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True Crime Documentary - John Gotti · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:00
Speaker 1: Mm hmmmmmmmmm. New York City's mafia an organization of brutal
0:12
Speaker 1: gangs to gain wealth and power. Members strong armed businesses
0:18
Speaker 1: and kill anyone in their room. John Gotti was one
0:25
Speaker 1: of organized crime's fiercest members. He wanted to rule New
0:30
Speaker 1: York City had to stop.
1:08
Speaker 2: John Gardy was ambitious, powerful and ruthless. He rude with
1:12
Speaker 2: flash and conspicuous style, playing celebrity with the media and
1:16
Speaker 2: cat and mouse with the FBI. They called John Guardy
1:19
Speaker 2: the Teflon Dawn, serious Chargers, just wooden stick. I'm Jim Calstrom,
1:27
Speaker 2: former director of the FBI's New York office. When John
1:30
Speaker 2: Gardy came to power in nineteen eighty five, organized crime
1:34
Speaker 2: still had its tentacles, spread into many legitimate businesses. Like
1:39
Speaker 2: a game of chess. Crime bosses were well insulated by
1:42
Speaker 2: layers of pawns. The FBI's job was to penetrate their
1:46
Speaker 2: defenses and capture the king.
1:55
Speaker 1: New York is the home of organized crime in America.
2:01
Speaker 1: Through intimidation, terror and murder, the five families that make
2:05
Speaker 1: up New York's mafia have corrupted labor unions, won extortion rackets,
2:09
Speaker 1: and infiltrated almost every major industry in the city. Disputes
2:16
Speaker 1: among the crime families often irrupt over who controls which
2:20
Speaker 1: union or what industry. These disputes are inevitably and violently resolved.
2:28
Speaker 1: By the nineteen seventies, the Gambino Family had emerged as
2:32
Speaker 1: the most violent and the most powerful crime family in
2:35
Speaker 1: the nation. As that decade came to an end, the
2:39
Speaker 1: FBI decided it was time to stop the mafia's reign
2:42
Speaker 1: of terror. The bureau's New York office set up five
2:46
Speaker 1: squads assigned to investigate and bring down each criminal family.
2:51
Speaker 1: Special Agent Bruce Mao was assigned to supervise the squad
2:55
Speaker 1: responsible for bringing down the Gambino Family.
3:00
Speaker 3: That we really weren't addressing organized crime here in New York,
3:03
Speaker 3: and so they formed a squads targeting particular crime family
3:07
Speaker 3: and try to address the organized crime probably here in
3:09
Speaker 3: New York. So in nineteen eighty we formed the squad
3:12
Speaker 3: and our target was to put the Gambino Family in jail.
3:19
Speaker 1: The main targets of Mao's investigation were the leaders of
3:22
Speaker 1: the Gambino Family, the boss Paul Castellano and his underboss
3:27
Speaker 1: Neil de la Prochi. Castellano assumed leadership of the family
3:31
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy six, when Carlos Gambino, the namesake of
3:35
Speaker 1: the family, died of natural callus. The FBI were also
3:41
Speaker 1: targeting the most powerful captains in the family, like John Gotti.
3:46
Speaker 1: The captains controlled crews of soldiers who carried out the
3:50
Speaker 1: day to day criminal activity for the family. Castellano's crews
3:55
Speaker 1: would commit the actual crimes, but Castellano himself did not.
4:00
Speaker 1: Catching him seemed impossible, as the FBI soon learned the
4:05
Speaker 1: entire hierarchy of the Gambino family was well insulated. The
4:10
Speaker 1: family army consisted of over fifty captains who controlled over
4:13
Speaker 1: three hundred soldiers. It was a large and impenetrable secret society,
4:20
Speaker 1: accessible to outsiders only through the lenses of surveillance families,
4:26
Speaker 1: but federal racketeering legislation was passed that made ordering criminal
4:30
Speaker 1: acts as much of a crime as committing the crime itself.
4:34
Speaker 1: In order to successfully prosecute the hierarchy of the Gambino family,
4:38
Speaker 1: the FBI had to secretly get them on tape discussing
4:42
Speaker 1: their criminal enterprise. Now and his team would have to patiently,
4:50
Speaker 1: methodically work their way into the intricate structure of the
4:53
Speaker 1: Gambino family. It would take years to accomplish that good
5:02
Speaker 1: but in account especially, agents tried to learn more by
5:07
Speaker 1: speaking to residents in the neighborhoods where mob activity was prevalent.
5:16
Speaker 1: To sure, not yeah, but take a look. You might
5:18
Speaker 1: recognize one of these guys. Take a look, take a
5:20
Speaker 1: good look. Take your talking. Few people were willing to talk.
5:26
Speaker 1: Only those on the inside could tell agents who were
5:29
Speaker 1: the real power bulkers of the family. Cooperating witnesses and
5:33
Speaker 1: informants had to be developed. Betraying the mafia meant certain death.
5:39
Speaker 1: Informants would be difficult to come by, but some were
5:46
Speaker 1: willing to take the risk. Most were low level criminals
5:50
Speaker 1: cutting deals with the government to avoid prosecution and long
5:53
Speaker 1: prison sentences. Whatever their motivation, they gave agents something they
5:59
Speaker 1: did not have before, a backdoor into the Gambino family's
6:03
Speaker 1: criminal operations. Castellano ran the family like a major corporation.
6:14
Speaker 1: Nicknamed within the mafia as the Pope. He used unions
6:18
Speaker 1: to strengthen his grip on various industries in New York.
6:26
Speaker 1: Lewis Schilllero, head of the FBI's New York office, is
6:30
Speaker 1: an expert on organized crime.
6:33
Speaker 4: One of the most influential things that the Gambino family
6:36
Speaker 4: did was the control of the labor unions in New
6:38
Speaker 4: York City. They exerted at one time tremendous influence in
6:42
Speaker 4: terms of the long Shawman's Union, in terms of construction
6:45
Speaker 4: industry trade unions, in terms of the teamsters and trucking.
6:50
Speaker 4: By controlling the trade unions in New York City, the
6:52
Speaker 4: Gambino family was able to control construction and certainly had
6:56
Speaker 4: a great influence in the garment center, and that generated
6:58
Speaker 4: tremendous on a financial base to the family.
