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Documentary, Inside the American Mob S01E05 Rise & Fall of John Gotti
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00:00The first time I met John Gotti was around the time when his son Frankie got killed.
00:06The first time I really encountered him was at the funeral.
00:08On March 12, 1980, 12-year-old Frank Gotti was riding his minibike on this street.
00:13John Favaro, a neighbor of Gotti's, accidentally hit him with a car pulling out of his driveway.
00:19Gotti's wife, she kept browbeating him.
00:22You gotta do something about the next door neighbor.
00:24But John Gotti had hundreds and hundreds of men under him, so he could cause somebody great harm, you know, with the raising of a finger.
00:32He takes his wife to Florida, gives the contract to his underlings.
00:36They kidnapped this guy out of a diner in Nassau County, New York.
00:41Hit him with some baseball bats, put him in the back of a van, shot and killed him.
00:46And they cut him in half with a chainsaw.
00:49All while John and his wife were in Florida, so he had an alibi.
00:52We never found the body.
00:56Gotti had developed an army.
00:58He started recruiting hitmen from all over the place.
01:00He could kill somebody in 30 seconds.
01:02Unbelievable, the power that he had.
01:09We have now proven, in a court of law, beyond a reasonable doubt, not only that there's a mafia, but that there's a commission, that it runs the mafia.
01:16It is 1986, and the fortunes of the five families of the American mob are changing rapidly.
01:22For the first time in history, the United States government has successfully prosecuted the bosses of the ruling crime families, using state-of-the-art electronic wiretapping and a groundbreaking law called RICO to send most of the leadership away for life.
01:36It was eye-opening.
01:37I mean, there's all the bosses they can convict, they're gone.
01:40They're going away.
01:41I mean, this was a rumble throughout all the families.
01:43What happens now, you know?
01:44So it left a huge vacuum in command and control at the top levels of organized crime, and threw the families in disarray.
01:52With the bosses in prison, the mob is a headless snake, and an era of chaos and murder erupts.
01:59One gangster sees this as an opportunity.
02:02This man, John Gotti.
02:04A captain in the Gambino family with a reputation for unbridled violence and vaulting ambition.
02:10He was sort of an unknown wise guy, but Gotti would walk around with his chest out saying,
02:16one day I'm going to be the boss.
02:18Of course, we thought it was ridiculous.
02:19Gotti will attempt to bring back the glory days to the five families of Cosa Nostra.
02:26These people are witnesses to a secret history, stepping out of the shadows to tell their story firsthand.
02:32A few stay hidden for personal safety, fearful of an organization that most Americans are now beginning to see in the 1980s
02:40as a threat to the health of the country and a very real tax on their everyday lives.
02:44The most successful of those families in this group, the Gambino family, a criminal powerhouse in the 80s.
02:53The Gambino family was the largest family, and historically probably had been the most powerful family.
02:59It gets its name from Carlo Gambino, who was a boss of the family back in the 1950s.
03:05And it was probably the family that had the greatest wealth.
03:09They were always very successful, and they didn't depend on just one or two crimes.
03:16They were into everything.
03:17Lone sharking, gambling.
03:19The Gambinos had a lot of influence in the garment industry, with the unions.
03:23In 1982, the Gambino boss is a guy named Big Paul Castellano.
03:29Paul Castellano ran the family in a very different way from the way other bosses ran their families.
03:34He was a very sophisticated, almost business-like boss.
03:37Paul's mansion was called the White House.
03:39They run the family from the house.
03:41Captains trek from Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan to the White House in Staten Island to discuss business.
03:47And business is booming.
03:48Castellano controls much of everyday life in the city, and gets a piece of the action whenever a New Yorker buys a chicken or rents an apartment.
03:57He has rules.
03:59One of them, no one in the Gambino family is allowed to sell drugs.
04:03And that's a serious problem for one of their captains, John Gotti.
04:08In 1985, Gotti had most of his crew under indictment for narcotics trafficking.
04:12These guys were distributing 50 kilos of heroin in a six-month period.
04:16Under the rules of the La Cosa Nostra, you are not permitted to engage in narcotics trafficking.
