Appeals Court Rules In Frankie Loc’s Favor: The Bull’s Statement Admitted As New Evidence

UPDATED
Frank (Frankie Loc ) Locascio, the former Gambino consigliere serving life following a 1992 murder racketeering conviction, won a small victory last week when a federal appeals court in Manhattan ordered that a signed declaration from Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano be admitted as new evidence. 

Frank Loc and John Gotti definitely pre-December 1990.

Locascio included the declaration in a filing in Brooklyn federal court that is part of his ongoing effort to overturn his conviction for the 1990 slaying of Gambino wiseguy Louis DiBono,  a successful contractor who failed to show up when summoned. For his infraction, DiBono was shot to death in a World Trade Center parking garage in October of 1990.

Gravano’s signed statement bolsters one of Locascio’s key ongoing claims: for years, Locascio has argued that he tried to talk John Gotti out of killing DiBono and had attempted to broker a peace deal by which DiBono would pay Gotti $50,000 for his absenteeism.

Gravano notes that Locascio did indeed try to save DiBono – and for his efforts, Locascio earned Gotti’s wrath. Gotti demoted Locascio as a direct response to his attempts to broker that peace deal, Gravano claims.

Gravano’s signed statement details how Sammy the Bull had neglected to tell prosecutors that Locascio was not involved in the DiBono murder during his testimony at Gotti and Locascio’s 1992 trial. He never mentioned that factoid because no one — not defense lawyers, not prosecutors — deigned to ask about it while he was on the stand.

“Frank Locascio had no role in the planning of, nor did he participate in any way in the murder or conspiracy to murder Louis DiBono,” The Bull’s statement reads.

Gotti wanted DiBono dead for failing to show up at meetings, but Locascio apparently didn’t believe DiBono had committed a death penalty offense. Locascio supposedly can even be heard in a recorded conversation from 1989 attempting to calm Gotti down—and save DiBono’s life by telling Gotti that DiBono would compensate him to the tune of $50,000, according to the filing.

“Shortly after this conversation, Gotti told me that he strongly resented Locascio’s suggestion that he take the money and forget about killing DiBono,” Gravano’s statement reads.




Locascio’s failed attempt to spare DiBono cost him his number-two spot in the Gambino crime family — Gravano said he was bumped up to underboss and Locascio was demoted to “acting consigliere.”

Gravano confessed to involvement in 19 murders as part of his deal with the feds. He would drop out of witness protection and wind up serving a 15-year bid for dealing ecstasy. He was released in 2017.

 Gotti died in 2002 in a Missouri prison.

As per Gang Land News, which exclusively obtained a copy of Gravano's statement in August 2018, Gravano says he “was prepared to testify” that while Gotti gave Gravano the order to kill DiBono, Locascio had nothing to do with it. “I assigned that hit to a number of individuals that did not include Locascio,” Gravano said in the statement.

In the one-page document, Gravano, who flipped in November of 1991, wrote that although “Locascio had knowledge of Gotti’s intention” to order the murder, “as evidenced by a recorded conversation dated December 12, 1989,” wrote Gravano, “clearly Gotti, as the boss of the family, had the sole authority to make the decision and was not seeking Locascio’s approval of his decision.”

“It was then and remains my belief that . . . Locascio was trying to appease Gotti with the idea that DiBono would bring Gotti money and (that) the situation would be resolved,” wrote Gravano. The Bull also noted that the Dapper Don told him “in a subsequent conversation” that he “resented (Locascio’s) suggestion.”

Gravano also named who he assigned to the DiBono hit team: Gambino capo (and major drug trafficker) Pasquale (Patsy) Conte and soldiers Anthony (Sims Tony) Vinciullo and Francesco (Paul) Graziano. The team however “was not able to kill DiBono and, as a result, was removed from the assignment.”

According to Gang Land, basing its report on court records, “on the eve of their second trial in 1994 — the first ended in a hung jury — the trio (named above)… were charged with being part of the same alleged conspiracy as Locascio, copped guilty pleas to murder conspiracy charges in return for prison terms between seven and ten years.”

