30 years after the Rise of John Gotti

30 years is a long time, and on the street it is even longer.  Things change fast in the criminal world.  In 1985 the world was just starting to learn about Pablo Escobar and the Medellín Cartel. When most people thought of the mafia, Don Corleone came to mind.

There soon would be another name that everyone would know.  It was John Gotti, a gambling-addicted street thug from Queens, New York.  Gotti was a capo in the Gambino crime family, having taken over the crew of the Fatico Brothers.  The problem was, his brother Gene and his best friend Angelo Ruggiero were dealing heroin on a massive scale.  They had inherited the business from Angelo’s brother Sal, who died in an airplane crash while on the run from the Feds.  

The boss of the Gambino family was Paul Castellano, and he had a rule against dealing drugs.  It is funny because he still gladly took the cash from Gotti’s crew and other heroin dealers in the family. Paul was more of a white collar criminal and had made millions with his legitimate businesses.

Gotti was strictly blue collar, a meat and potatoes street guy.  He had been away for hijacking and murder.  He had a huge gambling habit and his headquarters were the Bergin Hunt and Fish club on 101st Avenue Ozone park Queens. A small place that probably never saw a hunter of animals in its membership rolls. The truth was, Paul Castellano was afraid of John Gotti and what he represented. Paul was what the mafia should have been and Gotti was its past.

John Gotti had big plans and Paul Castellano was standing in the way.  Paul was on trial and was facing a lot of time. Paul's underboss had died and he named his driver, Tommy Bilotti, as the new underboss.  This did not sit well with Gotti and the family.  So John Gotti put together a hit team that would deal with the Paul Castellano problem.

The hit team dressed in matching coats and Russian fur hats and as soon as Paul stepped out of his car they made their move.  It was over in seconds with Paul  Castellano and Tommy Bilotti lying dead in the street.  

John Gotti was watching as they were gunned down.  Thomas Gambino, a capo in the family and son of the late boss, watched as his cousin was gunned down in front of the steak house.

The hit changed everything for the mafia.  They stopped being a mythical criminal enterprise and they became front page.  

John Gotti soon held a meeting of all the capos and they voted him in as boss.  He had broken every rule of the mafia by killing his boss.  He did not have permission from the commission or any of the four other New York families.

The hit took place in Midtown Manhattan on a busy street as hundreds of people walked nearby the scene.  This made Gotti a household name. It also pushed the FBI to make an all out push to take down the mafia.  

They hit it hard and Gotti would die in prison.  The other families were hit just as hard.

Things had to change or they would not survive.  

Gotti had moved his headquarters from Queens to Little Italy.  He held court daily in the Ravenite Social club.  

I've spoken to guys in Nicky Corozzo’s crew and they used to disappear when Nicky went to the Ravenite. Nobody wanted the heat that came from a trip to the club.  Gotti made it easy for the FBI.  He had his capos come to the club on a weekly basis.

Today the Ravenite is no more.  It is now a high end shoe store.  Gotti died in prison and his son John Gotti Jr. went in and flapped his lips to the Feds when he was queen for a day.

The Bergin Hunt and Fish Club is vacant after a failed Italian Ice place took over.

The Gambino family is now run by secretive Sicilians that never meet at clubs.

The family uses diners at three in the morning for its meetings.  You will no longer see guys in 2000 dollar suits.  It's a jeans and t-shirt club that must stay secret if it is to survive.

Gene Gotti & Gambino Family

Gene Gotti, the younger brother of John Gotti,  will be released on September 19, 2018 at the age of 72. Gene was given 50 years on July 8, 1989.  At the time he went away his older brother John was the boss of the Gambino family.  John then went away for life in 1992 and later his son John Junior took over for him.  Junior would later break all the rules by talking to the FBI and giving up Danny Marino and Joe Watts. The Garbage Man Peter Gotti, another brother of John Gotti, was even worse for the family.  

The new Gambino family is run by the Sicilian faction, but maybe Gene will fit in with them.  Gene has maintained a steady stream of visitors who speak to him on many family topics including his brothers and nephews.  Many of these men were heroin dealers like Gene, and some continue to push their poison to the masses.  Gene Gotti, Angelo Ruggiero, John Carneglia and Sal Ruggiero ran a multimillion dollar heroin empire and it was running smooth until Sal was indicted and had to go on the run.  

Sal worked with many people including mob criminal attorney Michael Coiro and criminals including Joseph Guagliano, Anthony Moscatiello, Oscar Ansourian, Edward Lino, Mark Reiter, William Robert Cestaro, Salvatore Greco, Joseph Lo Presti, Vincent Lore, Anthony Gurino and Caesar Gurino.  He would also deal with a lot of those that would go away for the Pizza Connection.   The drug cash was flowing into John Gotti's Bergin crew and Sal was an unofficial member because of the ban on drugs in the Gambino Family.  The ban is funny because Carlo Gambino profited off drugs, the Zips, the Cherry Hill Gambinos all paid him.  The new boss, Big Paul Castellano, had made a pact with Genovese Boss Chin Gigante “deal and die”  they were to not discuss it, just kill those that had anything to do with drugs.  They rightly figured that if guys were caught dealing they would be facing so much time that they would flip.  

On May 6, 1982 Sal Ruggiero and his wife boarded a Learjet in New Jersey bound for Florida where Sal was going to look at a McDonalds franchise that was for sale. The day was perfect and the sky a clear blue and over the Atlantic the jet requested permission to descend.  It descended but went into a dive straight into the ocean where it killed everyone aboard.

Angelo lost his brother (who had been a fugitive running his drug empire while on the run) and also his partner.   Angelo and Gene had to move fast because the Feds identified Sal’s body and they would be looking for his hideouts.  Sal had died when they had just gotten a large load of heroin.  Angelo started cleaning out Sal’s hideouts but according to the lawyer, turned crew member Michael Coiro Gen found the heroin.  This would all come out because the FBI had been watching Angelo because of his connection to the Gotti’s.  They had wiretaps and bugs in his home and they were listening when all this was going down.

Angelo was able to get a copy of an affidavit in support of a warrant to bug his home.  It came via a Genovese soldier and Angelo knew that he and Gene Gotti would soon be indicted for running Sal’s heroin business. It all came crashing down on August 8, 1983 when the FBI arrested Angelo, Gene Gotti and others for drug dealing.  It was soon learned that the tapes had provided the evidence the FBI needed to bug Gambino Boss Big Paulie’s home on Staten Island.

Paulie ordered his ailing underboss Neil Dellacroce to have have Angelo turn over the tapes so he could hear them.  The Gotti brothers Gene and John knew that the tapes would mean certain death for all of them.  They held off by making up excuses and when Dellacroce died and Big Paulie did not attend his funeral they used that to fuel the fire.  They started planning to murder Big Paulie.   On December 16, 1985 John Gotti struck, killing Big Paulie and his underboss Tommy Bilotti in Midtown Manhattan.  John Gotti was now the Gambino boss and he upped his brother Gene to Capo of his Bergin crew.  Gene would be found guilty of drug dealing in 1989, almost 7 years after his arrest. He went through 3 trials where jurors were threatened and bribed until he was given 50 years.  The Gambino family as it is stands today is no long Gene’s family.