04:23But Gotti is flagrantly breaking that rule, and other bosses want Castellano to take action.
04:29At that time, Chin Giganti of the Genovese family was putting pressure on Castellano.
04:36Giganti was telling Castellano that you're going to have to kill these guys.
04:40Then, in 1985, Paul Castellano was indicted on charges of conspiracy and murder in the commission case.
04:48Gotti sees a one-of-a-kind chance to get rid of Big Paul and take over the Gambino family.
04:52Their break came when they found out Castellano was having dinner on December 16th at Sparks Steakhouse in Manhattan.
05:00So the hit team gets assembled, and Gotti is on the scene with Gravano.
05:04Gravano's driving.
05:06They have four shooters on the street.
05:08They have a couple of crash cars.
05:10They have a couple of getaway cars.
05:12There's probably 15 guys on the street.
05:13The dead godfather, Paul Castellano, and his bodyguard were gunned down as they stepped from their limousine outside a popular New York steakhouse.
05:43Not for 50 years has New York seen a mob murder of this great of magnitude.
05:48I think we're witnessing at least part of the changing of the guard.
05:52I think we're witnessing a convolution within La Casa Nostra that hasn't been seen since its beginnings.
05:59The mobsters call this the Holocaust, you know, the hit of the century.
06:04At first, it's not entirely clear who pulled off the monster hit.
06:08Are there any eyewitnesses?
06:09Well, we haven't come up with anybody that is volunteering anything at this point.
06:14I think three or four saw something substantive.
06:17Because everybody else knew there's a mob hit.
06:19I didn't see nothing.
06:20I don't want to get involved.
06:21But some within Cousin Ostra make an educated guess.
06:25Gotti.
06:25Gotti knew if he didn't kill him, that he would be killed.
06:29And he knew that.
06:30After killing him, he would take over the family.
06:32About a month later, they had what they call a captain's meeting for the Gambino family.
06:38So we're trying to the captains elect the new boss of the family.
06:42And Frank DiCicco says, I nominate John Gotti.
06:45Everybody in favor raises their hand and says, I.
06:47He's elected the boss of the family.
06:49John says, I nominate Frank DiCicco, the younger boss.
06:52And we have a new administration in the family.
06:53By taking out Paul Castellano, Gotti establishes himself as the brashest, boldest captain ever.
07:00He just went and did it openly and audaciously.
07:04And went to all the other captains and said, hey, I'm the boss now.
07:08And that was it.
07:09He had a particular magnetic personality that I hadn't encountered before in my life.
07:18He went from a wannabe wise guy to a superstar within the mob, a mob star.
07:23Hey, tell me about him.
07:24Instantly, he became the media sensation.
07:27The fools always have a lot of food.
07:29John is really the first boss to actually court reporters and court publicity.
07:34All of a sudden, you start seeing his pictures, $3,000 suits, and walking around, smiling for the cameras.
07:40And, you know, we know.
07:41We've been in this life to swear kids.
07:43We know we're supposed to stay low.
07:44Now, smile for the cameras and say, hey, how you doing?
07:46He was very fashionable.
07:48He wore tailored suits and tailored overcoats and, you know, a fancy scarf.
07:52And, you know, he walked with a swagger.
07:54And so he took on the name the Dapper Don.
07:56And I'm sure he relished in that.
07:58I always thought that Dapper Don was a basic moron.
08:01This guy who, you know, likes to show up to watch murders.
08:04The last thing in the world you do is show up to watch a murder.
08:07The last thing in the world you do is bring attention to yourself.
08:09I think a lot of people resented Gotti of who he was.
08:13He was just so out there.
08:14He'll do the unexpected and doesn't care.
08:18He was always on.
08:20He was bullet on.
08:23Gotti swaggers in public, but inside the American mob, his enemies are massing for a counterattack.
08:29The hit on Castellano was not sanctioned by the commission, the governing board of the five families,
08:34and therefore must be punished by death.
08:36Two particular factions of local organized crime were particularly riled about the fact that it was an unsanctioned hit,
08:44particularly the Lucchese crime family, where Anthony Casso was the underboss,
08:48and the Genovese crime family, where Vincent de Cien Giganti was the boss.
