The Italians | TRIPLE EPISODE | The FBI Files

Biloxi Mississippi, the quiet southern town with a fiery core of corruption in 1987 its secret burst violently to the surface leaving two prominent citizens dead and ripping off the top of a vast conspiracy thanks on the Mississippi Gulf Coast a judge and his political wife are murdered in their home, the killer left few clues, it seemed like a professional hit and the investigation led nowhere, but the FBI refused to give up. I'm Jim Calstrom, former head of the FBI's New York office until we could prove that federal laws had been violated. Bound, it would take years to break the conspiracy of silence and reveal the tangled story of corruption Biloxi Mississippi Monday, September 14, 1987.

It was a typical warm summer night in this sleepy Gulf Coast town, the workday was over and most of the residents had retreated to the Tranquility of their homes, like most of their neighbors. State Circuit Court Judge Vincent Sherry and his wife Margaret were relaxing after a long day. Vincent Sherry was a prominent judge in Biloxi. Margaret was making plans to run for mayor. Quest were a happy couple who had raised three adult children. Tomorrow they plan to visit their daughter out of state. Their life together seemed ideal. They were settling in for the night when an unexpected visitor came to the door and brought their perfect world to a close.

The Sherrys were supposed to be with their daughter, so no one realized anything was wrong until two days later, when the judge failed to show up in court on Wednesday, September 16. Foreign calls to the Sherry home went unanswered. His colleagues in court called Peter lat. Circuit Courts Online Friend of Vincent Sherry and former law partner, good morning Peter, but he hadn't seen or heard from the judge either. Well, he's supposed to be in court. I don't know, no, wait, let me call him at home and I will do it. find out where he is after he left a concerned message on Sherry's answering machine.

Hallat felt it would be best to check on his friend personally. I called the machine judge, judge, it's Pete, they're looking for you in court. Is everything okay when he comes out? He asked his junior classmate, Charles Legere, to travel with me. I need help, so I thought we would go together while driving. Legere tried to strike up conversations, perhaps worried about the judge. Sherry's two cars were sitting in the driveway. Hallat asked Legere. to go to the house while he asked the neighbor if she had seen the couple when the year rang the doorbell but no one answered he saw that the last two newspapers of the morning had not been picked up the neighbor told him that she had not seen the cherries for a couple of days, which he found strange since both cars were in the driveway when Legere tried to open Sherry's door and found it open something wasn't right, yeah she was just knocking for him, the door opened , worried valet. through the open door he cautiously entered a few steps and made the frightful discovery.

Judge Sherry had been shot to death in his own home. Oh, I guess what's up. They called the police. Authorities arrived and found Vincent Sherry's body in the front of the home. Margaret was discovered in the back bedroom because the couple was so prominent that the murder investigation became the top priority. Detectives contacted the FBI field office in Biloxi, although the FBI would not yet be officially involved, offered the use of their agents, and a foreign forensic laboratory began tracking the crime. scene from Clues, they performed blood spatter analysis to determine the angles of the projectiles, if they could discover where the killer had been when he fired, they could reconstruct Criminal Inspector Robert Burris, a criminal technician with the Biloxi Police Department helped process the scene.

He discovered a possible clue in the lair: there was blood coming from his feet, in fact it ran down between his legs a little further back from where he was lying. There were blood spatters on a double sliding glass door that was just beyond his head and upon closer examination in this room I found some small pieces of foam rubber. Burris didn't see where the foam could have come from. The search in the house led him to a conclusion and this farm Robert had to have been brought to the house. We examined every piece of material in this house and every room in the house, every pillow, mattress, everything else, there is no broken foam in this house, it was brought into the house, it has gunshot residue and basically the only way to get there is by a bullet that would be fired through it for Burris, the meaning of the foam was obvious, the killer had used a homemade silencer, investigators dusted for fingerprints but found nothing of value, We found nine spent .22 caliber casings from a semi-automatic pistol, as well as the bullets used to murder the Sherrys, the position of the projectiles indicated that the shots had been fired in rapid succession, but the most surprising thing was how well the murderer had covered his tracks.

Nothing at the scene pointed to the identity of the killer. He did his job well and his mission was clear, the lack of evidence in this house, such as stolen items, a fight that occurred, the absence of forced entry, uh, there was no looting in the house, whatever it was, a person came there for one thing which was to kill the two actions of Special Agent Keith Bell. The FBI's Biloxi field office agreed that this was a professional job, the cherries had been murdered and the crime scene appeared to be very limited in terms of remaining evidence, which meant it was well planned, well executed. and done professionally, a small caliber weapon had been used.

The foam indicated that perhaps a silencer had also been used and that the Sherrys had been shot in the head, so it seemed to be a very professional job. A multi-agency task force was assembled with Special Agent Keith Bell among its members. Investigators would spend days. As they processed the crime scene, they were faced with a single question: why had the Sherrys been murdered? That was one of the main questions: why were both the judge and Margaret Shearing murdered because it was quite obvious that Judge Sherry could have been murdered during his morning or afternoon. Researchers believe the answer could lie in the controversy over Biloxi's future.

Some civic leaders hope to transform the sleepy southern city on Mississippi's Gulf Coast into a flashy resort where casinos would draw tourists. dollars but with strip clubs already established in the city Margaret Cherry felt that the small town charms of Biloxi were threatened and the casinos would attract a criminal element running for mayor. She had made powerful political enemies by trying to continue gambling and Bell wondered if Margaret was murdered to silence her. Her protests Margaret had been so politically outspoken in the community that she was known for being against gambling and, if elected mayor in 1989, she had planned to close the remaining strip clubs in Biloxi, so there was always the possibility of that she would have been the target.

Instead of sharing with the judges, the task force would investigate Margaret's political enemies, but first they would question Sherry's friends and neighbors. Someone in the neighborhood must have seen something, but even people who had known the Sherrys for years were reluctant to speak out for fear of the specter of Biloxi's emerging criminal underworld. The Sherry murders brought a dark cloud over the city of Biloxi. , many of the citizens of Biloxi were afraid to openly express their opinions and saw that Margaret Sherry, who had been quite vocal and outspoken in political circles, had ended up dead. had her prominent husband try Sherry, so many citizens after these murders were hesitant to even be interviewed by FBI agents or local police officers because they basically didn't want their names tied to anything having to do with their case if People didn't talk to him.

Authorities might talk to Linds Posito, Sherry's daughter after being notified of her parents' murders. Lynn rushed to Biloxi from her home in North Carolina determined to find Justice. She questioned everyone in the neighborhood. A family friend gave her crucial information that she described. a suspicious car and driver in the neighborhood the night of the murders, she took the tip to police, they identified a man who had seen a suspicious Ford Fairmont driving by Sherry's house the night of Monday, September 14, 1987. Investigators attempted to determine the identity of the driver based on the witness's description. Their search came up empty.

Days later, not far from Sherry's home, investigators found an abandoned car, a Ford Fairmont, a vehicle identification number check. showed that it had been reported stolen the day before the murders by the police. She also learned that the car tags were not registered on the car and she realized that this vehicle was likely the Killer's getaway car. Investigators took it to a police garage for further examination somewhere in the car and hope to find a clue to the Killer's identity less than A week after the brutal murders of the Luxy couple, investigators from Vince and Margaret Sherry received their first promising lead, recovering an abandoned car that matched the one witnesses described seeing the night of the murders.

After contacting Officer Keith Bell about the discovery, investigators processed the car for clues. Inspector Robert Burris found something peculiar. He was processing this vehicle and one of the things I noticed was that the dome light had been dismantled and the ball had been removed; In other words, if you open the door you have no sunlight. The visors were in the low position, whether you drive day or night, you won't be able to see people's faces very well. Investigators believed more than ever that this was the car used by Sherry's killer. Everything found inside was labeled, packaged and sent to the FBI laboratories in Washington D.C. thank you, but FBI lab examiners found nothing of evidentiary value after Agent Bell arrived, examined the license tag more closely, and discovered he had his own story to tell you that the tag was determined to be The owner of the Ford Fairmont had been stolen from an abandoned vehicle in 1984, actually three years before these murders occurred, which meant that someone had removed the plate, probably in 1984 they had kept the plate and then when this big crime occurred in the city of Biloxi. was going to happen, they pulled it off the shelf, so to speak, without any other solid evidence.

Investigators hope that following the trail of the stolen tag may lead to the killer. It was traced to an apartment complex where the original car had been abandoned three years earlier. He contacted the apartment manager, who told them that before towing the vehicle he called a friend to come and take it apart for foreign parts. The manager's friend was a man the agents knew by name and reputation. Biloxi locksmith Lenny Sweatman was the last person to be towed. Seen near the car, Swetland belonged to a loosely organized criminal group that the FBI was investigating in connection with another case, the group was known as the Dixie Mafia.

FBI Agent Keith Bell had connected the car used in the Sherry murders to Lenny Sweatman. Now Bell wondered if the Dixie Mafia was linked to the Sherry murders if Sweatman had a part in them. Bell believed that other members of the Dixie Mafia could not be far away and began investigating the Swatman Associates, which immediately meant for us, those of us who are familiar with criminal associations in The bottom line was that if Lenny Sweatman was involved in getting the tag to the hit car, so most likely his close personal friend and longtime associate, Mike Gillich, the owner of the strip club in Biloxi, could also be involved in these murders.

Sorry, sometimes you know how. Gillich, owner of three strip clubs in Biloxi, was well known to local authorities. We have to be close. He was currently under investigation by the FBI in connection with the Dixie Mafia operation known as the Lonely Heart scam, but Special Agent Bell. He needed a thread connecting the two investigations. He began by familiarizing himself with a Lonely Heart scan. He was taken from the Angola prison in Louisiana by a man named Kirksey Nix, the imprisoned kingpin of the Dixie mafia. You know, the first model the Knicks would release. in gay magazines asking for money to help fictional gay men get out of trouble with the law through scanning.

Nix hoped to generateenough money to resolve your own legal problems. He was serving a life sentence for murder from his cell in Angola that he coordinated. what we have been referring to as the homosexual scam that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars from people across the country and also from some people in Canada. With this money he intended to buy his way out or try to buy his way out of his prison sentence in Louisiana believing they were helping gay men get out of trouble. People who read the magazine ads sent money by wire transfer or mail to a nearby Western Union.

