Cosa Nostra News

In testimony at the 1992 trial, Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano details how he and John Gotti sat in a car and from a block away watched as Paul Castellano and Tommy Bilotti were shot to death in front of Sparks Steakhouse.  From left: Jackie D'Amico, Joe "The German" Watts, John Gotti, and Sammy the Bull. Gravano said that, on the evening of December 16, 1985, he and Gotti drove to East 46th Street and parked within sight of Spark's Steakhouse after deploying an eight-man hit team (four primary shooters and four backup shooters). Castellano and driver Thomas Bilotti actually pulled up next to Gotti's car at a light, but did not notice Gotti and Gravano. Bilotti then parked in front of the restaurant. And the gunmen ran over to the Lincoln. When it was done (at around 5:26 p.m.), the gunmen disappeared into the crowd, and Gotti and Gravano slowly drove past the scene. "I looked at Tommy on the floor," Gravano said. "I told Johnny they were gone.&

This story touches on a topic somewhat tangential to Italian-American organized crime, but, hey, man does not live on bread alone. (In other words, expand your horizons, whydontcha?)... We will post the next part of the Gravano Testimony Series shortly.... T hings are not going too well in Hong Kong these days. The former British colony, long admired as a bustling free-market city-state, is facing the wrath of China. Agitations against the imposition of Chinese law have triggered fierce protests and police crackdowns.   Broken Tooth Koi   But it was not just the police who were beating up students and democratic protestors in the city. Mobs of masked men in t-shirts were seen rampaging with relative impunity. They were identified as members of the infamous 14K triad – a major organized crime group based in Hong Kong. Why would a criminal group involved in everything from drug trafficking to prostitution and smuggling support China, a country known for executing criminals who precisely

Why did John Gotti kill Paul Castellano?   Because he could. Specifically, Castellano was killed because he stood in John Gotti's way.  The laundry list of grievances—Big Paul sold out the family, allowed Chin to whack a made Gambino member, had splintered the family with craven demands for transcripts he didn't need, possibly to test his underboss's loyalty, among other things—may have consisted of independent truths, but together they served largely as pretext. Sammy the Bull lays it all out in  Underboss . (Even if you don't want to believe Gravano, in this case, he earned no clear benefit making any of this up.) "I don't think John gave a fuck about Angelo (Ruggiero) or the tapes," Gravano noted. "I think he was looking to create a situation to capitalize on our other grievances about Paul." And while there were some very real simmering tensions between the Dellacroce and Castellano factions, Frank DeCicco, one of the only figures in this