Cosa Nostra News

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...

Former Gambino crime family underboss Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano was seen last month at an Italian restaurant in Arizona. He went in to pick up some takeout, and his son was reportedly with him. Sammy Gravano at Uncle Sal's, a familiar place. (Source: TMZ ) It’s difficult to imagine a more ignoble end for the once-feared former underboss of the Gambino crime family Once upon a time, Gravano owned Uncle Sal's (get the name?), and his wife kept the place running a few years after he was busted for dealing "Molly," Ecstasy pills. Once upon a time, the FBI lauded him as their prize witness, a sterling example of the moral authority of federal law enforcement after he flipped on a man he himself had chosen to follow to the top of a criminal hierarchy. With hindsight, one  can safely assume that Sammy Gravano chose to flip on John Gotti using the same cold-blooded calculating mercenary determination he used to join The Fist, the informal name of w...

John Gotti John J. Gotti, who took control of the Gambino crime family in one of the most storied gangland coups in modern times, died on June 10, 2002, at age 61. He's been described as one of the 20th century's most popular Cosa Nostra bosses, usually in the same breath as Al Capone of 1920s Chicago. The closest the American Mafia has had to a " boss of bosses" since Carlo Gambino , Gotti breathed fire into New York wiseguys tired and nearly decimated by a stream of major RICO indictments, including the Commission Trial and Concrete and Windows cases .

With the Mafia Maps app, you can visit many of the mob's most famous haunts in New York City. For .99 cents, it's a hell of a deal... You can find the exact place this wiseguy got the hard goodbye. Among the sites Mafia Maps will help you find: the place where Don Umberto (Albert Anastasia) was brutally slain -- the hit forever linked the Mafia and barbershops, as well as the steakhouse in front of which Gambino boss "Big Paul" Castellano was gunned down, along with his driver and underboss, Tommy Bilotti. They were killed in front of Sparks and died in the street, Big Paul splayed out on the sidewalk, eyes wide open in death. Bilotti was supine, in the street on top of a huge puddle of his own blood.