'Our Thing' Podcast Season 1 Episode 6: Secret Society | Sammy "The Bull" Gravano

new york 1975. in 1975 the books were open after 20 years to start making people again the commission sat down all the bosses and determined to have this happen [Music] for the first time ever sammy the bull gravano tells his story this is our thing [Music] new york 1976. taro told me sammy we got an appointment i want you to wear a suit white shirt tie and uh you and my son are going to come with me to this we did it i met him and charlie boy taught her son at the club and i was dressed up we got in the car i knew the house belonged to this guy who was a made guy frank the [ __ ] and we went in a guy came up from the basement and got one of the guys said come with me and he brought him down the basement stayed there a while he didn't come out one after the other after the other matter of fact i joked with charlie i said listen bro this is starting to get scary six guys went down they never came back charlie obviously must have known from his father what was going on he left don't worry about it i left too i said i'm not worried about it i had an idea of what was happening i didn't know the procedure or what happens but i had an idea charlie went down i was the last guy who went down the guy who came up and grabbed me hey sammy how you doing good good he said i'm gonna take you downstairs he says paul castellano will be standing you know who he is right yeah yeah of course of course i know who he is he said there's a chair next to him you're gonna sit down don't be nervous same thing this may be the best day of your life i was excited i went down the stairs old house wooden stairs the stairs were creaking as i got down to the bottom you could see the smoke coming out it was a smoked filled room they must have had a pool table and some plywood on top because there was the other guys the other nine guys sitting there each of them sitting next to a captain they were already made i didn't know exactly that yet but i walked over i sat down paul castellano says don't be nervous i want you to relax he said do you know everybody in this room i said no not everyone i know some of them i don't know them all do you like the guys who you see yes i do he said do you know what this is i got an idea this is a secret society and a brotherhood [Laughter] just stand next to me i stood next to him he told everybody to stand up everybody stood up he said some words in italian everybody locked hands in a huge circle i went to grab his hand and the next guy's hand next to me he said no not you just said just sit down i sat down he said a bunch of stuff in italian and the last part of it he said in honor of our brotherhood i closed the circle and he shook the circle's hands everybody went up and down a little bit then they all sat down [Music] he turned around to me and said get back up i got back up he said would you want to join this secret society this brotherhood [Music] yes was my answer it would be my honor to belong to this most of these people are idols to me being a member of them on this level was unimaginable to me growing up he talked about a lot of things about our society [Music] and then he said in our family our code is this comes first in your life it's above garden country your personal family it's above your own personal life you protect this and keep it secret for your entire life taro arello was the guy who proposed me to become a made member [Music] so he was my godfather paul explained that he is the representative meaning the boss of the family he now is going to be my father [Music] he explained about an underboss he explained about the role of a gonzo yeah and then there's captains each captain has a crew of made men and associates he broke it down he broke down things about what would be a death penalty if you raise your hands to another friend meaning a made guy it's the death penalty if you went with another made guy's wife knowingly you would die for that respect and honor was at the highest level he asked me if i understood i said yes i do [Music] then he asked me he said if you were asked to kill for the family would you kill on our orders without question without remorse yes what finger would you pull the trigger i pointed to my index finger he took out a saint from his pocket he says i'm going to burn this saint in your hands there's an ashtray when i tell you you crush it and put the ashes in the ashtray [Music] taro came over and he was the one who was going to prick my finger to make it bleed and to rub my blood on that saint he lit it on fire and put it in my hand he said juggle it back and forth i did so that you don't burn your hands i did that i burnt my hands anyway but i didn't feel any pain [Music] one of the things he said if you betray this oath in any way shape and form may your soul burn in hell like this saint is burning in your hands [Music] crush it he moved the ashtray i crushed it in my hands and the ashes went into the ashtray taro said kiss the boss on both cheeks i did he told me to kiss taro on both cheeks i did taro said go around the entire table and keep kiss each person starting with all the under boss the gunslayer and just go around the table i did that he explained to me that there was five families in new york that were basically the commission there was other families in other states and obviously in other countries he locked in that circle again but this time he made me lock in on either side with him and with taro and everybody else locked in and he turned to me and says as of this moment you are now a friend of ours a made member in our family anything that happened to you in the past anybody you don't like it's dead we never want to hear it again you're born as of today don't bring grudges into this new life we won't do anything for any grudge or anything you have