Gotti Crony Watts So Terrified Informant, He Begged to Stay in Prison
A turncoat who informed on Joe Watts, one of the late John Gotti's most ruthless associates, was recently sentenced to time served for engineering a botched FedEx truck hijacking.
But Brian Greenwald, who's been in jail for 27 months -- the last seven in solitary confinement -- instead "begged the judge to stay in the slammer rather than risk retribution from a feared gangland gunslinger who was the alleged backup shooter at the 1985 murder of Gambino don Paul Castellano," the article said.
"I testified against a certain individual who is life-threatening for me," a pasty-faced, gaunt Greenwald pleaded in court, referring to Joe "The German" Watts, the reputed assassin who allegedly notched 11 mob hits for Gotti's crew.
" '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.
"The slick-looking, stone-hearted Watts -- who never became a "made" mobster because he wasn't Italian, but who became a trusted capo who'd deliver swift mob justice-- has spent nearly two decades in prison on a variety of charges .... [The writer obviously is mistaken; Watts couldn't be made because he wasn't Italian, so how could he ever be a capo? What the writer might have been trying to say was that Watts was often given the same respect as a capo.]
Watts, 63, accepted a plea bargain for setting up the slaying of Staten Island sanitation exec/former newspaper editor Fred Weiss, as reported in another Cosa Nostra News post, receiving 13 years behind bars.
The Post article continued that Greenwald, 40, appeared terrified of Watts but Judge Baer still wasn't about to sentence the guy to more time. It makes you wonder: If Greenwald doesn't mind doing time, why'd he turn? Also, what about WITSEC? Is he not eligible for federal protection? Well, that question eventually gets addressed.
"As Greenwald cupped his head in his hands -- his face a picture of grief and fear -- Baer said the crook had two choices: Leave, or spend the next 60 days behind bars until they work out his entering the witness protection program," the Post reported. Greenwald took the latter.
"The feds believe Greenwald -- who was president of Doppelt & Greenwald in the Diamond District -- was the mastermind behind a nearly $5 million gem heist in 2005 by two men in FedEx uniforms, documents show," the article said.
But he was busted in 2008 for a botched $1 million heist by bumbling thugs who couldn't figure out how to offload the gems in a hijacked FedEx truck.
As part of his plea deal in the case, Greenwald admitted laundering a load of cash for Watts, The Post has reported.
He may sound like a pathetic loser, but Greenwald is intelligent to be afraid of Watts, who, as stated, committed at least 10 murders, according to law enforcement, and was no stranger to torture in at least one well-documented example.
As reported on Jerry Capeci's PPV ganglandnews.com, in November 1996, Watts,"was ordered by Gotti to kill William Ciccone for allegedly shooting at the Gambino crime boss outside his South Ozone Park social club," said then-Staten Island District Attorney William Murphy.
At the time, wrote Capeci, "Gotti and his crew were at the top of their game and openly flaunted their gangster lifestyle at the club. That day, Gotti's pals heard a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot. They chased Ciccone, grabbed him, stuffed him in a car trunk and drove him to Staten Island, where he was "tortured for several hours by Watts," and then shot in the head, Murphy said.
"The case lay dormant until former Gambino mobster Dominick (Fat Dom) Borghese began cooperating with authorities and told them" what Watts had done with Ciccone.
In his later years, prior to his last arrest in 2009, Watts reportedly had himself conveyed to Gambino family meetings in a limo driven by an undertaker.
According to court papers, Watts rode in limousines from the John Vincent Scalia Home for Funerals. The owner of the funeral home told the New York Post he never heard of Watts.
A reader of this blog mused, "Didnt they say at one time this tough guy watts was going to flip?? how tough is he then??"
Well, as far as I know there was one story about Watts flipping - and never another one. This is a guy who did about 20 years in the can, and has another 13 to look forward to. And he is 69, likely to die in prison.
Neil Dellacroce was a capo under Albert Anastasia, then underboss to both Carlo Gambino and Paul Castellano, respectively, as well as John Gotti's mentor. He was universally respected in the mob. Yet, shortly after he died, there was a story describing him as a high-level informer; I think these stories get written when the media is manipulated by higher forces to create disarray within the families. Read last the three paragraphs on the site Seize the Night, which writes a bio of Dellacroce that includes the story that appeared in Time magazine that painted him as a rat. Neil Dellacroce a rat!
Likewise a story in the Daily News pegged Watts an informer, but that story too disappeared. Read this recent one by Tom Robbins about the January FBI bust of mobsters and associates. Formerly of the Village Voice, Robbins is one of the best investigative/organized crime journalists in the country. Watts is a focus of that article, and there is not one word about him being an informant.
It's called disinformation -- manipulation of the press by the government. If Watts was a rat when that story appeared about 15 years ago, he would not have been involved with Gambino acting boss Jackie D'Amico and others in a host of other rackets since then.