08:53Vincent de Cien Giganti was a close pal of Big Paul.
08:57They were involved in many underworld deals together, million-dollar deals.
09:02Giganti decided that Gotti had to be killed.
09:07Genevieve's boss, Vincent de Cien Giganti, is the polar opposite of Gotti, a boss who shuns the limelight.
09:13The Genovese crime family is the Ivy League of the five families.
09:17They're very intelligent, very sophisticated, and if they get it, they know, they understand how it's supposed to operate.
09:23You don't want to tangle with these guys.
09:24Gotti loves headlines, but the Genoveses keep their leadership top secret.
09:30The longest time, the Genoveses never made it clear who the boss was.
09:34It was like bait and switch.
09:36They would prop somebody up as he's the boss, but he wasn't really the boss.
09:39They played that game of chess with law enforcement, and I think with other crime families.
09:45Their business was their business.
09:46Nobody else needed to know anything about it.
09:48Giganti epitomized that.
09:50Gene Giganti was the boss of the Genovese family for a number of years, and what his M.O. was to play insane.
09:57He was crazy.
09:59They ain't gonna answer you.
10:00They don't understand.
10:02His doctors say the man in pajamas is mentally ill.
10:05Not a godfather, but a man with the mind of a child.
10:09He had a routine.
10:11Law enforcement members sometimes called it the Giganti shuffle, but he would dress down in sometimes pajamas, always a tattered bathrobe.
10:19His theory was if he got arrested, he'd get off by insanity defense, which he tried several times, and it worked.
10:25You know, everybody has a little game, and he played a game as the oddfather.
10:30Fascinating.
10:31Running around New York City with a robe on, like he's a half a bubble off or a crispy critter.
10:35But, in fact, he was a very astute, streetwise gangster.
10:39He was no pushover.
10:41When he had to order his guys to go out and kill, he would order his guys to go out and kill.
10:45But the Genovese boss doesn't take direct action.
10:49Instead, Giganti gives the job of taking out Gotti to another of New York's five mob families, the Lucchese family.
10:55Specifically this man, Anthony Gaspipe Casso.
11:00Anthony Gaspipe Casso was the underboss of the Lucchese crime family.
11:04He was a particularly ruthless individual, feared by his own associates and by competing members of other crime families.
11:14Gaspipe's reputation was, Gaspipe would have a dream that a guy was a rat and a foreman, and he would send out a crew to kill him.
11:21Gaspipe Casso goes after Gotti in an unexpected way.
11:24From what I understand, they were trying to kill John Gotti and Frankie DiCicco that day.
11:32So they wind up planting a bomb on Frankie DiCicco's car on 86th Street when he was at the club.
11:37John Gotti never showed up that day.
11:39But DiCicco does.
11:46They blew up DiCicco's car with him in it.
11:48I guess it was like a remote bomb they pulled off, so they went high tech.
11:56Gambino wonderboss Frank DiCicco dies instantly, and now Gotti vows revenge.
12:02An all-out war is about to erupt in the American mob.
12:07In 1986, Gambino boss John Gotti narrowly escapes a hit.
12:13Retaliation for the unsanctioned murder of his former boss, Big Paul Castellano.
12:17What happens next is murky, a matter of dispute in law enforcement.
12:23Some say Gotti knows who tried to kill him, and now strikes back with a vengeance.
12:27It was clear that Casso had his hand in planning that event,
12:32possibly was present for the detonation of the device that actually went off and blew up the vehicle.
12:37And as a result, the Gambinos were intent on getting even with Casso.
12:43Anthony gaspiped Casso, the ferocious underboss of the rival Lucchese family.
12:48The Gambinos set up an ambush using Casso's relative.
12:54Casso receives a telephone call from a nephew of his and is told that the nephew had set up a meeting
13:02where Casso would be able to take advantage of a scheme to cash stolen checks.
13:10And Casso is interested in attending that meeting, responds to a predetermined location,
13:15and is actually sitting in his car having an ice cream when two cars pull up alongside of him
13:21and begin to fire at him from multiple angles.
13:25They only wound Casso.
13:26He's able to slide out the driver's side and crawl into a restaurant.