“After several months, a new team was instructed to kill DiBono and eventually,” Gravano wrote, “DiBono was murdered. I did not participate in assigning this new group to commit the murder and, as of the time of my testimony, was unaware of the identity of the participants.”

“To my knowledge,” wrote Gravano, “Frank Locascio had no interaction with any of the individuals who actually killed DiBono.”

Gambino soldier Charles Carneglia was convicted in 2009 of being part of a three-man hit team that killed DiBono, based partly on the word of former Gambino associate Kevin McMahon. Charlie and brother John had taken the young homeless McMahon under their wing. (John Gotti considered McMahon his personal lucky charm -- and always wanted him nearby whenever he played cards.) McMahon reportedly"cried like a baby" after testifying against Carneglia, whom he had called "uncle."

Kevin McMahon and John Carneglia who recently  finished a monster prison sentence on heroin trafficking charges.

Sammy Bull also indicated that he told the government before the trial that Frankie Loc had nothing to do with the rubout.

“The Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s office, however, wasn’t convinced and decided to prosecute him for the murder using the tape-recorded talk in which Gotti is heard telling Locascio why DiBono was going to be killed as its key evidence.”

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It’s safe to say that the “love” John Gotti expresses for Frank Loc (as noted in the third installment of our Ravenite transcript  series: read it here) didn’t last very long after the arrests in December 1990. In fact, John Gotti reportedly put a hit on his former consiglieri – in wake of Gravano’s Underboss memoir, which was published in 1997. In the memoir, Gravano writes about how Gotti once disrespected Frankie Loc, which resulted in Frank and Sammy together making a prison pact to kill John if the three of them ever got out of prison. 

In Underboss, Gravano claims that Locascio wanted to kill Gotti. Locascio was none too pleased about being placed in solitary confinement as a result of Gotti's alleged threat. He insisted he was not in danger – and he filed a lawsuit in an attempt to spring himself from solitary.

As for the inflammatory passage in Underboss, Gravano describes an incident in which Locascio, in prison with Gotti and Gravano in 1991, gave Sammy a stolen orange before offering one to Gotti. Gotti became furious and loudly belittled Locascio in front of other inmates. Later, Gravano said, a humiliated Locascio tearfully vowed to murder Gotti, stating, "The minute I get out, I'm killing this [expletive]."

Gravano says he and Locascio then made a pact to kill Gotti if they ever got out of jail.

"Frankie said, 'Sammy, two things. I'll bring him to the party myself, (there would be a victory party as a ruse to lure him, supposedly) and I get to be the shooter.’”

According to law enforcement sources and court papers, an infuriated Gotti, who was serving a life sentence in Marion, Ill., reached out to the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang to kill Locascio. (Two members of the white supremacist group had been used in 1994 by one of Gotti's associates in a murder-for-hire contract.)

Federal prison officials in Marion allegedly caught Gotti complaining about the Locascio passage on video cameras. Without identifying Gotti, prison officials said in court papers "a possible 'contract' has been put on [Locascio's] life by his former Mafia associates.

"Three law enforcement sources confirmed Gotti put out the contract. The alleged plot against Locascio first surfaced in court papers when he filed suit against prison officials to be let out of solitary at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Mo. In court testimony Aug. 19, James Baker, special investigative agent for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, confirmed, "I was informed there was a million-dollar wet contract out on [Locascio]."

In prison terms, Baker said, a "wet contract" means "anybody can pick it up. If a nut over in a cellblock somewhere was to do the contract, he would get awarded the money. A wet contract is just open for anyone."

Some sources, however, say Gotti specifically "reached out" to the Aryan Brotherhood. Baker testified that he contacted an FBI agent in New York on Aug. 7 "to ascertain if the contract, this contract that they had talked about, was valid. He said, yes, in fact it was." On Aug. 20, Missouri Federal Judge Russell Clark ordered that Locascio be kept in isolation, stating, "The evidence establishes that [Locascio], at 65 years old, may well spend the rest of his life in administrative segregation because of the potential 'contract' on his life."

Gotti attorney Bruce Cutler, said in 1998 that the death plot was a hoax aimed at keeping Gotti behind bars in Marion “while damaging attempts to free his son,” John A. (Junior) Gotti, who was then on bail pending racketeering charges.