Nix then called his contact outside. Mike Gillich. Gillich then dispatched his bagman to retrieve it. gillich money made sure the scam money was distributed to members of the dixie mafia and kept safely for kirksey nix in the coming months investigators developed more evidence on the lone heart scan, but they still didn't have a direct link between these conspirators and Sherry's killers a year into the investigation, the murder case threatened to explode as the year stretched into 16 months. Sherry's daughter, Lynn Spezito, became increasingly frustrated in January 1989. She hired a private investigator to speed up the investigation into the murder of her parents.

She said she could make out the map. I'll call him and be on this case this afternoon. The family very much wanted to have a quick resolution to the case, but by early 1989 there had still been no arrests and, of course, at that time the FBI had not formally entered the case. Official FBI involvement was hampered by Bell, so when the private investigator paid him a visit, Bell was grateful for her help in hopes that they could share information. The two were old acquaintances from the days of private investigators in law enforcement, since Agent Bell was unable to act officially.

The private investigator would follow a lead that seemed to promise that he would interview another Angola prisoner, the private investigator, and Bell hoped that the Angola prisoner would eventually be able to link the Lonely Heart scam and the Sherry murders. He met with all the right people and because of his knowledge of the Dixie mafia and what he had learned from law enforcement authorities on the coast he went to Angola and spoke to the right person there abroad. The inmate's name was Bobby Joe Fabian. He was another known member of the Dixie Mafia who was serving time for kidnapping and shooting a state trooper.

Fabian claimed that he had not been involved in the Sherry murders, but had learned that fellow inmate Kirksey Nix had been Fabian told the private investigator that Nixon had killed Judge Sherry because Sherry had allegedly stolen money from the scam. Nix's Lonely Heart, that wasn't all he said the Knicks had The man who had given the eulogy at Sherry's funeral had told him a lot about the robbery none other than Pete Hallat, Sherry's former law partner, was now implicated in their murders. Palat officially represented Nix in legal matters, but Fabián said that Hallat's role in The Lonely Heart.

The scam was criminal, not legal. Palat was one of the people who received money from NYX to save through Mike Gillich's Bag Man. Don't forget to pick him up next week at the other place and the ties between the outlaw and the lawyer deepened. Kirksey Nix's girlfriend and her accomplice Larae Sharp worked in Hallat's office. Fabian said that both Larae Sharpe and Pete Hallat were keeping money from the scam in a safe deposit box for Kirksey Nix and said the amount had reached six figures thanks to Fabian, the link between the murders and Lonely. A heart scam had been carried out and Fabian had not only given investigators a possible motive for the murders, but was also able to provide the name of the alleged hitman, an ex-convict named John Ransom who was believed to be living in Georgia, but that he would track down Ransom.

Take your time every time the law enforcement people get together and start talking about the notorious members of the Dixie mafia. John Ransom appears quite early in the conversation. He was a long-time suspected hitman for the Dixie Mob in August 1989, two years after Agent Bell murdered Sherry. evidence to justify a full FBI investigation into the murders, accompanied by Sherry's daughter Lynn Sposito, approached the United States Attorney and the FBI with a demand to officially open the case, so that by linking the scam to the murders we knew we had something. federal violations involved, we have wire fraud, we had mail fraud and maybe we had a hitman traveling from Georgia to Mississippi to kill the Sherrys.

It was decided to open an official FBI investigation and joined local authorities in the investigation, however, it is now suspected that Pete Hallat Judge Sherry's former law partner had been elected mayor of Biloxi with a key suspect in such a position. high. The researchers found new obstacles. It became very difficult for the FBI to share all of its information with local authorities. We're not saying that the local police were corrupt, what we're saying is that Mayor Alat put his own people in as director of Public Security and as chief of police, so we were somewhat circumspect in what we shared with local authorities during that period in August 1989 as investigators were trying to unravel the truth about the Sherry murders.

Informant Bobby Joe Fabian made a surprise move and told his story about the Sherry murders to the television news. Fabian hoped that by drawing attention to himself, Kirksey Nix would be less likely to kill him for cooperating with authorities. Sorry, Mr. Grant, along with the report, the station aired a mugshot of John Ransom, the alleged hitman in the Sherry case. When Charles Legere, Peter Latz Jr Partners saw the photo, he was surprised. He recalled seeing Ransom outside Sherry Hallat's law offices a few weeks earlier. Legere shared his information with Task Force Maj. Randy Cook of the Harrison County Sheriff's Department.

Legere said the reason he remembered Ransom was because Ransom came around a bend and approached him and asked where he had passed Sherry's office. In one legere Jimmy was interviewed, he recalled that there was something unusual about the way Ransom came down from the Curve. Ransom had a prosthetic leg. Investigators learned that Ransom was now in a Georgia prison serving time for another murder when they asked him about the Sherry murders. He refused to cooperate. When the cook asked more lazily about the day he and Halat had found the bodies, an important detail emerged. Legia recalled that Halat had entered the Sherry's living room, Judge Sherry's body, and said that Vince and Margaret were dead.

The cook relayed this to Agent Bell. What was interesting was that Margaret's body was in the farthest bedroom of the residence and, according to Chuck Legere, Pete Alat only had time to briefly enter the front of the house and would have no way of knowing that Margaret's body was also there. In the back bedroom in October 1989, two years after the murders, Agent Bell knew Halat was involved, but still lacked enough evidence for an arrest, yet he felt it was time to confront Mayor Hallat. It would be a silent warning from man to man and I let Mayor Hallat know that I thought his knowledge of the Sherry murders was much greater than what he had shared with law enforcement up to that point and I remember also telling him that the FBI would continue working on this case until it was completely resolved.

He just smiled and didn't have much else to say, as Attorney Hallad knew Bell would need more concrete evidence to secure a conviction. What he probably didn't realize was the depth of Bell's commitment to bringing him to justice. It had been years since Judge Vincent Sherry and his wife Margaret were murdered in his home in Biloxi, Mississippi. Special Agent Keith Bell had linked the murders to members of the Dixie Mob and to Judge Sherry's friend and former law partner, Pete, when alleged shooter John Ransom refused to. In January 1990, Agent Bell and the Major Randy Cook, the Harrison County Sheriff's Department, headed to the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary to question another possible accomplice, this is special, a man named Bill Rhodes Roads, a known associate of John Ransom was willing to cooperate, He told them that in early 1987, Ransom had contacted him to ask him about driving the getaway car in a crime that would take place in south Mississippi.

Ransom had told him that a judge would be murdered and that the pay was ten thousand dollars. There were certain promises made on the roads that they bought Ransom and that I know certain people in Biloxi who, if you help me with this, will have a chance at Biloxi whenever they want, so in March of 1987, Rhodes went to Biloxi and met with Ransom and a man named Pete, it was Pete who specifically asked Rhodes and Ransom to do the hit. Road City also met with Mike Gillex, the owner of the Biloxi strip club, who would provide him with the money once the hit was done, but five months later, before they could do the job, Rhodes was arrested on a charge of an unrelated bank robbery and Ransom was afraid the roads would turn against him, the information helped the case move forward, but Agent Bell and Officer Cook still felt that Ransom had the missing pieces.

Another year would pass without much progress. In late 1990, investigators went to the Bostic Correctional Institution in Georgia, where Ransom was serving time. Ransom finally agreed to talk and admitted that he gave a .22-caliber pistol to Larae Sharp's girlfriend Kirksey Nix. but Ransom insisted that he didn't do the job based on what Ransom said that Ray's involvement was starting to look bigger than simply hiding scam money in a safe deposit box through his contact with the crafty Nix he learned of. that the investigation was heating up. He was worried that his girlfriend might talk, so he tried to avoid the problem by putting a contract on her life, but in the late 1990s, Agent Bell arrested her for her involvement in the murders, inadvertently saving her from Nix's gunman during a test. polygraph.

She denied her involvement in the Lonely Heart scam and the Sherry murders, but the machine called her Bluff when Bell and her team added her statements to their existing stacks. of evidence were ready to bring charges against several key players Mike gillich John Ransom the ray Sharp and Kirksey Nix were accused of conspirators in the Sherry murders. Noticeably missing from the list was Pete Hallat. What's happening? The case against Talat would have to wait until there was enough evidence for a murder conviction, for now the FBI would look to convict the others of conspiracy to commit murder, so many of the questions arose as to why not everyone and Pete Hollette died.

From the beginning, when he accused everyone else in the conspiracy trial, he produced several key witnesses who would help investigators piece together the complex scheme. Robbie Gantz's Lonely Heart Stock Market Man Scam Gillich testified for the prosecution. His testimony helped prosecutors link Sherry's murders to the scam. All four defendants were found guilty. Nix received 15 years on top of the life sentence she was already serving for murder. Gillich also received a 15-year prison sentence. Ransom got 10 years and lightning. We won with these conspirators behind bars and the Lonely Heart scam is no longer operational. Bell moved on to her next target.

We decided not to end the Sherry investigation after the initial convictions in 1991 because at that time we had not proven who had actually shot the Sherrys and furthermore, Pete Hallat had not been charged or convicted at that time and we were all convinced that Pete Hallat had played a major role in the scam and murder plot, so we were determined to continue the investigation to see if we could obtain enough evidence to charge and convict Mr. Halat and the real shooter in late July, 1992. Agent Bell got the opportunity he was looking for after the conspiracy trial.

Mike Gillich was desperate to find a way out of prison. He contacted one of his associates in Biloxi and asked him to approach Robbie Gantt with an offer. Gantt told Agent Bell about it and the associate had offered Robbie Gantt twenty thousand dollars if Gantt would recant his testimony against Gilllich and sign a false affidavit stating that I had threatened him to testify against Gillich to testify falsely. . Against Gillich Gantt agreed to wear a microphone and record Gillich's accomplice's offer. Gantt met with himin Mississippi this time. The Gantz tape was rolling when Gillich's associate reiterated the bribe.

