Gangland - 8/30/18

[Chucky]

This Week in Gang Land
By Jerry Capeci

The Return Of Sammy Bull; Witness Against The Feds

He was the star government witness against the late John Gotti, but Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano is ready and willing to testify that Frank (Frankie Loc) Locascio, the Dapper Don's codefendant in the so-called Mob Trial Of The Century, was wrongly convicted of a murder that has doomed him to die behind bars, Gang Land has learned.

The famed turncoat underboss says in a signed "declaration," exclusively obtained by Gang Land, that he "was prepared to testify" that while Gotti gave Gravano the order to kill mobster Louis DiBono, Locascio had nothing to do with it. "I assigned that hit to a number of individuals that did not include Locascio," Gravano said in the statement. DiBono, a successful contractor who had angered Gotti for failing to appear when summoned, was shot to death in a World Trade Center parking garage in October of 1990.

In the one-page document, Gravano, whose decision to flip in November of 1991 was a death knell for his pal John's defense hopes, wrote that he didn't mention Locascio's non-involvement in the murder plot for the simplest of reasons: No one — neither defense lawyers nor prosecutors — asked him about it while he was on the witness stand in February of 1992.

"Although Locascio had knowledge of Gotti's intention" to order the murder, "as evidenced by a recorded conversation dated December 12, 1989," wrote Gravano, "clearly Gotti, as the boss of the family, had the sole authority to make the decision and was not seeking Locascio's approval of his decision."

"It was then and remains my belief that . . . Locascio was trying to appease Gotti with the idea that DiBono would bring Gotti money and (that) the situation would be resolved," wrote Gravano. The Bull also noted that the Dapper Don told him "in a subsequent conversation" that he "resented (Locascio's) suggestion."

"You know why he's dying'," Gotti is heard telling Locascio during a private session the duo had in an apartment two flights above the Ravenite Social Club that FBI agents had bugged. "He's gonna die because he refused to come in when I called. He didn't do nothing else wrong."

Gravano, who testified in several trials, stated that the hit team that he assigned — Gambino capo Pasquale (Patsy) Conte, and soldiers Anthony (Sims Tony) Vinciullo and Francesco (Paul) Graziano — "was not able to kill DiBono and, as a result, was removed from the assignment."

(According to court records, on the eve of their second trial in 1994 — the first ended in a hung jury — the trio, who were charged with being part of the same alleged conspiracy as Locascio, copped guilty pleas to murder conspiracy charges in return for prison terms between seven and ten years.)

"After several months, a new team was instructed to kill DiBono and eventually," Gravano wrote, "DiBono was murdered. I did not participate in assigning this new group to commit the murder and, as of the time of my testimony, was unaware of the identity of the participants."

Gambino soldier Charles Carneglia was convicted in 2009 of being part of a three-man hit team that killed DiBono. "To my knowledge," wrote Gravano, "Frank Locascio had no interaction with any of the individuals who actually killed DiBono."

And while Sammy Bull does not state it directly, he indicates that he told the government before the trial that Frankie Loc had nothing to do with the rubout. The Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office, however, wasn't convinced and decided to prosecute him for the murder using the tape-recorded talk in which Gotti is heard telling Locascio why DiBono was going to be killed as its key evidence.

In the third paragraph of his declaration, Gravano stated that during interviews with FBI agents "over an extended period of time . . . in preparation for trial, I was told on numerous occasions to be truthful at all times." In the eighth and last graph, he wrote: "I was prepared to testify to the facts I have set forth had I been asked at Locascio's trial, but was instructed to answer only questions asked."

Sources say that Gravano forwarded the document to Manhattan attorney William P. Callahan shortly after the former federal prosecutor wrote a July 19 guest Gang Land column stating that Locascio, 85, was "innocent" of the murder charge but was convicted only because his trial lawyer took a dive after Gotti threatened to kill him.

The threat from the mob boss succeeded in preventing attorney Anthony Cardinale from asking pointed questions to Sammy Bull that might exonerate Locascio for the killing, while pointing a finger at Gotti, Callahan wrote.

In the column, Callahan argued that because those questions were never posed by the defense, prosecutor John Gleeson was able to use the taped talk along with Sammy Bull's testimony about Locascio's position as Gambino family consigliere to convict him of the murder — leading to the life sentence imposed by Brooklyn Federal Court Judge I. Leo Glasser.

Callahan, who indicated in his Gang Land column that he would seek redress for Locacsio before Glasser or an appeals court, declined to comment about Gravano's declaration. So did Gleeson, who resigned from the federal bench last year. Sammy Bull also declined to expand on the written affidavit. "No comment," said Gravano, who got out of prison last year, after a 20 year bid for drug dealing. "But if I ever have to testify in court," he cracked, "I'll tell the truth, just like I did every other time I was on the witness stand."