13:34Goes down into the basement of the restaurant and locks himself in a freezer waiting for his assailants to vacate the area.
13:43Casso survives, and now it's his turn to strike back.
13:47Casso was convinced that the attempt on his life had come from within the Gambino crime family, but he needed proof.
13:52He also was hell-bent on identifying the individuals involved and exacting his own revenge.
14:00Enter a small-time criminal named Bert Kaplan, a guy with connections in unlikely places, like the New York City Police Department.
14:08That was when Bert Kaplan approached Casso and told him that he could reach out to two detectives that he knew,
14:14two detectives who had already done some work for Kaplan, that Kaplan was very satisfied with,
14:20and that he could not only identify the individuals involved, but provide specific information as to their whereabouts.
14:27Kaplan introduces Casso to two New York City police detectives, Steve Caracapa and Lou Eppolito,
14:33cops who are willing to do dirty work for extra pay.
14:37Steve Caracapa worked with Lou Eppolito in the Brooklyn Robbery Squad.
14:41They were partners together in the late 70s.
14:43The vast majority of people who worked with Eppolito knew that he was the son of a member of the Gambino crime family,
14:50and were always curious about how he ever wound up becoming a member of the New York City Police Department.
14:55He was a gangster with a badge, basically. That's what he was.
14:58And he had a partner named Caracapa.
15:00Stephen Caracapa was a detective in the organized crime homicide unit that was part of Major Crimes,
15:08a very prestigious unit of the New York City Police Department.
15:12For a price, Caracapa and Eppolito supply a list to Gas Pipe Casso.
15:17On it, the names of men rumored to be involved in the hit against him.
15:21One of those names is Jimmy Heidel.
15:23Jimmy Heidel was a low-level mob associate, a street thug, a tough, tough kid.
15:30He was kind of a maniac, did a lot of bad things, he killed a lot of people.
15:34Somebody from the Gambino family, they offered Jimmy Heidel the world.
15:38They told him, go kill a gas pipe.
15:41But he told everybody.
15:43They told me to do this, I did this.
15:44Casso wants revenge.
15:46He's searching desperately, high and wide, to find Jimmy Heidel.
15:50Heidel is now in hiding.
15:52He knows this is trouble.
15:56And so the message is sent through Burt Kaplan to Eppolito and Caracapa to find Heidel and to bring him back alive.
16:06And an agreement is made wherein the detectives will abduct Heidel from the street and deliver him to Anthony Casso.
16:13The amount agreed upon was $30,000.
16:16The cops used their resources at the NYPD to track down Heidel.
16:20But it's not long before they receive the perfect lead from Jimmy Heidel himself.
16:25Heidel was to meet the Capo and the Gambino crime family at Dyker Park in Brooklyn on this October day in 1986.
16:34And Heidel was concerned that something bad might come out of the meeting.
16:38So he actually contacted the 6-2 precinct.
16:41He contacted them, I believe, for his own protection.
16:45What he could have never dreamed or expected is that that information found itself into the hands of Detective Zeppolito and Caracapa.
16:53And they were at Dyker Park that day looking for him.
16:56I was standing on a corner with Frank Heidel, Jimmy Heidel's brother.
17:01We were on 15th Avenue and 86th Street.
17:03He looked to the left and there's Eppolito and Caracapa driving by.
17:08Frank Heidel says, I just seen them two scumbags by my house.
17:11And they must be looking to lock up my brother Jimmy.
17:13They see him walking on the street, pull him over.
17:15They kidnapped him and they brought him to gas pipe.
17:23Caso takes Heidel to a home in Brooklyn and he takes Heidel down to the basement of that building.
17:31And commences to torture him while he extracts from him the people that were behind the murder attempt on his life.
17:40He tortured him for hours.
17:47So Jimmy finally broke down and told him who sent him to kill him.
17:51He gives up the name Eddie Lino, a captain in the Gambino organized crime family.
17:58Caso then kills him by shooting him numerous times.
18:01The body's never been found.
18:03No one doubts Jimmy Heidel is dead.
18:05And his blood seals the deal between Caso and the New York City police detectives.
18:10From then the relationship is formed and they're put on the payroll effectively and given money every month to collect information and have services provided by these two men.
