Louie resented taking orders from Vallario and made it known. One of the more active Gambino hoodlums to operate in New Yorks Little Italy area was Tony West DeLutro who Robert DiBernardo was a major player in the pornography industry who was set up for the "kill" by Sammy Gravano. Until next time"The Other Guy" Life was good for a drugselling rat, but then the bubble burst. Ironically, Gravanos downfall was due to informers among his own associates. Other popular Cosa Nostra figures discussed in this video are Joe the Boss Masseria, Lucky Luciano, and Giuseppe \"Pete\" Morello. He came up under Tommy Rava crew, he was close to many members in that crew, such as Neil Dellacroce, Tony Rizzo, Mike Ciazzo, and Petey Pumps. Married to Sammys sister Fran, Cousin Eddie Garafola was a made member in the Gambino Crime Family. Carlo knew if he had Neil loyal the workhorse crews would fall in line like the Fatico and Armone brothers. Karen Gravano's memoir details childhood with mobster Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano. // Salvatore Toddo Aurello retiring - GangsterBB.NET 3) Toddo died after Gravano cooperated, but none of that hurt his crew, which means it was part of the deal Gravano had made with the FBI. Ferrara isnt cited a lot on this sub, but by all accounts he was one tough dude himself. He was tough and loyal. According to Gravano, he was initially livid at the news and threatened to kill Castellano, but DeCicco eventually convinced him opposition would be futile and Gravano acquiesced to the murder. He just didn't act like a gangster. forms: { Low Key Bookie Who Owes His Button To - The Last Mafioso - Facebook 1 registered members (1 invisible), Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? 1 registered members (1 invisible), Stymie was gunned down at Talis, a bar that my father and Stymie owned together. [1] Around 5:30, Gravano spotted Castellanos Lincoln Town Car stopped at a nearby intersection and, via walkie talkie, alerted the team of hitmen stationed outside the restaurant of Castellanos approach. The conspirators decided not to approach the Genovese family due to boss Vincent The Chin Gigantes long-standing friendship with Castellano. Aurello quickly took a liking to Sammy, who already had an education in mob life through Persico, and Aurello became Sammys mob mentor. Militos body has never been found. I think he didn't feel like taking part in the new regime so he chose to retire. Roy DeMeo was someone he knew not to get into any kind of conflict with. His captain ordered him to apologize to Sammy which Scarpa did without hesitation. Thank you. And so Sammy The Bull was born. He was prepared to kill Gallo right in front of the girlfriend and the doorman. He wanted me to get a superior education and had me enrolled at the prestigious Staten Island Academy. After an exchange of words, Scarpa and his guys pummeled the man. Sammy knew that this just changed from a high risk hit to a suicide situation. I didnt hear the first shot. Just call Louie up and tell him to hang himself. After some problems with the Colombo's Gravano was transferred to the Gambino Crime Family and put under the wing of Salvatore "Toddo" Aurello a Capo in the Gambino Crime Family. [6] Both Dellacroce and Gotti tried to convince Ruggiero to comply if Castellano explained beforehand how he intended to use the tapes, but Ruggiero refused, fearing he would endanger good friends. This was during the 2nd Colombo Family war after Joe Gallo got out of prison. If there was a leak, somebody had to survive and keep playing. spiders. The old man would pat me on the head and then stick a twenty-dollar bill in my pocket. According to Sammy Paul was very impressed with how Sammy handled it. His reasoning was that he wanted Louie to die honorably. Joe Colucci was going to die. Louis Saccenti was a member of Toddos original Bensonhurst crew that Sammy inherited. Gravanos specific position within the family varied during 1986 and 1987. Sometime in the early 1970s, Ralph Spero, brother of Shorty, became jealous of Gravanos status as a rising star in the family, fearing he would be made before his own son, Tommy. He would testify against Gotti and send him to prison for life. Fiala pulled a gun on Sammy, sealing his own death warrant. In January 1990 Gotti went to trial for ordering an assault on carpenters union boss John OConnor. We just sent you an Email. Louis Big Louis Vallario, Sammy said, was super loyal and solid. Toddo Aurello was a highly respected but elusive Gambino family capo. In January 1990 Gotti went to trial for ordering an assault on carpenter's union boss John O'Connor. SnooTomatoes2894 2 yr. ago Toddo had a Social Club he ran on Bath Avenue Brooklyn. But there's nothing I can do about Mike. The bar was the scene of a violent altercation one night, involving a rowdy biker gang intent on ransacking the establishment, which may have served as inspiration for a similar scene in the 1993 film A Bronx Tale. Gravanos intentions for this murder would be called into question as it was suspected Gravano might have had different reasons for wanting DiBono dead due to his jealousy over DiBonos drywall business. I told him there would be consequences for drugs. Lived in Valley . Neil Dellacroce had his protoge called John Gotti. Conte botched an ideal opportunity to kill DiBono. Sammy could sense that if he had pressed the issue, Scarpa might have a serious problem even in his own family. I didnt see any blood. The club looked like a big kitchen, with tables and chairs set out around the room and a few pictures, mostly scenes of Italy, hanging on the walls. Kooky-Worldliness980 6 mo. Castellano had been given the details of what Fiala had done, but he was still livid that Gravano had not come to him for permission to kill Fiala first. Salvatore DAquila was the first recognized boss of what is now called the Gambino Family, leading a large Palermitani faction in New York City as they emigrated. Gravano was released early and then entered the U.S. federal Witness Protection Program, but he left it in 1995 and relocated to Arizona. On February 9, 1990 Gotti was acquitted. He was only about fifteen years older than me but he already had white hair and looked kind of decrepit. 