How And Why Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano Turned On John Gotti

Brad Hamilton at the New York Post offer a piece on former federal prosecutor John Gleeson’s new book on John Gotti.

It was the biggest gamble of John Gleeson’s life.

In 1991, the federal prosecutor, gearing up for his second murder trial of John Gotti in four years, had gotten word that the Gambino crime boss’s underling and co-defendant, Sammy “the Bull” Gravano, wanted to meet — without his lawyer.

The only logical reason was that Gravano was ready to flip and testify against the “Dapper Don.” That, however, would be an epic betrayal of the Mafia’s code of silence and the most devastating blow ever delivered to organized crime, given that no one even close to Gravano’s level of power had ever cut a deal with prosecutors before. 

But deputy US Attorney Gleeson, the top mob buster in Brooklyn, was deeply concerned that if Gotti got wind of a meeting with his hitman underboss, Gravano would be targeted for death.

So the prosecutor arranged a secret pow-wow to see what Gravano had to say. They met privately in a jury room at the federal courthouse in downtown Brooklyn. After shaking hands, Gravano got right to the point:

“I want to jump from our government to your government,” he said.

“Why?” Gleeson asked.

“I think if we manage to beat the case, John will try to kill me when we hit the street,” Gravano replied. “So if we do win, I’d have to kill him or be killed by him. If I kill him, I’ll have to kill his brothers Gene and Pete. And his kid, probably some others too.

“It would get complicated.”

Once closely-connected mobsters, Sammy “the Bull” Gravano (left) turned on Gambino crime family chief John Gotti (right) to help prosecutors finally put the organized-crime boss behind bars.

This is just one of the shocking revelations in Gleeson’s new book, “The Gotti Wars: Taking Down America’s Most Notorious Mobster.” Out Tuesday, it focuses on the five years, from 1987 to 1992, when the prosecutor twice indicted the Gambino boss in a relentless and often frustrating effort to put him behind bars.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Book reveals how Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano turned on John Gotti (nypost.com)

The New Mob Is Wising Up And Keeping Quiet

Brad Hamilton at the New York Post looks at the new, quiet lowkey Cosa Nostra.                         

Meet the new mob — same as the old mob.

Thirty-three years after John Gotti carried out his audacious hit on crime boss Paul Castellano, which flouted Mafia rules and brought a wave of devastating prosecutions under the Dapper Don’s brash reign, New York’s five crime families have reverted to their old-guard ways.

They’re keeping quiet.

No more press conferences or TV appearances. No more weekly meetings with capos at favorite restaurants or social clubs. No more shootouts between warring factions. No more wire rooms for taking wagers.

Instead, gangsters try to keep their heads down and earn as they’ve done for decades, with drug dealing, loan-sharking, running strip clubs and protection rackets and skimming from union construction jobs, cops and prosecutors say. Bookmaking is still a lively trade, but most of it is done online using offshore accounts, not at smoke-filled gambling dens.

Crimefighters say the new old way is aimed at avoiding police scrutiny and preventing turncoats from selling out their fellow wiseguys.

"Everybody’s a rat,” said an ex-NYPD detective who continues to track mob business. “You can’t trust anybody anymore.” 

Lieutenants and soldiers avoid gathering in groups so as to be less vulnerable to the wiretap or surveillance photo. And with suspicion permeating all activity, families have turned to veteran, low-profile leaders, including geezer gangsters Carmine Persico, 85, and John “Sonny” Franzese, 101, who hated Gotti’s gabby flamboyance. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://nypost.com/2018/09/29/the-new-mafia-is-wising-up-and-keeping-quiet/   

Jailed Canadian Mobster Plotting To Become Godfather Of The World

Brad Hamilton at the New York Post writes that jailed Canadian mobster Vito Rizzuto (seen in the above phot) is plotting to become head of the Bonanno Cosa Nostra crime family and beyond.

This Canadian Godfather wants to rule the world.

Bonanno soldier Vito Rizzuto has vowed to take control of the battered crime family when he gets out of federal prison in October — and exact murderous revenge on the rivals who rubbed out his father and son while he stewed behind bars, a jailhouse source says.

Rizzuto, serving 10 years for participating in the notorious “Donnie Brasco” triple homicide in 1981, said “I don’t just want to be godfather of Canada — I want to be godfather of the world,” the source said.

He’s got little to live for, so while locked up at a maximum-security pen in Florence, Colo., he’s been eating vegetarian, staying fit, sharpening his mind with games of pinochle — and plotting his coup, the source said.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/plot_to_become_top_bonanno_zFc4sWR3rbGNnURPnw0sbL

Yes, We have No Bonannos: The Rise And Fall Of The Bonanno Crime Family

Brad Hamilton at the New York Post wrote an interesting piece on the history of the New York Bonanno Cosa Nostra crime family.

An epidemic of snitching and a slew of arrests has gutted this once-robust family, started by original commission member Joseph “Joe Bananas” Bonanno.

Joseph Ponzi, chief investigator for the Brooklyn DA’s office, says the recent take-down of acting boss Vincent “Vinny TV” Badalamenti — a relatively unknown bagel-store owner from Bensonhurst whom Ponzi called “the last man standing” — has left the family rudderless.

There’s no clear boss, street boss or consigliere. The in-house counsel job became vacant on Jan. 27, when Anthony Graziano, busted with Badalamenti and other senior leaders, was charged with racketeering and extortion,

You can read about the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/yes_we_have_no_bonannos_beqIqL1PSLA6O7jNCy4uzL/0

The photo above is of crime family boss Joseph Bonanno on the cover of his autobiography.

The Bonanno family was also the subject of Gay Talese's Honor Thy Father and FBI legendary undercover agent Joseph Pistone's Donnie Brasco.