18:22Gas pipe now knows who tried to kill him.
18:25The path takes him to Gotti.
18:27The torture and murder of small-time hood Jimmy Heidel by the Lucchese boss gas pipe Caso gives Caso the intel he's looking for.
18:38He now knows who tried to kill him.
18:41Gotti confidant in Gambino family captain Eddie Lino.
18:46Caso's motive for the hit on Eddie Lino was twofold.
18:49Jimmy Heidel told Caso that Eddie Lino was aware of the contract on Caso's life.
18:56Additionally, he was perceived as someone very close to John Gotti.
19:00And if Caso was successful in exacting revenge for the Castellano murder on John Gotti, Lino would be someone that he would have to be worried about.
19:09Gotti is a marked man for the unsanctioned murder of his boss, Big Paul Castellano.
19:14And those connected to Gotti, like Eddie Lino, are in the crosshairs as well.
19:18So Caso gives the job to kill Lino to the pair of New York City cops in his pocket, Steve Caracapa and Lou Eppolito.
19:25The price tag? $75,000.
19:31Eddie Lino left the club on AVU.
19:33When he left, everybody seen Eppolito and Caracapa following him.
19:40So they thought he was just under surveillance.
19:44They used their sirens to pull Eddie Lino over on the Belt Parkway.
19:50He stops the car.
19:52He thinks it's just a police stop.
19:56Maybe he was speeding.
19:57Who knows?
19:57They ask him if he's Frankie Lino, who happens to be a cousin of his, which distracts him momentarily, and then he's shot and killed.
20:08And they leave him for dead, get in their police car, and drive away.
20:12The Eddie Lino hit is the first time that these two cops have actually executed someone for Anthony Caso and the Lucchese family.
20:20Here you have people who are entrusted with keeping law and order in your city, participating in a gruesome, heinous crime.
20:30It's the dissolution of civilization at this point.
20:34With two of John Gotti's close confidants now dead, the boss takes an unexpected step.
20:40He makes peace.
20:41John Gotti was the type of guy that was very, very in tune, perceptive, intuitive on the street.
20:47He decides it's time that the families stop fighting with each other, that peace is needed.
20:56And he and Giganti and the Lucchese leaders, including Gas Pipe Caso, arrange to have a meeting.
21:02They forgive each other.
21:04Giganti claims he never tried to kill Gotti.
21:06Gotti accepts it, and the truce is arranged.
21:10On the verge of assassination, Gotti saves his own skin.
21:14But law enforcement is still gunning for him.
21:16John Gotti was a particularly slippery guy.
21:19He beat a lot of raps, a lot of state court indictments, challenges, hung juries, things like that.
21:26He always found a way to intimidate witnesses.
21:28Somebody disappeared.
21:30It was reasonable doubt.
21:31You know, this kind of thing.
21:33One such case is a conspiracy indictment, including racketeering and murder,
21:37pulled together with flimsy evidence and testimony from known mob associates like Sal Polizzi.
21:42What was it like to testify against Gotti?
21:44Oh, my gosh.
21:45I was a junkie for excitement.
21:47It was another rush.
21:49He was sitting 20 feet away from me.
21:52He took his hand, he put it under the table, made it like a gun.
21:55He said, I'm going to get you.
21:57And I waved at him, and I said, yeah, okay, right.
21:59And after about two days, then I start to get cross-examined by all these attorneys, like Bruce Cutler.
22:07Sal Polizzi was a low-life, miscreant criminal.
22:13And he was a pugnacious type of a guy.
22:15This is not the KGB.
22:17This is America.
22:19He was real physical, energetic, loud.
22:23He was an actor.
22:24When you build cases on rotten scoundrels, you expose these low-life witnesses for who they are.
22:32And, of course, he tore me up for days, and he said, how do you describe yourself, Mr. Polizzi?
22:38I says, I lived an un-American life, but I've decided to completely change my life.
22:43And he looked at me and said, that's never going to happen.
22:46Once a criminal, always a criminal.
22:48You are the people, and it's going to be now your turn to see through the poison and come back with the right decision.
22:55Something you can live with.
