Ed Scarpo's Blog, page 41

Carnesi Is John Gotti Junior's Barzini, Alite Says

"Carnesi was the one spreading the story that Junior was cooperating...
"Tell Carnesi to ask the FBI to tell him why he flew to Florida to see Danny Marino."

-- John Alite in an exclusive interview
John Alite
John Gotti Junior came pretty close to being convicted following trial number four, the one in which John Alite testified.

Still, the New York Daily News, quoting only two jurors, tried to paint a very different picture (as did other newspapers). We note the following:

NY Daily News: "The votes finally stood 6-5 for conviction on racketeering, with one undecided; 7-5 for acquittal on one murder charge; and 6-5 for acquittal with one undecided on a second murder count....  

"Enough is enough," said Juror No. 8, who asked to remain anonymous. 

"If they try him again, it'll be an abuse of prosecution," said juror Paul Peragine, standing outside the Manhattan federal courthouse in a black overcoat. 

"Their case wasn't credible," added Peragine, who voted for a full acquittal. "Their witnesses weren't credible."

When John Alite testified against John Gotti Junior, he was mauled by the media. Newspapers ran front-page stories and headlines calling him a rat, and sought to portray him as everything from a junkie to a liar.





But now that the news is out that John Junior gave the Feds a "proffer" -- the once-mighty newspapers are suddenly silent, Alite noted.

"Newsday ran nothing to this point that I am aware of," he told us this morning.

"It’s incredible; it’s a Long Island newspaper. If you check when my case was going on, Newsday wrote I was the most unbelievable of the witnesses based on what one of the jurors said. That is not even close to being true if you look at the jury pool on his charges."

"John Junior got on 60 minutes three times and lied. He got on the courtroom steps and called me and a million of these guys who cooperated rats and everything. They wrote about all that. Now that he’s proven to be a rat they haven't written one article."

The media sought to administer to Alite an ass-whooping like no one in the mob ever could have given him when he was on the street.

Adding insult to injury, the Gambino family had told Alite that John Gotti Junior was cooperating back when he was fighting extradition to the U.S. from one of the worst prisons on earth, Presidio Ary Franco.

[If you don't believe that read (or do your own research): Long spell in Brazilian prison worse than death, official says | Fox News Latino: "Brazil's justice minister said Tuesday that he would prefer death to serving a long sentence in one of his country's prisons. "If I had to spend many years in one of our prisons, I would rather die," Jose Eduardo Cardozo said at a gathering of business leaders in Sao Paulo."]

Alite was fighting extradition and was actually trying to help Junior, as well as Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio when he got the word via an illegal cellphone smuggled to him in the prison.

Back then, the 302, which this blog made available to the public for the first time ever, had been given to the Gambino family administration ( Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo was acting boss).



This is only a part of the story George Anastasia reveals in Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia. Anastasia includes an image of the actual 302.

And the guy who made the 302 available, according to Alite?

That's the clincher if you read Jerry Capeci's column today in which the mob scribe writes that Gotti defense attorney Charles Carnesi is calling on the FBI to investigate how this document became public.

According to Alite, Carnesi himself made the 302 available to his pre-Junior Gambino family client, Paul Castellano-loyalist Daniel "Danny" Marino of the Queens faction of the family.

"If I was John Junior I'd sue the shit out of Carnesi," Alite said. "He was Danny Marino’s lawyer for years. Danny took a plea for the Hydell murder because Charlie Carnesi warned him about Junior already cooperating.

"I don’t care what he’s trying to spin [about the argument that a 302 does not necessarily mean someone is ratting]. "We know what the 302 is."

"Carnesi was the one spreading the story that Junior was cooperating," Alite said. "Once in person and twice on the telephone. He flew to Florida to see Danny Marino.

"The FBI should dig into his airline records if he wants an investigation."

Newspapers devoted pages to excerpts of Junior's ebook, which I will never read, but had not a single word to say about the 302 that anointed him a rat, Alite noted.

"John Gotti's son is a rat! That should be the biggest news in the world!"

We agree, and we are going to let John Alite, whom the press never gave a fair shake, speak his piece, unfiltered:

"I'm in Brazil speaking on a smuggled phone. I was trying to help Ronnie One Arm beat his case. This is before Ronnie One Arm blames everything on me in his opening statement. He threw me under the bus with Junior because he knew john junior was ratting already.

"When I come back from Brazil, I called John Junior 'Whitey Bulger.' I already had the information he was a rat because it came from Charlie Carnesi. That's because before John, his loyalty to and where he made all his money from was Danny Marino.

"As much as I don’t like John, he should sue the shit out of Carnesi. He sat alongside John Junior. He made me out to be a liar in court. Said I lied about John Cennamo in court."

Then, Carnesi goes on 60 minutes three times with John Junior "and he's bullshitting the world," Alite said.

"You are with your client and you knew he kept that list in the ceiling.

"Why’d he keep my letter for 15 years?

"Carnesi is part of all the lies and made the Cennamo family suffer for eight years. They let them suffer by calling me a liar in the courtroom.

"No one knows how many 302s are out there. [Junior] was debriefing for a while.

"Maybe they pulled a Willie Boy Johnson on him.

"He gave up all kinds of people. He was a cooperating rat for who knows how long.

"This is a big show for John Junior. Tell Carnesi to ask the FBI to tell him why he flew to Florida to see Danny Marino.

"Ask him why when I was on the stand I called John Junior Whitey Bulger.

"How would I know about any of this? I am in Brazil.

"How did I know what Ronnie said about me in his opening statement?

"I don’t care what he’s trying to spin [about the argument that a 302 does not necessarily mean someone is ratting]. "We know what the 302 is."

"They broke Junior down. He didn’t quit. In 2005 they break him down and shelve him. His story was that in 1999 he quit the mob. Then why in 2001 is he talking about beating his uncle down for busting him down?

"They keep spinning the story to where it fits them

"I'm in a penitentiary soaking in shit. How did I know when I came back?

"Why did I call him Whitey?

"I'm not the only guy who has those papers [the 302]. There’s a ton of guys who have the papers. They were sending them out

"John Junior was shunned when he was in jail. Guys wouldn’t sit with him. Guys wouldn’t talk to him. He sat by himself The whole jail knew that."

