Story With a Twist: This Ex-Mob Associate DIDN'T Flip
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| Stevie Newell |
Stevie, earlier in his life, worked under John Gotti's son-in-law, Carmine Agnello, after Carmine became a member of the Gambino crime family. (Carmine is living somewhere in Ohio today, we've heard.) Agnello was married to Victoria Gotti at the time.
Newell does not fit the cliched definition of the opportunistic street guy as is usually portrayed in movies, books and newspapers.
He was arrested, held without bail and formally charged with the murder of Bruce Gotterup, who himself had been convicted by the mob of not using common sense and repeatedly disrupting the business of a Mafia-connected bar in Queens. In 1991, Gotterup was shot five times in the back of his head while taking a leak on the boardwalk in the Rockaway Peninsula, aka The Rockaways or Rockaway, in Queens, New York.
The feds were more than ready, willing and able to hand him a get-out-of-jail-free card, if only he'd roll and wear a wire, not against anyone in particular. They wanted him to wear a wire on the entire mob, everyone with whom he spoke on a daily basis, a retinue that included but was in no way limited to Carmine Agnello, Ronald Joseph Trucchio -- aka Ronnie One-Arm, the Johns (Burke, Gebert, Alite and Junior Gotti), Charles Carneglia and others.
Our source was a former criminal cohort of Newell's. He was willing to speak with us provided we kept his name out of this.
Flashback to 1994. Stevie was the object of a tug of war -- with John Junior Gotti and Carmine Agnello on one side, and John "The Sheriff" Alite (his then-nickname) on the other. Newell didn't get to choose who his boss was. (Newell once he was really rocking and rolling in the drug business working out of a bar called Jagermeister was easily pocketing around $3,000 to $4,000 a week -- close to $16 grand a month -- not bad for a "lowly associate.")
Stevie thought everything was cool that day when Carmine told him: "You're with me now and the Sheriff isn't gonna be bothering you no more."
Two months passed.
Turns out, things weren't so cool after all. For Stevie Newell, things were decidedly uncool. He was talking on a payphone when John Alite shot him in the leg.
Newell, strangely not bleeding from his wound, hobbled to a friend's house. "I gotta use your bathroom." Behind a closed door he examined his wound, the bullet had gone through and fell out of his inner thigh. It's a good thing Alite hadn't gotten too close and personal or Newell would've lost his nuts.
Not long afterward, Agnello had a proposition for Newell. He asked the wounded street guy if he'd like to take out The Sheriff. Kill him. Shoot him in the head with a large caliber bullet.
Said our source: "Newell was suppose to be the shooter in retaliation for Alite shooting him but Carmine also had an ongoing dispute with Alite."
Newell does not fit the cliched definition of the opportunistic street guy as is usually portrayed in movies, books and newspapers.
He was arrested, held without bail and formally charged with the murder of Bruce Gotterup, who himself had been convicted by the mob of not using common sense and repeatedly disrupting the business of a Mafia-connected bar in Queens. In 1991, Gotterup was shot five times in the back of his head while taking a leak on the boardwalk in the Rockaway Peninsula, aka The Rockaways or Rockaway, in Queens, New York.
In 1995, Newell took a gamble not many "lowly" associates probably would take, we'd wager.
"No one knows you're here," he was told. "You can walk right out the door...."
The noted Walter Mack was in the room for part of the meeting. Maybe he thought they were reeling in a big fish.
They wanted him to wear a wire on the entire mob...
Our source was a former criminal cohort of Newell's. He was willing to speak with us provided we kept his name out of this.
Flashback to 1994. Stevie was the object of a tug of war -- with John Junior Gotti and Carmine Agnello on one side, and John "The Sheriff" Alite (his then-nickname) on the other. Newell didn't get to choose who his boss was. (Newell once he was really rocking and rolling in the drug business working out of a bar called Jagermeister was easily pocketing around $3,000 to $4,000 a week -- close to $16 grand a month -- not bad for a "lowly associate.")
Two months passed.
Turns out, things weren't so cool after all. For Stevie Newell, things were decidedly uncool. He was talking on a payphone when John Alite shot him in the leg.
Newell, strangely not bleeding from his wound, hobbled to a friend's house. "I gotta use your bathroom." Behind a closed door he examined his wound, the bullet had gone through and fell out of his inner thigh. It's a good thing Alite hadn't gotten too close and personal or Newell would've lost his nuts.
Not long afterward, Agnello had a proposition for Newell. He asked the wounded street guy if he'd like to take out The Sheriff. Kill him. Shoot him in the head with a large caliber bullet.
Said our source: "Newell was suppose to be the shooter in retaliation for Alite shooting him but Carmine also had an ongoing dispute with Alite."
Newell wasn't interested, in either case and told Agnello as much.
Agnello didn't give up so easily. Soon he was offering Newell cash, his own business to run, etc.
"If Stevie were to accept, I can tell you he wouldn't be doing that kind of work for any kind of money," said our source.
Apparently things were left dangling when, quite suddenly, it was known that a couple of FBI agents had paid Alite a visit to warn him that some people had talked about certain potential actions, etcetera, that would not be beneficial to him.