I cannot accept it as Bellad indicated. Thank you. Now Bell had the evidence. He needed to turn up the pressure on Gilich, the man who could tell the inside story in 1993, six years after the double murder of Vince and Margaret Sherry. FBI Agent Keith Bell had put four members of the Dixie Mafia behind bars, but there were still no formal murder convictions against those involved and Mayor Pete Hallat, the alleged mastermind of the case, was still free and running the city ​​of Biloxi. In fact, the year before Mayor Hallat had started construction of the city's first major casino, the press was still a lot of hounding about it. his participation in the Sherry murders but remained steadfast in his innocence thanks Bell continued working on his plan used the bribery that Robert Gantt had recorded on tape to file another charge against Mike Gillich already in jail now Bell accused Gillich of bribery of witnesses and witness manipulation to try to buy Gantt and that worked without a doubt the most important turning point was in October of 1993 when Mike Gillich finally decided to cooperate and tell the story of this entire case from the point of view of an Insider and that is What really brought the final resolution to this investigation after years of hard work Bell had put into the case was a satisfying moment it finally seemed like his patience and ingenuity were paying off.

Gillich was in no rush to rack up more prison time. Bill's relentless pressure had persuaded him to make a deal even before the bribery trial began, the Dixie Mafia member would tell what he knew about the murders, maybe now Bell could get the convictions he knew should have been long overdue. a lot, if not for a career criminal like Mike Gillich adjusting to life on the right side. Following the law was not easy at first, he tried to get away with bluffing, of course, it always takes a while, a few weeks, to develop a certain degree of trust and to be able to communicate with someone like this who for the first time has decided to leave his role as a criminal of his entire life and began cooperating with the FBI when the deception didn't work.

Gillich had no choice. He had to tell the truth now for the first time. Bell heard the story from an inside source. Gillits knew all the details. the central point Mike knew Kirksey Nix Mike had known Pete hallat for years and in fact when Kirksey Nix was looking for an attorney in the coastal area to represent him in several matters, Mike gillich introduced Nix to Pete hallat and confirmed that Pete Hallat was actually behind it. the plot to murder the Sherrys and that the plot arose directly from the Lonely Heart scam of Angola prison inmate Kirksey Nix, a few months before the Sherrys' deaths, Hallat had locked the safe deposit box to which He and Nick's girlfriend, Larae Sharp, had access to effectively isolate her. access to the money, he then transferred the money to a box that only he and Judge Sherry could use, motivated by greed, he stole one hundred thousand dollars in cash from there, since Nix's trusted accomplice, Palette, could blame the theft to Judge Sherry, then went to Mike Gillich with news of the theft, Mr.

Gillich testified that Pete Allad approached Mr. Gillich himself late in 1986 and told Mr. Gillich that much of the money, supposedly about one hundred thousand dollars, was missing. , and Mr. Lat blamed Judge Sherry for taking the money. Mr. Lat knew that Kirksey Nix would be very furious about this. I'll make sure it doesn't get out. who ordered Margaret's death, but as a fierce opponent of corruption, she posed a threat to underworld forces hoping to control Biloxi with Margaret dead. Palat could be free to rule the city. Gillett said he and Halat planned the murders. Ransom and Rhodes provided the murder weapon. but when they stopped doing the hit they found a replacement, a Texas-based petty criminal named Thomas Holcomb.

Holcomb would be paid twenty thousand dollars to assassinate the judge. Sherry and his wife Gillich had also helped provide the car with the help of locksmith Lenny Sweatman. Thank you. In October 1996, agents arrested hitman Thomas Holcomb in Texas on murder charges. That same month also saw the arrest that Agent Bell had anticipated and worked nine years to secure the arrest of Pete Hallat for the murders of Sherrys Kirksey Nixon Larae Sharp. They were charged on 52 counts, including fraud, money laundering and murder, Palette was tried and convicted in the summer of 1997, a full decade after the crimes were committed.

He was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison. Kirksey Nix and Thomas Holcomb were also tried and convicted. The Hitman, both were sentenced. To life Nick's girlfriend, brilliant, received five years. I think many citizens in Biloxi now realize that there are many professional people dedicated to law enforcement who will go to great lengths to protect the community and work hard to solve major crimes, perhaps the legacy that could be said of the case for the criminal element is that, after seeing this case, they realize that they can commit a crime one day and think they will get away with it a year later, but it could come back 10 years later and catch them.

While Sherry's killers were eventually brought to justice, Margaret Sherry's dream of a gambling-free Biloxi never came true. Instead, Biloxi has become a resort town full of casinos and neon lights. The quiet southern town is gone forever along with the woman who lost her life in the attempt. To save him, the New York City mafia, a brutal gang organization to gain wealth and power, its members forced businesses and killed anyone in their world. John Gotti was one of the fiercest members of organized crime who wanted to rule. New York City had to stop him. John Gotti was ambitious, powerful and ruthless, he traveled with flash and flashy style, making himself famous with the media and cat and mouse with the FBI.

They called John Gotti, the Teflon Don. Serious charges simply wouldn't hold up. I'm Jim Calstrom, former director of the FBI in New York. When John Gotti came to power in 1985, organized crime still had its tentacles spread into many legitimate businesses like a game of chess. The criminal bosses were well isolated by layers of pawns. The FBI's job was to penetrate their defenses and capture the king. New York is the home of organized crime in the United States through intimidation Terror and murder the five families that make up the New York mafia have corrupted unions, carried out extortion and infiltrated almost every major industry in the city.

Disputes between crime families often arise over who controls which syndicate or what. Their disputes are inevitably and violently resolved by the 1970s. The Gambino family had emerged as the most violent and powerful crime family in the nation. As that decade came to an end, the FBI decided it was time to stop the mob's reign of terror. The New York Bureau's office created five squads assigned to investigate and take down each crime family. Special Agent Bruce Mao was assigned to supervise the squad responsible for taking down the Gambino family. Did the office realize that we weren't really addressing organized crime here in New York?

York and then formed a squad. They targeted each particular crime family and tried to address the organized problem here in New York, so in 1980 we formed the squad and our goal was to put the Gambino family in jail. The main targets of Mao's investigation were the leaders. of the Gambino family, boss Paul Castellano and his underboss Neil de la Croce Castellano assumed leadership of the family in 1976 when Carlos Gambino, the family's namesake, died of natural causes. The FBI was also targeting the family's most powerful captains like John Gotti. The captain-controlled crews of soldiers who carried out daily criminal activity for the Estellanos Crews family would commit the actual crimes, but Castellano himself not catching him seemed impossible as the FBI soon learned that the entire hierarchy of the family Gambino was fine. isolated, the family army consisted of more than 50 captains controlling more than 300 soldiers, it was a large and impenetrable secret society, accessible to outsiders only through the lenses of the surveillance campus, but federal legislation was passed against organized crime that made ordering criminal acts as big a crime as committing them. the crime itself in order to successfully prosecute the Gambino family hierarchy, the FBI had to secretly record them talking about their criminal enterprise.

Mao and his team would have to patiently and methodically work their way through the intricate structure of the Gambino family. To accomplish that for years, agents tried to learn more by talking to residents in neighborhoods where mob activity was prevalent. My breakfast, now you're sure, yeah, but look, you might recognize one of these guys, look, look closely. your time for people were willing to talk only those on the inside could tell the agents who were the real power. The intermediaries cooperated. Witnesses and informants had to be developed. Betraying the mafia meant that certain death informants would be difficult to find, but some were willing to take the risk.

Most of the risks were low-level criminals who made deals with the government to avoid prosecution and long prison sentences, anyone who Whatever their motivation, they gave agents something they didn't have before in the form of a backdoor into the Gambino family's criminal operations. Castellano ran the family like a large corporation dubbed within. the mafia as pope used unions to strengthen his control over several industries in New York foreign head of the FBI office in New York is an expert in organized crime one of the most influential things the Gambino family did was control of the unions in New York City they exerted tremendous influence in terms of the longshoremen's union, in terms of the construction industry unions, and in terms of the teamsters and truckers by controlling the unions in New York City.

The Gambino family was able to control the construction and certainly had a huge influence on the Garmin Center and that created a huge amount of financial foundation for the family. Castellano knew how to keep his interests in check. Castellano also realized how important it was to govern through fear and terrorists, which is why we had several security forces. The family had a team that was famous for killing people by dismembering bodies and you know all kinds of horrible things, so even though Castellana was known as the businessman's Don, he was a tough guy, had a fine trigger and a temper. and killed.

In the blink of an eye, getting directly to Castellano would be very difficult. His home on Staten Island was a fortress under constant supervision of armed guards. He had also installed a sophisticated alarm system. Agents had no solid evidence to suggest Castellano was conducting criminal business in his home, such evidence a court would never authorize an FBI wiretap or wiretap inside the home. The agents take to the street. They hope to find a weak link to explore a person in the family who became vulnerable to electronic surveillance. They learn from informants about a Gambino Family Team headed by John Guy that operated in Queens headquartered in a private social club called the Bergen Hunt and Fish Club.

Some of the FBI's well-placed informants were close to one of Gotti's lieutenants, a man named Angelo Lucerio, though known on the streets. It is the cruelest gang in the Gambino family. The agents believe that they found that his weak bond in God is good and the reason we did it was that he had a lieutenant named Angela Gerio who ran the daily operations of Gotti and his team and Angela was an attractive target because number one is very active involved a lot of criminal activity number two had a big mouth talked a lot was a gossip and a charlatan Mao quickly set up surveillance teams to identify, search and record every person who entered the Bergen Club thank you, agents learned that John Gotti and his crew made money for the family primarily through carjacking, robbery, extortion, and illegal gambling operations.

The informants told agents that Rugerio sometimes talked about family business on his daughter's phone and that he believed the line listed in his name was free. The FBI Brothers' permission to wiretap private phones is granted with moderation. Agents must convince a federal judge that the target is engaged in criminal activity and that wiretapping is likely to produce more evidence. The conversations are not criminal in nature. Eavesdropping must be disabled. The statements of the informant. were enough to convince a federal judge in late 1981 that the telephoneRosario's daughter should be intervened. Mao's squad had found a way to infiltrate the Gambino family.