7:04
Speaker 1: Castellano knew how to keep his interests under control.
7:07
Speaker 3: Castellano also realized how important it was to rule by
7:11
Speaker 3: fear and terror, so he had several enforcement arms of
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Speaker 3: the family. He had a credo that was famous for
7:17
Speaker 3: killing people, dis memboring bodies, and even sorts of horrid things.
7:22
Speaker 3: So even though Castellana was known as the Bitessman's don,
7:25
Speaker 3: he was a tough guy. He had a hair trigger
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Speaker 3: and temper, and he killed at the drop of a hat.
7:30
Speaker 1: Getting to Castellano directly would be very difficult. His home
7:35
Speaker 1: in Staten Island was a fortress under constant supervision by
7:38
Speaker 1: armed guards. He had also installed a sophisticated alarm system.
7:45
Speaker 1: Then he told him that agents had no solid evidence
7:48
Speaker 1: to suggest that Castellano conducted criminal business in his home.
7:54
Speaker 1: Without such proof, a court would never authorize an FBI
7:57
Speaker 1: bug or a phone wire tap in so the home
8:03
Speaker 1: agents hit the streets. They hoped to find one weak
8:08
Speaker 1: link to exploit, one person in the family who made
8:11
Speaker 1: himself vulnerable to electronic surveillance. They learned through informants about
8:17
Speaker 1: a Gambino family crew headed by John Gotti that operated
8:21
Speaker 1: in preams headquartered in a private social club called the
8:25
Speaker 1: Bergen Hunt and Fish Club. A few of the FBI's
8:29
Speaker 1: well placed informants were close to one of Gotti's lieutenants,
8:33
Speaker 1: a man named Angelo Eugerio. Though known on the streets,
8:41
Speaker 1: it's the most vicious gang in the Gambino family. Agents
8:45
Speaker 1: believed they found their weak link in Gotti's career.
8:50
Speaker 3: And the reason we did was he had lieutenant named
8:51
Speaker 3: Angel Ujerio who ran the day day operations for God
8:55
Speaker 3: and his crew. And Angelo is an attractive target because
8:58
Speaker 3: number one, he's very active, could uh involved a lot
9:01
Speaker 3: of criminal activity. Number Two, he had a big mouth,
9:04
Speaker 3: He talked a lot he was a gossip and a
9:06
Speaker 3: blabber mouth.
9:13
Speaker 1: Now quickly established surveillance teams to identify, record, and log
9:17
Speaker 1: every person who entered the Bergen Club. Agents learned that
9:32
Speaker 1: John Gotti and his crew made money for the family,
9:35
Speaker 1: primarily through hijacking, car thefts, extortion, and illegal gambling operations.
9:56
Speaker 1: Informants told agents that Rugerio sometimes discussed family business on
10:00
Speaker 1: his daughter's phone. He believed the line listed in her
10:04
Speaker 1: name to be free of FBI buds. Permission to wiretap
10:15
Speaker 1: private telephone is granted sparingly. Agents must convince a federal
10:21
Speaker 1: judge that the target is engaged in criminal activities and
10:24
Speaker 1: that the wiretap is likely to produce more evidence. If
10:29
Speaker 1: conversations are not of a criminal nature, the wiretap must
10:33
Speaker 1: be turned off. The informant statements were enough to convince
10:40
Speaker 1: a federal judge in late nineteen eighty one that Ruggerio's
10:43
Speaker 1: daughter's phone should be tapped. Mao's squad had found a
10:51
Speaker 1: way to infiltrate the Gambino founder. The wiretapping of Rugerio's
11:04
Speaker 1: phone proved to be one of the most successful wiretaps
11:07
Speaker 1: in FBI history. The conversations overheard by the FBI were damning,
11:17
Speaker 1: but agents learned that Ruggerio also held meetings in his
11:20
Speaker 1: home with Gambino members. Maw and his squad had enough
11:24
Speaker 1: evidence to justify placing a microphone in Ruggerio's home. Agents
11:33
Speaker 1: slipped in, installed the bugs in his dining room, and
11:36
Speaker 1: left without a trace. The success of the mafia has
11:50
Speaker 1: always been its ability to stay one step ahead of
11:53
Speaker 1: law enforcement. What Maw and his squad did not know
11:58
Speaker 1: was that a high ranking police officer was on the
12:00
Speaker 1: Gambino payroll. Though the mole didn't know specific details, he
12:05
Speaker 1: leaked information to family members about ongoing investigations and electronic
12:10
Speaker 1: surveillance operations. Angelo Ruggerio became paranoid that his house was bugged.
12:23
Speaker 1: He searched the house himself but found nothing. Unconvinced, he
12:29
Speaker 1: called in a professional to conduct a thorough search or
12:32
Speaker 1: sweep for bugs. Yeah, I need someone to come sweep
12:48
Speaker 1: my house please. Ruggerio ordered the sweep on the tap telephone.
12:53
Speaker 1: When the FBI heard the conversation, they knew they had
12:56
Speaker 1: a crisis. Twenty three by Richmond Street got a probably.
13:04
Speaker 1: The phone tap inside the home was immediately turned off
13:07
Speaker 1: to avoid detection. If discovered, it would destroy weeks of
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Speaker 1: diligent work and send the squad back to square one.
13:16
Speaker 1: And there were no targets as talking as Lugerio. The
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Speaker 1: sweeper arrived with the most sophisticated electronic detection equipment available. Yes,
13:36
Speaker 1: after two days of searching the house top to bottom,
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Speaker 1: he was ready to report his findings to Ruggerio. Two
13:45
Speaker 1: days after Ruggerio's house was searched for bugs, agents arrested
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Speaker 1: the man who conducted the sweep of his house. What
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Speaker 1: they learned was indeed shocking. He charged Lugerio thousands of
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Speaker 1: dollars for his services, but none of his detection equipment worked.
14:03
Speaker 1: He had swindled the mob. Fortunately, he had told Ruggerio
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Speaker 1: his house was cleaned. It was a lucky break for
14:14
Speaker 1: the FBI. Not only had their bugs not been discovered,
14:19
Speaker 1: but now Ruggerio felt confident to speak freely in his house,
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Speaker 1: and he did so with abandon right into the FBI microphones. Slowly,
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Speaker 1: the FBI was getting closer to the Gambino family hierarchy.