It's not the first time that Gravano, who famously helped put Gotti, two other mob bosses, and dozens of his fellow Gambino wiseguys and family associates behind bars as a Mafia turncoat, has gone to bat for Gambino gangsters who've been indicted for mob rubouts in which he played a major role.

In fact, it's at least the fourth time.

In 2014, he forced the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office, for the only time in anyone's memory, to throw out a federal murder indictment — ironically for another 1990 killing ordered by Gotti.

In that case, prosecutors dismissed the indictment of mob associate Daniel Fama "in the interest of justice" after it spoke to Gravano, and he stated — as defense lawyer Charles Carnesi had told Judge John Keenan he had told him — that their theory that the murder was carried out as part of a plot to silence a potential cooperating witness, was all wrong.

The outright dismissal earned the government a tongue lashing from an angry judge who had gone along with prosecutors' assurances and kept Fama behind bars for eight months on a faulty indictment that he had questioned early on.

The upshot was unusual for a mob case. In court, Keenan, a former top prosecutor for decades, stated that defense lawyer Carnesi was more honest with him than the prosecution team. After the case was tossed, Carnesi, who had two former clients go down on Sammy Bull's testimony, praised him for "standing up" in the Fama case.

Sources on both sides of the law say Gravano's decision in the Fama case didn't help him — and likely hurt him a year later when he moved to reduce his sentence by more than two years. Although he qualified for the reduction based on an amendment which lowered the guidelines for drug cases, it was opposed by the government and turned down by his sentencing judge.

In 2010, sources say Gravano informed Manhattan prosecutors that longtime Gotti-pal and former acting boss John (Jackie Nose) D'Amico had nothing to do with the 1989 plot to kill businessman Fred Weiss, a former executive of the Staten Island Advance. As a result, prosecutors gave Jackie Nose a three year deal for assault in aid of racketeering. The plea deal was so good, that for years, Gang Land heard rumors — which weren't true — that D'Amico was a secret snitch.

Six years earlier, after Sammy Bull sent a message to defense lawyer James DiPietro that his old wiseguy pal Louis (Big Lou) Vallario had "nothing" to do with the Weiss plot, and he agreed to testify for the defense, prosecutors lowered the cap on Vallario's sentence for racketeering from 24 to 13 years and he copped a plea deal.

Mob Induction Movie Premiere Delayed; Maybe Forever

Damiano Zummo, the little-known acting Bonanno capo, made a big splash last year when the feds disclosed that he had inducted an Italian-born informer into his crime family. The splash was even bigger since the induction was the first to be caught on videotape. But Gang Land has learned that it may be quite a while before it plays at a courthouse near you, because the star of that must-see flick is quietly trying to work out a plea deal on charges of selling a load of cocaine at a Manhattan gelateria.

That makes sense since Zummo, 45, faces drug trafficking counts that carry a possible life sentence, and a mandatory minimum term of ten years behind bars if convicted at trial — where jurors would hear him tell turncoat wiseguy Vincent (Enzo) Morena: "From this day forward, you're gonna be an official member of the Bonanno family."

Even though that 2015 induction ceremony took place in Canada, the audio and videotapes of the initiation rite would likely be a smash hit in Brooklyn Federal Court for a jury of his peers who might not otherwise go to see foreign films.

The movie — combined with recordings of him arranging the drug deal and the delivery of a kilogram of coke on September 14 of last year — doesn't bode well for Zummo, and his cousin Salvatore Russo, 46, who was charged along with him. According to court papers, Russo took part in a $38,000 coke sale at the gelato store, and was identified by Zummo as his aide and drug supplier, in tape recorded talks.

In addition to drug trafficking, Zummo is also charged with washing more than $250,000 in cash by providing business checks issued to a fictitious consulting company for non-existent consulting services — which allegedly earned him a 10 percent fee for each money laundering transaction.

Russo is also facing up to two additional years for committing his crimes while he was on strict supervised release following a sweet no-time-served sentence for a 2015 tax case for which his sentencing guidelines were 18-to-24 months behind bars.

That may be why lawyers for the duo are having a tougher getting a plea deal with federal prosecutors than attorney Allen Frankel did for Gambino family wiseguy Paul Semplice, who was snared on loansharking charges also stemming from Morena's cooperation.

In court filings, prosecutors have described Semplice, who like Zummo, has no prior arrests, as an influential wiseguy with a "very special relationship" with capo Lorenzo Mannino, an important member of the Sicilian faction which currently runs the Gambino crime family.

