John Gambino

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Giovanni "John" Gambino (Mugshot)

Giovanni "John" Gambino (born August 22, 1940 in Palermo , Sicily ; † November 16, 2017 in Staten Island , New York ) was a Sicilian-American mafioso and a high-ranking capo regime for the Cherry Hill Gambinos of the New York Gambino family of the American Cosa Nostra . He was also a member of the Inzerillo-Gambino-Spatola network , which also included members of the original Sicilian Cosa Nostra .

Life

Transatlantic mafia clan

Giovanni Gambino, who later Americanized his first name, was born on August 22, 1940 in a district of Palermo called Passo di Rigano and entered New York with his family in 1964 as an illegal immigrant .

The Gambino brothers John, Rosario "Sal" and Giuseppe "Joseph" had close ties to the Sicilian Inzerillo Mafia Clan , led by Salvatore Inzerillo , who also came from Passo di Rigano . Together they formed the transatlantic Inzerillo-Gambino clan , based in Palermo and New York.

Although the brothers were distant relatives of Carlo Gambino , who was the head of the Gambino family , they owed him no allegiance. They were already " made men " of the original Mafia from Sicily - the Cosa Nostra . In 1975 the brothers were accepted into the family by incumbent boss Paul Castellano and John Gambino was appointed capo.

They founded the so-called Cherry Hill Gambinos - a New Jersey faction of the Gambino family based in Cherry Hill , a district of New Jersey. From there, the Gambino brothers also ran the “ Cafe Valentino ” (later renamed “ Cafe Giardino ”) on 18th Avenue in Bensonhurst ( Brooklyn ).

Heroin trafficking

Despite Carlo Gambino's family policy of not dealing drugs, the Brooklyn-based Gambino brothers were heavily involved in the international heroin trade, and John Gambino was the hub of a syndicate of heroin traffickers. They had a chain of restaurants called Father and Son Pizza through which they distributed drug deliveries. Salvatore Inzerillo was the main interlocutor of the Gambino brothers and a central figure in Sicily with myriad interests and good investments. Inzerillo coordinated the large heroin trade of the so-called Pizza Connection from Sicily to the USA, while the Gambino brothers supervised the operations.

The Inzerillo clan, however, was driven to the brink of total annihilation during the so-called second great Mafia War in Sicily by the Corleonesian Mafia clan , led by the notorious Salvatore "Totò" Riina , and in May 1981 Salvatore Inzerillo was also there murdered. With the intervention of the Cherry Hill Gambinos, an agreement was drawn up that allowed the surviving Inzerillos to find refuge in the United States - with the agreement that none of them or their descendants would ever return to Sicily. These events were filmed in the fourth episode of the 6-part series The Boss of the Bosses . Most of the remaining Inzerillos went to New York and joined the Gambino family there. They were called "gli scappati" (the fugitives).

Coroner Giovanni Falcone estimated, following a case he was assigned to in 1980, that the Inzerillo-Gambino-Spatola network traded heroin worth $ 600 million a year by the late 1970s. Much of this money was invested in legal activities in Italy.

In 1980 John Gambino was sentenced to six and a half years in prison in connection with the large-scale drug ring in which he was heavily involved. Gambino, however, remained at liberty because the US did not agree to the Italian terms of extradition.

John and his younger brother Joseph Gambino were acquitted in another drug case in 1984, while Rosario Gambino was sentenced to 45 years in prison and died of natural causes in 1994.

On December 1, 1988, the Italian and US law enforcement agencies finally cracked the Gambino-Inzerillo network. Around 200 drug trafficking charges have been filed in Italy and the United States. John Gambino was also among the accused; however, the FBI did not have enough evidence to arrest him. In court he was described as the leader of the Sicilian faction of the Gambino family operating in Brooklyn.

Escape and condemnation

John and his brother Joseph were arrested in 1992 on charges of drug trafficking, extortion and conspiracy to murder, along with six other bullies. The brothers were released from custody on September 1, 1992 on bail of $ 5 million and fled New York after authorities removed the electronic monitoring devices from their legs. September 17, 1992 they were in a remote motel suite in Fort Lauderdale ( Florida arrested) and after Manhattan brought, where they waited for their process.

In February 1993 the trial began against John and Joseph Gambino, as well as their collaborators Lorenzo Mannino and Matteo Romano. Law enforcement portrayed her as the main distributor of heroin, which was smuggled into Miami and New York from Italy and South America by the Sicilian Cosa Nostra . The defense said the drug and murder allegations are based only on the unconfirmed testimony of Francesco Marino Mannoia and Sammy Gravano . The trial ended in June 1993 because the jury was unable to reach a verdict.