"During trial, I even pointed at him and said, 'I always thought you’d be sitting here and id be sitting there.'

"John Junior will know the truth. He is not stupid, he knew to keep that list and my letter for 15 years.

"The wedding list – hundreds, thousands members or associates but you only kept 300. You don’t keep a list of made guys! You only keep it because you're a rat!

"You told the whole world I'm a rat. But you held that list, you held my letter. He keeps souvenirs like a serial killer...

"He kept all those lists and letters because he was holding them in case he got jammed up.

"And it's not one 302. God knows how many others

"All the rest of his 302s could come out.

"He was a CI (confidential informant), giving debriefings, he did the Queen for a Day.

"He never caught a drug case

"What about all those drug dealers who personally handed him cash each week?

"John beat the shit out of one of them and took $350 a week. John Moose on 116 Street personally handed John $1,600 week.

"Then Johnny Gebert... Which one is it John? Did you protect him or did you kill him? Gebert is a rapist and a killer. He's one of your drug guys.

"Interview anybody in my neighborhood in Jamaica Avenue. They’ll tell you.

"Gebert went on the run. John Junior gave him my ID. We had an argument over that, me and John Junior. I said Gebert’s already been convicted -- why are you friends with him?

"The only reason I can think of as to why [John Junior] is still alive is that they were thinking: If we kill him, they'll be right on us [meaning the Gambino family administration had no idea what kind of information Junior was feeding to the Feds].

"But everybody has good memories."

Former Gambino Enforcer Gives Candid Video Interview

John Alite talks to Cosa Nostra News on the record.

I am working on the story now. Some of what he told us is in the interview above. We will try not to duplicate too much of the information.

I am trying to reach a couple of people for comment; I doubt I'll get very far.








John Gotti Junior has an open invitation to contact me. Since I won't publicly post a cellphone number, he'd have to email me at eddie2843@gmail.com.

I'd afford him the same courtesy I offer any source.

FBI 302 Proves John Gotti Junior "Talked"

The book reveals for the first time the
existence of a 302 transcript of John Gotti
Junior's 2005 proffer session.
EXCLUSIVE: Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia by George Anastasia, available tomorrow, will quote and include a five-page 302 that resulted from John Gotti Junior's "proffer session" with federal authorities. This is according to an emailed excerpt from the book.

The meeting occurred at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in lower Manhattan on January 18, 2005. 
The 302, never before revealed to the public, is solid evidence that, despite all Junior's denials, he and two of his defense attorneys met with federal prosecutors and FBI agents.


As noted in the previous story, Jerry Capeci first broke news of Junior’s attempt to cooperate.
But the 302s go even further in terms of the extent of information Junior gave up.

One of the more shocking revelations to emerge from the memo is that James "Jimmy Brown" Failla (January 22, 1919–1999) and Joseph "Joe Butch" Corrao (1936-2001) had been personally summoned by the Luchese crime family to witness a tortured James Hydell confess that he had shot at Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso in an attempted hit ordered by Angelo Salvatore Ruggiero Sr. (July 29, 1940 – December 5, 1989). Gaspipe had demanded Ruggiero's death, according to Junior, who added that Senior refused to comply, shelving his longtime friend and criminal cohort instead.

Here is an excerpt from Gotti's Rules that includes the text presented in the 302:
"[W]hat follows is a word-for-word replication of the five-page FBI 302 memo of the debriefing of John A. Gott back in January 2005. [John] Alite, who has read it, said it was a typical Gotti attempt to lay blame on others. He said the version of events depicted by Junior, at least the events that Alite has knowledge of, is a blend of fact and fiction. The allegations in the memo are not being presented as fact for the purposes of this story, but merely to show that Gotti met with authorities and, in a very real sense, was willing to throw the names of others -- mobsters, businessmen and elected officials – into his descriptions of the criminal activities of the Gambino crime family.


                                                FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
                                                                                                                                    Date of Transcription 01/16/2006