They have also stated that Semplice, 55, has ties "to multiple other 'made' members and associates of the Gambino crime family from across the country and around the world." In 2016, the feds claim, he introduced Morena "to the 'boss' and 'underboss' of an international organized crime family from Italy who the defendant knew to be 'Gambino guys.'"

In seeking to detain Semplice without bail, the prosecutors wrote that he boasted to Morena that he was "banking $7000 a week" from $200,000 in loans that he had "out on the street." But apparently, that was braggadocio, since Semplice is charged in a three count loansharking indictment with a single loan to an unidentified victim between October of 2016 and March of 2017.

The docket sheet in his case states that Semplice is slated to resolve his case with a guilty plea next week that, according to Gang Land's quick and dirty analysis, would likely contain sentencing guidelines in the 18-to-24 month range. The next status conference for Zummo and Russo is in mid-September.

Prosecutors, and Zummo's attorney did not respond to Gang Land's calls. Lawyer Frankel declined to comment about the plea discussions. Russo's attorney, Joseph Conway, said: "They are still ongoing. We hope to have a resolution sometime next month."

Big John Caves; Cops A Plea Deal

In a surprise move, Luchese capo John (Big John) Castellucci pleaded guilty to reduced charges late yesterday. That leaves just three of his cohorts still slated for trial in October — the first of two in the racketeering conspiracy indictment of 19 family wiseguys and mob associates. Five Lucheses are scheduled for trial next year for the 2013 gangland-style slaying of former Purple Gang leader Michael Meldish.

Castellucci, 59, caved in two days after prosecutors emptied their files of uncharged allegations against the powerful Staten Island capo, put them into a court filing, and stated they wanted to use them as additional evidence to prove that he was part of a 17-year-long racketeering conspiracy that engaged in murder, extortion, labor racketeering and a host of other crimes.

Gang Land was unable to reach any reliable sources regarding the filing yesterday, but all of Big John's alleged wiseguy doings seem to involve activity in his home borough, where he is undoubtedly the crime family's main man. And much of it seems to be based on information that was provided by turncoat Bonanno capo Peter (Petey B.S.) Lovaglio.

More about that below. But as prosecutors did for nine other defendants who pleaded guilty earlier, prosecutors gave Castellucci a deal calling for a much lower prison term than the 20 year maximum for racketeering. His agreement calls for a recommended prison term between 30 and 37 months, but White Plains Federal Judge Cathy Seibel will have the final say on his sentence.

Big John was charged only with loansharking and cigarette bootlegging but prosecutors argued in a Monday request to Judge Seibel that allegations between 2011 and 2016 were relevant to prove the racketeering charges against Castellucci as well as his three remaining codefendants in the case.

It's unclear at press time whether the government still intends to introduce the evidence against the other defendants — soldier Joseph (Joey Glasses) Datello and associates Vincent Bruno and Carmine (Spanish Carmine) Garcia. It's also not known if lawyers for the trio will object, now that Big John has pleaded guilty.

In its filing, the government alleged that in 2012 and 2013, Castellucci extorted payments from unidentified individuals working in various capacities in the construction industry and that he engaged in several "sitdowns" with other crime families over the years.

On December 19, 2012, they wrote, Big John represented the Luchese family interests in a "sitdown" at the Arena Diner on Arthur Kill Road with the Bonanno family concerning a $200,000 debt that a Luchese associate owed to a Bonanno mobster.

"The meeting ended without a resolution," the prosecutors wrote, but sometime later, Castellucci convened a follow-up discussion to resolve the dispute with a Bonanno wiseguy, believed to be Lovaglio, at a cigar bar Big John owned on Page Avenue in the Tottenville section known as the Cigar Vault Emporium.

Alas, either the government wanted to keep the outcome a secret, or perhaps its source didn't tell prosecutors how it turned out, because they did not state the outcome of the $200,000 feud.

And in 2014, Castellucci "attempted to use his position (as a capo) to collect about $4,000 from a Bonanno Captain on behalf of a Luchese Family associate," the prosecutors wrote, in a reference to a "sitdown" Big John apparently had with Lovaglio "at a Harley Davidson dealership on Staten Island."

And "sometime between 2011 and 2016," the prosecutors wrote in what most likely is information they got from Lovaglio, who had a tough time pinpointing dates in his initial testimony for the feds, Castellucci "organized a sit down" with Staten Island representatives of the Bonanno and Gambino families. At the "sitdown," Big John sought to have a Bonanno soldier "shelved" (have his rights and responsibilities taken away from him) for falsely accusing a Castellucci associate "of cooperating with the Government," the prosecutors wrote.

Once again, the outcome of that dispute is not in the filing, and remains a mystery — at least for now. Should his Luchese pals hang tough and go to trial, we'll learn more.