The wiretaps of Rosario's phone proved to be one of the most successful wiretaps in FBI history. Yes, the conversation was heard. According to the FBI, they were Cursed, but the agents learned that Rosario also held meetings at her house with Gambino members. Mao and his squad had enough evidence to justify bugging Rugerio's house. The agents snuck in, installed microphones in his dining room, and left without a trace. The mafia's success has always been its ability to stay one step ahead of law enforcement. What Mao and his squad didn't know was that a high-ranking police officer was on Gambino's payroll, although the mole didn't know specific details, he leaked information. to family members about ongoing investigations and electronic surveillance operations Angelo Ruggerio became paranoid that his house was bugged.

He searched the house himself but found nothing. He was not convinced. He called in a professional to do a thorough search or sweep for microphones. Yes, I need someone to come tweet my house. please roarerio ordered the sweep of the tapped phone and the FBI listened to the conversation they knew they were having a crisis 23 45 Richmond Street had a problem the tapped phone inside the house was immediately turned off to avoid detection if it was discovered it would destroy weeks of diligent work and Sending the squad back to the starting point and there were no targets as talkative as Rugeria.

Well, the sweeper arrived with the most sophisticated electronic detection equipment available after two days of searching the house from top to bottom, he was ready to report his findings to Rogerio two days after Rugerio's house was searched for microphones. , agents arrested the man who carried out the sweep of their home, which they found to be truly shocking, they charged Rugerio thousands of dollars for his services, but none of their detection equipment worked. He had scammed the mafia. Fortunately, he had told Rugerio that his house was clean. It was a stroke of luck for the FBI. Not only had they not discovered his microphones, but now Rugerio felt safe to speak freely in his house and he did so with abandon directly into the microphones of the FBI little by little the FBI was getting closer to Gambino family hierarchy two agents the conversations were a gold mine when Rugerio met with his mafia.

Partners, the FBI learned of a major heroin trafficking operation run by Rugerio and John Gotti's younger brother, Eugene, over a six-month period. Angelo and Eugene Gotti had distributed more than 50 kilos. of heroin only in New York the FBI had every last detail recorded there was a mafia rule in force that trafficking drugs was strictly prohibited the punishment for being caught was execution without appeal without trial Rosario did not have the boss's permission to traffic drugs and he knew the consequences good morning the government felt it had a strong case against gugerio and Eugene Gotti in September 1983 they were charged with running a major heroin distribution network and obstruction of justice although all of the defendants were part of John's group Gotti's name was not mentioned in the recorded conversations but with the prosecution Castellano would soon discover that Gotti's men were using drugs and he learned of the heroin operation;

However, it wasn't the only valuable information officers learned just before his heroin charge. Gugerio would meet with other soldiers and discuss how he and John Gotti would go to Paul Castellano's house every Sunday for a family reunion the natural thing to do is blow by blow what happened at Paul's house the Pope did this the Pope in which is angry with this guy it all depends on the family we find through Angela's big mouth and then the next day other soldiers come of course Angela to piece together what happened again so we find out that everything was happy in the Gambino family thanks to Andrew Rugerio, John Gotti and Paul Castellano, based on Rogerio's cable, agents now had probable cause. to bug the home of Gambino boss Paul Castellano, breaking into Castellano's home required detailed planning and methodical execution.

Agents managed to enter the house and place the microphones shortly after they began recording conversations that directly implicated Paul Castellano as the head of the Gambino family. who oversaw a multitude of illegal searches that cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year Castellano met with his most trusted captains to discuss business and identified one of those captains as Sammy the gravon bull he was strong and aggressive he was a boxer and bodybuilder He was also The family's main executor, Gravino made his money for the family in the construction industry. He was adept at a number of criminal activities, but his most notable skill was murdered while the FBI continued to investigate powerful family captains like John Goddard and Sammy the Bull, their sights remained focused on the boss in 1985, two years after that Rugeria was accused.

Paul Castellano was arrested and charged along with other heads of New York families with dozens of federal racketeering and conspiracy violations, free on bond. Although Castellano continued to run the family. His attention seemed focused on how to beat the government's case against him. John Gotti was also facing his own legal problems. An independent investigation led by the United States Attorney's Office ended with Gotti and his mentor under boss Neil de la Croce charged with multiple counts of racketeering. Crocean Gotti's were released on bail, allowing them to continue their criminal operations months after Croce lay dying of cancer.

The FBI had bugged his room and the FBI was listening. They recorded Gotti talking about his fears that Castellano could kill him in rugeri for being caught on tape talking about his drug dealings and for taking the FBI to Castellano's house, the boss wanted to listen to the FBI tapes, he promised Gotti that he would do everything in his power to protect him, as if Rocci's loyalty to Godding was causing a rift in the family. he was delaying the reluctant boss from handing over the tapes to Castellano. The Gambino family was splitting in two and then in early December 1985, Neil de la Croce, the Gambino family's second in command, died of cancer at his home on December 16, two weeks after Gambino's death. delicroche Castellano and his new sidekick, Tommy Belong, were stopping at a fancy steakhouse in Midtown Manhattan to meet some associates for dinner when they began to get out of the car, several men approached them and began shooting.

Castellano and Belotti never knew what hit them, they died instantly when the head of the family is murdered. The FBI believes that the person responsible is usually the one who steps forward and assumes leadership of the family. It was a mafia tradition to pay tribute to a new boss. to pay respect two weeks after the assassin agents witnessed a parade of high-level members of the Gambino family enter the Bergen hunting and fishing club they were meeting with agent John Guy Mal and his squad would have to restructure their attack on The gambino hierarchy John Gotti was the new head of the family's agents reconstructed his criminal history and charted his rise to power.

John Gotti became an associate of the Gambino family around 1970. He impressed the boss in 1973 by killing a man who had kidnapped and murdered a relative of Carlos Gambino. Gotti served two years for the hit before being paroled after his release. He quickly earned respect within the family. He began earning a large amount of money for the family through loan sharking and gambling operations in his neighborhood. He became something of a hero and threw huge Fourth of July parties every year, marking the farewell of Special Agent George Gabriel. assigned to Mao's squad in 1985. he quickly became an expert on John Gotti, he looked out for old women in need, if he had money in his pocket he handed it out, in some ways he was a Robin Hood in his neighborhood and that's how he behaved, but how did he make that money by killing, stealing, manipulating, bribing, controlling rackets he had no right to control and that's one side when when he didn't like you when you fell on the wrong side of John you died I mean, there was no mercy you died there were no two ways to do it Gotti was now the king he found himself in command of a multi-million dollar criminal network made up of scams that he did not know existed, he had a lot to learn from his mistakes and the special surveillance agent Gabriel and the rest of the squad of the FBI learned along with him.

John Gotti took over that family, he had to learn what frauds were and as he learns them we are learning them Who has what industries who collects from what unions he is asking the captains to give him a list of all the soldiers there and his crews so he can know who he has in his family and how many Gotti was the boss, but he still had legal rights problems six months after becoming the head of the family, he was sent to jail awaiting trial on usury and charges of game. The prison did not stop him, brother, from his cell.

Gotti ordered a murder. It was against Robert de Bernardo, who had been close. Associate of God Bernardo's murder was organized by Angelo Gugerio who was still awaiting trial for his 1983 drug charge Angela is one of the few guys who has access to John in prison and tells him that Robert Bernardo is speaking subversive to behind John's back The boss is back and he's saying that John is not fit to be boss and that we should appoint someone else. Boss Angela wants this done because Angelo owns a lot of Robert de Bernardo's money and he doesn't want to pay him back. some of these contracts here public housing contract on behalf of Gandhi Rosario asked Sammy, the Gravano bull, to prepare coup 5 of 1986 D Bernardo showed up for a meeting at the Gravano construction office, everyone greeted him as if custom, Bernardo must not have suspected anything, you know. he got all those contracts he was shot in the head from behind abroad his body was never found the FBI found out about his death through informants the agents believed that Gotti's team was responsible for the murder but they needed proof in August of '96, Two months after De Bernardo's coup Gotti went to trial on charges of gambling and usury brought two years earlier, but Gotti had not been the main target of that accusation.

The case was originally designed to take down Neil de la Croce from Underbau. The case against Gotti was never that strong, but it was ambitious. The US prosecutor saw an opportunity to get a mafia boss, although the case did not involve Mao's squad. He sent George Gabriel to observe the trial during a break in the proceedings. Gabriel came face to face with his adversary. I introduced myself. I told him George Gabriel with the FBI I work at Bruce Mouse Squad he says tell him I'll be home in six weeks I'm going to beat this one I said okay I'll deliver your message I said and if you do I'll be there to congratulate you because it'll be a good job from you it says well I hope to see you March 13, 1987 Gotti was acquitted of all charges Gabriel completed his ISE graduation after the verdict Gabriel went hunting and fishing at the Bergen Club in Queens where Gotti was having an acquittal party.

He congratulated Guy before the press, public and prosecutors. John Gunn seemed untouchable when he was released from prison. John Gotti regained his celebrity status in the city. He was seen in fine restaurants and dazzling nightclubs, always impeccably dressed. he was known as the Dapper Don now with his acquittal he earned the title from the Teflon Don charges that were slipped before the media he was glorified as the underdog who took on and defeated the government but now it was Mao's turn to file a case against Gotti It bothers me when they glorify a guy like that to me he's just a common thug a criminal he's a terrorist he doesn't believe in our government he doesn't believe in voting he doesn't believe in the church he doesn't believe in family he's a mass murderer how come Can you glorify this guy or make him a role model for your children?

It's very annoying to me, in order to present his case against Gotti Mao had to find out where he was conducting his business on the FBI's planted microphones. the Bergen Hunting and Fishing Club had dried up since he became boss. Gotti didn't spend that much time there. He relied heavily on informants to find out where God held his high-level meetings. It took them eight months, but in early 1988 they finally found Gotti's club. new headquarters Gotti made the Ravenite social club in Little Italy his headquarters. It was a symbolic gesture on Gotti's part that Ravenite was his mentor.

Neil bellacoach's former club here Gotti reunited with his captains to run the family business. The agents rented an apartment on the street. At the Ravenite, ahigh-powered camera to record everyone entering and leaving the club in February 1988. The FBI got court approval to intervene at The Rhythm with 30 or 40 people in the room. Deciphering the conversations was difficult. Recordings on white cassette tapes. There was always noise in the club, listening to conversations, that was impossible, okay, but the FBI had to have John Gotti's orders recorded in order to accuse him of running the Gambino family, so far the insects in the Ravenita had not produced a lot of evidence.