JOHN A. GOTTI, also known as (aka) JUNIOR  (GOTTI, JR.) (Protect Identity) was present at the united States Attorney’s Office, Southern district of New York (SDNY), 500 Pearl Street, New York, New York on January 18, 2005 for a proffer session. This meeting was arranged at GOTTI, JR.’S request. Also present were GOTTI JR.’S ATTORNEYS, Jeffrey Lichtman, Esq., and MARC FERNICH, Esq., as well as Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAS) Robert Buehler, Joon Kim and Jennifer Rodgers, SDNY.
After GOTTI JR. and his attorneys read the proffer agreement and the terms of that agreement were explained to them by the AUSAS, GOTTI JR. signed the agreement. GOTTI JR. thereafter provided the following information.
                                    The Murder of Danny Silva
In the early morning hours of either March 11thor 12th, 1983, GOTTI JR. , along with friends MARK CAPUTO and ANTHONY AMOROSO, were present at the SLIVER FOX bar located on 101st Street and Liberty Avenue in Queens, New York. At some point, TOMMY Last Name Unknonw (LNU) aka “ELFIE” approached GOTTI, JR., who was seated at the bar with a female friend, DONNA (LNU) . According to GOTTI, JR., ‘ELFIE’ repeatedly bumped into him. Words were exchanged, one thing led to another and GOTTI, JR. ultimately hit ‘ELFIE’ with a broken glass bottle. GOTTI, JR. then stabbed ‘ELFIE’ with a knkife that GOTTI JR. had obtained from AMOROSO.According to GOTTI JR., a melee ensued involving approximately 30 to 40 of the bar’s patrons. GOTTI JR. recalled that among those involved in the melee wee: DANNY SILVA, JOHN and GREG MASSA, ANGELO CASTELLI, JOEY CURIO, First Name Unknow (FNU) RILEY and JOHN CENNAMO. GOTTI JR. stated that DANNY SILVA was stabbed and killed during the melee.
GOTTI, JR. described a meeting which occurred a hort time after the incident at the SLIVER FOX, between ANGELO RUGGIERO, SR., AND New York City Police Department (NYPD)  Detective, JOHN DALY. GOTTI ,JR.  drove RUGGIERO to the meeting, which took place at the Sherwood Dinier located near the Five Towns, on the Queens-Nassau County border. Before the meeting GOTTI JR. and RUGGIERO discussed the purpose of the meeting. According to GOTTI , JR. , RUGGIERO was carrying a brown paper bag containing $25,000 in cash. GOTTI, JR. observed RUGGIERO sit in the rear of the diner and meet with DALY and an unknown white male. RUGGIERO advised GOTTI JR. that the $25,000 cash payment was made to DALY to get his (GOTTI JR.’S) name out of the SILVER FOX murder investigation. While GOTTI, JR., did not directly meet DALY, DALY did acknowledge GOTTI, JR.on his way out of the diner, as GOTTI, JR. sat waiting in the car.
Following this meeting with RUGGIERO and  DALY, GOTTI, JR. was instructed by his father, JOHN J. GOTTI, (GOTTI, SR.) TO LEAVE New York for a while until things “colled down.” GOTTI, JR. left  New York for Fort Lauderdale, Florida, whee he remained for some time. At some time GOTTI, SR. joined him in F.orida  and the two eventually returned to New York.
Upon GOTTI, JR.’S return to New York, he learned that JOHN CENNAMO , one of  DANNY SILVA’S friends who was present that the SILVER FOX the night SILVA was stabbed and killed, was dead, apparently having hung himself..
GOTT JR. provided the following as background:
ANGELO RUGGIERO was ‘put on the shelf”  by GOTTI, SR. after the murder of JIMMY HYDELL in 1986. HYDELL was tortured and killed by members of the Luchese  Organized Crime Family because he (HYDELL) and others had shot and tried to kill ANTHONY ‘GASPIPE’ CASSO. The Luchese Family learned that RUGGIERO was behind the attempt to kill CASSO and demanded that RUGGIERO himself be killed. GOTTI, SR., who was very close to RUGGIERO, did not have RUGGIERO killed. Instead, RUGGIERO was “put on the shelf.”
Prior to HYDELL’S murder, members of the Luchese Family summoned Gambino Family members JIMMY “BROWN”FAILLA and JOE ‘BUTCH’ CORRAO to the location where HYDELL was being held. According to GOTTI, JR., faille AND corraoa wee summoned to that location so that they would be present when HYDELL admitted his and RUGGIERO’S involvement in the attempted murder of CASSO. Prior to the Luchese Family killing HYDELL, FAILLA and CORRAO obtained Gambino Family member DANNY MARINO’S approval to kill  HYDELL., because, according to GOTTI, JR., HYDELL was MARINO’S nephew.
Even though RUGGIERO had been “put on the shelf,” GOTTI, JR., continued to meet with him in violation of mafia protocol.  GOTTI’S father, (GOTTI SR.) reprimanded him on occasion for meeting with RUGGIERO. GOTTI, JR. learned from RUGGIERO that in the weeks and months after SILVA was killed at the SILVER FOZ, CENNAMO ut continued pressure on the police department to investigate  his (SILVA’S)   murder. RUGGIERO told GOTTI, JR. that CENNAMO “pressed” his 9GOTTI’S) name in the investigation and his (GOTTI, JR.’S) role in the bar fight that led to SILVA’S murder. RUGGIERO told GOTTI, JR. that he (RUGGIERO) and others had obtained NYPD DD5S [official police department reports] of the SILVA murer investigation from DALY. RUGGIERO then advised GOTTI, JR. that CENNAMO’S death , which appeared to be a suicide, was in fact a murder and that he  (RUGGIERO), JOE WATTS and WILLIE BOY JOHNSON had killed CENNAMO on GOTTI SR.’S orders. RUGGIERO told GOTTI JR. that DETECTIVE JOHN DALY provided background information regarding CENNAMO which the Gambino family used to locate him.
Several years later, after GOTTI JR. was arrested on unrelated charges, an additional cash payment was made to DALY when GOTTI  JR.’S name resurfaced in the SILVA murder investigation.  
GOTTI JR. stated that after his father was arrested and remanded to prison [December 1990] , GOTTI JR. frequently met with JOE WATTS, who was a close associate of GOTTI SR. At one meeting with WATTS at the Lum  Chin Chinese restaurant,, WATTS admitted his involvement in the murder of CENNAMO. Wattsa also told GOTTI JR. that the first “piece of work” he (WATTS) was involved in was the murder of VITO BORELLI in approximately 1980, which he committed with GOTTI SR.
According to GOTTI JR. JOHN DALY was assigned to the 106th Precinct during the time he received the payoffs from the Gambino Family and provided information to the Gambino Family about the SILVA murder investigation. GOTTI JR.  added that DALY later went to work for the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
                                    Oak Point Garbage Dump
At some point in late 1980’s GOTTI JR and others wanted to develop approximately 28 acres of land located on the Bronx side of the Triboro Bridge. This tract of land was known as Oak Point and at that time was being used by New York City as a garbage dump. GOTTI, JR. and his associates wanted to build modular homes on the property through a company known as Brite Star Homes. In addition to the housing development GOTTI JR. wanted to get involved in the construction of the Bronx House of Detention on that site. GOTTI JR. had received assurances that he would be able to sell the prison to the City of New York for twenty million dollars.
According to GOTTI  JR., DAVID NORKIN, a partner of GOTTI, JR.’S in this venture purchased the property. GOTTI JR. advised that bribes were paid to at least two city politicians in order to secure certain city permits required for the development of the project. JOE ZINGARO, a captain in the Gambino Family, had a close association with Bronx politician, EFRAIM ‘EFFIE’ GONZALEZ. GOTTI  JR. gave $20,000.00 in cash to ZINGARO  for ZINGARO to give to GONZALEZ.  According to ZINGARO, GONZALEZ accepted the $20,000.00 GOTTI JR., using the alias JOHN RUSSO, met GONZALEZ at a function they both attended at Alex and Henry’s Catering Hall in the Bronx.
According to GOTTI , JR., additional bribe money was paid to FERNANDO FERRER through NORKIN. NORKIN suggested making the payments to FERRER. According to GOTTI, JR. on at least two different occasions, he (GOTTI, JR.) gave $25,000.00 in cash to NORKIN for NORKIN to give to FERRER.  GOTTI, JR.’S  close associate MICHAEL McLAUGHLIN, delivered the money. GOTTI, JR. again using the alias JOHN RUSSO, also met directly with FERRER at NORKIN’S  office. According to GOTTI, JR. the bribes paid to FERRER did secure whatever permit (s) GOTTI, JR. and his associates needed to obtain for their project.
In addition to the payments described above, GOTTI, JR. paid an additional $100,000.00 to $125,000.00 in cash to various city politicians through NORKIN and the las firm DAVIDOFF MILITO in order to ‘grease the skids” in the development of the housing project and detention center.
After NORKIN purchase Oak Pint, GOTTI, JR. and his associates continued to operate the garbage dump from approximately January 1989 through late  August 1989. GOTTI, JR.S “guys,” including McLAUGHLIN, worked at the dump. GOTTI, JR. stated that investigators with the Department of Investigation (DOI) or another New York City investigative agency photographed GOTTI, JR. at the garbage dump on several occasions. Once this photographic evidence of GOTTI, JR.’S connection to the property surfaced, his (GOTTI, JR.’S) investors and business associates no longer wanted to be involved and the project was never completed.
In approximately the spring of 1990, GOTTI, JR. and other Gambino Family members pursued another project involving a garbage dump. This dump was located in Matamoras, Pennsylvania. GOTTI, JR.  attended a ‘sit -down”  with other members of the Gambino Family, as well as high-ranking members of the Luchese Family concerning this project. On behalf of the Gambino Family (which GOTTI, JR. continually referred to as “our family”)  GOTTI, JR., his (GOTTI, JR.’S) uncle , PETE GOTTI, and SALVATORE “SAMMY THE BULL” GRAVANO met with representatives of the Luchese Family, AL D’ARCO, ANTHONY “GAS PIPE” CASSO and PATTY MASSELLI.  According to GOTTI, JR., the deal to purchase and operate this garbage dump fell through.
                        Queen’s District Attorney’s Office
GOTTI, JR.  also stated that Gambino Family member ANTHONY “TONY LEE” GUERRIERI and his relationship with local politician, SAL REALE, the Gambino Family had “influence” with the Queens District Attorney’s (DA) Office while JOHN SANTUCCI was the District Attorney. GOTTI, JR. identified MIKE CURRO as the Gambino Family’s “go to guy.” GOTTI, JR. also advised that after GUERRIERI died, the Gambino Family lost most of their influence with the Queens DA’s Office.