14:37
Speaker 1: To agents, the conversations were a gold mine. As Ruggerio
14:43
Speaker 1: met with his Mob partners, the FBI learned of a
14:46
Speaker 1: major heroin trafficking operation conducted by Ruggerio and John Gotti's
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Speaker 1: younger brother, Eugene. Over a six month period, Angelo and
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Speaker 1: Eugene Gotti had distributed over fifty kilos of hair Carolyn
15:00
Speaker 1: and New York alone. The FBI had every last detail
15:06
Speaker 1: on tape. There was a mafia rule in effect that
15:10
Speaker 1: dealing drugs was strictly prohibited. The punishment for getting caught
15:16
Speaker 1: was execution, no appeal, no trial. Rugerio did not have
15:23
Speaker 1: the boss's permission to deal drugs, and he knew the consequences.
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Speaker 1: A year.
15:37
Speaker 2: They shown no restres unli.
15:43
Speaker 1: The government felt it had a strong case against Grugerio
15:46
Speaker 1: and Eugene got in September of nineteen eighty three, they
15:51
Speaker 1: were charged with running a major heroine distribution network and
15:54
Speaker 1: obstruction of justice. Though all of those indicted were part
15:59
Speaker 1: of John Gotti's crew, his name was not mentioned in
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Speaker 1: the tape conversations, But with the indictment, Castellano would soon
16:08
Speaker 1: find out that Gotti's men were doing jazz. Learning of
16:13
Speaker 1: the heroine operation, however, was not the only valuable piece
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Speaker 1: of information learned by agents. Just prior to his heroin indictment,
16:22
Speaker 1: Ruggierio would meet with other soldiers and discuss how he
16:26
Speaker 1: and John Gotti would go to Paul Costellano's house every
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Speaker 1: Sunday for a family meeting.
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Speaker 3: And then Agil give him a blow by blow what
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Speaker 3: happened in Paul's house the pope. The Pope dot that
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Speaker 3: he's mad at this guy. Everything's on the family, we
16:38
Speaker 3: found out through Angela's big mouth. And then next day
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Speaker 3: other soldiers come over, of course Angela to reconstruct what
16:44
Speaker 3: happened again, so we found everything was happening in the
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Speaker 3: Gambino family thanks to agrew Rgerio, John Gotti and Paul Castellano.
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Speaker 1: Based on the Ruggerio wire, agents now had probable cause
16:55
Speaker 1: to bug the house of Gambino boss Paul Castellano. Getting
17:04
Speaker 1: into Castellano's house took detailed planning and methodical execution. Agents
17:11
Speaker 1: managed to get inside the house and place the bugs.
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Speaker 1: Soon after, they began taping conversations that directly implicated Paul
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Speaker 1: Castellano as the boss of the Gambino family, the man
17:23
Speaker 1: who oversaw a multitude of illegal records that cost taxpayers
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Speaker 1: millions of dollars each year. Castellano would meet with his
17:33
Speaker 1: most trusted captains to discuss business. The FBI identified one
17:39
Speaker 1: of those captains as Sammy the Bull Gravana. As his
17:50
Speaker 1: nickname implied, the Bull was both strong and aggressive. He
17:54
Speaker 1: was a boxer and a bodybuilding He was also the
18:00
Speaker 1: family's top and force him. Ravano generated his money for
18:05
Speaker 1: the family in the construction industry. He was adept at
18:12
Speaker 1: a number of criminal activities, but his most notorious skill
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Speaker 1: was murder. As the FBI continued to investigate powerful captains
18:26
Speaker 1: in the family like John Gotti and Sammy de Bull,
18:30
Speaker 1: their sights remained focused on the boss. In nineteen eighty five,
18:36
Speaker 1: two years after Ruggieria was indicted, Paul Castellano was arrested
18:40
Speaker 1: and charged, along with other New York Family bosses, with
18:43
Speaker 1: dozens of federal racketeering and conspiracy violations. Out on bail,
18:49
Speaker 1: Castellano continued to run the family, though his attention seemed
18:53
Speaker 1: focused on how to beat the government's case against him.
18:58
Speaker 1: John Gotti was also facing his own legal troubles. An
19:02
Speaker 1: independent investigation led by the US Attorney's Office ended with
19:06
Speaker 1: Gotti and his mentor under boss, Neil Delacroci, being charged
19:11
Speaker 1: with several counts of racketeering. Delacroci and Gotti were released
19:16
Speaker 1: on bail, allowing them to continue their criminal operations. Months later,
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Speaker 1: DELACROCEI lay dying of cancer. The FBI had bugged his beggary.
19:32
Speaker 1: Gotti and Ruggerio visited, and the FBI was listening. They
19:37
Speaker 1: recorded Gotti talking about his fears that Castellano might kill
19:41
Speaker 1: him and Ruggierio forgetting caught on tape discussing their drug
19:45
Speaker 1: dealings and for leading the FBI to Castellano's house. The
19:50
Speaker 1: Boss wanted to hear the FBI tapes. Delacroci promised Gotti
19:56
Speaker 1: that he would do anything in his power to protect him.
20:00
Speaker 1: Delacroce's loyalty to God. He was causing a rift in
20:03
Speaker 1: the family. He was stalling the boss reluctant to turn
20:08
Speaker 1: the tapes over to Castellano. The Gambino family was splitting
20:13
Speaker 1: in two. Then, in early December of nineteen eighty five,
20:25
Speaker 1: Neil Dellacroce, the Gambino family second in command, died of
20:30
Speaker 1: cancer in his home. On December sixteenth, two weeks after
20:39
Speaker 1: Delacroce's death, Castellano and his new underboss, Tommy Bellao, pulled
20:44
Speaker 1: up to a fashionable steakhouse in Midtown Manhattan to meet
20:47
Speaker 1: some associates for denning. As they started to exit the car,
20:52
Speaker 1: several men approached them and began firing the Castellano and
21:11
Speaker 1: Bellotti never knew what hit, though they were killed instantly.
