Sammy Gravano

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Salvatore Gravano

Salvatore "Sammy the bull" Gravano (born March 12, 1945 in Bensonhurst , Brooklyn ) is an American mobster of the American Cosa Nostra in New York City .

Life

youth

Gravano was born the son of Giorlando "Gerry" and Caterina "Kay" Gravano, who had emigrated from Sicily . Gravano had two older sisters. He grew up in Bensonhurst , a district with a high proportion of Italian-Americans at the time.

At the age of seven, he was stealing two cupcakes a day from a local shop on his way to school until he was caught by the shopkeeper and received a warning. At the age of 13 he joined the youth gang "Rampers" that were up to mischief in Bensonhurst.

Since he is said to have had a great resemblance to his uncle Salvatore ("Sammy"), it became common to address him as Sammy . When his bike was stolen from him, he caught the thieves and was observed during this fight by some mafiosi from a neighboring café, who rated his fighting style as bull-like, before his nickname came about: "The Bull" and thus "Sammy the Bull".

His school performance was poor because of his dyslexia ; his teachers thought he was slow and he was not promoted to the next level twice. He responded to the associated teasing of his classmates with violence - even his father's attempts to raise him failed - and at the age of 16 the school administration forced his resignation. In 1964 he was drafted into the United States Army , served two years - mostly as a cook - and was honorably discharged with the rank of corporal .

Criminal career

Youth gangs like the one in the Gravano - were used by the Mafiosi as a recruiting pool and so Gravano made contacts in particular to the Colombo family - one of the five families of New York City - and was soon considered an associate within the American Cosa Nostra. He knew other associates of the Colombo family from childhood; especially his childhood friend Gerard Pappa .

In 1971 he married Debra Scibetta. As a full member, he was later to murder her brother Nicholas Scibetta. Gravano is also the brother-in-law of Gambino capos Edward and Mario Garafol . In 1977 he was accepted as a full member of the Gambino family under Paul Castellano after he had successfully carried out a contract murder.

In his youth, Gravano had got by with burglary and robbery. After joining the Gambino family, he became the owner of a few cocktail clubs and entered the construction business, which was then controlled by organized crime across New York City ; especially through the infiltration and corruption of the trade unions . The clan also controlled the city's garbage collection through James Failla since the 1960s .

In 1985 Gravano was charged with tax evasion and acquitted; in the same year he participated together with John Gotti in the murder of Paul Castellano . Gravano and Frank DeCicco had reserved the right to eliminate Gotti themselves if they were not satisfied with his administration after a year. In 1987, two years later, he was promoted to consigliere (it .: advisor) under the new boss Gotti and in 1990 became his deputy and thus vice-boss of the Gambino family.

Pentito

In the early 1990s, leading mafia members broke the otherwise mandatory silence ( omertà ) for the first time on a broad scale and worked with the government. Gravano also became such a “ pentito ”.

Gravano was disappointed with Gotti's management style; criticized in particular its media presence and the attentiveness associated with it - which was unusual in Mafia circles up to that point; Gotti supposedly did not want to hear from this criticism. In addition, there was a dispute over the percentage of profits that every boss of the Mafia could claim from his subordinates. Gotti demanded very high profit shares and Gravano was not exempted as consigliere and ultimately underboss .

The break occurred when the FBI played Gravano recordings of conversations by Gotti. By the end of 1990, the FBI had gathered enough evidence - particularly through these secretly taped conversations - to have the prosecutor prepare an indictment. Gotti, Gravano, and Frank LoCascio were arrested at the Ravenite Social Club in Little Italy and charged shortly afterwards.

In the recorded conversations, Gotti can be heard talking about Gravano, accusing him of being too greedy and wanting to start a family within the family and also listing numerous Gravanos murders. A possible murder of Gravano is also said to have been considered in these talks. In the fall of 1991, Gravano decided to testify as a key witness against Gotti and was transferred to the Quantico FBI training facility in Virginia .

In the same year, Sammy Gravano testified against Vincent Gigante , John Gotti and his consigliere Frank LoCascio . In particular, he exposed Gigante's alleged senility as a drama. He cited an alleged statement by his boss John Gotti, who is said to have described Gigante as "Crazy like a fox" after a meeting in 1988. Alphonse D'Arco, a former subordinate of the Lucchese family , confirmed Gravano's testimony about the sanity and participation of Gigante in high-level mafia meetings, where he admitted that his eccentric behavior was designed as a deception.