Couple of Stories You Won't Find in a Certain Ebook

Does John Gotti Junior, in his 500-plus-page book, tell the one about the former NYPD detective who gave the Gambino crime family confidential information about a 1983 murder that condemned a witness to death?

Does he tell the one about the Gambino capo who allowed Gaspipe Casso to murder his own nephew, James Hydell, who'd been part of a team that had tried and failed to take out Gaspipe in a hail of bullets? You shoot a guy like Gaspipe and miss, you kill yourself because you're already a dead man.




The witness's death had been previously ruled a suicide, as improbable as that scenario even had to have appeared to the cops who first rolled up in a radiocar. The wiseguys should've picked a taller tree; the one they hung this guy from was too low.

I'm pretty sure Junior wouldn't go into these stories in those 500-plus pages. But he definitely told someone these stories, mixing fact and fiction to cover his ass. One has only to do some research and read how the reports evolve. Having a couple of sources always helps as well.

Bottom line is he certainly told the feds some stories.

It's amazing what can be found via a Google search and how old stories suddenly can become extremely relevant in certain contexts.

According to the October 2006 report, at a secret session with the feds John "Junior" Gotti "fingered [the] former NYPD detective as a money-hungry roque" responsible for the death by hanging of Vinny Cennamo. He was the guy who, as we previously noted, claimed he'd seen Junior stab someone to death in a barroom brawl.

Only in Junior's account some key names were changed.

A source very close to the situation and people also told as that Joe Watts, who did very bad things, was not involved in these events, despite what's said below....

Angelo "Quack Quack" Ruggiero, the pigeon-toed wiseguy who indeed spoke too much, told Junior this, according to what Junior secretly told the Feds at that meeting. Ruggiero had been a former close ally of Gotti Senior. He died of cancer in 1989 having been shunned and ignored, despite what you saw on HBO. Armande Assante never shared a cannoli with him as he lay dying.
According to a story on Gangland News: "Police reports state that Cennamo, a friend of the murder victim, fingered Mark Caputo, a burly 6-foot-2-inch, 300-pound "bodyguard" whom the elder John Gotti had assigned to watch over his son, as the killer and said he left the bar with Junior.

According to what Junior told the feds, Ruggiero said that he and two other cronies of the elder Gotti used crucial background information supplied by the detective to whack Cennamo and make it appear to be a suicide, the sources said.


At the time of the conversation, Junior told the feds, Ruggiero was on the outs with the Dapper Don, who was boss of the crime family by then and had placed Ruggiero "on the shelf," a designation that essentially stripped him of all his rights and responsibilities as a wiseguy.


In 1983, though, Ruggiero was a close cohort and fierce ally of the elder Gotti, and a man whom 19-year-old Junior often referred to as his "uncle." It was to Uncle Angelo's house that Junior went in the early hours of March 12, 1983, immediately after the fatal 2 a.m. stabbing of Danny Silva at the Silver Fox Bar in Ozone Park.


A day or two later, Junior told the feds, he drove Ruggiero to a meeting at the Sherwood Diner in Lawrence, L.I., where he saw Ruggiero give detective John Daly a $25,000 bribe as "insurance" that Junior, who had been at the bar but was not implicated in the slaying by any witnesses, would not become a focus of the murder probe, the sources said.


According to the sources, Junior said he watched from his car as Ruggiero gave Mr. Daly a brown paper bag that contained $25,000 during a brief meeting behind the diner. When the meeting broke up, Mr. Daly, who had interviewed Gotti about the brawl, acknowledged Gotti as he walked past the car and left the area.