21:18
Speaker 1: When the boss of the family is assassinated, the FBI
21:21
Speaker 1: believes that the person responsible is usually the one who
21:24
Speaker 1: steps up and as scenes leadership of the family. It
21:29
Speaker 1: was mafia tradition to pay tribute to a new boss
21:32
Speaker 1: to show him respect. Two weeks after the murder, agents
21:37
Speaker 1: watched a parade of high level Gambino Family members enter
21:41
Speaker 1: the Bergen Hunt and Fish Globe. They were meeting with
21:46
Speaker 1: John Guide. Agent Mow and his squad would have to
21:54
Speaker 1: restructure their attack on the Gambino hierarchy John Gotti, the
22:00
Speaker 1: new boss of the family. Agents pieced together his criminal
22:05
Speaker 1: history and traced his rise to power. John Gotti became
22:11
Speaker 1: a Gambino Family associate around nineteen seventy. He impressed the
22:16
Speaker 1: boss in nineteen seventy three by killing a man who
22:20
Speaker 1: had kidnapped and murdered a relative of Carlos Gambino. Gotti
22:26
Speaker 1: served two years for the hit before he was paroled.
22:29
Speaker 1: Upon his release, and quickly gained respect within the family.
22:33
Speaker 1: He began to make a great deal of money for
22:35
Speaker 1: the family through loan shocking and gambling operations in his neighborhood.
22:45
Speaker 1: He became a hero of sorts, throwing huge Fourth of
22:48
Speaker 1: July parties every year, complete with firepos. Special Agent George
22:55
Speaker 1: Gabriel was assigned to Mauth Squad in nineteen eighty five.
23:00
Speaker 1: He quickly became an expert on John Gotti.
23:04
Speaker 5: He took care of if there were old ladies that
23:06
Speaker 5: were in need, If he had money in his pocket,
23:08
Speaker 5: he'd give it out. He was in some respects a
23:11
Speaker 5: robin hood in his neighborhood, and that's how he carried himself.
23:16
Speaker 5: But how did he.
23:17
Speaker 1: Make that money?
23:18
Speaker 5: By killing, by robbing, by manipulating, by bribing, by controlling
23:23
Speaker 5: rackets that he didn't have a right to control. And
23:26
Speaker 5: that's aside. When he didn't like you, when you fell
23:29
Speaker 5: on the wrong side of John, you died. I mean
23:32
Speaker 5: there was no mercy.
23:33
Speaker 1: You died.
23:34
Speaker 5: There was no two ways about it.
23:36
Speaker 1: Got he was now the Kingney. He found himself in
23:40
Speaker 1: command of a multi million dollar crime network made up
23:43
Speaker 1: of scams he did not know existed. He had a
23:47
Speaker 1: lot to learn with their bugs and surveillance. Special Agent
23:51
Speaker 1: Gabriel and the rest of the FBI squad learned right
23:54
Speaker 1: along with him.
23:56
Speaker 5: John Gotti took over that family. He had to learn
23:58
Speaker 5: what the rackets were, and as he's learning them, we're
24:01
Speaker 5: learning them. Who's got what industries, who's collecting from what unions.
24:07
Speaker 5: He's asking captains to give him a list of all
24:09
Speaker 5: the soldiers in there and their crews, so he could
24:12
Speaker 5: know who he's got in his family and how many.
24:17
Speaker 1: Got He was the boss, but he still had legal troubles.
24:22
Speaker 1: Six months after becoming the head of the family, he
24:24
Speaker 1: was sent to jail to await trial on loan sharking
24:27
Speaker 1: and gambling chargers. Jail didn't slow him down, though. From
24:32
Speaker 1: his sell god, he ordered a murder. It was against
24:37
Speaker 1: Robert de Bernardo, who had been a close associate of Godi.
24:44
Speaker 1: De Bernardo's assassination was set up by Angelo Ruggierio, who
24:48
Speaker 1: was still awaiting trial for his nineteen eighty three drug indit.
24:53
Speaker 5: Angel's one of the few guys who's got access to
24:55
Speaker 5: John in jail and tells him that Robert de Bernardo
24:59
Speaker 5: is talking subversive behind John's back, the Boss's back. He's
25:04
Speaker 5: saying that John isn't fit as the boss and we
25:06
Speaker 5: should appoint somebody else's the boss. Angela wants is done
25:10
Speaker 5: because Angela owns Robert de Bernardo a lot of money
25:12
Speaker 5: and he doesn't want to pay him back. It was
25:15
Speaker 5: going over some.
25:16
Speaker 1: Of these contracts here, this public heality contract on God
25:21
Speaker 1: his behalf Luggerio asked Sammi the Bull Gravano to set
25:24
Speaker 1: up the hit. Did you want some coffee? Yeah, it'd
25:27
Speaker 1: be great. On June fifth, nineteen eighty six, de Bernardo
25:32
Speaker 1: showed up for a meeting at Gravano's construction office. Everyone
25:38
Speaker 1: greeted him as usual. De Bernardo must have suspected nothing.
25:45
Speaker 1: You know, we got all those contracts. He was shot
25:52
Speaker 1: in the head from behind. His body was never out.
26:01
Speaker 1: The FBI learned of his death through informants. Agents believed
26:06
Speaker 1: Gotti's crew was responsible for the murder, but they needed proof.
26:11
Speaker 1: In August of ninety six, two months after the De
26:13
Speaker 1: Bernardo hit, Gotti went to trial for the gambling and
26:16
Speaker 1: loan sharking charges filed two years before, but Gotty had
26:21
Speaker 1: not been the primary target of that indictment. The case
26:25
Speaker 1: was originally designed to bring down underboss Neil de la Crocey.
26:30
Speaker 1: The case against Gotti was never that strong, but an
26:33
Speaker 1: ambitious US attorney saw an opportunity to get a mob boss.
26:38
Speaker 1: Though the case did not involve Mao's squad, he sent
26:41
Speaker 1: George Gabriel to observe the trial. During a break in
26:45
Speaker 1: the proceedings, Gabriel came face to face with his adversary.
26:50
Speaker 5: I introduced myself. I told him, George Gabriel with the FBI.
