American Gangster: John Gotti | The FBI Files | Retold

[Music] new york city's mafia an organization of brutal gangs to gain wealth and power members strong on businesses and kill anyone in their way [Music] john gotti was one of organized crime's fiercest members he wanted to rule new york city according to the fbi had to stop him [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] john gotti was ambitious powerful and ruthless he ruled with flash and conspicuous style playing celebrity with the media and cat and mouse with the fbi they called john gardy the teflon dawn serious charges just wouldn't stick i'm jim calstrom former director of the fbi's new york office when john gaudi came to power in 1985 organized crime still had its tentacles spread into many legitimate businesses like a game of chess crime bosses were well insulated by layers of pawns the fbi's job was to penetrate their defenses and capture the king [Music] new york is the home of organized crime in america through intimidation terror and murder the five families that make up new york's mafia have corrupted labor unions run extortion rackets and infiltrated almost every major industry in the city disputes among the crime families often erupt over who controls which uni or what industry these disputes are inevitably and violently resolved by the 1970s the gambino family had emerged as the most violent and the most powerful crime family in the nation as that decade came to an end the fbi decided it was time to stop the mafia's reign of terror the bureau's new york office set up five squads assigned to investigate and bring down each criminal family special agent bruce mau was assigned to supervise the squad responsible for bringing down the gambino family the bureau realized that we really weren't addressing organized crime here in new york and so they formed a squad targeting particular crime family and try to address the organized crime problem here in new york so in 1980 we formed the squad and our target was to put the gambino family in jail the main targets of mao's investigation were the leaders of the gambino family the boss paul castellano and his underboss neil de la croce castellano assumed leadership of the family in 1976 when carlos gambino the namesake of the family died of natural causes the fbi were also targeting the most powerful captains in the family like john gotti the captains controlled crews of soldiers who carried out the day-to-day criminal activity for the family castellano's crews would commit the actual crimes but castellano himself did not catching him seemed impossible as the fbi soon learned the entire hierarchy of the gambino family was well insulated the family army consisted of over 50 captains who controlled over 300 soldiers it was a large and impenetrable secret society accessible to outsiders only through the lenses of surveillance families but federal racketeering legislation was passed that made ordering criminal acts as much of a crime as committing the crime itself in order to successfully prosecute the hierarchy of the gambino family the fbi had to secretly get them on tape discussing their criminal enterprise mao and his team would have to patiently methodically work their way into the intricate structure of the gambino family it would take years to accomplish that goal agents tried to learn more by speaking to residents in the neighborhoods where mob activity was prevalent you're sure now yeah but take a look you might recognize one of you guys take a look take a good look take your time few people were willing to talk only those on the inside could tell agents who were the real power brokers in the family cooperating witnesses and informants had to be developed betraying the mafia meant certain death informants would be difficult to come by but some were willing to take the risk most were low-level criminals cutting deals with the government to avoid prosecution and long prison sentences whatever their motivation they gave agents something they did not have before a back door into the gambino family's criminal operations castellano ran the family like a major corporation [Music] nicknamed within the mafia as the pope he used unions to strengthen his grip on various industries in new york louis chalero head of the fbi's new york office is an expert on organized crime [Music] one of the most influential things that the gambino family did was the control of the labor unions in new york city they exerted at one time tremendous influence in terms of the longshoremen's union uh in terms of construction industry trade unions and in terms of the teamsters and trucking by controlling the trade unions in new york city the gambino family was able to control construction and certainly had a great influence in the garment center and that generated tremendous amount of financial base to the family castellano knew how to keep his interests under control castellano also realized how important it was to rule by fear and terror so he had several enforcement arms of the family he had a crew that was famous for uh killing people dismembering bodies and doing all sorts of horrid things so even though castellano was known as the businessman's don he was a tough guy he had a hair trigger and a temper and he'd kill you at the drop of a hat getting to castellano directly would be very difficult his home in staten island was a fortress under constant supervision by armed guards he had also installed a sophisticated alarm system agents had no solid evidence to suggest that castellano conducted criminal business in his home [Music] without such proof a court would never authorize an fbi bug or a phone wiretap inside the home agents hit the streets they hoped to find one weak link to explore one person in the family who made himself vulnerable to electronic surveillance they learned through informants about a gambino family crew headed by john guy that operated in queens headquartered in a private social club called the bergen hunt and fish club a few of the