22:56When you put mobsters and con artists and crooks and thieves on the stand, you know, it doesn't take a genius to discredit.
23:04You find him not guilty.
23:08After the verdicts, John Gotti drove to his Mulberry Street headquarters, the Ravenite Social Club.
23:13He was greeted with cheers and hugs.
23:15Everybody loved him.
23:16And, you know, all the people in New York loved him.
23:18They figured he was an underdog.
23:19He was this great gregarious gangster.
23:21Teflon Don.
23:23When Gotti isn't beating cases, he's holding court very publicly at his social club, the Ravenite.
23:30The Ravenite, when I used to go, was chock full of activity.
23:35All the main guys would walk up and down the street there and sort of hold court.
23:39It was a serious place for serious-minded men, and John loved it.
23:48But the feds aren't just watching.
23:50They're listening as well.
23:52They plant a bug inside the Ravenite Club where Gotti does all his wheeling and dealing.
23:56But there's a hitch.
23:57It was much too noisy, too many people, a jukebox playing, and it was really a bad environment.
24:04We just couldn't pick up these conversations.
24:06So based on that, we had to shut down our electronic surveillance in late 1988.
24:12As you look back over the surveillance records, something jumped out at us, and that was that
24:17on a certain night, in light clockwork, over the course of a couple of months, a little
24:24old Italian lady would come out the side door next to the Ravenite Social Club, and she'd
24:30come back two hours later at pretty much the same time.
24:34So we said, you know, what is this?
24:37We learned from a high-level informant that there's an apartment up there, number 10, occupied
24:41by a widow, and they'd go up there and use their apartment for high-level meetings.
24:46It's the break they've been waiting for.
24:49The case agents got a new court order, and we made another entry and went upstairs and
24:55found this beautiful little apartment with a living room where they would have had to
24:58sit because there was no other place to sit in there.
25:01We knew that this was going to be a quiet environment.
25:04There was no radio in there.
25:06There was a television, but, you know, I think they felt extremely safe in there.
25:11It wasn't long after that that I got this call from Kostler and then Bruce Maub, jumping
25:17up and down in excitement because it was a goldmine.
25:22The first night that they got them, Gaudi talked about pretty much everything that he
25:26was doing.
25:27He kind of reviewed all the different criminal activity going on in the family and who was
25:32good and who was bad and who needed to be killed and what he thought of his lawyer and
25:36a whole host of things.
25:37It was just some of the best we ever had.
25:48It's a treasure trove of information in the FBI's effort to take down Gaudi.
25:57For the first time, the Dapper Don may be in real trouble.
26:04It's 1990.
26:06The key mob bosses are in prison and chaos erupts among the five families.
26:10Gambino boss John Gotti ends one feud with the Genovese and Lucchese families.
26:14But now the Columbos are about to go to war with each other.
26:17With Columbo boss Carmine the Snake Persico calling the shots from behind bars.
26:23After being given a sentence of 139 years, Carmine Persico was virtually in jail for life.
26:29He knew that.
26:30Persico's first choice to run the Columbo family would be his son, Little Alley Boy Persico.
26:35But like his father, Little Alley Boy's in prison too.
26:38So Persico appoints another family member.
26:41Vicarina was Junior Persico's cousin.
26:43And that's why Junior gave him the reins of the family, because I guess he trusted him.
26:45But the head of the Gambino family, John Gotti, doesn't like the move and stirs up trouble.
26:50John Gotti wanted another puppet, so he pumped Vicarina up to tell Junior that he was no longer the boss of the family.
26:58Arena inducted a lot of men, and they owed their loyalty to him.
27:03And Arena said, it's good being the king.
27:05I don't want Little Alley Boy to be the boss.
27:07I want to be the boss.
27:09So he asked the consigliere, who was Carmine Sesse, he said,
27:12I want you to go poll all the captains and find out what they think.
27:16And Sesse was smart enough not to do that, because he knew if he'd done that, Persico would have probably had him whacked.
27:21So he got word back to Carmine Persico that Arena wants a vote taken from the capos that who's going to be the boss.
27:27And immediately Persico said, whack the guy, kill Arena.