He probably would have been in the back of a hearse, not cruising around in a funeral-home limo.
John Gotti's social club in Queens, long gone. |
But Brian Greenwald, who's been in jail for 27 months -- the last seven in solitary confinement -- instead "begged the judge to stay in the slammer rather than risk retribution from a feared gangland gunslinger who was the alleged backup shooter at the 1985 murder of Gambino don Paul Castellano," the article said.
"I testified against a certain individual who is life-threatening for me," a pasty-faced, gaunt Greenwald pleaded in court, referring to Joe "The German" Watts, the reputed assassin who allegedly notched 11 mob hits for Gotti's crew.
" '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.
"The slick-looking, stone-hearted Watts -- who never became a "made" mobster because he wasn't Italian, but who became a trusted capo who'd deliver swift mob justice-- has spent nearly two decades in prison on a variety of charges .... [The writer obviously is mistaken; Watts couldn't be made because he wasn't Italian, so how could he ever be a capo? What the writer might have been trying to say was that Watts was often given the same respect as a capo.]
Joe Watts |
Watts, 63, accepted a plea bargain for setting up the slaying of Staten Island sanitation exec/former newspaper editor Fred Weiss, as reported in another Cosa Nostra News post, receiving 13 years behind bars.
The Post article continued that Greenwald, 40, appeared terrified of Watts but Judge Baer still wasn't about to sentence the guy to more time. It makes you wonder: If Greenwald doesn't mind doing time, why'd he turn? Also, what about WITSEC? Is he not eligible for federal protection? Well, that question eventually gets addressed.
"As Greenwald cupped his head in his hands -- his face a picture of grief and fear -- Baer said the crook had two choices: Leave, or spend the next 60 days behind bars until they work out his entering the witness protection program," the Post reported. Greenwald took the latter.
"The feds believe Greenwald -- who was president of Doppelt & Greenwald in the Diamond District -- was the mastermind behind a nearly $5 million gem heist in 2005 by two men in FedEx uniforms, documents show," the article said.
But he was busted in 2008 for a botched $1 million heist by bumbling thugs who couldn't figure out how to offload the gems in a hijacked FedEx truck.
As part of his plea deal in the case, Greenwald admitted laundering a load of cash for Watts, The Post has reported.
He may sound like a pathetic loser, but Greenwald is intelligent to be afraid of Watts, who, as stated, committed at least 10 murders, according to law enforcement, and was no stranger to torture in at least one well-documented example.
As reported on Jerry Capeci's PPV ganglandnews.com, in November 1996, Watts,"was ordered by Gotti to kill William Ciccone for allegedly shooting at the Gambino crime boss outside his South Ozone Park social club," said then-Staten Island District Attorney William Murphy.
At the time, wrote Capeci, "Gotti and his crew were at the top of their game and openly flaunted their gangster lifestyle at the club. That day, Gotti's pals heard a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot. They chased Ciccone, grabbed him, stuffed him in a car trunk and drove him to Staten Island, where he was "tortured for several hours by Watts," and then shot in the head, Murphy said.
"The case lay dormant until former Gambino mobster Dominick (Fat Dom) Borghese began cooperating with authorities and told them" what Watts had done with Ciccone.
In his later years, prior to his last arrest in 2009, Watts reportedly had himself conveyed to Gambino family meetings in a limo driven by an undertaker.
According to court papers, Watts rode in limousines from the John Vincent Scalia Home for Funerals. The owner of the funeral home told the New York Post he never heard of Watts.
A reader of this blog mused, "Didnt they say at one time this tough guy watts was going to flip?? how tough is he then??"
Well, as far as I know there was one story about Watts flipping - and never another one. This is a guy who did about 20 years in the can, and has another 13 to look forward to. And he is 69, likely to die in prison.
Neil Dellacroce was a capo under Albert Anastasia, then underboss to both Carlo Gambino and Paul Castellano, respectively, as well as John Gotti's mentor. He was universally respected in the mob. Yet, shortly after he died, there was a story describing him as a high-level informer; I think these stories get written when the media is manipulated by higher forces to create disarray within the families. Read last the three paragraphs on the site Seize the Night, which writes a bio of Dellacroce that includes the story that appeared in Time magazine that painted him as a rat. Neil Dellacroce a rat!
Likewise a story in the Daily News pegged Watts an informer, but that story too disappeared. Read this recent one by Tom Robbins about the January FBI bust of mobsters and associates. Formerly of the Village Voice, Robbins is one of the best investigative/organized crime journalists in the country. Watts is a focus of that article, and there is not one word about him being an informant.
It's called disinformation -- manipulation of the press by the government. If Watts was a rat when that story appeared about 15 years ago, he would not have been involved with Gambino acting boss Jackie D'Amico and others in a host of other rackets since then.
He probably would have been in the back of a hearse, not cruising around in a funeral-home limo.
didnt they say at one time this tough guy watts was going to flip?? how tough is he then??
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