Sammy Gravano
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Sammy Gravano | |
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| Born | March 12, 1945 |
Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano (born March 12, 1945) to Giorlando (Gerry) and Caterina (Kay) Gravano was a high ranking member of the Gambino crime family. He is probably most known as the man who helped bring Gotti down by becoming an FBI informant. At the time, he was the highest-ranking member of the Mafia ever to turn informer.
He was drafted into the United States Army in 1964. While an enlisted soldier, Gravano mainly worked as a mess hall cook. He rose to the rank of corporal and was granted an honorable discharge. Gravano was not deployed to the Vietnam War. He married Debra Scibetta in 1971; they had two children. Later in his mob career, he was ordered to help arrange the murder of his brother-in-law, Nick Scibetta. He is also the brother-in-law of Gambino crime family capo Edward Garafola.
Criminal career
The Mafia had always been omnipresent in Bensonhurst; several "wiseguys" hung around a bar that Sammy and his father frequently walked by. On one occasion, they helped Sammy recover a stolen bike, and one of them was so enamored by his fighting ability that he nicknamed him "the Bull." The nickname stuck.
Sammy first became associated with the Mob in 1968 and was involved in petty crimes, such as larceny, hijacking, and armed robbery. He was a particular favorite of the family boss, Joe Colombo; in fact, it was generally understood that when the Mafia's membership books were reopened (they had been closed since 1957), he would be among the first to become made. In 1973, he committed his first murder--that of Joseph Colucci, a fellow Spero associate who was reportedly planning to kill both Spero and Gravano. Ironically, one of the first companies Gravano became involved with in the construction industry was run by Joseph Colucci's son.
Originally a soldier for the Colombo crime family, and later for the Brooklyn faction of the Gambinos, he was part of a conspiracy within the family to murder Gambino boss Paul Castellano. Gravano played a key role in planning and executing Castellano's murder; other conspirators included John Gotti, Angelo Ruggiero, Frank DeCicco and Joseph Armone. The conspiracy would elevate Gravano's position in the family to Underboss under Gotti. Gravano is also known as "King Rat" because of his testimony against Gotti. His testimony drew a wave of La Cosa Nostra members to become informants.
Sometime in the early 1970s, after a dispute with a relative of Spero's, Gravano changed his affiliation to the Gambino family, and became an associate of longtime capo Salvatore "Toddo" Aurello. Aurello quickly took a liking to Sammy, who already had an education in mob life through Persico. In 1976, the Mafia's membership books were finally reopened, and Gravano was one of the first to be sworn in.
Gravano quickly acquired tremendous clout in the construction and trucking industries. The Aurello crew supervised the Gambino family's control over Teamsters Local 282, which had jurisdiction over building materials to all construction sites in the city. The Mafia's control over the city's construction industry was so absolute that it had effective veto power over all major construction projects in the city. For all practical purposes, no concrete could be poured for any project worth more than $2 million without Mafia approval. He soon became a multi-millionaire soldier in the family, which allowed him to build a mansion in rural Ocean County, New Jersey.
Along with a budding criminal career, Gravano was a devout bodybuilder and boxer and trained under Teddy Atlas at Gleeson's gym. According to several sources Gravano used large amounts of anabolic steroids to aid in his workouts that, according to former friends, associates and authors, caused Gravano to fly into a rage at the drop of a hat. Author Gerry Capeci wrote in his book Gotti that Gravano kiled two of his 19 victims before they knew what they had done wrong, possibly due to rage caused by steroid use but more probably caused by his psychopathic personality. Author Howard Blum wrote in his book Gangland Gravano spent $2,000.00 a week on anabolic steroids and Linda Milito, the wife of a Gravano crew member Louie Milito, wrote in her book Mafia Wife that not only did Gravano use enormous amounts of steroids, but fed his young son Gerard Gravano on the same drugs Sammy used. Milito also claimed Gravano once shot the family dog after it bit his son, Gerard, despite the fact that Gravano himself had trained the dog to attack. Gravano's boxing trainer, Teddy Atlas, recalled in an interview that he had told Gravano the most important thing for a fighter to overcome was his fear. Gravano told Atlas he had no fear, causing Atlas to make a mental note that he believed Gravano was lying, and that Gravano's steroid use could be an attempt to compensate. Although Gravano has never denied or awcknowledged steroid use, steroids were found in his home during his 2000 arrest for ecstacy distribution in Arizona.
Gravano soon became discontented with Castellano's distance from the more violent elements of the family; despite his rise in stature, he always considered himself a hoodlum at heart. He would eventually become close to John Gotti, a Queens-based Gambino captain who was a protegé of underboss Aniello Dellacroce, and who had despised Castellano. Gotti had reached out to Gravano, Frank DeCicco, Joseph Armone, and Frank LoCascio. Gravano and DeCicco, after some vacillation, agreed to back the move--but secretly agreed that if Gotti stepped out of line, they would kill him. Had this happened, DeCicco would have become boss with Gravano as his underboss. They joined Gotti, Armone and LoCascio to form the "Fist of Five," which plotted the murder of their boss.