26:54
Speaker 5: I work on Bruce Mouth squad. He says, you tell him,
26:57
Speaker 5: I'm going to be home in six weeks. I'm going
26:58
Speaker 5: to beat this one. I said, right, I'll deliver your message,
27:01
Speaker 5: I said, And if you do, I'll be there to
27:03
Speaker 5: congratulate you, because it'll be a good job on your part.
27:06
Speaker 5: He says, good, I hope to say you.
27:08
Speaker 1: On March thirteenth, nineteen eighty seven, Gotty was acquitted on
27:12
Speaker 1: all counts. George Gabriel made good on his promise. After
27:23
Speaker 1: the verdict, Gabriel went to the Bergen Hunt and Fish
27:26
Speaker 1: Club in Queens, where Gotty was having an acquittal party.
27:31
Speaker 1: Congrat worked congrats. He congratulated God to the press, the
27:39
Speaker 1: public and to prosecutors. John Gotti seemed untouchable. Out of jail,
27:49
Speaker 1: John Gotti resumed his celebrity status around town. He was
27:54
Speaker 1: seen at fine restaurants and glitzy nightclubs, always immaculately dressed.
27:59
Speaker 1: Already he was known as the dapper Don. Now, with
28:03
Speaker 1: his acquittal, he earned the title of the teflon don.
28:07
Speaker 1: Charges slid right off him. To the media, he was
28:10
Speaker 1: glorified as the underdog who took on and beat the government.
28:18
Speaker 1: But now it was Mao's turn to make a case
28:20
Speaker 1: against Gotty.
28:22
Speaker 3: I get upset when the glorified guy like that. To me,
28:24
Speaker 3: He's just a common thug, a criminal. He's a terrorist.
28:27
Speaker 3: He doesn't believe in our government. He doesn't believe in voting,
28:30
Speaker 3: doesn't believe in church, he doesn't leieve in family. He's
28:32
Speaker 3: a mass murderer. How can you glorify this guy or
28:35
Speaker 3: make him a role model for your kids. He's very
28:37
Speaker 3: upsetting to me.
28:41
Speaker 1: In order to make his case against Gotti, Mao had
28:44
Speaker 1: to find out where he was conducting his business. The
28:47
Speaker 1: FBI bugs planted at the Bergen Hunting Fish Club had
28:50
Speaker 1: dried up since becoming Boss got He wasn't spending as
28:55
Speaker 1: much time then the squad leaned hard on informants to
28:59
Speaker 1: find out out where God he held his high level meetings.
29:04
Speaker 2: Is Ago Down.
29:05
Speaker 1: It took eight months, but in early nineteen eighty eight
29:09
Speaker 1: they finally found Gody's new headquarters. Gotty turned the Ravenite
29:14
Speaker 1: Social Club in Little Italy into his headquarters. It was
29:20
Speaker 1: a symbolic gesture on Gotty's part. The Ravenite was his
29:24
Speaker 1: mentor Neil Dellacrocei's old club. Here Gotty would meet with
29:31
Speaker 1: his captains to conduct family business. Agents rented an apartment
29:37
Speaker 1: down the street from the Ravenite. The high powered camera
29:41
Speaker 1: is installed to record all those who came and went
29:44
Speaker 1: from the club. In February of nineteen eighty eight, the
29:48
Speaker 1: FBI earned court approval to bubb the Ravenite with thirty
29:54
Speaker 1: or forty people in the room. Deciphering conversations was difficult.
30:04
Speaker 1: Cassette tape recordings of white noise were always being played
30:07
Speaker 1: in the club. Hearing conversations through that was impossible, but
30:16
Speaker 1: the FBI had to have John Gotti's orders on tape
30:19
Speaker 1: in order to charge him with running the Gambino family.
30:29
Speaker 1: So far, the bugs in the Ravenite had not produced
30:32
Speaker 1: much evidence Gott. He always suspected he was being listened
30:40
Speaker 1: to you by the FBI, and he found clever ways
30:43
Speaker 1: to avoid being overheard.
30:47
Speaker 5: John Gotti was notorious for going on what we described
30:50
Speaker 5: as a walk talk, where he and the person he
30:53
Speaker 5: had to discuss something secretive. Not all Mob businesses open
30:57
Speaker 5: to everybody in the mob. There were times where Captain
31:00
Speaker 5: would have to speak with his boss. John Gotti would
31:02
Speaker 5: take that person and they go outside. Going outside, They're
31:06
Speaker 5: evading the possibility of a bug.
31:09
Speaker 1: No matter what agents did, it seemed the Mob was
31:12
Speaker 1: anticipating their every move at times, even taunting them.
31:19
Speaker 5: When I would sit in the van outside the Ravenite,
31:22
Speaker 5: they would bang on every van on the street and
31:25
Speaker 5: whisper we know you're in there. You get made all
31:30
Speaker 5: the time, and you try your darness not to but
31:32
Speaker 5: it happens, and you just have to stay with it.
31:43
Speaker 1: John Gotti ordered another hit out of range of the
31:46
Speaker 1: FBI bugs. This time it was Louis Melino, a Gambino
31:50
Speaker 1: soldier whose loyalty to Gotti was suspect. Gott He felt
31:55
Speaker 1: Melito was a threat to the family administration, since Milito
31:59
Speaker 1: had been a close buildiness associate of Paul Castellano and
32:02
Speaker 1: Tommy Biloti. Sammy the Bull agreed to oversee that. He
32:07
Speaker 1: too had little use from Alito. Sammy felt he was
32:11
Speaker 1: trying to move in on the construction industry. Melita was
32:18
Speaker 1: shot dead under Gravano's supervision, his body removed and never found.
32:25
Speaker 1: The FBI learned of they hit through informant rumors, but
32:30
Speaker 1: again there was not enough hard evidence on Gotti to
32:33
Speaker 1: arrest him. Gott he was ordering people killed right under
32:38
Speaker 1: the FBI's nose. The cat and mouse game intensified, and
32:45
Speaker 1: so did the pressure on the FBI to stop him
32:47
Speaker 1: from ordering more killings. Mal knew he was overlooking something.
32:54
Speaker 1: God he must be talking, but the FBI didn't know where.
