Where are the Happy Endings?

I get interesting emails all the time from blog readers.  Some just like to call me names or others like to make threats from behind their keyboard. Some readers ask good questions. One that has been asked a few times is, “Why do you say that the life is bad? That it is a dead end?”  One guy said that it is only after a guy in the life gets caught or needs revenge that they say the life is no good.  He is right. That does not take away from the fact that these guys are not dying millionaires in their beds with extended family by their side. They think I am lying when I say there are no happy endings.  I myself do not know of any happy endings in the mafia. If you just consider having some money but no quality of life a success, then I question your idea of what life is all about.

Lets look at the man who started what today is the American Cosa Nostra as we know it. Charlie “Lucky” Luciano. To be fair, it was already around, but he did a major reconstruction on the whole organization.  He was sentenced on July 18, 1936 to 30-50 years of prison time for his part in a prostitution ring.  He sat in lock up until he made a deal with the United States Government to work for them.  Let's be clear on this.  He broke the rules of Cosa Nostra by working for and cooperating with the government.  I know a lot of people will say he did it for the war effort, but the bottom line is that he did it for Charlie Lucky.  He was a cooperator. He was deported to Italy where he continued to deal in heroin. He married, cheated many times on his wife and never had kids. He was basically broke when he died at the Naples airport where he was selling his story to a movie producer.  

Al Capone was sent away for tax evasion and spent his last years drooling on himself in his Florida mansion.  

The point I am trying to make is that none of these stories end well.  If money is what drives you and all you want is the flash, then yes, the life will most probably give you that.  You will go through some tough times, you will have to rob and steal.  You may have to kill a friend or two, but you will get some good years.  If you are lucky, you will get five years and then its RICO.  You will lose everything and so will your family.  They got Joey Massino to flip after they took his mother’s and wife’s homes away.  He could have done his time, but knowing the two women who stuck by him would suffer was too much for him. So he did what any smart guy would do.  He made a deal. They let his wife and mother keep their homes.

RICO is the hammer the Feds use to smash the life out of guys.  In the old days, if it was not in your name you would be able to keep it.  Today, guys go away and their families live in poverty. When they come home they have nothing and their crews don't help much at all.

A young guy with flash and money, okay I can see that happen. An old guy with cash and assets after a lifetime in the Mafia that might be like a white Buffalo, very rare.

Let's say you beat the odds and you live to be an old man.  You did a few years and had the law watching you for years.  What kind of life is that?  What about your kids and family.  A lot of the kids not in the life have substance abuse problems.  They have issues and that is brought on by the father.  

What about those that bring their kids into the life?  I guess the father did not love their child very much.  How could any reasonable thinking man think anything good would come out of having your son be a thief and murderer?

So here is my last example.  Nicodemo Scarfo Jr., or Nicky Jr, is the son of the man who became the boss of the Philadelphia family.  After his father Nicky Scarfo Sr. went away for life, Nicky Jr. was targeted for assassination.  He was shot up, but he lived, so Nicky Sr. asked his friend Vic Amuso, the boss of the Lucchese family, to take him into his family.  Vic agreed and Nicky Jr. was made into the Lucchese Family.  Nicky Jr was smarter than most street guys and he started ahead because his father was boss.  He used computers and other sophisticated means to make cash.

He and a few other guys took over a Texas based mortgage company and stole millions without using weapons.  Firstplus Financial Group was ripe for them to take over and they did by using a few well placed threats.  They also created some dummy corporations and they started bleeding the company dry.  They stole over 12 million dollars from the company while the scam was going on.

All that money and Nicky Scarfo Jr was just sentenced to 30 years behind bars at age 50.  He could make it because his father is 86 now and still locked up.  Nicky Scarfo Sr. has a release date in 2033 which I doubt he will make.

The guys who worked with Nicky Jr. to loot the mortgage company were given 20 and 10 year sentences.  Oh yeah and the Government seized all their assets.  It may have seemed that age 50 he was a success in terms of money, but the story ended otherwise.  As all that I know of do.

In the Shadow of John Gotti

The public cannot get enough when it comes to the Mafia.  Hollywood keeps them coming and many are based in fact and are great stories.  Hollywood, however, has the need to make up stuff and put their own touch to the story.  Unfortunately, they have no idea what is real.  Most of these writers grew up in a bubble and they continue to live in a bubble, meaning they have no idea how a criminal thinks.  This is why they churn out so many bad Mafia movies and TV shows.

I know of no less than three Whitey Bulger stories in the works at the moment.  The other week, I found one of the scripts left behind at the car wash. I am not kidding, it was sitting there and it had a serial number on it so it could not be put out on the web.  I started reading and could only get to page 15.  It was so horrible.  It even had Whitey yelling at New England Family guys, and other made up nonsense that would never have actually happened. I am sure that this Whitey Movies, like all over movies these days, will star one of the 5 stars that has his face in every movie out there.  Is there no new talent?

Someday just maybe, the John Gotti movie “In the Shadow of My Father” may come out starring John Travolta as John Gotti.  “Gotti” starring Armand Assante was actually good and did not go overboard.  Lets think about the Godfather Part 1 and 2 and what makes them such classics.  Yes, they are Mafia movies but they are more, they are stories of family and turmoil within.  The Mafia part is secondary and they are great.

“In the Shadow of My Father” had John Gotti Junior’s help, but I am sure he never revealed anything new or good.  Here are a few things that Baby Huey could have revealed.

John Gotti Sr.