60 He was forced to rely heavily on Gravano, Angelo Ruggiero, and Joseph Piney Armone to manage the familys day-to-day affairs while he called the major shots from his jail cell. When Dad found out, he wasn't upset. [7] Castellanos driver, Thomas Bilotti, pulled the car up directly in front of the entrance. He became heavily involved in the construction industry. Known by most as Sammy The Bull, Salvatore Gravano was born on March 12th, 1945 in Bensonhurst, a Brooklyn neighborhood with a predominantly Italian-American population to Gerry and Kay Gravano, both of whom hailed from Sicily. Sammy at the time was a Colombo associate in the crew of Shorty Spero. Overnight the Dapper Don had become the Teflon Don, and his ego would grow even bigger. Gotti was imprisoned in May 1986 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York while awaiting trial on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charges. John Gottis lawyers brought accusations that Gravano had been involved in the murders of two other individuals not disclosed to the FBI. She told Gravano that DeBatt stayed up at night with a gun claiming they were coming to get him. Gravano had taken DeBatt under his wing after the elder DeBatts death, as he had done with Joey D Angelo. Michael DeBatts father was a Gambino crime family mob associate and a close friend of Sammys who became indebted to loansharks and bookmakers. This just tore my fucking insides out. The conspirators first order of business was meeting with other Gambino members, most of whom were disaffected under Castellano, and gaining their support for the hit. Gravano was at the club at the time and was blown off his feet by the blast. His wife and daughter (Karen Gravano) were also charged but were not imprisoned. [1] A sit-down with Castellano was held, at which an irate Gravano accused DiBono of withholding $200,000 in payments for subcontracts and threatened to kill him right then and there. Dad didn't say Paul was his boss in one of New York's biggest, most blood-letting, most feared crime families, or that the construction business wasn't building somebody a little house, but more like construction racketeering, loan-sharking, and extortion. Eventually, Gravano and several other members of the Gambino family became disenchanted with Gottis lust for the media and high profile antics, feeling they brought too much heat. According to Karen, Sammys daughter, Stymie was Joe DAngelo, my fathers closest friend. By the fall, my father announced that I was going to be transferring to a new school. Salvatore Aurello passed away at age 83 years old on February 22, 1998. I believe he is the older man in a white rain coat 3:07 mark talking to the tall Joe Butch Corrao and walking behind Frank DeCiccio. In 1982, Frank Fiala, a wealthy businessman and drug trafficker, paid Gravano $40,000 to rent the Plaza Suite for a birthday party he was throwing himself. Sammy was already an established hitman and Colombo Family associate. Thanks to a good lawyer Gravano walked on that one but was soon back in court when he was arrested for a burglary. In one of Sammy The Bill Gravanos interviews; He mentions that Toddo Aurello; who was Sammys captain asked to step down and retire after the hit on Paul Castellano. I told John why didnt Pat simplify everything. He was summoned to Vallarios bar where hitman John Carneglia snuck up behind him and put a bullet in his head. Witness to the Mob is a made-for-TV film which premiered on Sunday, May 10, and concluded on Monday, May 11, 1998. What should have been a time of celebration was now marred by the loss of his closest friend. Eventually with Sammys help and working on his own criminal endeavours, DeBatt was able to settle his father's outstanding debts to the loansharks and bookmakers. He died leaving his family under financial strain and heavily indebted. The next day, I bragged to my friends at school, telling them my father had a gun under the bed because he was in the army. By 1998, however he had resumed his life of crime and partnered with a local youth gang known as the Devil Dogs after his son became friends with the gangs 23-year-old leader Michael Papa. [1] He quickly moved up the ranks and into racketeering, loansharking, and running a lucrative poker game in the back room of an after-hours club, of which he was part-owner. As he went to make his move, 3-4 cars full of Gallos crew pulled up, with all of them armed and ready. Philip "Joey Cello" Bacino. Paul Castellano was also wary of DeMeo and didnt think that he would stand up under the legal pressure. Frank "Sleepy" Barcellona. He was a good man, Mike, until this. Witness to the Mob - Wikiwand His underlings had mixed feelings about their boss, he was smart and ran the Family in a good way but he wasn't a gangster and he didn't show any respect for his soldiers who did the work. [1] Gravano began to change his boss cowboy image of him when he entered into the plumbing and drywall business with his brother-in-law, Edward Garafola. A percentage of the money was kicked upstairs to the Family bosses who protected him. Like his predecessor Carlo Gambino, Castellano favored emphasizing more sophisticated schemes involving construction, trucking, and garbage disposal over traditional street-level activities such as loansharking, gambling, and hijackings. The average age of an Aurello family member is 79. From that point on, he was called Sammy instead of Salvatore or Sal.. At the time, he was the highest ranking member of the Five Families to break his blood oath, and to this day is one of the highest-ranking members of organized crime to turn informer. Upon Colombo associate Shorty Speros suggestion and to avoid further conflict, Gravano moved from the Colombo family to the Gambino family and joined Salvatore Toddo Aurellos crew. Link to Mikey Scars YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWgheRxK2j4aq_SrGPCZHOg/featuredRJ Roger sits with Michael DiLeonardo, known in The Lif. After Ravas murder in late 1957, the crew split between Neil Dellacroce and Anthony Rizzo. It looked more like an Italian villa or a museum, with its iron gates and a gigantic fountain spewing water in the middle of a large, circular brick driveway filled with expensive cars and incredibly manicured grounds. Pretty soon Gravano started with gang life and ran into trouble with the N.Y.P.D. [1] Mormando had become addicted to crack cocaine and was suspected by Gravano of getting friend and fellow crew member Michael DeBatt addicted to the drug.