for the past you're born as of today [Music] i understood that i nodded my head we unlocked the circle [Music] lighting up cigars and drinks and whatever we celebrated for a while then we left the house in different groups like we came paul castellano and the administration left first then each captain left with the guys who he brought there to become a friend of ours i got into the car with charlie and taro and we went back to tyler's club waiting by the club was boozy frankie chico other guys who were made members and other guys who were associates who had a clue what was happening but there would be no conversation about it with them he introduced me to frankie chico's father boozy as a friend of ours taro explained to me that the only way to recognize a friend of ours even if you know he was made is a friend of ours who knows both of you and introduces you together if you ever introduce someone as a friend and you didn't know it for sure you were never introduced to him or you made a mistake it's the death penalty make sure with that if you don't remember then get introduced to the guy again to somebody's the third party then i met frankie the chico and other guys friend louis molito was around and some guys who were in title's crew who weren't made members they quickly passed me by under their breath good luck sammy we love it smiled and just quickly moved away they knew the rules i couldn't respond no like as if i knew i was a made member to somebody who wasn't i could never tell somebody who wasn't that i was a made member i couldn't go celebrate hey i'm a made member today that don't happen it's a secret society i still feel that everything i went through in my life that might be one of the greatest days of my life getting married having children they were great days but so was this it ranked right up with that the same way i love my father i love taro and i donated everything i had every drop of loyalty that i could give i gave throughout my whole existence in the mafia my emotions it was surreal i i felt i was walking on clouds the possibility of this i never ever imagined being one of the people that i idolized that i respected i didn't have any family members to push me in i didn't have anybody my sisters weren't going out with any kind of street guys i i didn't even i mean i knew people myself but a lot easier to get in when your father is into your brother or your uncle or something or somebody so to me getting in was crazy it was just i was flawed everything is changing in my life the respect that i'm getting everything i never used that position back then i i was always a tough guy i was always ready to shoot you or fight with you or do whatever it didn't take that position to make me tougher stronger i knew that position he had already taught me to use wisdom use patience listen with your both ears to the story don't make harsh decisions don't use violence unless it's at the last resort so i guess i was handling myself pretty good my reputation just was exploding not only within our crew within the family but around bensonhurst brooklyn manhattan it was blowing up all over the place of who i was and it not because i was made but because of things that happened and how i conducted myself when those things happened i had a tough tough [ __ ] crew good guys tough guys most of them were associates eventually i was making some of them but that added to my reputation as well i stayed non-flashy stayed in the neighborhood went to the same restaurants try to conduct myself like i always did don't overdress don't stop putting diamonds all over the place this is a secret society i live by that that word meant something to me [Music] frankie to chico frankie to chico i grew up with him i think he was about 12 or 14 years older than me and he he became like a big brother to me we came out of the same exact neighborhood we knew each other he was very very powerful very very ballsy tough guy but very [ __ ] fair very very honorable and he was for the underdog if there was a problem always seemed to take the underdog's side like if a guy had a problem with three or four made guys or associates he'd always take the other guy's problem and take us back to say come on bro we did that same [ __ ] when we were young liam alone this let's just yell at him and chase him out he was that type of guy who's always for the underdog his whole family was in the mob uncles cousins you name it the chicos were like a mob within itself the women were like gangsters i think you could have killed somebody right in front of the women they'll help you drag the body out they'll never cooperate against you they'll never do anything so the whole family that the chico family had that aura about them frankie is not known to the public that much i was a tough guy with a real tough crew john gotti was a tough guy with a tough crew if you put my crew and john got his crew together we were in a pimple on frankie the chico's ass and i'm not ashamed to say that any time he opened up a club or got a piece of a bar or a business i always went to spend money there and uh anything to build him and help him i i was there and i did it he had a crap game in this club in the back room it was a crap table shooting dice the front there was a bar and i was at the bar with his father who was also a made guy and he was also with taro and we were drinking at the bar and talking and the door opened up and john gotti came in very flashy with a bunch of guys a little entourage four or five guys i heard a lot of things about him i didn't know him personally i had a friend of mine who was in prison and he got in trouble something about drugs and money with the black eyes i understood that john gotti got involved and squashed the beef and he worked things out to resolve the problem between my friend and the black guys now the problem would have