Gotti always suspected that the FBI was listening to him and found clever ways to avoid being heard. Oh, John Gotti was known for participating in what we described as a chat in which he and the person he was with were discussing something secret, not all my business is open. For everyone in the mafia, there were times when a captain had to talk to his boss. John Gotti would take that person and they would go outside, they were avoiding the possibility of a mistake, no matter what agents did, it looked like the mafia. He was anticipating their every move at times, even mocking them and outside the ravenite they hit every van on the street and whispers, we know you're there, they force you all the time and you do everything you can not to, but it happens and I just have to keep it up John Gotti ordered another hit out of range of FBI microphones, this time it was Louis Malito, a Gambino soldier whose loyalty to Gotti was suspect, he was a threat to the family administration since Molito had been a business partner. close to Paul.

Castellano and Tommy bilotti Sammy the bull agreed to supervise that he also had little use for molito Sammy felt that he was trying to get into the construction industry Melita was shot and killed under the supervision of tumbano her body was removed and was never found The FBI He found out about the hit through a rumored informant, but again there was not enough hard evidence on Gotti to arrest him. God, he was ordering people to be killed right under the FBI's nose. The game of cat and mouse intensified and so did the pressure on the FBI to prevent it from ordering more murders.

How new it was. overlook something that needs to be talked about, but the FBI didn't know where, in December 1988 Bruce Mao decided it was time to pull the plug and regroup. It's a very frustrating moment because we knew we were very close, so we had these guys on. In the video we could see him coming and going, we saw the walking talks down the street, we were so close but so far from achieving our goals, the microphones were shut down, but the FBI's Gambino squad didn't give up, they developed a new informant who told us. Gotti would sometimes be in deep conversation with one of his men at the Ravenite and then they would abruptly leave the table and head to a hallway behind the club, usually gone for 10 or 15 minutes, the meetings in the lounge They were undoubtedly incriminating. and in a quiet hallway, FBI microphones were able to pick up more conversations.

The team quickly seized the opportunity. In October 1989, agents attached helmet microphones and recorded Gotti's meeting with several members of the Gambino family. There the microphone produced some evidence against Gotti, but not the evidence they needed to imprison him for life. My God, he had to meet his men somewhere else within the village, somewhere he would feel comfortable and say "okay, okay." In the fall of 1989, agents learned from informants about another location inside a building where Gotti frequented Nettie Cirelli was a widow, her husband Michael had been the caretaker of the Ravenite club when he died, she remained in the apartment they shared just two floors above the club, it was believed that he had to use Mrs.

Cirelli's apartment to talk about sensitive family matters and mess with Mrs. Cirelli's apartment undetected was going to be a problem that rarely came out while The FBI Special Operations Squad was trying to find a way to let agents know that Ms. Cirelli was going out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday. It was the opportunity they had been waiting for. Work snuck into the apartment in the middle of the night and placed the books on November 30, 1989. The first conversation recorded in Ms. Cirelli's apartment came over the wires crisp and clear. All participants spoke freely. They spoke directly without using code words or sign language as they did. often did when a bug presses for weeks the agents listened to the apartment's conversations on December 12, 1989 they got the biggest break they could have ever hoped for that day God and his deputy chief Frank locaccio found themselves in the apartment in an incoherent conversation Gotti He left a trail of evidence that would later haunt him; he explained union fraud and other crimes and spoke of ordering the murder of several people.

The agents monitoring Gotti that night could hardly believe their ears. Most shocking to the agents was what they heard Gotti say about Sammy Gravano for more than an hour. Gotti became verbally angry about Sammy and said Gravana was getting greedy by taking too big a cut of the profits from the construction business. becoming too active in the family without respecting Gotti's authority Gotti suggested that two murders he himself had ordered were due to Sammy was trying to protect his own interests according to Gotti Sami had tricked him into murdering di Bernardo and Milito. It is a very important conversation because during this long tirade John confessed to two murders that the Confessor ordered to kill Robert de Bernard, only that is the order and they hit Louis Malito.

Both claimed that Gravan was urging murder. He also talked about a third guy named Louis de Bono who was going to murder another of Sammy's associates. John explained that he also has control of different unions. He also detailed how much money he has. from different illegal activities was our Smoking Gun is the best tape of all electronic surveillance after recording a few more conversations the apartment's cable was turned off in May 1990. for Miles Gambino Squad all the years of patience had finally paid off They had the best evidence they could imagine and it was John Gotti himself.

Over the next few months, agents built their case against Gotti. Against the Gambino family hierarchy that began a decade earlier was set to come to an end on December 12, 1990, exactly one year after Gotti's fateful conversation, Special Agent George Gabriel and two others went to the Ravenite Social Club, their purpose was to arrest John Gotti, Sammy Gravano. and Frank Lucasio's backup officers were very close, or so Gabriel thought when I entered the club to arrest them, they had just ordered coffee and me, my partner and one of the police officers, accidentally entered the club before the rest of the The arrest team was about a minute ahead of everyone, so there we were in the classic.

You know, we have them surrounded and we're looking behind us and there was no one there, but there was no problem. Everyone complied with what we told them. he asked and John or Sammy asked if they could have a cup of coffee and I said yes, go ahead, we have plenty of time before we leave to get booked. Gotti asked Agent Gabriel what he was accused of. Gabriel went through the list. and told Gotti about the recorded conversations, especially in the hallway of the apartment, in that God, he remained silent and a bail hearing was held a few days later, the three defendants listened to excerpts from the FBI tapes, played a segment of the December 12 conversation that Sammy Gravano overheard Gotti. attacking his character for the first time in his life, John Gotti was embarrassed, he was turning shades of blue and pink and trying to hide at the table, Sammy was turning red, you could tell I'm hotter than a firecracker and they kept looking at each other as if passing here, but that day planted the seeds for the first time in Gravano's mind that he and God John Gotti could never coexist and that one had to kill the other if they ever left jail after listening to the tape.

Ravano realized Gotti's defense strategy. He would be guilty of the murders. Ravana was being groomed as a scapegoat on November 8, 1991. Gravano decided to cooperate with the FBI and tell them everything he knew about the Gambino family. He filled in all the missing details in the recordings about how he and Gotti committed crimes on behalf of the Gambino family and managed to stay one step ahead of the authorities. Gravano arranged payments to jurors and a high-level police officer who had been providing Gotti with classified information on both jurors and corrupt jurors. The officer was charged and sentenced to prison.

Gabriel finally learned why Gotti had been able to avoid successful prosecutions. He is there in everyone's face. I beat the government. They have nothing against me. The reality is that he bought the jury. Sammy Gravino paid sixty thousand dollars to the jury. to throw that case out and that's how he wins his case the question that most needs an answer concerned Castellano's murder through Gravano the FBI finally learned the truth the seeds for Castellano's murder were planted when Angelo Ruggerio and Eugene Gotti were accused in the heroin distribution ring in 1983. The banned operation could no longer be hidden by the boss Castellano learned that the government case was based on FBI recordings of Rugerio Castellano was furious he wanted to hear the tapes for himself The same events began to accumulate in 1984 the tapes were finally turned over to the defense if the first time all the co-defendants and defense attorneys had all these days evangel blevitt on heroin trafficking music castellano house commission meetings etcetera so around 1984 Castellano being the family from Boston asked Rogerio for a copy of the In the tapes, Della Croce kept the tension between Gotti and Castellano under control, but when Della Croce died, the barriers fell a few days after the death of Della Croce.

Castellano summoned his captains for a meeting. Tommy Bellotti would replace Della Croce's assistant boss. More sinisterly, Castellano declared that Gotti's crew would be disbanded, his men absorbed by other crews. Castellano had finally listened to the rugerio tapes that had been given to the government. Such a good case that after the trial there probably wouldn't be much flashy crew anyway. Gotti was furious and knew that he was a Target, among the ranks they complained that Castellano was worried about his legal problems and did not pay enough attention to the family; some members thought he was pocketing too much money for himself and not distributing it to the soldiers and captains.

Gotti began To formulate his takeover, he had Angelo Muggerio approach three of the other four mafia families. He wanted to know if they would turn a blind eye if something had happened to Castellano. The family said they would not interfere. Gotti carefully chose some soldiers to help plan the attack. In particular heist there was a Gambino member whose support would be crucial if the heist was to succeed. Rosario was sent to ask Sammy Gravano if he would participate in Castellone's murder. Gravano agreed that he was aware of the growing offspring within the family. He also knew that John Gotti was powerful enough to carry out the boss's assassination and when the other families agreed to stay out of it, Sammy knew the smart move was to back Ghani.

Gotti assembled a team of five members of the Gambino family to plan Castellano's murder. They called themselves El Puño de Cinco, hitting the boss of the largest mafia family was a formidable task, the fist would have to find Castellano far from his loyalists and they knew that Castellano was under constant police scrutiny, he had to be beaten somewhere where the FBI. He was unlikely to follow, his best opportunity coming in mid-December 1985. Castellano had asked five of his captains to meet him for dinner at Sparks Steakhouse in Midtown Manhattan, but one of the captains was a member of The Fist. the previous night. planned fist bump convened at a construction office used by Ravana four shooters have been hired two for Castellano and two for his driver and underboss Tommy Bellotti the murders had been meticulous on December 16 the team met in a park a mile from Sparks four shooters dressed alike in black Russian hats and light-colored trench coats, if seen by the Witnesses, they were more likely to remember them by what they were wearing than by their faces. the lead shooters were to pair up just outside Sparks.

Angelo Rosario was one of the four substitutes who would block all avenues of Escape Guardian Graveno would watch from below from the street in that Park Ed ready to shoot if necessary if something went wrong if they failed in the street they had to move towards Sparks shooting untilCastellano and Bilotti were killed no matter who stood in the way Castellano and Belotti had to die It was getting dark when God and Gravano headed towards Spark Steakhouse The shooters took their places They entered Gravino They soon found their point of view A place to park in a intersection on the street of the restaurant they waited in the car castellana arrived late perhaps they had warned him about the plot against his life in the middle of a conversation with Gotti Gravano suddenly looked to his left and panicked when he saw that it was a black Lincoln with Belotti at the wheel and Castellano at his side.

