This is my wishes," he told Gravano and Frank Locascio, "that if I'm in the Managiain' can, this Family is going to be run by Sammy. I'm still the Boss. If I get fifty years, I know what I got to do. But when I'm in the can, Sammy's in charge." Locascio was made consigliere.

www.dark-horse.co.uk/john/johnpurge.htm

[~Wizeguy~]

Chap - 9

PAYBACK TIME
At the end of November 1990, the government served subpoenas on Gotti, Tommy Gambino and Frank Locascio. Gravano would have been served if they could find him. Eventually Gravano came back to town and was served. Not long afterwards they were all arrested.

The U.S. Attorney wanted to make sure that these gangsters were denied bail, so he played one of the wiretap tapes for Judge Leo Glasser. The one selected carried a long Gotti diatribe to Frank Locascio on Sammy Gravano. It was the first time that Sammy even knew that the tapes existed.
Gravano couldn't believe his ears when he heard what Gotti said: "Let me tell you, Frankie, there's creating and creating. Now look, Frankie. You want to put your head with Managiain' Sammy. You're too bright for that...It doesn't even bother me if he had six, seven companies himself...You're creating a Managiain' army inside an army.

"I tell him a million times, Gotti said to Locascio, "Sammy, slow it down. Pull it in a Managiain' notch. You got concrete pouring. You got Italian floors now. You got construction. You got drywall. You got asbestos. You got rugs. What the Managia next? Three, four guys will wind up with every Managiain' thing. And the rest of the borgata looks like a waste...Where's my piece of these companies."


"End up creating another faction," Locascio responded supportively, suggesting that Sammy's operations were dividing the family the way Paul Castellano did.

Gotti responded forcefully, "I'm not going to allow that."

In this nonstop diatribe, Gotti told Locascio that Sammy was the one who pushed for the execution of DiBernardo, Milito and Louie DiBono. According to Peter Maas in Underboss, "The spin Gotti put on all these hits enraged Sammy. The tapes portrayed Gotti as a long-suffering boss saddled with a mad-dog killer who hounded him to obtain authorization for hits until he finally threw up his hands and bowed to Sammy's wishes.

"How the Managia could you say those things about me? Sammy said to Gotti as soon as they were together.

"It was just talk, Sammy, Gotti said with a shrug. "Don't mean nuts."

"Yeah, talk," Gravano replied. "Some Managiain' talk."

Later on Gotti sent word to Sammy that he didn't want Sammy to meet with a lawyer unless he, Gotti, was there. It was a clear signal that Gotti didn't trust Sammy.

In his cell, Sammy had a long time to think about his future -- or lack of future. The charges were very serious and the government seemed to have enough evidence to put him away for the rest of his life. He was forty-four years old then with a wife and two teenage children. He was a very wealthy man, but now he was going to lose everything.

After ten months of jail, Sammy made discreet contact with the government. He wanted to make a deal. This was more than Bruce Mouw could ever dream of. Here, Sammy the Bull, the operations executive of the family was will to help destroy the Boss and the whole Gambino family.

Once negotiations with Sammy were completed, he was a most cooperative witness. He had negotiated extensive cooperation in exchange for a prison sentence of five to ten years. At the end of that sentence, Sammy was determined to rebuild his life a decent family man with a legitimate career.
The trial, which began January 21, 1992, was a bigger media event that the Capone trial in the 1930's. Radio, television, newspapers and magazines from all over the world carried the progress. There were demonstrations, threats to the judge and the courthouse, and appearances by movie stars.

Outside the courthouse, pickets carried signs that said, "We Love You John" and "Gotti's Number One. Movie stars Mickey O'Rourke and Anthony Quinn made appearances. O'Rourke had interviewed Gotti for a role that he was going to play as a gangster and Quinn had simply had a few conversations with him over the years. When the stars realized that the Gotti support team was trying to manipulate them, they became very cautious about whatever appearances and comments they made.