fbi's well-placed informants were close to one of gotti's lieutenants a man named angelo guggerio though known on the streets is the most vicious gang in the gambino family agents believe they found their weak link in gotti's care and the reason we did was he had a lieutenant named angela gerio who ran the day-to-day operations for guiding his crew and angela was an attractive target because number one he's very active involved a lot of criminal activity number two he had a big mouth he talked a lot he was a gossip and a blabbermouth mal quickly established surveillance teams to identify record and log every person who entered the bergen club [Music] agents learned that john gotti and his crew made money for the family primarily through hijacking car thefts extortion and illegal gambling operations [Music] informants told agents that rougerio sometimes discussed family business on his daughter's phone he believed the line listed in her name to be free of fbi buzz [Music] permission to wiretap a private telephone is granted sparingly agents must convince a federal judge that the target is engaged in criminal activities and that the wiretap is likely to produce more evidence if conversations are not of a criminal nature the wiretap must be turned off [Music] the informant's statements were enough to convince a federal judge in late 1981 that ruggerio's daughter's phone should be tapped [Music] mao's squad had found a way to infiltrate the gambino family [Music] the wiretapping of rogerio's phone proved to be one of the most successful wiretaps in fbi history the conversations overheard by the fbi were damned but agents learned that ruggerio also held meetings in his home with gambino members now and his squad had enough evidence to justify placing a microphone in rugerio's home [Music] agents slipped in installed the bugs in his dining room and left without a trace [Music] the success of the mafia has always been its ability to stay one step ahead of law enforcement what now and his squad did not know was that a high-ranking police officer was on the gambino payroll though the mole didn't know specific details he leaked information to family members about ongoing investigations and electronic surveillance operations angelo ruggiero became paranoid that his house was bugged he searched the house himself but found nothing unconvinced he called in a professional to conduct a thorough search or sweep for bugs [Music] yeah i need someone to come sweep my house please rogerio ordered the sweep on the tap telephone when the fbi heard the conversation they knew they had a crisis 23 45 richmond street the phone tap inside the home was immediately turned off to avoid detection if discovered it would destroy weeks of diligent work and send the squad back to square one and there were no targets as talkative as rougeria the sweeper arrived with the most sophisticated electronic detection equipment available after two days of searching the house top to bottom he was ready to report his findings to rogerio two days after rougerio's house was searched for bugs agents arrested the man who conducted the sweep of his house what they learned was indeed shocking he charged ruggierio thousands of dollars for his services but none of his detection equipment worked he had swindled the mob [Music] fortunately he had told ruggierio his house was clean it was a lucky break for the fbi not only had their bugs not been discovered but now ruggerio felt confident to speak freely in his house and he did so with abandon right into the fbi microphones slowly the fbi was getting closer to the gambino family hierarchy to agents the conversations were a gold mine as ruggerio met with his mob partners the fbi learned of a major heroin trafficking operation conducted by ruggerio and john gotti's younger brother eugene over a six-month period angelo and eugene gotti had distributed over 50 kilos of heroin in new york alone the fbi had every last detail on tape there was a mafia rule in effect that dealing drugs was strictly prohibited the punishment for getting caught was execution no appeal no trial ruggierio did not have the boss's permission to deal drugs and he knew the consequences [Music] the government felt it had a strong case against ruggerio and eugene gotti in september of 1983 they were charged with running a major heroin distribution network and obstruction of justice though all of those indicted were part of john gotti's crew his name was not mentioned in the tape conversations but with the indictment castellano would soon find out that gotti's men were dealing drugs learning of the heroin operation however was not the only valuable piece of information learned by agents just prior to his heroin indictment ruggerio would meet with other soldiers and discuss how he and john gotti would go to paul castellano's house every sunday for a family meeting and then as you'll give a blow by below what happened in paul's house the pope did this the pope does that he's mad at this guy everything's on the family we found out through angela's big mouth and the next day other soldiers come over of course angela to reconstruct what happened again so we found everything was happening in the gambino family thanks to andrew argerio john gotti and paul castellano based on the ruggerio wire agents now had probable cause to bug the house of gambino boss paul castellano getting into castellano's house took detailed planning and methodical execution agents managed to get inside the house and place the bugs soon after they began taping conversations that directly implicated paul castellano as the boss of the gambino family the man who oversaw a multitude of illegal records that cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year castellano would meet with his most trusted captains to discuss business the fbi identified one of those captains as sammy the bull bravante as his nickname implied the bull was both strong and aggressive he was a boxer and a bodybuilder he was also the family's top