1992 Testimony of Gambino Underboss Salvatore (Sammy The Bull) Gravano Part 6: The Hits

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...