For a moment, Ravano and Gotti thought they would be seen, but the traffic light changed and the car moved forward. It was time when Bilotti stopped the car towards the sidewalk. The Assassins moved forward. The foreigner, Castellano and Tommy Belotti, remained outside the car, each with six shooting points. According to Gravano, Gotti took the car out onto the street and drove past the body lying on the pavement. He had to be sure that Castellano was dead. Gravano's detailed account finally put an end to the speculation as part of his plea deal. Ravano testified against His former boss, admitted to doing so for his role in 19 mob-related murders, served five years in prison and voluntarily entered the witness protection program on April 2, 1992.

John Gotti was convicted of five murders, including Paul Castellanos and Tommy Villages. He was also found guilty of other crimes under the umbrella of obstruction of justice and extortion included bribing a sworn police officer 10 gambling bets tax evasion and attempted murder John Gotti lived his life in federal custody stripped his audience of their expensive suits and his extravagant style died in a prison hospital on June 10, 2002. The FBI cracked down on organized crime. Is working. Luis Chileo, head of the New York office, is optimistic about the future of New York. People today believe that he can build a building in New York City without being blackmailed by a cousin of the Oster family.

He believed that A restaurant in New York City could pick up their trash without fear of being shaken if they didn't choose a particular Carter. Today, people can compete at the Fulton Fish Market without the need to pay one of New York's criminals. families, so we've come a long way, there's certainly a lot left to do, but I think people in general in New York City are certainly starting to feel the effects of this effort. The battle continues in New York City. Lafayette. The families continue to loot and kill, but thanks to the relentless efforts of the FBI, the people of New York are beginning to feel relief as more and more gangsters like John Gotti are taken off the streets for 30 years.

Vincent Gigatti wandered the streets of New York. Greenwich Village dressed in a tattered bathrobe and babbling endlessly to himself to the FBI. He was believed to be the head of the most powerful mafia organization in New York. Either the Genovese crime family was either insanely crazy or his behavior was a cunning attempt to disguise his position as ruthless. muffled boss that question would take years to answer every family has eccentrics even criminal families Crime boss Vincent giganti head of the Genovese family of New York was undoubtedly eccentric the question remained whether he was really crazy just as it rested on the answer outwardly wandering around The old man was barely in touch with reality, but in the eyes of the law he was a cunning conspirator and responsible for the murder.

I'm Jim Calstrom, former director of the FBI's New York office. Organized crime is making a concerted effort to crack the FBI he works for. Figuring it out, the case against Gigandi depended on his ability to be judged whether it was strange behavior, an act of madness, or a stroke of genius. Anyone who had witnessed giganti's rantings would have found it difficult to believe that he controlled the largest and most profitable family in the New World. York mafia an organization with a long and bloody history the origins of the mafia date back to the 13th century. Sicilian feudal society bands of Sicilian families organize to rebel against the oppressive and ruthless French invaders Mafia the acronym of the Italian morta a la France Italia anela, which translates as death to the cry of Italy of the French, became the name that these organized families used to refer to themselves.

Its meaning was synonymous with Men of Honor. In the 19th century, the mafia re-emerged in Sicily as a purely criminal culture, mostly for hire. to wealthy landowners to oppress upstart peasants The Mafia's goal increasingly focused on how to generate illegal profits The tradition continued when waves of Italians immigrated to New York in the 1920s Most of the immigrants lived in Crafton or As a result of rising ethnic tensions, Sicilian Americans became the target of growing resentments because they increasingly needed protection from the mafia. Louis Chilero, a third-generation Italian-American, is head of the FBI's New York field office, a A 23-year veteran, he is an expert on the mafia and its intricate structure when it first became prevalent in New York City, primarily victimizing members of the immigrant community, where in lower Manhattan they became victims of extortion. and protection rackets and that's how the Oster cousins' families originally got started with prohibition.

The influence of crime families grew. From isolated neighborhoods and began to spread nationwide, a new form of underworld cooperation emerged. Several crime families across the United States banded together to supply illegal alcohol to a country willing to pay for it. I think that probably gave the Italian gangs more to the Italian Kozanoster families than anything. a foothold in American society not only from an organizational point of view but certainly from a financial basis a sense of prohibition certainly later expanded to other areas operating outside the law meant that the mafia had to control itself to that an organization animated by self-interest and the group will not There will always be conflict in the opposition.

An elite group of assassins organized to enforce the mafia's rules, thus ensuring its survival. This group of mobs and forces became known as Murder Inc. In the early 1940s, Murder Inc would be responsible for hundreds of mob-related murders across the country. Powerful New York bosses during the early years of the mafia Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello created a governing body for the mafia responsible for delegating territories and duties among the various gangs. National home to America's five largest families. New York remained the center of the mafia's expansion in America, as it remains to this day, the five families of New York currently consist of the Gambino family, the Manano, the Lucchesi, the Colombo and the Genovese family, Each of those families are also members of the commission and are also based in New York City. of the heads of the five New York families acts as a criminal board of directors that resolves disputes between families and makes important decisions about the mafia's businesses.

Each family is governed by its Administration made up of the head, the deputy head and the consigliere or counselor who are responsible for directing. their families criminal activity below the administration in the family hierarchy are captains captains are the leaders of crews of soldiers men responsible for carrying out day-to-day criminal activity to become a soldier properly known as a type wise or a good guy an individual first has to be officially included or admitted into the secret society. must blindly obey the rules of the Italian casanostra. For this of ours, he has sworn to put his family above all else.

If he is asked to kill, he must do so faithfully. It was in this context of a bustling immigrant community with an expanding casanoster influence that Vincent giganti grew up. His parents came from Naples and settled in lower Manhattan. Vincent finished the 8th grade and started trade school, but soon dropped out; less than a decade later, Giganti became a smart guy in the Genovese crime family. Vincent giganti's criminal career spanned a turbulent time in the history of the American mafia, the mafia had expanded its reach into legitimate businesses that the various families fought to control and in the turf wars that followed, violence was often the final arbiter .

The family the giant joined was steeped in Kosanostra's American origins. The infamous Charles Lucky Luciano, responsible for organizing and structuring the American mafia, was the first boss of the family until he was imprisoned in 1936. As a result, the management of the Luciano family Frank Costello dubbed the prime minister of the underworld and veto Genovese fought for Control of the Costello family gained, but Vito Genovese began planning his takeover. A young Vincent Giganti first gained notoriety as a mobster in 1957 when he attempted to assassinate Frank. Costello within the mafia was widely believed that Veto Genovese had ordered the hit to get rid of his rifle.

Giganti's bullet only grazed Costello's head, but Costello apparently received the message shortly after the shooting and announced that he was withdrawing. Vito Genovese was now the head of the family that would take the name of him giganti was arrested for attempted murder and put on trial, but the case was dismissed for lack of a witness. The location and angle of Costello's wound indicated that he probably saw the would-be Assassin, but at trial he was unable to identify Giganti as the shooter, even for an overthrown chief, the oath of secrecy remains sacred. Giganti continued to make money for the Genovese family through illegal enterprises two years after the failed assassination attempt, he was arrested and convicted of narcotics violations, receiving a seven-year sentence. one year sentence sentenced Gangsters are expected to do their time to remain silent if jigadi served his sentence and kept his mouth shut he would be rewarded after his release it was up to giganti to figure out how to avoid future arrests he was a neat model prisoner polite and willing to Accept any job, Giganti's cooperation was so impressive that some prison officials wrote devastating reports published early on at the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg for his good behavior when he was 35 years old.

Giganti now devised a secret plan that he hoped would prevent his return to prison forever, he did not want to leave his mafia life or give up his chance to become the head of the family after his release in 1964. Giganti's public behavior began to become Strange, he became a frequent site on the streets of Greenwich Village, giganti could be He was found wandering the neighborhood, looking disoriented and mentally unstable shortly after being released from prison. Giganti learned of a police investigation into his association with known mobsters in 1969. He was accused of attempting to bribe New Jersey police officers.

He allegedly offered them money in exchange for information about surveillance and ongoing investigations in the Genovese family. Now, at almost 40 years old, he returned to his mental disability as a contrast and was admitted for the first time to a psychiatric hospital to support his storage. Again, his relatives began to review her medical history while giganti was in Lewisburg, her mother had been asked to fill out a detailed family history. She said Vincent was a healthy and happy child. She only noticed a speech impediment and a slight heart murmur. He had been a boxer but had never had a serious injury at the time of the 1969 war.

However, Giganti's lawyers claimed that he was not competent to stand trial. His family suddenly remembered a series of mental problems that had caused him to have tantrums. severe had a phobia of the dark had skipped school at one point was obese and had learning disabilities the incompetence argument worked giganti was never tried on the 1969 bribery charges that same year giganti's boss, Vito Genovese, died of heart failure while serving a prison sentence for narcotics trafficking in the following decade, the Genovese family was so secretive that it was difficult for authorities to know exactly who the boss was even if the FBI had been able to identify the leaders of the Genovese family who filed a case against them was another story.

It was difficult to find witnesses. Mobsters who violated the sacred oath faced certain death to the best of the FBI's ability. to do was pursue individual crimes there were no laws that focused on taking down the entire crime family as giganti rose in the family the federal government was about to make the fbi's job a little easier in 1970 congress approved the influences of the gangsters and corrupt The law of organization better known asRico laws, but the law against organized crime allowed us to do was look at the family as a criminal enterprise and attack the family as a criminal act that became much more effective if you look back, from the mid-70s to the '80s in terms of charging the entire family throughout the hierarchy of that family, Rico's laws require the government to prove that mafia families are essentially criminals.

Companies must prove that crimes committed by the boss and his family members are committed to either expand the criminal enterprise or increase a family member's position within that enterprise basket on the sixth day. Yes, to successfully take down a family, the government has to prove that any of various criminal acts ranging from racketeering and extortion to murder have been committed. By 1979, now armed with federal legislation aimed directly at organized crime, the FBI had dedicated teams to exclusively focus investigations on the five major families. The FBI's Genovese squad finally discovered that Vincent Giganti was on a fast track with the family Special Agent Richard Rudolph had been assigned to investigate the Genovese crime family through informants and other law enforcement agencies who are exchanging information, we learned that Mr.