27:30In June of 1991, four members of a Persico hit team went out to Arena's house to try to get an idea of what his movements were so they could find an opportune time to kill him.
27:43And unfortunately for them, Arena spotted him.
27:47Vicarina had caught Carmine Sesse and a couple other guys laying on his house.
27:51Nothing happens.
27:52As they come back and report that they think they've been spotted, Arena tells his people, Persico people are trying to kill me.
28:00Now in June 1991, the stage is set for a bloodbath.
28:05The Columbo Wars started between two internal factions, the Persicos and the Arena faction.
28:11Vicarina targets one of the most dangerous men in the Columbo family for murder, Carmine Persico's chief enforcer, Greg Scarpa, known on the street as the Grim Reaper.
28:21Greg Scarpa Sr. Grim Reaper. Nobody called him after his face. You know what I mean? He was called Greg.
28:26But behind his back, he was a Grim Reaper. That was his nickname because he was so vicious.
28:31He was probably one of the most violent members of organized crime in the history of New York.
28:36He took a particular delight in killing people.
28:38If he could kill somebody, he'd be happy. If he could dig up a body and kill him all over again, yeah, that's tough for him.
28:43He was a scary character, Greg Scarpa. He was a scary character. That guy killed everything.
28:49Scarp is a part-time FBI informant, but he's still a gangster and about to be caught in the middle of a Columbo Civil War.
28:58November 18, 1991, Greg Scarpa is going out of his house to get into his car to go somewhere.
29:04His daughter, Linda, and his granddaughter get into another car, and they're going up their street.
29:11At the end of the street, there's a van blocking the cars.
29:15He drives around the van, and guys jump out.
29:18And they miss him, and they fire at the car carrying Linda.
29:22They bullet-riddled that whole car.
29:24They knew by that time they'd miss Scarpa, and they took off.
29:28Now, you attack an organized crime member, I don't know how anybody would not expect them to retaliate,
29:33especially when their family was involved.
29:35But the feds don't want to lose their inside man in a law enforcement gold mine.
29:39And I told him, I said, Greg, we've known each other for a long time.
29:44I know what you're going to do.
29:45And I said, I've got to tell you that if you retaliate, my guys are going to be out there, the police are going to be out there.
29:50If you get arrested, you know, that's the end of the game.
29:54You're arrested.
29:54Nothing I can do about it, nor will I.
29:56He said, it is what it is.
29:57You do what you've got to do, I do what I've got to do.
29:59So three weeks later, Greg, the Grim Reaper, Scarpa, looks for revenge against members of his own family.
30:11Scarpa is out with two or three members of his guys,
30:15and they're driving around Brooklyn looking for targets of opportunity.
30:19It just happens to be in December.
30:23They drive past Vinny Fusero's house, and he's outside hanging Christmas lights.
30:29Scarpa shoots Fusero, and the other guys open up on him.
30:38Fusero's instantly killed in front of his house, hanging the Christmas tree lights.
30:42The next day after Fusero gets killed, Black Sam Nastassi is in his social club.
30:48The arena guys jump in there and kill him in the club.
30:51It was a retaliatory move for the killing of Fusero the day before.
30:54They're shooting at each other, maybe on a weekly basis.
30:59With the old guard gone, low-level gangsters are now battling for power,
31:06killing each other in a war over who will lead a new mafia.
31:10Civil war within the Colombo family turns the streets of Brooklyn into a slaughterhouse.
31:15The other families have never been through wars like the Colombos.
31:18I know quite a few people that got killed.
31:20The Colombos are known as the most violent.
31:22It was a very treacherous time in New York City where they had to be on the defensive and on the offensive.
31:29And at the same time, law enforcement was trying to prevent the killing and bring them to justice.
31:33There's no question there's a lot of tension out there.
31:36There's a lot of FBI agents, a lot of NYPD out looking around.
31:39None of the other families were happy about it because it was bad for their business.
31:42We'd be driving in the neighborhood and have nothing to do with the Colombo war
31:46and they would pull me and other guys out of my car and strip search us in the middle of the street.
31:51They would tear the cars apart looking for guns.
31:54If I had to go rob a bank and I had to have guns in the car so we could go rob a bank
31:57or go steal a car so we could go rob a bank,
31:59we couldn't do that because there was too many cops in the neighborhood.
