Cosa Nostra News

During the 1992 trial that featured Sammy the Bull's testimony it was alleged that John Gotti expected his captains to pay him $3,000 on his birthday and on Christmas. * While awaiting trial in jail, Gambino boss John Gotti ordered a hit on Gambino porn czar/soldier Robert (DiB) DiBernardo using Angelo (Quack Quack) Ruggiero as the go-between with Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano, who was serving as acting boss while Gotti was away.  From left: Ernie Boy Abbamonte, Nicky Slick DiPietro, John Carneglia. While the motive for killing DiB supposedly was "subversive" comments he made behind Gotti’s back, in a later discussion in the apartment above the Ravenite in Manhattan, Gotti told Frank (Frankie Loc) Locascio something else.  Gotti blamed his underboss, Gravano (who was not in the apartment above the Ravenite at the time), for pressing him to order the murder of DiB (as well as of Gambino wiseguys Liborio Milito and Louis DiBono.) “Did he ever talk subversive to you?” ...

Gambino wiseguy Robert (DiB) DiBernardo—the Gambino family's czar of pornography, including, disturbingly, child pornography, who was made to disappear on Gambino boss John Gotti’s orders—played a role in the 1984 presidential election. Robert DiBernardo, known as DiB, disappeared in 1986. As per an intelligence report by the New York State Organized Crime Task Force, in 1985 John A. Zaccaro—the husband of Geraldine A. Ferraro, who served in the House of Representatives from 1979 to 1985, and was the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee in 1984—was observed chatting with DiBernardo. At the time, DiBernardo was running Star Distributing Company, which law enforcement officials identified as one of the largest pornography operations in the US. DiB ran the porn business out of a building co-owned by Zaccaro and managed by his real estate brokerage, P. Zaccaro Inc., in lower Manhattan. (Ferraro, herself an officer in the real-estate business, said she and her husband were u...

In this segment, two recent transcript series collide as prosecutor John Gleeson goes through the Ravenite transcripts asking Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano about the significance of certain comments. John Gotti, Sammy the Bull Gravano, Gambino boss and underboss.... This entry might prove insightful for those who had difficulty following the Ravenite transcripts. For example, take the following: GLEESON: In [the FBI transcript of the November 30, 1989, tape], Mr. Gravano, you say: “Well, you know, that and there’s an ‘inaudible.’ He would’ve, he would’ve tried to make a move from outside, I think.” What were you referring to when you said: “He would’ve tried to make a move from outside”? GRAVANO: Possibly from outside the Family. GLEESON: Who would have made a move? GRAVANO: Paul. GLEESON: Against whom? GRAVANO: Against John and Angelo. GLEESON: When you say outside the Family who, in your opinion, would he have gone to? GRAVANO: The Genovese Family. Possibly, the Westies. Who wou...

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...

This entry begins with a Gambino family meeting to plan the hit on boss Paul Castellano. In attendance were Gambino players Sammy the Bull, Frankie DeCicco, Joe Watts, John Gotti, Angelo [Ruggiero], Eddie Lino, Fat Sally, Vinnie Artuso, Johnny Carneglia, “Tony Roach,” and Iggy.  John Gotti, left, Frank DeCicco. See previous installments in this series: 1992 Testimony of Gambino Underboss Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano, Part 1 1992 Testimony of Salvatore (Sammy The Bull) Gravano Part 2: Gambino Ceremony, Meeting John Gotti 1992 Testimony of Gambino Underboss Salvatore (Sammy The Bull) Gravano Part 3: Murders 1992 Testimony of Salvatore (Sammy The Bull) Gravano Part 4: Plotting To Kill A Boss The following continues with Sammy the Bull still under direct questioning by John Gleeson, the then Assistant United States Attorney. GLEESON: Was there a meeting to plan the murder?  GRAVANO: Yes, that was the night before we had a serious meeting.  GLEESON: Where was the meeting...