Law enforcement had learned about the "planned hit," though technically it was more like a series of enthusiastic discussions not necessarily terminating with a specific arrangement.
One of the guys was wired. Not Newell. Still Stevie was Carmine's suspect, or at least one of them.
"I know Stevie voluntarily stripped for Carmine to show he wasn't wearing a wire."
Newell just kept his head down and followed orders -- unless he didn't. "Then he'd just tell you: No."
Then he was pinched for the 1991 Gotterup hit.
"Brucey didn't fucking listen," our source said. "Stevie and him were friends, and Stevie tried warning Brucey. He told him to cut the crap and reel it in."
Walter Mack and the rest of them were ultimately disappointed because Newell told them he wouldn't wear a wire. When they pressured him, showing him papers of him supposedly talking about others, he said: "Call my lawyer."
They threatened to release the paperwork on him.
"Get my lawyer," he answered again.
Newell was held without bail for two years. He went to trial and was found not guilty.
"He came home after facing 25 to 50. The feds used every trick in the book to get him to flip. And he didn't."
Newell found himself faced with the silent treatment from none other than Carmine Agnello, his boss.
"This guy Ricky Red started calling Stevie a rat for some reason. Ricky Red, as I recall, was a stone-cold junkie."
Still, Newell had to drive to the Bronx a couple of times to talk about this Ricky Red situation. Agnello wasn't around so his brother Mike told Stevie he had to whack Ricky Red.
"He just beat a murder charge at trial. He gets home. Now he's gotta kill this Ricky Red. He's driving to the Bronx and they're telling him he's got to kill Ricky Red...."
Two weeks later, it was called off. Ricky Red, it was later learned, was wearing the wire. He brought Carmine down, ultimately.
Now flash forward to 2009:
Five Families of New York City: Witness: Brother-in-law got Gotti's OK for hit: "A former drug dealer called as a defense witness by John "Junior" Gotti distanced the Gambino family mob heir from one murder but, unexpectedly, tied him more closely to a different murder conspiracy in testimony Thursday in federal court in Manhattan.
The witness, Stephen Newell, a former associate in the Queens drug-peddling ring of star prosecution informant John Alite, provided helpful testimony to Gotti on the murder of Bruce John Gotterup, a Queens man killed in 1991 after making trouble at a mob-connected bar."....
Agnello didn't give up so easily. Soon he was offering Newell cash, his own business to run, etc.
"If Stevie were to accept, I can tell you he wouldn't be doing that kind of work for any kind of money," said our source.
Apparently things were left dangling when, quite suddenly, it was known that a couple of FBI agents had paid Alite a visit to warn him that some people had talked about certain potential actions, etcetera, that would not be beneficial to him.
Law enforcement had learned about the "planned hit," though technically it was more like a series of enthusiastic discussions not necessarily terminating with a specific arrangement.
One of the guys was wired. Not Newell. Still Stevie was Carmine's suspect, or at least one of them.
"I know Stevie voluntarily stripped for Carmine to show he wasn't wearing a wire."
Newell just kept his head down and followed orders -- unless he didn't. "Then he'd just tell you: No."
Then he was pinched for the 1991 Gotterup hit.
"Brucey didn't fucking listen," our source said. "Stevie and him were friends, and Stevie tried warning Brucey. He told him to cut the crap and reel it in."
Walter Mack and the rest of them were ultimately disappointed because Newell told them he wouldn't wear a wire. When they pressured him, showing him papers of him supposedly talking about others, he said: "Call my lawyer."
They threatened to release the paperwork on him.
"Get my lawyer," he answered again.
Newell was held without bail for two years. He went to trial and was found not guilty.
"He came home after facing 25 to 50. The feds used every trick in the book to get him to flip. And he didn't."
Newell found himself faced with the silent treatment from none other than Carmine Agnello, his boss.
"This guy Ricky Red started calling Stevie a rat for some reason. Ricky Red, as I recall, was a stone-cold junkie."
Still, Newell had to drive to the Bronx a couple of times to talk about this Ricky Red situation. Agnello wasn't around so his brother Mike told Stevie he had to whack Ricky Red.
"He just beat a murder charge at trial. He gets home. Now he's gotta kill this Ricky Red. He's driving to the Bronx and they're telling him he's got to kill Ricky Red...."
Two weeks later, it was called off. Ricky Red, it was later learned, was wearing the wire. He brought Carmine down, ultimately.
Now flash forward to 2009:
Five Families of New York City: Witness: Brother-in-law got Gotti's OK for hit: "A former drug dealer called as a defense witness by John "Junior" Gotti distanced the Gambino family mob heir from one murder but, unexpectedly, tied him more closely to a different murder conspiracy in testimony Thursday in federal court in Manhattan.
The witness, Stephen Newell, a former associate in the Queens drug-peddling ring of star prosecution informant John Alite, provided helpful testimony to Gotti on the murder of Bruce John Gotterup, a Queens man killed in 1991 after making trouble at a mob-connected bar."....