These statements made Gravano the highest-ranking mafioso up until then, who became the Pentito and broke the Omertà , until in 1993 Anthony Casso - consigliere and underboss of the Lucchese family and in 2004 Joseph Massino - at that time boss of the Bonanno family - also cooperated with the authorities.

Gotti and LoCascio were sentenced to life imprisonment. Gravano, who had confessed to 19 murders during the trial - 11 of which were commissioned by Gotti - received a reduced sentence of five years for violating the RICO Act . He had been promised impunity for his testimony with regard to his murders.

Relapse into crime

A few years after the Gotti Trial, Gravano was released and began a new life under a new name and biography of an honest worker in Arizona with the help of the U.S. Witness Protection Program . Soon, however, he resumed his criminal contacts and got into the drug trade with his old cronies and some relatives. They built a nationwide network for the designer drug Ecstasy across Arizona.

Its activities did not go unnoticed; the Gambino family tracked him down and ordered him to be murdered. Just before it could strike, Gravano was arrested in 1999 and sentenced to twenty years in prison in September 2001. With him, his wife Debra, daughter Karen and son Gerard were arrested as accomplices. His son received a nine-year prison sentence and his wife and daughter received suspended sentences .

This renewed entry into the criminal scene also had consequences in other criminal proceedings. When the boss of the Westies , a gang that cooperated with the Gambino family, was arrested in Miami in 1999 , apparently no trial could be opened because Gravano was no longer credible as a recidivist criminal. Born in Serbia, Bosko Radonjich escaped further persecution after his release by returning to Yugoslavia .

Gravano has had Graves' disease since his imprisonment ; he has lost considerable weight and hair. In Phillip Carlos' book Confessions of a Mafia Boss , which describes the life of Anthony Casso, fellow inmate Casso is quoted as saying that Gravano only left his cell to eat and that he seldom attended church services.

Gravano was incarcerated in an Arizona prison as of May 2012 and was paroled on September 18, 2017.

Adaptations

music

The band The Mighty Mighty Bosstones released the song Mr. Moran in 2002 , which deals with Sammy Gravano. The intro consists of the spoken words:

“My name is Salvatore Gravano. Early in my life i was given the nickname 'Sammy the Bull'. I was arrested with John Gotti. I was his underboss and second of command in the Gambino family. "

“My name is Salvatore Gravano. Early in my life I was nicknamed 'Sammy the Bull'. I was imprisoned with John Gotti. I was his subordinate and deputy in the Gambino family. "

- Salvatore "Sammy the bull" Gravano

The rapper Proof released a song called Sammy da Bull on the album Searching for Jerry Garcia .

Rick Ross mentions Gravano along with John Gotti in his song BMF (Blowin 'Money Fast) .

Movie

literature

  • Peter Maas : Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's story of life in the Mafia , New York 1997, HarperCollins Publishing Company, ISBN 978-0-06-109664-8 , OCLC 38229842
German translation by Harald Riemann: Underboss: I was the second man; the life story of the Mafia boss Sammy “The Bull” Gravano , Munich / Vienna 1998, Bern / Scherz, ISBN 3-502-18430-5 .
  • Karen Gravano and Lisa Pulitzer : Mafia Daughter - Grew Up Among Gangsters (My Life With Father Sammy "The Bull" Gravano) . Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 2012, ISBN 978-3-85445-387-1 (Original edition: Mob Daughter )

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robinson, Paul H. Cahill, Michael T .: Law Without Justice: Why Criminal Law Doesn't Give People What They Deserve . Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-516015-0 , pp. 74-80 .
  2. ↑ Maas, Peter: Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia . HarperCollins, New York City 1996, ISBN 978-0-06-093096-7 .
  3. ↑ Allan May: Sammy "The Bull" Gravano . In: TruTV.com . Retrieved February 11, 2012.
  4. ↑ Selwyn Raab: Signing for Your Sentence: How Will It Pay Off ?; Ex-Crime Underboss May Find Out Today What He Gets for Turning US Witness . In: The New York Times , September 26, 1994. Retrieved June 12, 2009. 
  5. ↑ Al Guart: Rare Disease Could Whack Sammy Bull . In: New York Post , March 31, 2002. Retrieved November 3, 2010. 
  6. ↑ Philip Carlo : Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss . William Morrow, 2008, ISBN 978-0-06-142984-2 .
  7. ↑ Article in the IMDB (English)

Web links

Commons : Sammy Gravano  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Gravano, Sammy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gravano, Salvatore
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American mobster
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Bensonhurst, Brooklyn , New York City