At least initially, Gotti seemed confident and unflappable. His anger grew, however, when it became clear that nobody wanted to sit on the jury. Given the witness intimidation that had occurred in the past, it was no wonder that people did not want to subject themselves to pressure from the Mob.

This was truly the break the government had been waiting for. Sammy's nine days of testimony was very powerful in Gotti's trial. He made a very good witness - controlled, coherent, intelligent and very believable. He summed up his role at the top of the Gambino crime family: "I was a good, loyal soldier. John barked and I bit."

Gotti, on the other hand, did nothing to endear himself to the judge or the jury with his unruly behavior. After clearing the courtroom of jurors, Judge Leo Glasser warned him:

Mr. Gotti, this is addressed to you. I you want to continue to remain at this trial and at that table, I am going to direct you to remain at that table without making comments which can be heard in the courtroom, without gestures which are designed to comment on the character of the U.S. attorneys, or the questions which are being asked of the witnesses. If you can't refrain from doing that, I will have you removed from the courtroom. You will watch this trial on a television screen downstairs. I am not going to tell you that again.

Over the span of a day and a half, the jury deliberated fourteen hours and reached a verdict. On April 2, 1992, the defense and prosecution teams speedily reconvened to hear the outcome.

The court clerk called in the jury and then asked the jury forewoman the first question. "With regard to the first charge in the indictment, the one involving the murder of Paul Castellano, had the jury found whether the government had 'proven' or 'not proven' the charge? The forewoman replied, "Proven."

Gotti mustered a smile when every one of the fourteen counts was proven, which included the murders of Thomas Bilotti, and Robert DiBernardo. On June 23, Gotti and his consigliere Frank Locascio were sentenced to multiple life terms without any possibility of parole. Judge Glasser gave Gotti a chance to speak after the sentencing, but he remained silent. Locascio spoke instead: "I am guilty of being a good friend of John Gotti. If there were more men like John Gotti on this earth, we would have a better country."

Outside the courthouse, chartered busses disgorged his supporters who chanted "Free John Gotti." The crowd rolled over three cars. Inside the courthouse, his supporters fought with policeman.

That same day he was flown to a very restrictive federal prison in Marion, Illinois where he was placed in solitary confinement. His circumstances are quite stark. His six-foot by eight-foot cell has very little furniture: a cot, basin, toilet, radio and small television. He remains confined in this cell for all but 1-2 hours a day. Five times a month he is allowed to see visitors from one side of a glass partition.

Per Cosa Nostra rules, Gotti is still the Boss. His son Junior is allegedly the acting boss of what is left of the Gambino crime family.

Sammy the Bull Gravano received a sentence of five years, which began when he went to prison in 1990. He was released at the age of 50 in 1995. His wife Debra left him and moved away with their children.

He has left the witness protection program and is engaged in a legitimate career. When asked whether he spends his time looking over his shoulder, he responded: "A coward dies a thousand deaths. A man only dies once."

www.dark-horse.co.uk/john/johntime.htm

[Big Boss]

Took me a while , BUT! that was a good read. Alot of stuff i didnt know, but now i do. Hmm i might go right up an opinion. Thanks big man

[coletti]

I KNEW HALF THAT STUFF BUT THAT WAS THE BEST HISTORY LESSON I EVER READ

[Sonny]

[glow=BLUE,2,300]THAT WAS LONG[/glow]

[jess]

I'm glad to learn new information on this topic hpwever i would like to go even fruther into la MAFIA system and deals i wont say a word

[Jesse]

This is a good story....I live right here where GOTTI used to control everything...But i wish i was here 20 years ago...its tru, everything changed....now u see little kids thinking their big men...GOTTI is the real man who controlled my neighborhood and i wish he was still here....75th st and 101 ave ;D

[Taylorstcrew]

Guest-Jesse said:

This is a good story....I live right here where GOTTI used to control everything...But i wish i was here 20 years ago...its tru, everything changed....now u see little kids thinking their big men...GOTTI is the real man who controlled my neighborhood and i wish he was still here....75th st and 101 ave ;D

What would you say to those people who say Gotti ruined it for everybody?