Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
On November 11, 1991, federal prosecutors announced that Sammy Gravano would later testify against john Gotti and other high-ranking mobsters in exchange for a reduced sentence. John Gotti received a sentence of life imprisonment. As part of Gravano’s cooperation agreement, he would never be forced to testify against his former crew. On September 26, 1994, a federal judge sentenced Gravano to five years in prison. However, since Gravano had already served four years, the sentence amounted to less than one year.
Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, aided the FBI in convicting Gotti; in 1991, Gravano agreed to turn state’s evidence and testified against Gotti after hearing the boss make disparaging remarks about him on a wiretap that implicated them both in several murders
Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano (born March 12, 1945) is an American former mobster who became underboss of the Gambino crime family. As the underboss, Gravano played a major role in prosecuting John Gotti, the crime family’s boss, by agreeing to testify as a government witness against him and other mobsters in a deal in which he confessed to involvement in 19 murders.[
Originally an associate for the Colombo crime family, and later for the Brooklyn faction of the Gambino family, Gravano was part of the group that conspired to murder Gambino boss Paul Castellano in 1985. Gravano played a key role in planning and executing Castellano’s murder, along with John Gotti, Angelo Ruggiero, Frank DeCicco, and Joseph Armone.
Soon after Castellano’s murder, Gotti elevated Gravano to become an official captain after Salvatore “Toddo” Aurelio stepped down, a position Gravano held until 1987 when he became consigliere. In 1988 he became underboss, a position he held at the time he became a government witness. In 1991, Gravano agreed to turn state’s evidence and testify for the prosecution against Gotti after hearing the boss making several disparaging and untrue remarks about Gravano on a wiretap that implicated them both in several murders. At the time, Gravano was the highest-ranking member of the Five Families to break his blood oath and cooperate with the government. As a result of his testimonies,
“this is what the mob does ,this is what we do, this is how we live, this is the true side of the mafia.i’am part of it.”
his name ,salvatore the bull gravano . one of the most notorious gangsters in maffia history.
“we kill amongst ourselves in according to our rules.it was for what you did”
gravano rose through ranks and became second in command of new york infamous gambino crime family. now in his 70s gravano talks about his life as a mafia hit man
in the abc news production truth, the last gangster.
new york in the 70s and and 80s was like like the wild west
bodys all over the places. it was insane
the mob was going through a very violant period.
it was a dangerous time in the mob’s world.
sammy the bull was a street thug who grew up in bensonhurst, he gravitated towards the world of the organized crime as a young boy .
did he have options not to join the mob , absolutely , but once you go in it’s all in or nothing .
it was for money , it was for greed , it was for women, it was fast cars.
it was being part of society part of brotherhood. many of them consider what they do almost military in nature.they consider themselves soldier so they believe when your boss tells you ,you have to kill somebody ,they feel they ‘re doing the right thing.
sammy said when he took his oath to cosa nostra he gave up everything.
“at the ceremony there was 14 guys and one by one they called they called us down the basement.dim lights real smoky, there was a picture of a saint on the table . they pricked my finger to get blood out of it put the blood on the saint.
“they put it in my hand then they put it in my hand and they said , if hout betray this brotherhood may your soul burn like the saint, i really believed in it withmy heart and soul”
new york in the 80s and 90s was a very, very interesting place. trump would turn up out to be the president of the united states.
john gotti would rise to become such a prominent celebrity, but they did .because new york loves a a character.
in Ozon park which was in Queens,righht over the brooklyn Queens border where joh ngott lived he was a hero .
john gotti the teflon don the mob boss who changed the face of organized crime putting the one secretive lifestyle on full display. he was over the top, and he was taking full advantage of his celebrity.
“i think he’s prolbem was that he fell in love with himself. he saw himself ontelevision , in newspapers and he lost touch what he was.that hs a gamgster. noy an actor”
-sammy the bull ,gravano
john gotti was so enamored of sammy the bull that he made him his underboss.
sammy said :” me and john ran the family it was me and him. against the world”
you could tell by the body language that they were very close. john gotti trusted him implicitly
The FBI had long been working on ways to bring down the new york mafia, their target was john gotti.
the FBI and new york state’s organized task force set a trap for gotti, the whole strategy was to put bugs where john was having his most secret conversation where he was going to talk the most about the criminal conduct.
he made the FBI easier, he introduced the FBI agent george gabriel to that whole family.
sammy says he dont think any of the old -timers would believe that because cosa nostra was to be run like this in any way shape or form.
john starts recognizing that everybody knis and respects sammy , he’s a guy interacting with everybody . that becomes a threat to the boss ” because now i could be replaced by this guy “
listen to the gotti tapes it’s clear john was setting garvano up
sammy realized that john probably eventually would take him out for no other reason and said that gotti wants one show, one boss , and john gotti don’t want anybody to be his equal.
he didn’t want a anybody in any way shape or form to shine and sammy guessed thaat he was shining too much .
so sammy the bull betrays everything he once pledged a blood oath to ,going from one of the most powerful figures in new yorks city mafia to his most infamous informant.
they have said that sammy are the single most important witness ever to testify against the mob. gravano revealing key details of racketeering and murder,helped put gotti away for life.
sammy helped FBI agent shut out the rest of the family and bosses and under bosses of the other families. a total of 38 convictions. sammy arguably led to the demise of organized crime in new york.
sammy the bull don’t look at himsel as a ” rat” .he looked at it as he was betrayed and sammy betrayed gotti. that’s what the mob is . says gravano.
in order to convict john gotti, prosecutors got gravano a reduced five- years sentence for 19 murders.
makingthe deal with gravano did not come without criticism , there was blow back from the family members of people that he killed.
Gravano later went into witness protection,leaving the program a year later in writing a tell – tale book about his life. while he was able to avoid the mafia’s retribution he was unable to avoid a life of crime .
spending another 17 years in prison after his arrest for drug trafficking.
“no matter how i felle now i couldn’t change what happened. it was ugly.but i know what people want me to say . it was so ugly would you, would you changed it. yes, the way i feel now but even looking now , i couldn’t.”