Giganti was an individual who had a lot of respect in the Genovese crime family and operated from an area in Lowell Manhattan because he was a promising person with a lot of respect within the family we began to monitor Mr. Giganti and the FBI continued to build their arsenal against organized crime. giganti's game of cat and mouse intensified, he intensified his public display of mental disorder in In the late 1970s and early 1980s he was admitted five more times for psychiatric treatment. The FBI continued to monitor the giants. The agents discovered that he frequented the Triángulo Social Club.

A meeting place for Genoese criminal figures. He could be found there almost daily. lived in the neighborhood, he was an individual who could be found there late in the afternoon and into the early hours of the morning and people came to see him instead of him going to see other people, although it seemed that the Association of Giganti in the Genovese Family To be sure, Giganti's relatives and doctors continually told investigators that he led a very limited existence, said that his entire world was confined to the block where he lived and the church he attended with his mother, He barely functioned at home and couldn't take care of himself. they said, but with each passing day the FBI and the NYPD saw a very different foreign giant Vincent.

In the early 1980s, the mafia in the northeast went through a particularly tumultuous time with several murders, internal disputes within the family resulting in a series of murders. The FBI suspected Giganti of being responsible for these Gangland executions, especially those intended to punish for breaking the rules of the casinos. Giganti was known to be a traditionalist, he wanted the rules to be obeyed and when they were broken, the retribution that began with the murder of the Philadelphia crime boss was sure to come. Angelo Bruno, although Bruno's family was outside of New York, all the families responded to the members of the giganti commission, he was upset that Bruno had been murdered by his own men in an attempt to control the family, a rule of Casa Nostra, no one can kill. a boss unless the commission sanctions him and they rarely do Uganda itself was rumored to have launched an investigation into revenge for the murder of Bruno was Swift less than a month later Tony bananas caponegro identified as one of Bruno's killers was found dead he had been shot 15 times and stabbed in the back, his body was stuffed in a trunk and 20 bills were scattered around his body, a clear message that he was murdered for his greed on the same day another body was discovered, this one Once it was Fred Salerno dead from gunshot wounds dumped in a vacant lot he had also allegedly participated in the murder of Bruno Phil Testa had taken Angelo Bruno's place as boss his reign was short almost a year after Bruno's execution Tessa was blown up upon entering his own house another boss killed without the commission's blessing another act of revenge Follow Rocco Marinucci was later found dead with fireworks in his mouth, a gesture designed to show that he was killed because of the way he had killed, testing what happened if Casa Nostra was going to flourish, all its members had to abide by its rules.

There were no exceptions. Giganti was believed to have ordered the murder of one of the members of his own crime family. Genoese soldier Jerry Pappa had murdered two members of the Colombo family without permission as punishment for his unauthorized ACT. Members of his own crime family brutally shot and killed him. A foreign family becomes the enforcer of the northeastern Casa Nostra. Informants within the mob told federal agents that all of these murders had been ordered by giants, but that information provided by admitted criminals is always a problem for potential jurors. Criminals will say anything if their cooperation can be negotiated. for a reduced prison sentence the fbi needed more than the words of the criminals who were looking for a deal jigati knew this and protected himself accordingly it seemed that jigati was now the boss the fbi began a surveillance effort more focused on gigantia they learned that The Genovese family had also infiltrated several of New York's most important industries, the garment trade, trucking, garbage collection, airport cargo handling, and the city's seafood industry.

Vincent Gigatti was known on the streets as the chin, an abbreviation of chinzino, little Vincent feared FBI surveillance and wiretapping. His family members were not allowed to pronounce his name, they had to refer to him with hand signals touching their chins to communicate his nickname. Taking down the chin was going to take all the knowledge the FBI could muster, they were going to have to make their own luck as A member of the surveillance team observed one day that a telltale crack appeared in Chin's ruse. The seemingly frail man was being helped across a busy street when oncoming traffic threatened.

He suddenly perked up and ran to safety. His helplessness somehow overtook him again on the other side. Clearly there were two. Gigantes, the mentally disturbed man shown to the public and the determined head of the Genovese Administration, the FBI would soon learn that a third Gigantes' ex-wife and their five children were living in New Jersey while he was in a relationship with his former partner. Olympia Esposito. thank you, he usually called her late at night looking quite smart before he noticed the surveillance, we learned that he frequently visited a house located on 77th Street and the East Side of Manhattan, where we later learned that a law common he lived with his common-law wife and had been married previously and this was his second family there in this residence, soon the FBI knew all of Chin's Hangouts, this gave the surveillance teams the opportunity to observe giants without his knowledge , a major break occurred when Detective Tom Bruno, a member of the New York Police Department's organized crime task force, was able to take photographs of some of Giganti's activities in 1984.

I was assigned to a joint task force against organized crime whose task was made up of FBI agents and New York City police detectives and we were assigned to investigate the Genovese crime family, then the next step was to go to Sullivan Street where Shinjukanti lived. His apartment was above a supposed pet store and he also had a social club on the Block and when you passed by the social club I would see numerous people who were in the photos and I would see them standing in front of entering and then sometimes I would cross the street street to go to the pet store, which was where the chin we think met the people.

The pet store never really had any type. From business we could see it had a small cat box in the window and basically that was it. He looked more and more giant acting normally when he didn't know he was being watched. I see Shinjukanti and I see Andrew Giganti, who is his son, come out. from his residence and I'm just minding my business walking down the block uh Andrew leaves to get in his car and Chin is standing on the corner and they didn't help him out of his building and he was standing on the corner Andrew gets in his car He walks away as he walks away there's a car coming down Sullivan Street honking uh chin giganti yells hey what are you in a hurry while he's doing this?

I enter the illuminated area, he looks, sees me and suddenly his head lowers and plays the sick point. Another break followed Detective Bruno's surveillance successes. The FBI managed to rent an apartment near the home of Giganti's partner, Ms. Esposito. An agent would exit through a back door at the location of the rental apartment about 50 feet away. From time to time you could hear music from there, Miss Esposito and giganti. An agent observed the couple for four months between midnight and Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Weissman, who would later have to prove Jimmy's competency to stand trial, was delighted by the agent's observations and lo and behold.

Lo and behold, when he was inside in a place where he didn't think he was being watched, he did all the normal things that any of us would do, in fact, the unusual thing about those surveillances was that there was nothing unusual about him, he was normal, he was talking to people that he was counting money, he never used a shoddy bathrobe, in fact the only time he was seen in a bathrobe it was not surprising that when he got out of the shower he was wearing a nice fluffy Brooks Brothers type bathrobe that didn't look like in no way to the bathrobe he wore. he wore when he was on the street, so it became quite obvious to the people conducting surveillance that he was engaging in a concerted effort to give a false appearance to the public, which was not the way he behaved in the street. real life.

The researchers continued to observe. Giganti's strange public behavior, but the photos themselves are just a link that enhances criminal activity. Investigators needed hard evidence to corroborate what the photos suggested. Giganti was actually the boss. A wiretap conversation between members of the Genovese crew gave investigators more evidence of Giganti's position in the family. On the tapes, known Genovese members complained about the Chin's assistant. Federal Prosecutor George Stambulitis reviewed these tapes to help build a case against Giganti. He constantly criticizes his men, always trying to ask a million questions, drilling them and interrogating them about what they are involved in. he's always looking to get money from them or money from some of the schemes and how he won and how much money he would make from the gambling operations at the Triangle social club and things like that while giganti micromanages the internal affairs of his family, the tabloids . began to call him the strange father, he checked himself into a hospital once a year for what his mafia colleagues sarcastically called adjustments to have a paper trail to prove that he had something or to give the impression that he had some mental condition and with With the help of the people around him and his family, he was able to cultivate this trail of papers that gave the impression to anyone looking at the cold medical records that here is someone who year after year was being treated in some way. she understood that he knew how to protect himself both in public and in private.

Mr. Giganti was very smart in the way he did business and limited his contacts with family members if there were messages or topics to discuss regarding illegal activities. made by the Genovese family messages would be broadcast to the people immediately surrounding him access to him was very limited if the other family wanted to meet him they would most likely have to send a giant message avoided normal sit-ins or more Formal meetings held regularly by other heads of the family. He attended meetings when business demanded his attention. He and his visitors walked the neighborhood sidewalks, making sure surveillance wiretaps didn't pick up any incriminating conversations.

The ever-careful giants also suspected that Ms. Esposito's phone was tapped. and it was that he never taught business over the telephone, he simply used a pay phone or arranged to speak elsewhere. The FBI couldn't use Chin's own words to make a case against him. Other gangsters were not as intelligent and sophisticated listening operations. By allowing the FBI to capture on tape a host of other mob affairs in early 1985, the Justice Department was putting hard pressure on a number of high-level organized crime figures, most of whomThey were being charged under the RICO Act, even though Rico had been around since the early '70s.

Only now was he getting his first real test. Two of Giganti's men had learned that the heads of the Gambino and Lucas families would soon be arrested. They asked if the chin was vulnerable, one commented that if they pinched him, all those years in the Asylum were in vain. On February 19, the arrests of several heads of the crime family were made. The next day, Vincent Giganti was admitted to the hospital and stayed for a week. Successful prosecution of New York bosses Among those arrested was Paul Castellan, head of the Gambino crime family. prosecutors never brought him to trial, they killed him before they had the chance, by casanostra standards the unauthorized murders of Gambino boss Paul Castellano and his underboss Tommy Bellotti were unforgivable, although John Gotti, a captain of the Gambino family, acted dismayed by Castellano's death, as was widely believed. that he was responsible within two weeks of the murders that Gotti had publicly taken responsibility for from his boss.

Vincent giganti gave a subtle warning to Guy without mentioning names. He told Gotti that the murderer would have to pay. It took him two years but in 1987 giganti acted to avenge the murder of his friend and partner in the mafia business through his advisor Bobby Manna and some members of the Lucasi family giganti conspired to kill Gotti the planning session in a New Jersey restaurant was intercepted and Because it was the FBI that saved John Gotti's life, if agents intercept information of a murder plot, they are required by law to try to prevent The Killing. Then, based on the tape, the agents warned Gotti, acting on the FBI's warning, John Gotti changed his plans on the day the murder was going to take place because he was not where he was expected.