33:01
Speaker 1: In December nineteen eighty eight, Bruce Mao decided it was
33:04
Speaker 1: time to shut down the wire and regroup.
33:11
Speaker 3: It's a very frustrating time because we knew we're so close.
33:13
Speaker 3: We had these guys on videotape. We see him coming
33:15
Speaker 3: and going, We saw the walk talks around the street.
33:18
Speaker 3: We were so close, but yet so far away from
33:21
Speaker 3: achieving our goals.
33:23
Speaker 1: The bugs were shut down, but the FBI's Gambino squad
33:26
Speaker 1: would not give up. They developed a new informant who
33:30
Speaker 1: told them God It would sometimes be in deep conversation
33:33
Speaker 1: with one of his men in the Ravenite then abruptly
33:41
Speaker 1: they would leave the table and go into a hallway
33:43
Speaker 1: behind the club. Usually they were gone for ten or
33:48
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. The meetings in the hall were no doubt
33:52
Speaker 1: incriminating ones, and in a quiet hallway, FBI bugs could
33:58
Speaker 1: pick up more of the conversations. The squad quickly took
34:03
Speaker 1: advantage of the opportunity. In October of nineteen eighty nine,
34:14
Speaker 1: agents bugged the hall. They recorded Gotti meeting with several
34:22
Speaker 1: Gambino family members there. The bug produced some evidence against Gotty,
34:32
Speaker 1: but not the evidence they needed to put him away
34:34
Speaker 1: for life. Every Gody had to be meeting his men
34:38
Speaker 1: in another location within the village, somewhere where he felt
34:45
Speaker 1: comfortable and safe damage. In the fall of nineteen eighty nine,
35:06
Speaker 1: agents learned from informants about another location within the building
35:10
Speaker 1: that Gotti frequently. Nettie Cirelli was a widow. Her husband, Michael,
35:16
Speaker 1: had been caretaker of the Ravenite Club when he died.
35:21
Speaker 1: She remained in the apartment they shared just two floors
35:24
Speaker 1: above the club. It was believed that Gotta used missus
35:28
Speaker 1: Cirelli's apartment to talk about sensitive family business. Getting into
35:32
Speaker 1: missus Cirelli's apartment undetected was going to be a problem.
35:36
Speaker 1: She rarely left. As the FBI Special Operations squad tried
35:43
Speaker 1: to figure a way in, agents learned that missus Cirelli
35:46
Speaker 1: would be leaving town for the Thanksgiving holiday. It was
35:59
Speaker 1: the opportunity they had been waiting for. Agents went to work.
36:06
Speaker 1: They sneaked into the apartment in the middle of the
36:08
Speaker 1: night and placed the bugs. On November thirtieth, nineteen eighty nine,
36:19
Speaker 1: the first conversation taped in missus Ciarelli's apartment came over
36:22
Speaker 1: the wires crisp and clear. All participants talked freely. They
36:29
Speaker 1: spoke directly, using no cobo to sign language, like they
36:32
Speaker 1: often did when a bug. For weeks, agents listened in
36:38
Speaker 1: on the apartment conversations. On December twelfth, nineteen eighty nine,
36:50
Speaker 1: they got the biggest break they could ever have hoped for.
36:55
Speaker 1: That day, God and his underboss, Frank LoCascio, met at
36:59
Speaker 1: the apartment. In a rambling conversation, Gody left a trail
37:04
Speaker 1: of evidence that would later haunt him. He explained labor
37:11
Speaker 1: union rackets and other crimes, and he talked about ordering
37:16
Speaker 1: the murders of several people. The agents monitoring Godi that
37:20
Speaker 1: night could barely believe their ears. More shocking to agents
37:26
Speaker 1: was what they heard God he say about Sammy Gravano.
37:31
Speaker 1: For over an hour, Gody went on a verbal rampage
37:34
Speaker 1: about Sammy. He said Gravana was getting greedy, taking too
37:39
Speaker 1: big of a cut from the construction racket prophets, he
37:45
Speaker 1: was becoming too active in the family. Not respecting Gody's authority,
37:50
Speaker 1: Gody suggested that two murders that he himself had ordered
37:53
Speaker 1: were because Sammy was trying to protect his own interests.
37:57
Speaker 1: According to Gotti, Sammy had sucked him into murdering d
38:00
Speaker 1: Bernardo and Milito.
38:02
Speaker 3: It was a very important conversation because during this long diatribe,
38:06
Speaker 3: John confessed to two murders. He confessed to order they
38:10
Speaker 3: hit on Robert de Bernardo. He confessed to ordering the
38:11
Speaker 3: hit on Louis Melito both. He claimed that Gravano's urging
38:15
Speaker 3: to have murdered. He also talked about a third guy
38:18
Speaker 3: named Louis de Bono, who was gonna murder another partner
38:21
Speaker 3: of Sammy's uh. John detailed also his control of different
38:24
Speaker 3: labor unions. He also detailed uh how much money's making
38:28
Speaker 3: from different illegal activities. It was our smoking gun as
38:31
Speaker 3: the best tape of the entire electronic surveillance.
38:35
Speaker 1: After recording a few more conversations, the wire in the
38:38
Speaker 1: apartment was turned off in May of nineteen ninety. For
38:42
Speaker 1: Mao's Gambino squad, all the years of patience had finally
38:46
Speaker 1: paid off. They had the best evidence they could imagine,
38:51
Speaker 1: and it was John Gotti himself. Over the next few months,
38:58
Speaker 1: agents put together their case against got. The case against
39:04
Speaker 1: the Gambino family hierarchy, which began a decade earlier, was
39:08
Speaker 1: ready to come to a close. On December twelfth, nineteen ninety,
39:12
Speaker 1: exactly a year after Gotti's fateful conversation, specially agent George
39:17
Speaker 1: Gabriel and two others went to the Ravenite Social Club.
39:21
Speaker 1: Their purpose was to arrest John Gotti, Sammy Gravani and
39:25
Speaker 1: Frank Lucascio. Backup officers were close behind, or so Gabriel thought.
39:33
Speaker 5: When I went into the club to arrest them, they
39:36
Speaker 5: had just ordered coffee and myself, my partner in one
39:39
Speaker 5: of the police officers kind of accidentally went into the
39:42
Speaker 5: club ahead of the rest of the arrest team.
