Word: gotti
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...onetime boxer and lifelong hoodlum who dropped out of school at 16, Gravano had plenty to say about the workings of the Gambino family. Until their arrest in December 1990, Gravano was the don's right hand and heir apparent. On FBI surveillance tapes, Gotti was frequently heard speaking of his love for Sammy and once told his men, "Soon as anything happens to me, I'm off the streets, Sammy is the acting boss." As the man who controlled the Gambino business interests in the New York City construction trade, Gravano claimed to have passed along to Gotti...
...Gravano's testimony about what he called "hits" and "whacks" that could damage Gotti the most. Under questioning by prosecutor John Gleeson, the witness testified that Gotti ordered 10 of the killings in which Gravano admitted having a hand. "Sometimes I was the shooter," said Gravano. "Sometimes I was a backup guy. Sometimes I set the guy up. Sometimes I just talked about it." Foremost among these rubouts: the 1985 murder of Gambino boss Paul Castellano and his bodyguard Thomas Bilotti outside a New York City steak house -- an execution that put Gotti in the top job. Gravano says...
Gravano also spoke about the aggravations that went with being a Mafia headman -- including constant electronic FBI surveillance of the Gambino- family clubhouse in Little Italy. Whenever they wanted to talk business, Gotti and his pals were obliged to take walks or retire to another apartment upstairs. They felt it was safe, Gravano explained, "because an 80-year-old woman owned the apartment." That was a big mistake: the flat was bugged, and tapes made there provided key evidence against Gotti and his chums...
...Gotti's success with juries in the past, Gravano suggested that there may have been more to it than luck. The Bull claims to have personally handled a $60,000 bribe for one of the jurors who acquitted Gotti in 1987. The juror was charged last month with obstruction of justice in the alleged bribe-taking incident. At the present trial, jurors are identified only by number and are sequestered in an undisclosed location guarded by federal marshals. Even so, Judge I. Leo Glasser replaced two of them last week with alternates after they asked to be excused...
...cross-examination of Gravano, Gotti's attorney Albert Krieger tried to paint the Bull as a traitorous opportunist who betrayed a longtime friend because he feared for his own neck. Krieger asked Gravano if people in his old Brooklyn neighborhood had a word for someone like...