The assassination plot failed, Giganti, however, did not give up. He asked Vicamuso, acting head of the Lucchesi family, to oversee another coup. It was up to Amuso and his men to work out the details and that was to have Amuso approach Al Diarko, one of his trusted men. men like Mana was one of Giant's trusted men and had Diarco use his contacts in other parts of the country to acquire a remote controlled bomb, but Gotti was arrested and imprisoned before this could be carried out. the second plot. He died of cancer while serving a life sentence. conviction for racketeering involving extortion and murder, including Castellanos, meanwhile, the FBI had chinsmen on tape plotting the murder while the FBI investigation into the Genovese family operations continued, information about a corrupt construction plan came to light, They learned that for years much of the Genovese family's income came from a segment of the construction industry, the window business that the family had managed to maintain jobs replacing windows for all the housing projects. public in New York City, we learned that a huge amount of money was being invested in renovations at that time.

In some of the windows of the New York City Housing Authority there was an energy crisis going on and the timing of this was ideal for organized crime people to become more active in it. What we learned was that the Genovese family along with two or three other families were becoming more active. involved in companies bidding for and installing windows in some of these housing projects from the late 1970s to the late 1980s, New York City awarded contracts worth approximately $190 million to the window replacement industry , it was a classic. mafia business and a textbook example of extortion: the mafia took over an industry to the exclusion of legitimate businesses.

Union officials were corrupted in this case. Iron Workers Local 580 bids were rigged and companies or workers trying to comply with the rules lost the Lucasian for years. The Genovese families were operating their construction plans autonomously in the early 80s, they realized that a partnership would be much more profitable at that time, the Lucchesi family had firm control over local 580 and the Genovese family had corrupted using the local 580 as a tool, they were able to exclude several contractors from coming in and bidding on some of these projects and essentially created a sort of monopoly for themselves in almost all of the work of the City Housing Authority and much of the new construction for them.

In the city the Genoese contractors and installers paid two dollars per window one dollar went to the Lucasi family 25 cents to The Collector and 75 cents to the boss for the family's role in running the Union the other dollar went to the officials of the Crooked Union who looked Otherwise, when Jobs turned to non-union foreign workers to cooperate, it often carried a penalty of violence. In the late 1980s, a carpenters' union delegate had both legs broken by Genoese men for refusing to cooperate, even though he maintained that he could not get a good look at his attackers, and in 1992 a delegate from Local 580 was shot dead. when leaving his home on Long Island due to a disagreement with his casanoster contracts.

The Casey and Genovese family. The deal was working very well until Peter Savino was persuaded to use a wire Savina was a Genoese soldier who was in charge of the window fraud and we built a murder case on him and it was convincing enough for him to realize, like many of these people, that they didn't want to die in prison, so what did they do? He decided to cooperate and over a period of 18 months made recordings of people from the Genovese family and people from the Casey family who were operating this scheme. Vincent giganti did not realize that Peter Savino was turning against him and was happy with him.

Savino's work and satisfied with the progression of the window scheme Savino kept track of the money managed the contracts supervised the parties arranged the payments the boss was happy but some members of the Genovese family became suspicious of Savino when bodies were found in the basement of a building. He owned Genovese. Genovese members were surprised that authorities never seriously investigated it. How much are his people going to cost me? As a result of that, people speculated. Well, Savino wasn't arrested, but these bodies were found in a building that is perhaps linked to him. he is cooperating, but no one was really sure that Savino was a source of income for Vincent giganti.

He was contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Genovese family every month, so In Giganti was informed of Savina's betrayal. He decided not to believe it and initially refused to make the request. killed Savino continued using the cable trying to get other family members to recognize Chin and his position as head of the family's giganti troops, however he could never be persuaded to break the boss's rule of not mentioning his name, remember uniseal Vincent said when the time came, okay. he had said to go out and offer the job, don't mention that name, how can you talk like that?

That was pretty conclusive evidence, um, although he didn't give you a specific crime, he told you it was a man. It was to be feared that he was not someone who was incompetent. Soon after, Giganti realized that Savina was actually furiously cooperating with this betrayal. Giganti ordered the murder of Peter Savino by that time, the FBI had relocated Savino out of the reach of the Genovese family, but no. Before providing agents with thousands of hours of recorded conversations, Mr. Savino was also in a position to provide us with the historical aspects of how this scheme developed his relationship with the leaders of the Lucassi and Genovese crime families and what his involvement was in this.

Mr. Savino was also able to tell us how the various members of all of these families interacted with local 580, which was again used as a tool to make the plan work. The FBI was successfully using the Rico laws to take down the most powerful in New York. As a result, the bosses, high-ranking members of the family saw that their only way to avoid long prison sentences was to cooperate with each other. The Gambino family's underboss, Salvador Sammy, the Graven Bull, was only arrested and charged under Rico's laws with ordering the murder of six people and conspiring to kill three.

Others and at least 24 counts of racketeering In short, Giganti was accused of being the boss of the Genovese crime family, but Giganti still had his history of mental illness to fall back on. Gigante was indicted in May 1990 and the second indictment was filed against him. in June 1993. The case against Mr. Gigante was unusual because it lasted several years before he actually went to trial. He finally went to trial in June 1997. During that time period, the issue that was before the courts was whether or not he was competent to stand trial, the issue was finally resolved in 1996.

Seven years after his arrest, a judge of federal district declared Vincent giganti competent to stand trial Vincent the chin giganti was 69 years old when a jury convicted him of conspiracy to kill three mafia figures, including Guardian Savino, he was also found guilty of extortion and conspiracy to bribe the Union in the window replacement scheme, but the jury failed to convict him of directly ordering six murders Now that Gotti was convicted, his defense attorneys argued that he was not. fit to be sentenced, they claimed that he was too old, too Frey, and too mentally incompetent to understand the punishment while he awaited sentencing.

Giganti was admitted to a prison hospital and examined by several doctors. Giganti had several pet scans, a procedure that uses a radioactive tracer to measure. Brain chemistry in a 1991 scan that was first interpreted as normal turned out to be too flawed to use in diagnosis. A 1993 scan showed some abnormalities, but at least one expert, Dr. Jonathan Brody, felt these abnormalities were not consistent with dementia. Dr. Brody is an attending psychiatrist at Mr. Giganti at the time of the scan he was supposedly taking medications that affect the brain and because they affect the brain, they affect the chemistry of the brain and the chemistry of the brain is what a pet scanner is to take anti-sleep pills, so Dr.

Brody was skeptical about the pet scanner, but he had not yet examined the patient when the three of us entered the observation room, the examination room where they took. At first I was struck by his appearance, which I said made me think, "My God, he's really sick because I missed the boat, he's really really sick, he came in in a bathrobe, he was shuffling his feet, he was mumbling, he was making allusions to God, but as the exam progressed some of Giganti's actions began to raise doubts but one of the things that really caught my attention was uh, I didn't notice that at the time, but I noticed it a few seconds later was when I held out my hand to him. to shake it.

Don't shake it and that's a very automatic behavior. You put your hand on your worst enemy. He can extend his hand and you tend to take it when Giganti is asked the names of his children. He didn't know when they asked him. I didn't know where he lived and yet these are things that people tend not to forget. You know, the brain in dementia tends to work on the process of counting the last thing that comes first, so recent memory tends to. to get lost, but that's why people. those who are very demented can often remember events from long ago very well, even if they cannot remember recent events, while he was not coherent about that, in fact, he was asked who the president of the United States was, which is a standard question in a psychiatric mental status evaluation and he scratched his head and looked puzzled and said um, I should know that I really should know that the answer is in there somewhere um and a few more questions were asked, I should really know that and finally he said Bush George Bush and I sat there and thought, Oh, he remembered the question.

What was surprising was not that the answer was wrong. The surprising thing was that the question was remembered despite all the interfering questions and there were other red flags that he seemed to understand. Concepts Dr. Brody asked giganti if he was proud of his kids, now pride is actually a pretty abstract notion and his answer was yes, they all have legitimate jobs, legitimacy, well that wasn't even a question, legitimate employers , but something else that could. to abstract from the question some intention about what the question was involved with and awareness of a distinction between legitimacy and illegitimacy and here was a man who didn't know what month it was, didn't know if he was in a hospital on those dates. and other inconsistencies contributed to Dr.

Brody's conclusion that gigantiHe did not suffer from progressive dementia, vascular dementia, or schizophrenia. Hospital staff did not need help shouting to groom themselves or feed themselves. All of the attorneys submitted sworn statements that they could not communicate well with Vincenti when he was in jail. He managed to talk to the prison counselors when he ordered. He talked to the kind of low-level people in prison who have to take care of the inmates on a day-to-day basis. It turns out that he knew exactly what had happened. He knew he had been on trial. He knew that Graveno had testified. against him and he didn't have very good things to say about him he knew that his sentencing was coming he knew what the problem was before Judge Weinstein in that he had to decide that he was competent to be sentenced he completely disagreed with what his lawyers they told judge weinstein yes some psychiatrists thought giganti really was incompetent others thought he was faking five months and dozens of tests later the judge ruled that the judge said in summary that the defendant's cognitive and emotional capacity and his communication skills are equivalent to 69 other defendants a year with limited education no hallucination interferes with their ability to participate in sentencing understands the fundamentals of substantive criminal law and procedure is deliberately feigning a mental illness to avoid punishment fears the defendant is competent to be sentenced and serve an appropriate term In prison, Chiliro described the efforts of the FBI and prosecutors as historic and courageous.

This has been a battle that I have certainly been involved in for the last 20 years and I certainly think that agents will continue for the next five or six years. If the effort could be sustained and the resources could be maintained, you know, I think we're on the verge of really reducing the effects and impact of the Austria bonus to make sure that the government's legal victory in the gigantic case was a mistake, the jury, After all, he failed. To convict him on all six counts of murder, he was originally sentenced to 12 years in 2003, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and won three more years, finally admitting in court that he had been feigning insanity the entire time.