Mr. Daly, who retired as a first-grade detective in 1991 after 34 years on the job, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. In 1993, when he was chief investigator for the Queens district attorney's office, Mr. Daly denied taking a $10,000 bribe from the elder Gotti for an undisclosed favor when that allegation surfaced at a Queens corruption trial....


Mr. Daly... as a member of the 106th Precinct detective unit in Ozone Park... questioned Junior about the murder as well as about the possibility that the deadly brawl had been a reaction to an attack against Gotti 10 days earlier, according to police reports obtained by Gang Land.


According to the reports, Cennamo, who is also identified as John Cennamo in the reports, was one of four patrons at the Silver Fox who had identified Caputo as the knife-wielding suspect who killed Silva. After Cennamo's death, the other witnesses either left the state or recanted, and the prosecutors dropped the charges against Caputo in 1985.


Shortly after the slaying, Junior told the feds, he flew to Ft. Lauderdale to wait for "things to cool down," driving back to New York later with his father, the sources said.

During Junior's discussion with the feds — it was attended by his lawyers at the time, Jeffrey Lichtman and Marc Fernich, Assistant U.S Attorney Jennifer Rodgers, former prosecutors Joon Kim and Robert Buehler, and FBI agent Cindy Peil — Gotti denied any role in the slaying, sources said.


Even though the proffer session occurred before his first trial for the 1992 shooting of Curtis Sliwa, Gotti neither volunteered nor was asked any questions about the Sliwa assault or any other charges in the racketeering indictment, sources said.


One subject that did come up, sources said, was the 1986 shooting of Luchese underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, who was wounded by a team of Gambino associates who had been sent on their mission by Ruggiero. That assault was a focal point of the racketeering and murder trial of Mafia Cops Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa that was then set to start the following month.


It was while discussing that subject, the sources said, that Gotti made his only mention of Gambino capo Daniel Marino, telling the feds that Marino had "washed his hands" of the situation when he learned that his nephew, James Hydell, had taken part in the shooting, and that Casso was likely to kill Hydell in retaliation....


After the Casso shooting, Ruggiero was placed "on the shelf" for ordering the attack, Junior told the feds. Despite orders from his father to shun Ruggiero, Junior continued to speak to him, and was told by Ruggiero that he and mob associates Wilford "Willie Boy" Johnson and Joseph Watts had killed the witness to the Silva slaying, the sources said. 

A few years later, according to the sources, when Junior and a few of his buddies were arrested for assaulting a few patrons at a Long Island nightclub — the charges were later dropped when the victims forgot who had hit them — the Gambinos passed more cash to Mr. Daly to keep Junior's name from resurfacing in the Silver Fox case, Junior told the feds....

Gotti's current lawyer, Charles Carnesi: "He has acknowledged that there was a meeting, but he steadfastly maintains that he did not incriminate anyone in any criminal activity during the meeting, nor did he ever consider cooperating or testifying against anyone. Had it been his desire to make such a deal, his lawyers at the time would have made the deal."

Is any of this in Shadow of My  Father?

Damn, I hope someone writes a book that goes into the actual facts.....

John Alite Speaks with Cosa Nostra News

John Alite talks to Cosa Nostra News on the record.

I am working on the story now. Some of what he told us is in the interview above. We will try not to duplicate too much of the information.

I am trying to reach a couple of people for comment; I doubt I'll get very far.








John Gotti Junior has an open invitation to contact me. Since I won't publicly post a cellphone number, he'd have to email me at eddie2843@gmail.com.

I'd afford him the same courtesy I offer any source.

Alite: Bookmaking "the Least of Doing Anything Wrong"

Who ratted on Alite in the first place?
I'M GOING FISHING,  ALITE STORY AND MONTIGLIO Q&A ARE TOP RECENT READS
 In early March 2014, "60 Minutes Sports" on Showtime aired an interview with John Alite, marking the former gangster's first interview since finishing an eight-year prison sentence for racketeering two years ago.

Alite had climbed high in the mob before deciding to flip for the feds and become their "star witness" against John Gotti Junior in a 2009 trial that ended with a hung jury.
Alite had been keeping a low profile since getting out of prison.



"60 Minutes" focused Alite's interview on sports betting, a hot political issue in New Jersey, but also included some of the highlights of his career on the street, limiting its scope to the turncoat's doings in the New York area, where he worked under the Gottis. But he also was quite active in the criminal underworld in Tampa, Fla., working under fellow New Yorker Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio.





The truth is, there was not much meat on the program, but interesting details. At the end of this story we fill in some of the gaps that 60 minutes overlooked.

Alite said becoming a bookie was one of his first rackets; he'd learned all about the sports-betting business from family members with whom he lived in the same house in Woodhaven, Queens.
"I was good at it and I became very good at it, and I became a professor of bookmaking," Alite told correspondent Jack Ford.