enforcer rivano generated his money for the family in the construction industry he was adept at a number of criminal activities but his most notorious skill was murder [Music] as the fbi continued to investigate powerful captains in the family like john gotti and sammy the bull their sights remained focused on the boss in 1985 two years after ruggerio was indicted paul castellano was arrested and charged along with other new york family bosses with dozens of federal racketeering and conspiracy violations out on bail castellano continued to run the family though his attention seemed focused on how to beat the government's case against him john gotti was also facing his own legal troubles an independent investigation led by the u.s attorney's office ended with gotti and his mentor under boss neil de la croce being charged with several counts of racketeering de la croce and gotti were released on bail allowing them to continue their criminal operations [Music] months later de la croce lay dying of cancer the fbi had bugged his bedroom gotti and ruggerio visited and the fbi was listening recorded gotti talking about his fears that castellano might kill him and rugeria for getting caught on tape discussing their drug dealings and for leading the fbi to castellano's house the boss wanted to hear the fbi case de la croce promised gotti that he would do anything in his power to protect him delacroche's loyalty to gotti was causing a rift in the family he was stalling the boss reluctant to turn the tapes over to castellano the gambino family was splitting in two [Music] then in early december of 1985 neil delacrocity the gambino family's second in command died of cancer in his home [Music] on december 16th two weeks after de la croce's death castellano and his new underboss tommy bellamy pulled up to a fashionable steakhouse in midtown manhattan to meet some associates for dinner as they started to exit the car several men approached them and began firing castellano and bellati never knew what hit them they were killed instantly when the boss of a family is assassinated the fbi believes that the person responsible is usually the one who steps up and assumes leadership of the family it was mafia tradition to pay tribute to a new boss to show him respect two weeks after the murder agents watched a parade of high-level gambino family members enter the bergen hunt and fish club they were meeting with john gotti agent mao and his squad would have to restructure their attack on the gambino hierarchy john gotti was the new boss of the family agents pieced together his criminal history and traced his rise to power john gotti became a gambino family associate around 1970. he impressed the boss in 1973 by killing a man who had kidnapped and murdered a relative of carlos gambino [Music] gotti served two years for the hit before he was paroled upon his release he quickly gained respect within the family he began to make a great deal of money for the family through loan shocking and gambling operations in his neighborhood he became a hero of sorts throwing huge 4th of july parties every year complete with fireworks special agent george gabriel was assigned to mao's squad in 1985. he quickly became an expert on john gotti he took care of if there were old ladies that were in need if he had money in his pocket he'd give it out he was in in some respects a robin hood in his neighborhood and that's how he he carried himself but how did he make that money by killing by robbing by manipulating by bribing by controlling rackets that he didn't have a right to control and that's a side when when he didn't like you when you fell on the wrong side of john you died i mean there was no mercy you died there was no two ways about it gotti was now the king he found himself in command of a multi-million dollar crime network made up of scams he did not know existed he had a lot to learn with their bugs and surveillance special agent gabriel and the rest of the fbi squad learned right along with him john gotti took over that family he had to learn what the rackets were and as he's learning them we're learning them who's got what industries who's collecting from what unions he's asking captains to give him a list of all the soldiers in there and their crews so he could know who he's got his family and how many gotti was the boss but he still had legal troubles [Music] six months after becoming the head of the family he was sent to jail to await trial on loan sharking and gambling charges [Music] jail didn't slow him down though from his cell gotti ordered a murder it was against robert d bernardo who had been a close associate of gotti di bernardo's assassination was set up by angelo ruggierio who was still awaiting trial for his 1983 drug indictment [Music] angel is one of the few guys who's got access to john in jail and tells him that robert d bernardo is talking subversive behind john's back the boss is back he's saying that john isn't fit as the boss and we should appoint somebody else as the boss angela wants this done because angela owes robert d bernardo a lot of money and he doesn't want to pay him back i was going over some of these uh contracts here this public housing contract on gotti's behalf ruggerio asked sammy the bull gravano to set up the hit teddy you want some coffee yeah it'd be great on june 5th 1986 dee bernardo showed up for a meeting at gravano's construction office [Music] everyone greeted him as usual [Music] d bernardo must have suspected nothing you know we got all those contracts he was shot in the head from behind [Applause] his body was never found the fbi learned of his death through informants agents believed gotti's crew was responsible for the murder but they needed proof in august of 96 two months after the de bernardo hit gotti went to trial for the gambling and loan sharking charges filed two years before but gotti had not been the primary target of that indictment the case was originally designed to bring down underboss neil delacrocity the case against