Joe Bilotti: Old School Gambino

It was just before 6pm on December 16, 1985 when the black Lincoln pulled up and parked in front of Sparks Steak House in Manhattan.  The streets were busy, but four men dressed in trench coats and fur hats moved with purpose.  The passenger was Paul Castellano, the boss of the Gambino crime family.  As he stepped out of the car, the men opened fire on him. The driver emerged and ducked a little to look towards Paul before he was shot in the back.

The forgotten man was Tommy Bilotti, Castellano’s driver and the new underboss of the family.

Tommy had a brother named Joe that passed away last week.  Joe was real Cosa Nostra, not like the clowns that run around playing the role in Brooklyn and Staten Island.  Guys who were in the life consider Joe the ultimate wiseguy. He kept a low profile, both before his brother Tommy was murdered by John Gotti’s crew and after.

The Billotti brothers were both known as tough guys with their hands.  They used that fear to build up a massive gambling business.  This proved a natural segway into their next business, which was loansharking.  They both prospered because of their talent as businessmen.

One of the men on record with Tommy was a man named Joe Watts, a childhood friend who grew up with the Bilottis in the South Beach section of Staten Island.

Joe Watts was known as “the German” because he was part German.  He managed the loan shark business for Tommy until Tommy was gunned down outside Sparks Steakhouse.

John wanted to get rid of Paul Castellano and Tommy Bilotti because he was caught up in the web of a heroin trafficking case and pure greed. Gotti and a few others plotted to take over the family, but they were not sure when to do it.

One plan was to put plastic down in the Watts home and invite Tommy over and murder him.

Then another man would take Tommy’s place as Paul's driver and murder him.

Instead, they settled on the midtown Manhattan spectacle.

Once Tommy was murdered, Sammy Gravano, the man who would later become John Gotti’s underboss, met with Joe Bilotti at a diner.  He told Joe that his brother’s murder was just business.

Joe Watts was urging John Gotti Sr. to murder Joe also, lest he seek revenge.  Joe agreed that he would accept it and not cause trouble.

John Gotti rewarded Joe Watts with Tommy’s loansharking book/business and it made him a millionaire.  No wonder Joe Watts was in on the murder of the boss.  He was one of the shooters.  Joe Watts might have made some money and had a few good years but he has been locked up for years.

In 2011 Joe Watts was handed another prison sentence of 13 years for his participation in another murder. At 69 years old who knows if he will see freedom.

Joe Billotti outlived John Gotti.  He was able to see him go away after Sammy Gravano helped team USA put him away.  Gotti would die inside, never again a free man.

He continued to take part in Gambino family business.  He was seen meeting with members of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra family in Florida in recent years.

Joe was a successful guy who most people don't know had a cigar factory in the Dominican Republic.  

So we say goodbye to another old timer who lived the life.

Frankie Loc & John Gotti Sr.

Frank (Frankie Loc) Locascio is 78 years old and hooked up to an oxygen tank. He does not want to suffer the fate of his former boss John Gotti Sr.  That is, to die in prison wasting away toothless in some infirmary.  Frankie Loc was convicted in1992 and he was sentenced to life in prison.  He has exhausted all his appeals and now wants the FBI to release and enhance a tape he claims will exonerate him.  The tape was recorded inside the apartment above the Ravenite Social Club in Little Italy where Gotti Sr held meetings.  The FBI had wired up the place when the old lady who lived there was gone.

The tapes are great because they show how much John Gotti thought of himself while he was speaking freely.  This was one of the many reasons that Sammy Gravano flipped. John Gotti bad mouthed him to others in the tapes.

Sammy later claimed that Frankie Loc and himself were planning on killing Gotti Sr if they beat their case.  They never did and Sammy went to Team USA and Frankie Loc went down with Gotti Sr.  Frankie Loc even proclaimed Gotti Sr a great guy at the trial.

The Ailing Frankie Loc now claims his ticket to freedom is in a December 12, 1989 tape that the US Attorney used to convict him.  He claims that the inaudible part of the tape is when he told Gotti Sr that Louie DiBono was coming to see him with 50k and that he should just take it and let him be.  

This is the same tape that Gotti Sr was ranting on about Sammy Gravano killing everyone and taking companies.  I would say that Gotti’s biggest problem was his mouth.  Sounds like he just liked to hear himself talk.