In terms of how much he earned, Alite ducked the question, answering that if he lost $325,000 in one weekend, he never panicked because he knew he'd earn it all back.
"Twenty-two years, I never lost a dime," he said, noting that the gamblers always lost, insinuating that even if they would win, they'd eventually give it back one bet at a time. That's why he became a bookmaker.
"I know you can't win. At the end of the day I wanted to put money in my pocket," he said. "I became the house. The house doesn't lose."
Discussing his time in New York working as a Gambino operative for John Gotti Senior, Alite seemed unable to say the man's name, referring to him as "Senior." And Gotti Junior never came up once during the interview.
"When Senior Called... You Took Care of It"Asked about his days as a Mafia associate, Alite said: "I was taking the orders as far as who to hurt, who to kill, who to put in the hospital. When Senior called, you went, no excuses, you took care of it."
Asked how he felt when he got his first order to kill, Alite said, "I wanted the order."
"I wanted to be completely in and trusted, and to believe that he liked me that much, that he trusted me to do anything for him."
Sports betting is a major cash cow for mobsters, and in fact it's not even considered a crime among mobsters.
"To us, this is the least of doing anything wrong," he said. "If you're gonna get arrested for bookmaking, they're gonna laugh at it." He said usually a little jail time or a ticket were the most you'd get for taking bets.
"The other stuff you're gonna go to prison for."
Asked to describe his usual customers, Alite rattled off a list that included "Detectives, police officers, businessmen, Wall Street guys, store owners, school teachers..." He added that he personally knew members of law enforcement who "ran their own businesses... Sometimes they'd call in their action to us."
Alite, walking the streets of Woodhaven with Ford, stood in front of the house he grew up in, with other extended family members. "We lived on the middle floor," he said.
Alite became successful enough as a bookmaker that he eventually eyed expansion. He formed his own crew in 1983, at age 20, and added drug dealing and hijacking trucks from JFK to his skill set.
"I was a successful businessman," Alite said, when asked what he thought of himself while committing the various crimes that enabled his highflying lifestyle, which eventually expanded to include the ultimate crime: murder.
In those days in the mid-1980s, he used a local tavern, Neirs, which is described as one of the oldest such establishments in Queens, New York. Many scenes for the film GoodFellas were shot there. It was here where Alite (and a couple of his guys) sat at a back table and conducted business, settling up debts, doling out payments while collecting money from losers (there was always much more of the latter, he said).
Alite's criminal life came to an end on Jan. 16, 2008, when he signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. It was kept secret, however, until December of that year, "its release triggered by another mob trial set for January in New York," according to the Tampa Bay Times. 
Two Murders, 4 Murder Conspiracies, 8 Shootings, 2 Attempted ShootingsAs part of the agreement, Alite admitted involvement in two murders, four murder conspiracies, at least eight shootings and two attempted shootings — including one in which the intended victim was his former roommate at the University of Tampa. He acknowledged his role as a top associate in the Gambino crime family and specifically admitted to participating in the murder of George Grosso on Dec. 20, 1998, and in the murder of Bruce John Gotterup on Nov. 20, 1991. Prosecutors said Alite also admitted to participating in four murder conspiracies, including conspiracy in 1990 to kill Louis DiBono.
Alite also acknowledged participation in armed home invasions and armed robberies in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida, the government said.
Alite figured prominently in the trial of Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio and three co-defendants found guilty of conspiracy and racketeering by a federal jury in Tampa in 2006. Alite and Trucchio, a captain in the Gambino crime family, were business partners, federal prosecutors said.
At the time, prosecutors accused Alite of controlling illegal businesses, illegal gambling, extortion, drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping and murder.They used Prestige Valet, a Tampa company, to infiltrate the local valet business.
U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday granted the defense motion to transfer Gotti's federal racketeering and murder charges from Tampa to New York, where Gotti's attorneys argued the bulk of the alleged activity took place.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Trezevant has said that Alite and Gotti knew each other from Queens, N.Y. Gotti signed as a witness on Alite's marriage licence in 1989, records show.
During a court hearing in Tampa Trezevant disclosed that Alite went to Gotti some time in 1989 with an idea to expand the Gambino crime family's reach into Tampa through the valet parking business. While he honeymooned in Hawaii, Alite had reconnected with his UT roommate, and learned of the roommate's booming valet operation, Trezevant said.
"Timmy Donovan [the roommate] is fascinated by this whole John Gotti organized crime thing," Trezevant said in court. "John Alite is interested in the fact that Timmy Donovan is a successful valet parking businessman in Tampa making a bunch of money for a young guy. And it's a cash-based business."
Donovan testified as a government witness during the 2006 Trucchio trial. At the time, he said he helped Alite set up his own valet business in New Jersey, though they were never partners. When Alite ran into money problems, he came to Donovan. But Donovan testified that he didn't have the $10,000 Alite wanted.
Federal prosecutors said Alite also admitted to extortion in the valet parking businesses and the businesses of bar and lounge security as well as trafficking in cocaine.

One of Those Annoying Notes...

It's just not as fun now that I revealed I was bluffing about the JDL...

There's More to Junior's Sinatra Story, Of Course....

Which Gotti really wanted Sinatra dead?We're not reading the book, but based on our devotion to our beat, we offer here one anecdote to emerge from John Gotti Junior's self-published ebook. The story involves John Gotti threatening Frank Sinatra's life using Joseph "Joe the German" Watts, one of three guys Junior once discussed privately.

The issue we ponder is which Gotti really posed the greater threat and to whom: Senior in the form of Joe Watts or Junior in the form of his threats against mob scribe Jerry Capeci. The old-school newspaperman apparently read Junior's book, which includes the Sinatra incident,  and then gave Junior a pass.

When he read about Sinatra, Jerry Capeci must've recalled the moment when the Feds advised him to be "a little more cautious than usual." The younger Gotti had hired a corrupt ex-NYPD detective to follow the journalist around to "dig up some dirt."

Joe The German Watts
"Hi.... I'll effin kill ya if you so much as look at me..."

Gotti Senior, Sinatra and Jilly Rizzo, described as "Frank's enforcer," have all died. Watts, 72, likely couldn't care less one way or the other. He is immersed in our penal system and will be for about 10 more years, though this may not be as punishing as it sounds to a wealthy gangster who was known to have once "bought" an entire prison tier. Watts goes way back, to the days when legendary boss Carlo Gambino ran the family following the storied 1957 execution of Albert "Don Umberto" Anastasia. 
Just to satisfy myself that there was nothing more to the Sinatra story than what Gotti Junior details in the book, I did a little research and found an earlier incident tangentially involving Frank Sinatra in which renowned mob scribe Jerry Capeci was given a heads up that Junior was.... not very happy with something the reporter had written. 




Anyway, as for what Junior wrote about Sinatra, we turn to the Daily Mail Online noted: John Gotti Senior "didn't like to be insulted or crossed - not matter who it was..."

"Frank Sinatra, due to perform at Carnegie Hall. had sent tickets to Gotti. and the boss was supposed to see the performer backstage and then have dinner together.

"When Sinatra cancelled at the last minute 'due to illness' only to show up at the Savoy Grill, smiling and joking, Gotti sent one of his henchmen, Joe Watts, to Sinatra's table. Sinatra was with his pal Jilly Rizzo.

"Watts proceeded 'to tear Sinatra a new a**hole and Rizzo too.