resulted in my friend getting beaten because there was quite a few black guys and he squashed it i knew that so when he walked over to me boozy said sammy this is john gotti johnny this is sammy says sammy the bull yeah yeah that's me i said give john a drink he said sami i hear a lot of [ __ ] great things about you yeah vice versa bro i i know you just got out of prison not too long ago i hear a lot of great things about you too and number two i want to thank you you straightened out a problem for a guy who knew me a friend of mine who was in prison he said yeah yeah i took care of it as soon as somebody told me that he he was your friend i stuck my two cents in right away i appreciate it bro i appreciate it and i hear a lot of things about you john knows i'm not introduced as a friend because he's not made yet so that's what i knew about john gotti that's when i met him and it was probably i think he got made in 1977 somewhere around that time but it was about a year and a half after me there was different times when i bunked into him or there was a problem and we were together then when he was made i was introduced as a friend to him so i got to know him better and better but it started in around 77 and it went further from there new york 1977. i'm already a maid guy in the gambino family super close with taro one year after our maid i become an acting captain he makes me an acting captain and uh i'm with him all the time when i got transferred he told me to be with him all the time i'm with him like like glue so one day he says sammy we got to go to paul's house drive me up there okay so we go up there and we the maid lets us into the house and uh he's there he's not as friendly as he always was and just something i guess was going on i didn't know what taro stood in front of me i stood behind him and after shaking his hand and saying hello and he tells taro after angelo bruno was killed the boss of philadelphia mob a war broke out between angelo bruno's cousin who was a captain a very powerful captain johnny keys and uh phil the chicken man tester a little while after phil the chicken mantesta was killed with a bomb in front of his house he had brought nicky scaffo in as his gunslier now the war basically continues between nikki scarfo and johnny keys the commission the new york commission has ruled for nikki scarface to take over johnny keys didn't agree with it and the war is raging there's a few murders back and forth and now paul is explaining what happened he went to a commission meeting and they accused him of backing johnny keys on a sneak he vehemently denies it he doesn't even know what they're talking about and they tell him two maid members in the gambino family pal joey and nikki russo was seen meeting with johnny keys in a restaurant so that's where the accusation is coming from somebody reached the commission and told them about this meeting now paul is explaining this and when he denies it they say well if you're not backing it and you're able your people are able to meet with him then we're going to make a commission hit very rarely ever done where the entire commission agrees and gives a hit out [Music] and they give it to paul castellano it's your head you take him out he's [ __ ] fuming pal joey and nikki russo are with taro arella they are in a jersey faction but they're with him and i'm a young pup just became an acting captain i'm just there to drive i'm just there to listen and i hear this going on it's an incredible thing taro says i don't know nothing about it paul is fuming he said then get them and bring them into a meeting look at the [ __ ] position that these guys have us in now we reach out for them they come in there's a meeting another meeting and this time we go to paul again taro me pal joey and nikki russo we tell them a little bit about it they're real nervous but they said they bunked into him they knew him for years they're all old-timers and they just talked there was you know they knew about the war but they didn't talk about the war with him they're claiming so anyway we take them to the house paul is fuming again with them he tells them what that meeting did and the position that we're in they're literally banging in paul we didn't talk about the war we knew a little bit about it just a word about we didn't talk about it with them we didn't back and we didn't say anything [Music] he says to them well now we're involved he kind of looks over taro's shoulder and he looks at me and says sammy could you take out this guy johnny keys i'm dumbfounded i know this is now a commission hit i know how big this is i know there's a war going on between two factions in the philadelphia family i don't know this guy from a hole in the wall i never even heard of him basically but i answer paul and say i guess i could i don't know where he stays what he looks like who he is i would need some help in that respect do you need guns money or some shooters no paul i i wouldn't need that i have my own people i'm comfortable with i just need direction where he is where he stays what he looks like stuff like that he turns to nikki and joey and says you're on the head you'll understand me with this listen to whatever he says and do it [Music] you know where he stays yes we do you obviously know yes and put sammy on him we leave the house or i should say we're leaving the house paul touches my shoulder good luck [Music] be careful the sky is no joke [Music] you

Channel: Salvatore "Sammy The Bull" Gravano

Views: 891,408

Keywords: sammy the bull, salvatore gravano, godfather, mafia, mob boss, underboss, mafioso, john gotti, carlo gambino, lucky luciano, paul castellano, al capone, gambino, bonanno, colombo, crime, true crime, mob, goodfellas, the irishman, roy demeo

Id: oEFjWlgOu1k

Length: 29min 59sec (1799 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 12 2021