gotti was never that strong but an ambitious u.s attorney saw an opportunity to get a mob boss though the case did not involve mao's squad he sent george gabriel to observe the trial during a break in the proceedings gabriel came face to face with his adversary i introduced myself i tell them i'm george gabriel i'm with the fbi i work on bruce mouse squad he says you tell him uh i'm gonna be home in six weeks i'm gonna beat this one i said right i'll deliver your message i said and if you do i'll be there to congratulate you because it'll be a good job on your part he says good i hope to see you on march 13 1987 gotti was acquitted on all counts george gabriel made good on his promise after the verdict gabriel went to the bergen hunt and fish club in queens where gotti was having an acquittal party he congratulated guy to the press the public and to prosecutors john gott seemed untouchable out of jail john gotti resumed his celebrity status around town he was seen at fine restaurants and glitzy nightclubs always immaculately dressed already he was known as the dapper don now with his acquittal he earned the title of the teflon don charges slid right off him to the media he was glorified as the underdog who took on and beat the government but now it was mao's turn to make a case against gotti i get upset when they glorify a guy like that to me he's just a common thug a criminal he's a terrorist he doesn't believe in our government he doesn't believe in voting doesn't believe in churches believe in family he's a mass murderer how can you glorify this guy and make him a role model for your kids that's very upsetting to me in order to make his case against gotti mao had to find out where he was conducting his business the fbi bugs planted at the bergen hunt and fish club had dried up since becoming boss gotti wasn't spending as much time there the squad leaned hard on informants to find out where gotti held his high-level meetings it took eight months but in early 1988 they finally found gotti's new headquarters gotti turned the ravenite social club in little italy into his headquarters it was a symbolic gesture on gotti's part the ravenite was his mentor neil delacrocci's old club here gotti would meet with his captains to conduct family business agents rented an apartment down the street from the ravenite a high-powered camera was installed to record all those who came and went from the club in february of 1988 the fbi earned court approval to bug with 30 or 40 people in the room deciphering conversations was difficult cassette tape recordings of white noise were always being played in the club hearing conversations through that was impossible but the fbi had to have john gotti's orders on tape in order to charge him with running the gambino family so far the bugs in the ravenite had not produced much evidence gotti always suspected he was being listened to by the fbi and he found clever ways to avoid being overheard john gotti was notorious for going on what we described as a walk talk where he and the person he had to discuss something secret if not all mob business is open to everybody in the mob there were times where a captain would have to speak with his boss john gotti would take that person and they'd go outside going outside they're evading the possibility of a bug no matter what agents did it seemed the mob was anticipating their every move at times even taunting them when i would sit in the van outside the raver night they would bang on every van on the street and whisper we know you're in there you get made all the time and you try your darndest not to but it happens and you just have to stay with it [Music] john gotti ordered another hit out of range of the fbi bugs this time it was louis molito a gambino soldier whose loyalty to gotti was suspect gotti felt molita was a threat to the family administration since molito had been a close business associate of paul castellano and tommy belotti sammy the bull agreed to oversee that he too had little use for maligo sammy felt he was trying to move in on the construction industry [Music] melita was shot dead under gravano's supervision his body removed and never found the fbi learned of the hit through informant rumors but again there was not enough hard evidence on gotti to arrest him gotti was ordering people killed right under the fbi's nose the cat and mouse game intensified and so did the pressure on the fbi to stop him from ordering more killings mal knew he was overlooking something god he must be talking about but the fbi didn't know where in december 1988 bruce mao decided it was time to shut down the wire and regroup it's a very frustrating time because we knew we're so close so we had these guys on videotape we see them coming and going we saw the walk talks around the street we were so close but yet so far away from achieving our goals the bugs were shut down but the fbi's gambino squad would not give up they developed a new informant who told them gotti would sometimes be in deep conversation with one of his men in the ravenite then abruptly they would leave the table and go into a hallway behind the club usually they were gone for 10 or 15 minutes the meetings in the hall were no doubt incriminating ones and in a quiet hallway fbi bugs could pick up more of the conversations the squad quickly took advantage of the opportunity [Music] in october of 1989 agents bugged the hall [Music] they recorded gotti meeting with several gambino family members there [Music] the bug produced some evidence against gadi but not the evidence they needed to put him away for life he had to be meeting his men in another location within the building somewhere where he felt comfortable and safe yep in the fall of 1989 agents learned from informants about another location within the building that gotti frequented nettie cirelli was a widow her husband michael had been caretaker of the ravenite club when he died she remained in the apartment they shared just two floors above the club it was believed that