"'The next time John sends for you,' Joe advised Frank, 'and you make up an excuse', I will be the last face you will see on this earth.'"

Now, seems pretty cut and dried, hell it's easier to swallow this story than the one about John Senior pulling a James Bond to whack his last remaining rat....From the excerpts:

He would be escorted by marshals from the prison to the building in New York City where his dentist was located. Someone would be waiting for his arrival, and then give my father several hundred dollars to give to the guards, while my father enjoyed his furlough. My father would go up to the dentist’s office, open his mouth, and then go out the back of the building where one of the fellows would drive him away. 

When it was time to return to the prison, my father’s man would drive him back to the dentist’s building, and he would emerge from the front entrance back into the custody of the marshals.

I remember once my mother had put out a big spread of food for my father, who was coming home. At the time, I misunderstood, and thought he had been released from prison, but I didn’t know he was only free for a day. 

So in comes my father. He spent some quality time with my mother, spent some time with us kids in the back yard. He comes in with a green jumpsuit from prison and changed his clothes.
At the conclusion of the family visit, he took a shower, put his prison clothes in a bag, and, prior to returning to Green Haven, managed to kill an individual who was a last piece of business left over...

A source called me to tell me he found the story ludicrous.... Gotti would've had to bribe so many people if he went into the dentist's office it's nearly comical to contemplate, he said.

But, hey, we don't have a problem overall with this story. Rather, the story about how he threatened a renowned journalist is much more troubling.

According to a story Capeci wrote five years after the release of Gotti: Rise & Fall (which reports that the FBI's 1990 arrest of Gotti Senior had prevented him from celebrating the 30th birthday of his then-girlfriend Lisa Gastineau at a Frank Sinatra concert):  

"Junior Gotti again voiced angry words toward yours truly. Or at least that's what Kasman told the FBI shortly after he began working as a confidential FBI informer in early 1997. 

"In this case, there is some solid corroborating evidence: Without disclosing their source of information, FBI agents dutifully informed me about Junior's anger back then, advising me to be a little more cautious than usual. They added that the younger Gotti had hired an ex-NYPD detective who had been bounced from the force as corrupt to follow me around and "dig up some dirt." 

"He should've just asked. I could have told him exactly which of my old editors would be glad to help him out."

As for Watts, he has been tied to 11 murders and was said to have been a backup shooter at the 1985 high-profile hit on then-Gambino boss Paul Castellano, Watts was supposedly given Thomas Bilotti's loanshark book as compensation for assisting "The Fist" (the Gotti Fist, not the Genovese "Fist" of the 1970s, for all you amateurs).
As for Watts, in 2011 he was sentenced to the 13-year max for a murder plot. At sentencing, the judge noted that Watts seemed to return to his life of crime “almost immediately” after departing prison following a previous sentence.
The 2011 sentence was for a 1989 murder plot (the target, a Staten Island newspaper editor who Gotti thought was an informant, was actually murdered by a DeCavalcante crew then looking to kiss Gotti's backside), as well as an assault of someone who didn't provide Watts with the proper investment advice.

Manhattan federal Judge Colleen McMahon told the gangster that he appeared “healthy" and that he also looked like he was quite “accustomed to prison life.”

“I’m betting you may walk out of jail,” she said, adding that Watts a “cold-blooded killer” who committed “heinous” and “hideous” acts in service to the mob.

“He does not appear to know how to live his life without violence and killing,” she said.

Frederick Weiss was whacked on Gotti’s orders after the former Gambino boss suspected Weiss had become in informant. According to prosecutor Steve Kwok, an armed Watts was waiting for Weiss to be lured to a Staten Island garage that had been lined with plastic to catch the blood and potential brain matter splatter.

Weiss never showed up and was killed by a hit team led by the New Jersey crime family the next day.

Watts also admitted assaulting ex-con Abe Berger, whom he met while serving six years for a 1998 money-laundering conviction. Defense lawyer Gerald Shargel said Berger “essentially defrauded” Watts of $400,000 by claiming to be a “wizard” at picking stocks.

“If Mr. Watts was the person they claim him to be, I doubt that Mr. Berger would be walking the streets,” Shargel said.

As previously reported, Watts so terrified turncoat Brian Greenwald that he begged the judge to stay in the slammer rather than risk retribution from a feared gangland gunslinger.

"'I testified against a certain individual who is life-threatening for me,' Greenwald pleaded in court in March 2011, referring to "The German."

"'I've had to watch my back for organized-crime retaliation. I've learned recently they are trying to find out where I am. I've been in four separate jails and spent the last seven months in segregation,' he told Manhattan federal court Judge Harold Baer.

Prison may not be so bad for Watts, however, according to Mafia Guys on the blog Gorilla Convict. The blogger, who spent serious time in prison, wrote that he "was transferred to FCI Beckly in 1996. 

"It was a brand new prison that opened in West Virginia. And when I got there the talk of the compound was this mobster, Joe “The German” Watts, who was supposedly a loyal henchman and friend of John Gotti... Although he wasn't made because of his German blood this New Yorker supposedly had big money. And on the compound he was known to throw that money around. I didn’t know him personally but he lived in Poplar B-lower the unit below mine. I remember seeing him go to the commissary and have a couple of guys with him to carry his bags. He always shopped big too. He’d be coming out with cases and boxes full of commissary stuff.

 They said on the block that he cooked everyday and never went to the c how hall. A lot of mobsters have a reputation for this. Living large in the feds, you know. I guess it stems from the scenes in Goodfellas where Ray Liota and them are having mini banquets. The real incarcerated mobster tried to emulate this. I had also heard that Joe Watts supposedly bought all the cells next to his on the first tier and moved all his people in around him. He had his cook, his cleaning person, and his muscle guys in all the cells surrounding him and they would all eat together Goodfellas style.

Like I said I never personally met the guy but there was a lot of gossip about him on the pound. He was looked up to by all the street hustlers as a kind of mystical figure. A real live gangster, they called him. I would see him on the compound with the less famous mobsters from Pittsburgh and all the wanna-be’s who would be all up under him trying to ride his coattails. Catering to him or just trying to be associated with him I guess."

