Gotti's Boys: The Mafia Crew That Killed for John Gotti by Anthony M. DeStefano

Author:Anthony M. DeStefano [DeStefano, Anthony M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, True Crime, Biographical, Illustrated
ISBN: 9780806539157
Publisher: Citadel Press
Published: 2019-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Tales of the Tapes, Part 1

WITH THE ACQUITTAL IN BROOKLYN FEDERAL COURT, on top of the dismissal of the assault case involving Romual Piecyk in Queens, Gotti was quickly dubbed the “Teflon Don” in the media. He had an aura of invincibility about him. While the racketeering case in front of Judge Nickerson had been grinding on, the Mafia bosses in the other New York families had not fared well at all. On November 19, 1986, in the Commission trial taking place in Manhattan federal court, Genovese boss Anthony Salerno, Tony “Ducks” Corallo, the head of the Lucchese family, and Carmine “The Snake” Persico the boss of the Colombo family were all convicted of a range of federal racketeering offenses, including the extortion of the construction industry through the Concrete Club scheme. Their associates, Salvatore “Tom Mix” Santoro, Christy “Tick” Furnari, and Gerry Langella were convicted as well, along with union officials and Bruno Indelicato, the Bonanno associate who helped carry out the murder of Carmine Galante.

Gotti was the last of the official bosses standing, although Philip Rastelli of the Bonanno family still faced a different set of charges and had not yet been convicted. Still, as the Teflon Don, Gotti was now swaggering around town, hitting the nightclubs and laughing at the government. He was good copy for the press, and with his stylish couture and expensive night life consuming Remy Martin Louis XIII cognac, Gotti also became known as the “Dapper Don.” When his son John A. got married, the reception at the Helmsley Palace, said to have cost $100,000, received media coverage as if it where a royal wedding. A fair complement of cops and agents also provided their own kind of coverage, watching the guests as they climbed the stairs inside the hotel to the ballroom.

At the FBI offices in Queens, Bruce Mouw and the rest of the special C-16 squad had sensed that the Brooklyn racketeering jury had been compromised before the verdict had been rendered. It seems that among the FBI stable of informants was a woman who was dating and sleeping with a Gambino associate. During some pillow talk, the woman learned from her lover that Gotti wasn’t worried about a verdict because the jury had been compromised. But with only suspicion and no firm evidence, Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Andrew Maloney kept silent and kept his own suspicion from Giacalone and the rest of the trial team.

As would later be uncovered in the government follow-up investigation, Pape remained a stubborn holdout for acquittal. But, in a twist, Pape was apparently able to convince the other jurors that the government hadn’t made its case and got the eleven others on the panel to vote for acquittal. As would later be reported, a majority of jurors had initially wanted to convict Gotti, but Pape was able to convince them to abandon their position. (Pape would later be charged federally, convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment for his corruption.)

Gotti had good reason to feel he had won a big battle.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.