gotta used mrs cirelli's apartment to talk about sensitive family business getting into mrs cirelli's apartment undetected was going to be a problem she rarely left as the fbi special operations squad tried to figure a way in agents learned that mrs cirelli would be leaving town for the thanksgiving holiday [Music] it was the opportunity they had been waiting for agents went to work they sneaked into the apartment in the middle of the night and placed the bugs on november 30th 1989 the first conversation taped in mrs cirelli's apartment came over the wires crisp and clear all participants talked freely they spoke directly using no code wounds or sign language like they often did when a bug for weeks agents listened in on the apartment conversations on december 12 1989 they got the biggest break they could ever have hoped for that day gotti and his underboss frank lochaccio met at the apartment in a rambling conversation gotti left a trail of evidence that would later haunt him he explained labor union rackets and other crimes and he talked about ordering the murders of several people the agents monitoring gotti that night could barely believe their ears more shocking to agents was what they heard gotti say about sami gravano for over an hour gotti went on a verbal rampage about sammy he said gravana was getting greedy taking too big of a cut from the construction racket profits he was becoming too active in the family not respecting gotti's authority gotti suggested that two murders that he himself had ordered were because sammy was trying to protect his own interests according to gotti sami had suckered him into murdering de bernardo and molito it's very important conversation because during this long diatribe john confessed to two murders he confessed to order in the head and robert de bernardo he confessed to ordering they had a louis molito both he claimed that gravano's urging to have murdered he also talked about a third guy named louis de bono who was going to murder another partner of sami's john detailed also his control of different labor unions he also detailed how much money he's making from different illegal activities it was our smoking gun as the best tape of the entire electronic surveillance after recording a few more conversations the wire in the apartment was turned off in may of 1990. for mao's gambino squad all the years of patience had finally paid off they had the best evidence they could imagine and it was john gotti himself over the next few months agents put together their case against scottie the case against the gambino family hierarchy which began a decade earlier was ready to come to a close on december 12 1990 exactly a year after gotti's fateful conversation special agent george gabriel and two others went to the ravenite social club their purpose was to arrest john gotti sami gravano and frank lucacio backup officers were close behind or so gabriel thought when i went into the club to arrest them they would they had just ordered coffee and myself my partner and one of the police officers kind of accidentally went into the club ahead of the rest of the arrest team we were about a minute ahead of everybody so there we were in the classic you know we've got you surrounded and we're looking behind us and there was nobody there but there wasn't a problem everybody complied with what we asked for and either john or sammy asked if they can have a cup of coffee and i said yeah go ahead we got plenty of time before we leave on his way to be booked gotti asked agent gabriel what he was charged with gabriel ran down the list and told gotti of the taped conversations especially in the hallway in the apartment at that gotti fell quiet at a bail hearing a few days later the three defendants heard excerpts from the fbi's tapes they played a segment from the december 12 conversation sami gravano heard gotti bashing his character for the first time in life john gotti was embarrassed he was turning shades of blue and pink and trying to duck into the table sammy was turning red you could tell he was hot on a firecracker and they kept looking at each other like what's going on here but that tape planted the seeds for the first time in gravano's mind that he and john gotti could ever coexist and one had to kill the other if they got out of jail after hearing the tape rivano realized gotti's defense strategy would be to blame him for the murders ravana was being set up as the fall guy on november 8th 1991 ravano decided to cooperate with the fbi and tell them everything he knew about the gambino family he filled in all of the details that were missing from the recordings about how he and gotti committed crimes on behalf of the gambino family and managed to stay one step ahead of law enforcement gravano arranged payoffs to jurors and a high-level police officer who had been supplying gotti with classified information both the jurors and the corrupt officer were indicted and given jail sentences gabriel finally learned why gotti had been able to avoid successful prosecutions he's out there in everybody's face i beat the government they've got nothing on me reality was he bought the jury sammy gravano paid a juror sixty thousand dollars to throw that case and that's that's how he wins his case the question most in need of an answer concerned the castellano assassination through gravano the fbi finally learned the truth the seeds for castellano's assassination were planted when angelo ruggiero and eugene gotti were indicted in the heroin distribution ring in 1983. the prohibited operation could no longer be kept quiet from the boss castellano learned that the government's case was based on fbi recordings of ruggierio castellano was furious he wanted to hear the tapes for himself events began to snowball in 1984 the tapes were finally turned over to defense and for the first time all the co-defendants and defense attorneys had all these tapes of angela blabbing about heroin trafficking means to castellano's house commission meetings etc etc