Book Murder Machine Left Out "Hell of a Lot," Montiglio Says

Dominick Montiglio, former emissary to the murder machine...
EXCLUSIVE:
We spoke with Dominick Montiglio recently -- and we provide here the Q&A that resulted.

Dominick, as you'll read, notes that "Murder Machine" did not tell the whole story, which certainly got our attention. 

"A hell of a lot was left out... Great stuff!!" he told us.

Montiglio, for those not familiar, is the nephew of Anthony "Nino" Gaggi, a capo who was a rising star within what Jerry Capeci has called the "white-collar wing" of the Gambino family during the reign of Paul "Big Paul" Castellano.




Gaggi died in 1988, never attaining the position of underboss he'd long sought when he was close to the Gambino boss before the spectacular 1985 coup by John Gotti.

It's through Montiglio's eyes that much of Murder Machine is told.

Murder Machine relates the story of how, after Carlo Gambino died of natural causes in 1976, the ruling members of the Gambino Family met at Nino and Dominick's Brooklyn home ("the bunker") to name a new boss. 
Roy DeMeo also hunted people.
Gaggi expected the best but prepared for the worst. He taped a gun under the kitchen table and sent Dom upstairs to watch the front of the house from an upper-storey window armed with a machine gun. If there was shooting, he told Dom, take out anyone who departs through the front door. Dom was fully prepared to carry out his uncle's orders, even speculating how he'd be on the run for the rest of his life. Despite the tense build up, there was only a brief, somber discussion. Castellano was named the new Gambino boss. In turn, Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce remained as underboss of the family (by rights, many believed, Dellacroce should have ascended to the top spot).
Nino held up under questioning. The feds even admired his
formidable loyalty to the Mafia credo.
Gaggi was promoted to capo of Castellano's old crew and remained close to Castellano, hoping to become underboss eventually. However, the trouble that Roy caused Castellano (after ordering DeMeo's murder, Paul was later indicted because of Roy's massive car-theft ring) precluded Gaggi from ever assuming the position.

DeMeo and his crew are suspected of murdering as many as 100 people (although some estimates reach as high as 200) between 1973 and 1983. Dominick became a government witness in 1983 following his arrest for extortion. Montiglio returned to Brooklyn to become an artist.




COSA NOSTRA NEWS: Describe Roy DeMeo to us...we get two different views of him, one from Murder Machine, the other from Roy's son Albert in his book, For the Sins of My Father: A Mafia Killer, His Son, and the Legacy of a Mob Life

DOMINICK MONTIGLIO: Roy was a man who after a murder, would be in a rush to bleed the body out & chop it up so he could go home & eat dinner with his family, make love to his wife & then sleep like a baby! I mean that's how detached he was from killing people. It didn't bother him in the slightest & I think murder ended up becoming an adrenaline rush for him, he needed it. But when it came to family & friends he was fiercely loyal. After my uncle Nino ordered him to murder his protege Chris Rosenberg, he locked himself in his office & cried for 2 days cause he loved him so much. So he truly had two sides absolute remorseless killer & then absolutely 100% caring family man who would do anything for his family. Although I know that he got his son Albert to do a few things that really messed him up, I mean the kid wasn't cut out for that life & I think he ended up in a mental asylum.

CNN: So what did you think of Murder Machine? Did Jerry Capeci nail it? Also, we heard you scared the shit out of him when you two first met on the elevator... he'd called you a junkie or something in a story....
DM: As for Murder Machine I was really pushing for Philip Carlo to write that thing cause he would of nailed it as he grew up in the life. Jerry & Gene still produced a great book but I don't think they nailed it. A hell of a lot was left out... Great stuff!!

[As to the second question:] You heard about that, did you? [Laughs.] Yeah, I was pretty mad, I was gonna rip his head off but I calmed down. I dealt a lot of drugs but I never dealt heroin & he made me out to be a degenerate junkie... But I kinda have my hands tied as to what I can tell you, if you know what I mean.

CNN: Of course! So, can you give us a taste of what they left out?

DM: Ed it's ok you can ask me anything, just let me think of a few things, I got 100 stories just let me think of a good one. Anything else you wanna know?

CNN: There is one thing about Roy. One of the detectives who worked the case implied that Roy was cooperating.... He mentioned the recording system that DeMeo had installed in his car and how the tape was missing...
DM:  There's no way in hell Roy would ever be a stoolie, absolutely not!

PART 2....COMING SOON? WE SINCERELY HOPE, DOM!

Reading Ghost Blogger Reviews "Last Great Mafia Empire"

Click on the cover to
purchase

We'd like to give a shout out to the Reading Ghost blogger for crafting a review of Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire that highlights a key aspect of our approach to writing The Cicale Files series.
Mob books such as Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires tend to provide detailed overviews of organized crime, focusing on a particular crime family, city, or period of time. Often an abundance of names, biographies, storylines, dates and other details swamp the reader. 
And we have wondered how much most readers really take away from these books once they finish the last page...
As bloggers writing about the subject, we of course love these books and we eagerly consume even the footnotes and details regarding source material. But in this case we refer to the mainstream reader, not only the Mafia junkie.


So with The Cicale Files, we attempt to offer an overall smaller work at a lower price that maintains a tight focus on clear, simple story lines, in the hopes that the book is easier to navigate. And maybe, just maybe, once they have finished the book readers will experience some kind of an emotional resonance.

Reading Ghost: Get inside a MOB family:

"My experiences with books about the Mob is that they have been quite confusing with a lot of names, MOB names and a lot of uncles etc. So it was a wonderful surprise reading "Cosa Nostra News: The Cicale files, Vol 1: Inside the Last Great Mafia". It is well written, and doesn't leave you confused.  

Scarpo and Cicale have done a great job with this book. It gives you a good insight into the life of a Mobster. When hearing about the Mafia our thought are often associated with the colorful movies of Hollywood.  

I pictured black and white images in my head from a time long gone, as Scarpo and Cicale took us back in time to the mob from the 1930s all the way up to modern times.  

The book is short, but very much informative, so informative, that I would like to learn more."