Sammy the Bull lets loose about mafia life | Nightline

this is what the mob does this is what we do this is how we live this is the true side of the mafia this isn't somebody talking about the mafia i am part of it his name salvatore the bull gravano one of the most notorious gangsters in mafia history sammy the bull is a serial murderer he's a psychopath and a sociopath he's not a serial killer he was a gangster we kill amongst ourselves in according to our rules it was for what you did gravano rose through the ranks and became second in command of new york's infamous gambino crime family they tell you to kill someone did you think of saying no no not at all now in his 70s bravano talks about his life as a mafia hit man in the abc news production truth and lies the last gangster new york in the 70s and 80s was like the wild west bodies all over the place it was insane the mob was going through a very violent period it was a dangerous time in the mob's world sammy bull was a street thug who grew up in bensonhurst he gravitated towards the world of organized crime as a young boy did he have options not to join the mob absolutely but once you go in it's all in or nothing it was for money it was for greed it was for women it was fast cause it was being part of a society part of a brotherhood many of them consider what they do almost military in nature they consider themselves soldiers so they believe when your boss tells you you have to kill somebody they feel they're doing the right thing my father said when i took my oath to kosanosha i gave up everything at the ceremony there was 14 guys and one by one they called us down the basement dim lights real smoky there was a picture of a saint on the table they pricked my finger to get blood out of it put the blood on the saint they put it in my hand then they lit it he just said if you betray this brotherhood may your soul burn like the saint i really believed in it with my heart and soul new york in the 80s and 90s was a very very interesting place i didn't think that somebody like trump would turn out to be the president of the united states nor did i think that john gotti would rise to become such a prominent celebrity but they did because new york loves a character in ozone park you know which was in queens right over the brooklyn queens border where john gotti lived he was a hero you're uh thanks john hat on thanks john who god who else for what for having this big party you know anything about john gotti no if i did i wouldn't say anyway john gotti the teflon don the mob boss who changed the face of organized crime putting the one secretive lifestyle on full display he was he was over the top and he was taking full advantage of his celebrity i think his problem was that he fell in love with himself he saw himself on television in newspapers and he lost touch with what he was that he's a gangster not an actor john gotti was so enamored of sammy the bull that he made him his own divorce me and john ran the family it was me and him against the world well i mean you could tell by the body language that they were very close john gotti trusted him implicitly john barked i bet a lot of people knew that you got it done i got the job done and if you'd said kill your son my son i probably would have fought on that one there's no way i would kill my son i would have i would have died with him or i would have died trying or there's no way the fbi had long been working on ways to bring down the new york mafia their target was john gotti the fbi and new york state's organized crime task force set a trap for gotti so the whole strategy was to put bugs where john was having his most secret conversations where he was going to talk the most about the criminal conduct he made my job easier he introduced me to that whole family [Music] i don't think any of the old-timers would believe that because austria was to be run like this in any way shape or form john starts recognizing that everybody knows and respects sammy he's a guy interacting with everybody that becomes a threat to the boss because now all of a sudden i could be replaced by this guy and we don't miss a beat right listening to the gotti tapes it's clear john was setting my father up and i realized that john probably eventually would take me out for no other reason but he wants one show one boss or john gotti he don't want anybody to be his equal you don't want anybody in any way shape or form to shine and i guess i was shining too much making it sound like high school yeah but the only thing is that in high school you can throw a spit ball at somebody we use bullets so sammy the bull betrays everything he once pledged a blood oath to going from one of the most powerful figures in the new york city mafia to his most infamous informant they have said you are the single most important witness ever to testify against the mom i think i am another boss is the highest position who's ever cooperated but i think i'm in a position of being the most knowledgeable on the boss who's cooperated gravano revealing key details of racketeering and murder helped put gotti away for life sammy helped me shut out the rest of the family and bosses and under bosses of the other families i think we totaled over 38 convictions he arguably led to the demise of organized crime in new york are you a rat if that's the time you like to use i don't look at myself as that i look at it as i was betrayed i betrayed him that's what the mob is in order to convict john gotti prosecutors got gravano a reduced five-year sentence for his 19 murders making the deal with gravano did not come without criticism there was blow back from the family members of people that he killed what do we do we have no recourse they said this was okay they wrapped him in the american flag and they sent him off guerrano later went into witness protection leaving the program a year later in writing a tell-tale book about his life while he was able to avoid the mafia's retribution he was unable to avoid a life of crime spending another 17 years in prison after his arrest for drug trafficking no matter how i feel now i couldn't change what happened it was ugly but i know what people want me to say it was so ugly would you change it yes the way i feel now but even looking now i couldn't a good man i think i'm a decent man you don't worry about a final judgment i'll worry about that that day and we'll see what happens you can stream truth and lie as the last gangster on hulu hi everyone george stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the abc news youtube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel and don't forget to download the abc news app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 1,432,161

Keywords: Bull, Gotti, John, New, Sammy, York, abc, abcnews, crime, mafia, mob, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-82528130, the

Id: 37M1W8TPSPs

Length: 8min 35sec (515 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 28 2022