so around 1984 castellano being the boston family asked rudgerio for a copy of the tapes the tension between gaudi and castellano was held in check by de la croce but when de la croce died the barriers were down what's going on a few days after de la croce's death castellano summoned his captains for a meeting tommy belotti would replace de la croce as underboss more ominously castellano declared that gotti's crew would be disbanded his men absorbed into other crew castellano had finally listened to the rougerio tapes they had given the government such a good case that after the trial there probably wouldn't be much of a gaudy crew anyway gotti was furious and he knew he was a target [Music] there was grumbling among the ranks that castellano was preoccupied with his legal problems and wasn't paying enough attention to the family some members thought he was pocketing too much money for himself not spreading it around among the soldiers and captains gotti began to formulate his takeover he had angelo ruggierio approach three of the four other mafia families he wanted to know if they would look the other way if something were to happen to castellano the family said they would not interfere gotti carefully picked a few soldiers to help plan the hit in particular there was one gambino member whose support would be crucial if the hit was going to succeed rougerio was sent to ask sammy gravano if he would participate in the murder of castellano gravano agreed he was aware of the growing descent within the family he also knew that john gotti was powerful enough to pull off the murder of the boss and when the other families agreed to stay out of the way sammy knew the smart play was to back gottie gotti put together a team of five gambino family members to plan castellano's assassination they call themselves the fist of five hitting the boss of the mafia's largest family was a formidable task the fist would have to find castellano away from his loyalists and they knew that castellano was under constant law enforcement scrutiny he must be hit some place where the fbi was not apt to be following him their best opportunity came in mid-december 1985. castellano had asked five of his captains to meet him for dinner at spark's steakhouse in midtown manhattan but one of the captains was a member of the fist the night before the planned hit the fist convened at a construction office used by gravon [Music] four shooters had been hired two for castellano and two for his driver and underboss tommy bellotti the murders had been meticulously planned on december 16th the team gathered in a park about a mile from sparks [Music] the four shooters dressed alike in black russian hats and light-colored trench coats if seen by witnesses they were more likely to be remembered for what they wore rather than their faces the primary shooters were to pair off just outside sparks angelo rogerio was one of four backups who would block all avenues of escape [Music] gaudy and gravana would observe from down the street in their parked car ready to shoot if necessary if something went wrong if they missed on the street they were to move into sparks firing until castellano and belotti were killed no matter who got in the way castellano and bellati had to die it was dusk when goddamn gravano headed towards spark's steakhouse the shooters took their places gaudy and gravano soon found their vantage point a parking space at an intersection down the street from the restaurant they waited in the car castellano was late perhaps he'd been tipped off about the plot on his life in the middle of a conversation with gotti gravano suddenly looked to his left and panicked at what he saw it was a black lincoln with pilate at the wheel and castellano beside it for one moment gravano and gotti thought they would be seen but the light changed and the car moved on [Applause] ravana radioed ahead it was time as pilate pulled the car to the curb the assassins advanced paul castellano and tommy belotti lay outside the car each shot by six bullets according to gravano gotti eased the car into the street and passed the bodies sprawled on the pavement he had to be sure castellano was dead gravano's detailed account finally put an end to the speculating as part of his plea bargain gravano testified against his former boss he admitted to his role in 19 mob related murders he served five years in prison and voluntarily ended the witness protection program on april 2nd 1992 john gotti was convicted of five murders including paul castellanos and tommy pilates he also was found guilty of other crimes under the umbrella of obstruction of justice and racketeering they included bribery of a police officer jewry tan gambling bookmaking tax evasion and attempted murder john gotti lived out his life in federal custody stripped of his audience his expensive suits and his flamboyant style he died in a prison hospital on june 10 2002. the fbi crackdown on organized crime is working louis chilero head of the new york office is optimistic about new york's future people today i think can can build the building in new york city without being shaken down by a cozenoster family i think a restaurant in new york city could have their garbage picked up without fearing that they will be shaken down if they don't pick a particular carter people today can compete on the fulton fish market without the necessity of paying off one of the particular new york crime family so we've come a long way there is certainly a lot of things that left to be done but but i think people generally in new york city certainly are starting to feel the effects of this effort the battle rages on in new york city mafia families continue to plunder continue to kill but because of the ceaseless efforts of the fbi the people of new york are beginning to feel relief as more and more mobsters like john gotti are taken off the streets [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

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Published: Thu Jun 02 2022