[NYNighthawk]

I don't think we heard the last of Sammy

[johnny_scootch]

They have also stated that Semplice, 55, has ties "to multiple other 'made' members and associates of the Gambino crime family from across the country and around the world." In 2016, the feds claim, he introduced Morena "to the 'boss' and 'underboss' of an international organized crime family from Italy who the defendant knew to be 'Gambino guys.'"

?????????

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

Here are this weeks pics:

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

[SILENT PARTNERZ]

[newera_212]

Thanks for posting. appreciate it

decent article. i wish they'd let LoCascio out just so afterwards, we only have to read about him, Sammy and Gotti ONCE more ...an article about his release.. and never again. I think I've read that Gotti "you know why he's dying!?!?" quote about DiBono over a thousand times in my life. We've reached "peak Gotti" a looong time ago; its just never going away. goddamnit.

Zummo...Zummo...any lineage / chart guys know if he's related (son, nephew?) to Brooklyn / Queens Bonanno associate Tommy Zummo? a guy from either Ridgewood, Greenpoint, or Maspeth that Massino popped his kill cherry on? Cant be the most common last name. If he is a realtive, I gotta say once again how crazy it is that the Bonnanos have people in or from that North Brooklyn and Queens area who have been around the family for GENERATIONS. no other LCN family in NYC has groups with lineage like that. its fuckin crazy

[Pogo The Clown]

Good column this week. Good updates on some of the recent indictments. Capeci also confirms that Lorenzo Mannino is indeed a Capo when the speculation was that he was the UnderBoss or the Consigliere.


Pogo

[slimshady_007]

They have also stated that Semplice, 55, has ties "to multiple other 'made' members and associates of the Gambino crime family from across the country and around the world." In 2016, the feds claim, he introduced Morena "to the 'boss' and 'underboss' of an international organized crime family from Italy who the defendant knew to be 'Gambino guys.'"

?????????

Possibly Cefalu and Cali?

[SonnyBlackstein]

They have also stated that Semplice, 55, has ties "to multiple other 'made' members and associates of the Gambino crime family from across the country and around the world." In 2016, the feds claim, he introduced Morena "to the 'boss' and 'underboss' of an international organized crime family from Italy who the defendant knew to be 'Gambino guys.'"

?????????

That jumped out at me too.

Thx for posting Chuck

[Hailbritain]

Good column this week. Good updates on some of the recent indictments. Capeci also confirms that Lorenzo Mannino is indeed a Capo when the speculation was that he was the UnderBoss or the Consigliere.


Pogo

He’s the underboss . Capeci is quoting fresh street talk

[Pogo The Clown]

They have also stated that Semplice, 55, has ties "to multiple other 'made' members and associates of the Gambino crime family from across the country and around the world." In 2016, the feds claim, he introduced Morena "to the 'boss' and 'underboss' of an international organized crime family from Italy who the defendant knew to be 'Gambino guys.'"

?????????

That jumped out at me too.

Thx for posting Chuck

If I rememeber it was in reference to a Toronto group with ties to the Gambinos. It was discussed in another thread when this bust first went down.


Pogo

[Frank]

Good column this week. Good updates on some of the recent indictments. Capeci also confirms that Lorenzo Mannino is indeed a Capo when the speculation was that he was the UnderBoss or the Consigliere.


Pogo

Yes that's good, also read that he was acting boss. It seems alot of people just insist that first Cali and now Mannino are in higher positions than what they are. Poor Dom always being put out into the pasture lol. What's funny it seems like Dom's the best boss they have had since Big Pauly and Carlo.

[johnny_scootch]

If I rememeber it was in reference to a Toronto group with ties to the Gambinos.

'Toronto group' makes me automatically think 'Ndrangheta but 'boss and underboss' are normally LCN terms and isn't it odd that the boss of a 'Ndrina would be considered a 'Gambino guy' by anyone regardless of his connections to the them?

[slimshady_007]

Good column this week. Good updates on some of the recent indictments. Capeci also confirms that Lorenzo Mannino is indeed a Capo when the speculation was that he was the UnderBoss or the Consigliere.


Pogo

Yes that's good, also read that he was acting boss. It seems alot of people just insist that first Cali and now Mannino are in higher positions than what they are. Poor Dom always being put out into the pasture lol. What's funny it seems like Dom's the best boss they have had since Big Pauly and Carlo.

Id say that dom is still boss or acting boss with cali serving as underboss. Mannino could be consigliere but idk for sure. And i 100% agree with u about what u said about Cefalu. He’s been the best gambino boss the family has had since carlo. Kinda crazy that dom has been on the streets for so long with little word about an investigation.