39:45
Speaker 1: We were about a minute ahead of everybody.
39:47
Speaker 5: So there we were in the classic. You know, we've
39:48
Speaker 5: got you surrounded and we're looking behind us, and there
39:51
Speaker 5: was nobody there.
39:53
Speaker 1: There wasn't a problem.
39:54
Speaker 5: Everybody complied with what we asked for, and either John
39:58
Speaker 5: or Sammy asked they can have a cup of coffee,
40:01
Speaker 5: and I said, yeah, go ahead, We've got plenty of
40:03
Speaker 5: time before we leave.
40:06
Speaker 1: On his way to be booked, gott He asked agent
40:08
Speaker 1: Gabriel what he was charged with. Gabriel ran down the
40:12
Speaker 1: list and told Gotty of the taped conversations, especially in
40:15
Speaker 1: the hallway and the apartment. At that Gotty fell quiet.
40:22
Speaker 1: At a bail hearing a few days later, the three
40:24
Speaker 1: defendants heard excerpts from the FBI's tapes. They played a
40:29
Speaker 1: segment from the December twelfth conversation. Sammy Gravano heard Gotti
40:34
Speaker 1: bashing his character for.
40:37
Speaker 3: The first time in life.
40:38
Speaker 1: John Gotty was embarrassed.
40:39
Speaker 3: He was turning to chase at Blue and Pink and
40:40
Speaker 3: trying to duck into the table. Sammy was turning red.
40:43
Speaker 3: You could tell he was hot. In a firecracker, and
40:45
Speaker 3: they kept looking at each other like, what's going on here?
40:49
Speaker 3: But that tape Planet of the Seeds for the first
40:51
Speaker 3: time in Gravano's mind that he and John Gotty can
40:54
Speaker 3: never co exist and one had to kill the other
40:58
Speaker 3: if they ever got out of jail.
41:03
Speaker 1: After hearing the tape, Gravano realized Godi's defense strategy would
41:07
Speaker 1: be to blame him for the murders. Gravana was being
41:11
Speaker 1: set up as the fall guy. On November eighth, nineteen
41:16
Speaker 1: ninety one, Gravano decided to cooperate with the FBI and
41:21
Speaker 1: tell them everything he knew about the Gambino family. He
41:26
Speaker 1: filled in all of the details that were missing from
41:28
Speaker 1: the recordings about how he and Godi committed crimes on
41:31
Speaker 1: behalf of the Gambino family and managed to stay one
41:35
Speaker 1: step ahead of law enforcement. Gravano arranged payoffs to jurors
41:40
Speaker 1: and a high level police officer who had been supplying
41:43
Speaker 1: Gody with classified information. Both the jurors and the corrupt
41:48
Speaker 1: officer were indicted and given jail sentences. Gabriel finally learned
41:53
Speaker 1: why God he had been able to avoid successful prosecutions.
41:58
Speaker 5: He's out there in everybody's face. I beat the government.
42:01
Speaker 5: They've got nothing on me. Reality was he bought the jury.
42:05
Speaker 1: Samy.
42:06
Speaker 5: Gravano paid a juror sixty thousand dollars to throw that case,
42:11
Speaker 5: and that's how he won his case.
42:15
Speaker 1: The question most in need of an answer concerned the
42:18
Speaker 1: Costellano assassination. Through Gravano, the FBI finally learned the truth.
42:27
Speaker 1: The seeds for Costellano's assassination were planted. When Angelo Ruggerio
42:31
Speaker 1: and Eugene Gotti were indicted in the heroin distribution wearing
42:34
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty three. The prohibited operation could no longer
42:38
Speaker 1: be kept quiet from the Boss. Castellano learned that the
42:43
Speaker 1: government's case was based on FBI recordings of Ruggierio. Castellano
42:48
Speaker 1: was furious. He wanted to hear the tapes for himself.
42:54
Speaker 1: Events began to snowball.
42:56
Speaker 3: In nineteen eighty four, the tapes were finally turned over
42:59
Speaker 3: the defense, and for the first time, all the co
43:02
Speaker 3: defendance and defense attneys had at least taps of angel
43:04
Speaker 3: blabbing about heroin trafficking means at Castlanov's house, commission meetings,
43:08
Speaker 3: et cetera, et cetera. So round nineteen eighty four Castilano,
43:13
Speaker 3: being the boss of family, asked Ruggerio for copy of
43:18
Speaker 3: the tapes.
43:20
Speaker 1: The tension between Godi and Castellano was held in check
43:23
Speaker 1: by Delacroci, but when Delacrocei died, the barriers were down
43:30
Speaker 1: right Jordan's A few days after Delacroci's death, Castellano summoned
43:37
Speaker 1: his captains for a meeting. Tommy Billotti would replace Delacrocei
43:41
Speaker 1: as under boss. More ominously, Castellano declared that Gotti's crew
43:47
Speaker 1: would be disbanded, his men absorbed into other crewes. Castellano
43:52
Speaker 1: had finally listened to the Ruggierio tapes. They had given
43:56
Speaker 1: the government such a good case that after the trial
44:00
Speaker 1: there probably wouldn't be much of a god He crew. Anyway,
44:04
Speaker 1: Gotti was furious, and he knew he was a target.
44:11
Speaker 1: There was grumbling among the ranks that Castellano was preoccupied
44:15
Speaker 1: with his legal problems and wasn't paying enough attention to
44:18
Speaker 1: the family. Some members thought he was pocketing too much
44:22
Speaker 1: money for himself, not spreading it around among the soldiers
44:25
Speaker 1: and captains. God He began to formulate his takeover. He
44:31
Speaker 1: had Angelo Grugerio approach three of the four other mafia families.
44:36
Speaker 1: He wanted to know if they would look the other
44:37
Speaker 1: way if something were to happen to Castellano. The family
44:41
Speaker 1: said they would not interfere. Godi carefully picked a few
44:45
Speaker 1: soldiers to help plan the hit. In particular, there was
44:49
Speaker 1: one Gambino member whose support would be crucial if the
44:52
Speaker 1: hit was going to succeed. Ruggierio was sent to ask
45:01
Speaker 1: Sammy Gravano if he would participate in the murder of Castellana.