John Favara, a manager at the Castro Convertibles factory on Long Island, was on his way home after a long day on March 18, 1980.  At the same time, a 12 year old boy was illegally driving a mini bike on the sidewalks and in the streets.  The boy comes out onto the street from behind a dumpster as the sun is setting.  John Favara was driving the speed limit just blocks from his home when he struck the boy, who ended up dying later that night.  Favara was grief stricken because he knew the boy, Frank Gotti.  His own son Scott used to sleep over the Gotti house. The police ruled it an accident.  Soon after the accident, Favara’s car was spray painted with the word MURDERER. He then began receiving threats and Victoria Gotti attacked him with a baseball bat.  He sought help from the police but they gave him no help.  He spoke to a childhood friend who's father was a Capo in the Gambino Family. He was told by the Capo to sell his car and move away.  Favara was a blue collar, hardworking man who was raising two adopted children with his wife.  He was in no position to pack up, move and start over in another city. He did put his house up for sale and it was going to close on the last day of July.  

On July 28 John left work and walked two blocks to a diner where his car was parked.  A couple of men clubbed him, shot him and threw him into a van.  They drove away in the van and followed with his own car.  To this day, John Favara’s family has no closure, because his body and his car have never been found.

The ironic part of this story is that John's son Scott was good friends with John "Baby Huey" Gotti.  This is not what the Mafia is supposed to be about, there is no honor in this kind of vengeance.

In the spring of 1992, John Gotti Sr., the so-called “Teflon Don” was convicted in a huge racketeering case that featured his Underboss Sammy Gravano flipping on him.  Lets look at the facts here.  John Gotti convicted himself with his own mouth.  He went to the apartment upstairs from his Ravinite Social Club all the time and ran his mouth.  He bragged and postured, he thought he was untouchable. The FBI had planted a bug inside the apartment so every word Gotti said was recorded and even the things he said about his Underboss came out.  He sat inside there and spoke about Sammy killing guys but John was the boss and that means he was ultimately responsible.  

John Gotti had Robert DiBernardo killed because of his ego, nevermind the fact that this guy brought in huge sums of cash and was no threat.  Louie DiBono, another money maker for the family, was killed and then Eddie Garofalo Sr was murdered because they wanted his business.  Yes, Sammy took part in these but John Gotti and his family gained cash from these murders.  While John was on trial, a radio host named Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, took to the air and bad mouthed John Gotti a number of times.  This did not sit well with Baby Huey Gotti, so he decided to take action.  He sent three men: Johnny Boy Ruggiero, Stevie Kaplan and Michael McLaughlin, to throw him a beating with baseball bats.  They did beat him pretty bad, but that did not stop Curtis from continuing his rant on John Gotti.  Baby Huey Gotti then stepped it up and wanted him hospitalized for a long time.

Curtis Sliwa

So on the morning of June 19, 1992, Curtis Sliwa was on his way to work.  He hailed a cab outside his apartment.  Curtis got inside the cab and things quickly went bad. A Gambino guy named Joey D'Angelo was driving the stolen cab.  He locked the doors which had be modified so the passenger could not open them.  Then, a second Gambino named Mikey Yannotti, who had been crouched down in the passenger seat, popped up with a pistol and just starts shooting into Curtis.  Even though he is hit a number of times, Curtis fights back and jumps out of the window of the moving cab.  Joey D'Angelo had been told to beat Curtis so bad he would be in the hospital for a long time, not kill him.  But Mikey just started shooting instead. Joey would later tell Gambino Capo Mikey DiLeonardo that he would never do anything with Mikey Y again because he was crazy.

Regardless of what people may think of Curtis Sliwa and his antics, his Guardian Angels have done a lot of good and he was a radio personality.  One of the main rules of the Mafia was you never mess with the press or Law Enforcement.  This goes way back to days when Lucky Luciano was in New York.  

There was a Special Prosecutor named Thomas E Dewey who was put in place in New York in 1935, he loved the press and he was always on the radio. He went after a Gangster named Dutch Schultz and Dutch went to Lucky because he wanted to kill Dewey. Lucky knew that this would not solve the problem but only make matters worse so he said no to the hit.  Dutch was very vocal about killing Dewey so finally, rather than cause major problems, Lucky took care of it.  Dutch went down in a hail of bullets from which he would die a little later.  Those are the rules and they were there for a reason.  

"Baby Huey" Gotti Jr. in the blue shirt, middle

Baby Huey Gotti liked to be the tough guy when Daddy was alive but those days are long gone.  He did go and do a Proffer with the Feds and that means he is no different than Sammy or Mikey.  A few months ago he was at a CVS near his home when he was stabbed in the stomach by someone.  He claimed he tried to break up a fight but who knows...

Published news on turncoat Gotti:

"Gotti has denied any involvement in that killing or any other murders. But in a controversial "proffer session" he had with the feds in 2005, Junior said now-deceased Gambino solder Angelo Ruggiero paid a $25,000 bribe to a Queens detective, and that Ruggiero and two others killed the witness and made it look like a suicide."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerry-capeci/the-junior-gotti-chronicl_b_224097.html

"Gotti told the feds in a 2005 proffer session that, despite his innocence in the Silva stabbing, the Gambino family had bribed a corrupt detective to quash a probe of his involvement in it. He also claimed that, with the detective's help, the crime family had murdered a witness in the case and made it look like a suicide."

http://www.nysun.com/new-york/feds-try-new-angle-to-get-junior-gotti/63969/

"Gotti later sought a different type of revenge against the trio in January 2005, when he secretly met with the feds in a failed bid to get out from under racketeering charges, breaking the Mafia oath of "omerta."During the proffer session, Gotti detailed crimes that Marino, Gammarano and Watts committed prior to 1999,"

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/item_apTPpPpp09cz4McH1iIuOI

"Gotti's bid to become a turncoat fell through after he refused to give the feds the full story - he agreed only to provide incriminating information about certain cohorts but insisted on protecting others, sources said."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/item_IkTuZ7c1JblKLuLLd60TGP