The Federal Judge who sentenced Frankie Loc has ordered a hearing to consider giving Frankie Loc the tapes.  The FBI claims they would give away investigator methods.  It was 26 years ago and everyone is dead, locked up or close to dead now.  The technology has changed so much and they already played the Gotti Sr tapes at trial anyway.  It seems like the the only thing that makes sense is to enhance them and let the old guy either get out, or die trying.

Frankie Loc will not be able to attend the trial because he is too sick to travel.  They may let him out on compassionate release soon anyway.

Frankie Loc was the Gambino Family Consigliere under Gotti and after his conviction his position filled immediately.  Out of sight out of mind.  I wonder how much or if anything anyone ever sent him besides his family?  Did the Gambino family take care of him?  How many guys in power now even know him?  Do they care?  These are interesting questions.

Gotti Sr hated him even after he said such nice things about him.  Sammy Gravano wrote in his book that he and Frankie were planning to Murder Gotti Sr if they beat their case.  Gotti, I am sure, was told by somebody what Sammy wrote.  He flew into one of his rages and he asked the Aryan Brotherhood Prison gang to murder Frankie Loc.  

The Feds found out about this and Frankie Locs was put on lockdown. He stayed there for a long time and he had to file suit to get out.

John Gotti Sr. and Junior did a lot to weaken the Gambino family.  Everyone around Gotti Sr has suffered a lot.  Frankie Loc and Joe Watts have had a lot of horrible years between them.   To think they might actually make a movie about John Gotti Senior is sad.  He was never a great mob boss, but because his name has recognition they want to glorify his life on the screen.  Let's hope they tell the truth about him.   I’m sure they won't mention in the movie how he had a regular guy murdered for accidentally running over his own foolish child (John Gotti Jr’s brother).    Gotti’s son had driven a mini bike into traffic when it was not road safe and he was too young to drive.

If Junior Gotti really changed like he claims, he would let the family of that murdered man know what happen to him when he “disappeared” thirty years ago.

Edward "Cousin Eddie" Garafola

Cousin Eddie Garafola is a Gambino Soldier who is doing 30 years of hard time.  The brother-in-law of Sammy the Bull, he enjoyed the life of a Mafia Czar.  How could he lose with Sammy rising to be the number two man under John Gotti.  Then Sammy flipped and Eddie was just another soldier, and worse yet, the relative of the biggest rat in Mafia history.

Cousin Eddie pleaded guilty on September 7, 2007, and at 66 years old with a 7th grade education, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

He pleaded guilty to a number of crimes.  One of them was conspiring to murder Sammy Gravano in Arizona with Peter Gotti.  Peter Gotti was visiting his brother in prison when John Gotti Sr told him on September 1996,  “that’s a bill that’s gotta be paid some day, just like every other bill, ya know what I mean, just like this Gravano and the rest of them, then that bills gonna be, thats gotta be cashed, . . . cause I gotta be able to sleep, ya know what I am saying.”

He was ordering him to kill Sammy the Bull. So in 1999 Peter Gotti gave the contract to Cousin Eddie and Thomas “Huck” Carbonaro to murder him in Arizona. Huck enlisted Salvatore Mangiavillano, a Gambino associate, to help him find Sammy the Bull in Arizona.  They obtained fake IDs and headed to Arizona. The New Jersey IDs used were in the names Henry Payne and Paul Milano.  They would make two trips out, one of which included buying firearms at a roadside flea market.  Sammy the Bull would be arrested for drugs before their last trip out.

Cousin Eddie took part in the planning in a Staten Island hotel where one of the guys dropped off pictures of Sammy the Bull’s places.   Cousin Eddie still wanted to murder Sammy the Bull after he was arrested. A number of plans were discussed including sending a letter bomb, but one of the smarter participants pointed out that it would not work because the marshals would x ray the mail.

Cousin Eddie not only conspired to murder his former brother-in-law, but he also helped murder his cousin Eddie “The Chink” Garafolo in August of 1990.  

Eddie the Chink is the father of my former friend Eddie “The Tall Guy” Garofalo who had his wife Alicia on the show Mob Wives.  

The truck lot in Staten Island where Eddie and Teddy Persico Jr ran their trucking business out of was owned by Cousin Eddie.  

That is all in the past.  Today, Cousin Eddie is unable to speak from a stroke and is wheelchair bound after an amputation.  He was just denied a release on compassionate grounds by the Feds.

Its ironic that on the other hand, Sammy the Bull is coming up for release again.  He took part in 19 murders, was locked up for that, then released.  After he was freed for the murders, he sold massive amounts of Ecstasy and was arrested again.