On December 16, 1985, Castellano and Thomas Bilotti were gunned down in midtown Manhattan outside of Sparks Steakhouse, while Gotti and Gravano watched from across the street. Gotti was installed as the new boss of the family, and Gravano's importance quickly rose. Aurello had used him as acting captain of his crew for some time, and shortly after Gotti's installation, Gravano formally took over the crew.
Gotti named DeCicco his Underboss, but just months after Castellano's murder, DeCicco was killed in a car bomb attack orchestrated by Vincent "Chin" Gigante, the boss of the Genovese crime family, in an assassination-plot that also included Lucchese crime family leaders Vittorio "Vic" Amuso and Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso who agreed to have Gotti killed. Gigante ordered the bombing because the Castellano hit had been carried out without the consent of the Commission, the Five Families of New York. It was a standing Mafia law that a boss could only be killed with the express consent of the Commission, which Gotti had not sought. The car bomb was actually intended to kill Gotti, but killed DeCicco by mistake. The hit took place outside of Castellano's former social club, which was then operated by captain James "Jimmy Brown" Failla, who along with captain Daniel "Danny" Marino, were two of Castellano's closest associates before his death. Allegedly, both Marino and Failla had been involved in the assassination plot. Ironically, Gigante had been the trigger man on the last unsanctioned hit on a New York don--Vito Genovese's unsuccessful attempt to kill Frank Costello, in 1957.
Not long after this, Gravano became the family's consigliere and his old crew was taken over by Louis "Big Lou" Vallario. With Gotti's permission, Gravano set up the murders of longtime friend and made man Liborio Milito, capo Robert DiBernardo, Tommy Spero, and several other Gambino associates. Eventually, Gotti would name Gravano his Underboss, and move LoCascio to Consigliere. Before their indictments, Gotti decided that if he was sent to prison, he wanted Gravano to take over as acting boss of the Gambinos.
When Gotti was tried for racketeering and assault charges in the winter of 1986-87, Gravano paid a juror to vote not guilty regardless of what happened. It was this trial that allowed Gotti to make his reputation as "the Teflon Don."
Later life
In 1991, after he was arrested as a result of a major FBI operation against the Gambino Family, Gravano famously turned state's evidence and testified against Gotti in exchange for a reduced sentence. John Gotti received a sentence of life imprisonment. Gravano, who confessed to taking part in nineteen murders, was convicted of a token racketeering charge and sentenced to five years. As part of Gravano's cooperation agreement, he would never be forced to testify against his former crew, which included Louis Vallario, Michael DiLeonardo, Frank Fappiano, Edward Garafola, Thomas Carbonaro, Joseph DeAngelo and many other career criminals and wiseguys.
Gravano was released early and then entered the U.S. federal Witness Protection Program, but he left it in 1995 and relocated to Arizona. By 1998 however he had resumed his life of crime and partnered with a local white supremacist youth gang known as the "Devil Dogs" after his son became friends with the gang's 23-year-old leader Micheal Papa. Gravano and the Devil Dogs started a major ecstasy trafficking organization, selling over 25,000 tablets a week. Despite flooding Arizona with ecstasy,[citation needed] Gravano still spoke at a September 1999 FBI conference about the use of informants.
But by February 2000, the law caught up with him and he was convicted in October 2002. He is currently serving a 19-year sentence in an Arizona state prison. His son was also imprisoned for 9 years for his role in the drug ring. His wife and daughter were also charged but were not imprisoned. Ironically, Gravano's downfall was due to informers among his own associates.
On February 24, 2003, New Jersey state prosecutors announced they would pursue murder charges against Gravano for allegedly ordering the hit on decorated NYPD detective Peter Calabro on the night of March 14, 1980.[1]. The charges were later dropped, however, when the star witness, imprisoned hit man Richard Kuklinski, died of unknown causes before he could testify. Federal inmates who served time with Gravano say the mob turncoat privately admitted to his role in the 1980 killing of a New York cop. Inmates claimed Gravano bragged about killing many more than 19 people. If proved that Gravano lied about how many people he killed, appeals by people he helped put in prison could follow.
Since Gravano's imprisonment on drug charges, he has contracted graves disease, a thyroid disorder which causes fatigue, weight loss with increased appetite, and hair loss. Gravano appeared at his drug trial missing hair on his head and his eyebrows and appeared to have lost an good amount of weight. In Phillip Carlo's book Confessions of a Mafia Boss, based on the life of Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, Casso, who is housed in the same Colorado Supermax facility as Gravano, claims that Gravano only ventures out of his cell to get food and that Casso has only seen him in the mess hall a couple of times. According to Casso, Gravano looks like a dying AIDS patient and shakes uncontrolably.
Gravano has a biography called Underboss under the HarperCollins Publishing company, by Peter Maas. In the book, he said he decided to turn into an informer after hearing Gotti tried to make him look like a "mad dog" killer in conversations secretly taped by the government. He also said that he bristled under Gotti's constant search for publicity.
References
- Maas, Peter (1997). Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia. Harper Collins.
External links
Notes
- ^ Carlo, Philip The Ice Man, p. 257, St. Martin's Griffin, 2006