45:09
Speaker 1: Gravano agreed. He was aware of the growing descent within
45:14
Speaker 1: the family. He also knew that John Gotti was powerful
45:20
Speaker 1: enough to pull off the murder of the boss, and
45:23
Speaker 1: when the other families agreed to stay out of the way,
45:26
Speaker 1: Sammy knew the smart play was to back Godi. Gotti
45:35
Speaker 1: put together a team of five Gambino family members to
45:38
Speaker 1: plan Castellano's assassination. They called themselves the Fist of Five.
45:44
Speaker 1: Hitting the boss of the mafia's largest family was a
45:47
Speaker 1: formidable task. The Fist would have to find Castellano away
45:52
Speaker 1: from his loyalists, and they knew that Castellano was under
45:56
Speaker 1: constant law enforcement scrutiny. He must be at some place
46:01
Speaker 1: where the FBI was not apt to be following it.
46:07
Speaker 1: Their best opportunity came in mid December nineteen eighty five.
46:11
Speaker 1: Castellano had asked five of his captains to meet him
46:14
Speaker 1: for dinner at Sparks Steakhouse in Midtown Manhattan, but one
46:19
Speaker 1: of the captains was a member of the Fists. The
46:22
Speaker 1: night before the planned hit, the Fist convened at a
46:25
Speaker 1: construction office used by Gravano. Four shooters had been hired,
46:41
Speaker 1: two for Costellano and two for his driver and underboss,
46:45
Speaker 1: Tommy Bellotti. The murders had been meticulously planned. On December sixteenth,
46:58
Speaker 1: the team gathered in a park of a mile from Sparks.
47:03
Speaker 1: The four shooters dressed alike in black Russian hats and
47:06
Speaker 1: light colored trench coats. If seen by witnesses, they were
47:10
Speaker 1: more likely to be remembered for what they wore rather
47:13
Speaker 1: than their faces. The primary shooters were to pair off
47:20
Speaker 1: just outside Sparks. Angelo Rugerio was one of four backups
47:25
Speaker 1: who would block all avenues of escape. Goddy and Gravano
47:33
Speaker 1: would observe from down the street in that park, color
47:35
Speaker 1: ready to shoot if necessary if something went wrong. If
47:39
Speaker 1: they missed on the street, they were to move into
47:42
Speaker 1: Sparks firing until Castellano and Bellotti were killed. No matter
47:46
Speaker 1: who got in the way, Castellano and Bellotti had to die.
47:53
Speaker 1: It was dusk when Godi and Gravano headed towards Sparks steakhouse.
48:02
Speaker 1: The shooters took their places. Gotty and Gravano soon found
48:07
Speaker 1: their vantage point, a parking space at an intersection down
48:10
Speaker 1: the street from the restaurant. They waited in the car.
48:15
Speaker 1: Castellana was late, perhaps he'd been tipped off about the
48:18
Speaker 1: plot on his life. In the middle of a conversation
48:21
Speaker 1: with Gotti, Gravano suddenly looked to his left and panicked
48:24
Speaker 1: at what he saw. It was a black linkern with
48:32
Speaker 1: Bellotti at the wheel and Castellano beside him. For one moment,
48:40
Speaker 1: Gravano and Gotti thought they would be seen, but the
48:49
Speaker 1: light changed and the car moved on. Gravano radio ahead.
48:59
Speaker 1: It was time. As Bellotti pulled the card to the current,
49:11
Speaker 1: the assassins advanced, pulled. Castellano and Tommy Billotti lay outside
49:40
Speaker 1: the car, each shot by six bullets. According to Gravano
49:48
Speaker 1: gott He eased the car into the street and passed
49:51
Speaker 1: the body. Strolled on the pavement. He had to be
49:54
Speaker 1: sure Castellano was dead. Gravano's his detailed account finally put
50:01
Speaker 1: an end to the speculating. As part of his plea bargain,
50:11
Speaker 1: Gravano testified against his former boss. He admitted to his
50:16
Speaker 1: role in nineteen mob related murders. He served five years
50:20
Speaker 1: in prison and voluntarily ended the witness protection program. On
50:25
Speaker 1: April second, nineteen ninety two, John Gotti was convicted of
50:29
Speaker 1: five murders, including Paul Castellamos and Tommy Billais. He also
50:35
Speaker 1: was found guilty of other crimes under the umbrella of
50:38
Speaker 1: obstruction of justice and racketeering. They included bribery of a
50:43
Speaker 1: police officer, jury tending, gambling, book making, tax evasion, and
50:49
Speaker 1: attempted murder. John Gotti lived out his life in federal custody,
50:55
Speaker 1: stripped to his audience, his expensive suits, and his flamboyant style.
51:01
Speaker 1: He died in a prison hospital on June tenth, two
51:03
Speaker 1: thousand and two. The FBI crackdown on organized crime is working.
51:10
Speaker 1: Lewis Shallero, head of the New York Office, is optimistic
51:13
Speaker 1: about New York's future.
51:15
Speaker 4: People today, I think can build the building in New
51:18
Speaker 4: York City without being shaken down by a cousin austri family.
51:21
Speaker 4: I think a restaurant in New York City could have
51:23
Speaker 4: their garbage picked up without fearing that they will be
51:26
Speaker 4: shaken down if they don't pick a particular carter. People
51:29
Speaker 4: today can compete on the Fulton Fish Market without the
51:32
Speaker 4: necessity of paying off one of the particular New York
51:35
Speaker 4: crime families. So we've come a long way. There is
51:38
Speaker 4: certainly a lot of things that left to be done,
51:40
Speaker 4: but I think people generally in New York City certainly
51:44
Speaker 4: are starting to feel the effects of this effort.
51:47
Speaker 1: The battle rages on in New York City. Nafia families
51:52
Speaker 1: continue to plunder, continue to kill, but because of the
51:56
Speaker 1: ceaseless efforts of the FBI, the people of New are
52:00
Speaker 1: beginning to feel relief as more and more mobsters like
52:04
Speaker 1: John Gott are taken off his streets.
52:26
Speaker 4: H