Mannoia was included in the witness protection program in the United States because Italy did not have such a program at the time and he testified that he had met personally with John Gambino, who wanted to check the quality of the heroin Mannoia had processed in Palermo. His testimony eventually led the Gambinos to plead guilty, in an agreement with law enforcement, of drug trafficking and other minor crimes from 1975 to 1992, and were sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Discharge

During his incarceration, John Gambino survived a stroke, multiple heart attacks, and open heart surgery. In October 2005, after 13 years in prison, he was released in a wheelchair, but was later arrested again to face an extradition request from Italy. In September 2006, a judge ruled in Gambino's favor and allowed him to stay in the United States.

In the years 2005 to 2008 federal authorities targeted the Gambino leadership and observed several capos and many soldiers . Authorities concluded that the family was run by a three-man body composed of Daniel "Danny" Marino, John Gambino and Bartolomeo Vernace while leaders such as Peter Gotti and Arnold Squitieri were in prison.

In 2015 the media reported about John Gambino, who at that time is said to have still served as a high-ranking member of the family under the leadership of his nephew Francesco "Frank" Calì .

Giovanni "John" Gambino died on November 16, 2017 at the age of 77 at his home in Staten Island . His death was overshadowed by the passing of the former Cosa Nostra boss Salvatore "Totò" Riina , who died one day after John Gambino, and went largely unnoticed by the media.

Films and documentaries

  • 2007: Der Boss der Bosse (OT: Il capo dei capi ) : 6-part series about the Cosa Nostra , in which John Gambino travels to Sicily at the end of the fourth episode to end the second great Mafia war there.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Zambito: Beyond Gotti: New ways to make loot . In: Daily News , June 7, 2009. 
  2. ↑ Stefanie Cohen: Its A Mob Family Circus . In: New York Post , March 8, 2009. Archived from the original on October 21, 2012. 
  3. ↑ Shelley Murphy: Prison term ended, a member of crime family faces new charges . In: The Boston Globe , October 15, 2005. 
  4. ↑ a b c d Mafia Usa, è morto John Gambino , Antimafia Duemila, accessed on July 6, 2018
  5. ↑ Sterling 190
  6. ^ Gangster Report - State of The Family - The Gambino Mob
  7. ↑ Sterling, Octopus , p. 107
  8. ^ National Crime Syndicate - Carlo Gambino
  9. ^ Davis, Mafia Dynasty , p. 219
  10. ↑ Sterling, Octopus , pp. 199-200
  11. ↑ Global Mafia News - Gambino Godfather's: The Sicilian's are reigning supreme in the New York crime family
  12. ^ A b Changes in Mafia Leadership Reveal New Links to US-Based La Cosa Nostra , DNI Open Source Center, November 19, 2007
  13. ↑ a b Top Sicilian Mafia Boss Arrested , Time Magazine, November 5, 2007
  14. ↑ La riscoperta dell'America nuovo fronte di Cosa Nostra , La Repubblica, July 12, 2007
  15. ^ Guerra di mafia. Riscritta la storia del golpe di Riina ( Memento of July 29, 2007 in the web archive archive.today ), by Francesco La Licata, La Stampa, July 3, 2006
  16. ↑ Shawcross & Young, Men Of Honor , pp. 77-78
  17. ↑ a b Sterling, Octopus , pp. 304-307
  18. ^ A b Dozens Are Seized in New US-Italian Drug Sweep , The New York Times, December 2, 1988
  19. ^ The New York Times - Monitoring Had Been Stopped On Two Mob Suspects Who Fled
  20. ↑ Justia - United States of America v. John Gambino
  21. ^ The New York Times - 2 Gambinos Are Seized In Florida
  22. ^ The New York Times - 2 Admit Importing Heroin For Mafia Crime Family
  23. ↑ Stille, Excellent Cadavers , p. 304
  24. ^ Boston.com - Prison term ended, a member of crime family faces new charges
  25. ^ Boston.com - Ex-governor King in intensive care
  26. ^ NY Daily News - Staten Island mobster takes leadership of Gambino crime family: report
  27. ↑ About the Mafia - Which New York Mafia family is currently the strongest?
  28. ^ È morto John Gambino, il mafioso di Pizza Connection. Ma se n'è accorto solo il web , Repubblica , accessed on March 1, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Gambino, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gambino, Giovanni (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Sicilian-American mobster
DATE OF BIRTH August 22, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Palermo , Sicily
DATE OF DEATH 16th November 2017
Place of death Staten Island , New York