32:01In the Colombo wars, Greg Scarpa is playing on two teams,
32:07as a Colombo footman and an FBI informant.
32:10In the meantime, Greg Scarpa is telling me what's going on.
32:15Not that he's killing people, he's not going to tell me that.
32:18But he's telling me other hit teams on the other side who were out there looking for people.
32:23And as a result of his information plus surveillances, we stopped a number of shootings.
32:29We found several locations where they had guns stored, where hit teams hung out,
32:35where they had lists of people they wanted to kill.
32:38In other instances, we were accelerating cases that we had been building methodically
32:42to take them down prematurely just to take these people off the street and bring them to justice.
32:48The feds close in on the two warring Colombo factions.
32:51There were about 60 plus members of the Arena faction arrested,
32:5560 plus members of the Persco faction arrested.
32:57Victor J. Arena was arrested, as was his underboss, Matt Amato,
33:02and they were convicted and each received life sentences.
33:05Virtually the upper echelons of all of the families have been taken out in New York City.
33:10Entire crews and families have been taken out.
33:12It's a very bad time for the mob.
33:15Eventually arrested as well is Greg the Grim Reaper Scarpa.
33:19In 1993, he receives a life sentence for committing multiple murders.
33:22He dies in prison a year later.
33:26Carmine Persico still maintains the position as boss,
33:30and he will be until he dies the boss of the family.
33:34For a year and a half or more, closer to two years,
33:36the war went on with a total of 12 members and associates killed
33:42and 18 members of associates and some innocent bystanders wounded.
33:46The Colombo War was one of the most bloody,
33:51if not the most bloody, internal wars in La Cosa Nostra in the United States in the 20th century.
33:58It always comes back to control.
34:00You know, these internecine events like the Colombo Wars
34:05was really all about an individual attempting to wrestle control.
34:10The end result is that there really is no winner.
34:14The Colombo Civil Wars bring that family down from within,
34:18but law enforcement's got another of the five families in its crosshairs,
34:22the Lucchese's and their underboss, Gas Pipe Casso.
34:25Gas Pipe Casso has tipped off
34:27and a major indictment is coming down against him.
34:30And he's tipped off either by his undercover mafia cops
34:34or he'll later claim he was also tipped off by somebody in the FBI.
34:37And for almost two years, he's on the lam.
34:40But in the winter of 1993,
34:43FBI agents finally catch up with Casso at his girlfriend's home
34:46just across the bridge in Mount Olive, New Jersey.
34:49They arrest him on charges of murder and attempted murder.
34:53Casso was arrested in 1993
34:55and agrees to cooperate with the government sometime in 1994.
34:59Now that he's starting to talk, he spills everything,
35:03including an unbelievable story about two New York City police detectives.
35:06I had law enforcement on my payroll, so I had them looking after me.
35:11Cops?
35:12Yeah.
35:13The cops.
35:14What were their names?
35:17Lou Appalito and Steve.
35:19Steve, I can't, he's got a long last name.
35:22Capas, Capas.
35:22Kara Capo?
35:23Yeah, Kara Capo, whatever it is.
35:25I can't say it all the time, you know?
35:27But Casso's past deeds are so horrific,
35:30the feds are having second thoughts about cutting him a deal.
35:32It's my belief that the prevailing sentiment amongst federal prosecutors
35:37was that 36 or 37 murders was too much
35:40and that maybe they had gone too far.
35:43Casso's deal to cooperate with the government unravels,
35:46leaving NYPD detectives Eppolito and Kara Capo untouched.
35:50The mafia cops seem literally to get away with murder.
35:54Eppolito and Kara Capo end up retiring from the police department.
35:58Louis Eppolito moves to Las Vegas.
36:02He writes a book called Mafia Cop
36:04in which he sort of talks about his history
36:07being a New York City police officer
36:09but having family members in the mafia.
36:12He goes on television
36:14and Jimmy Heidel's mother
36:17just happens to be watching.
36:20She sees him and thinks
36:22She recognizes this man.
36:25This is the man
36:26who came looking for her son
36:30years and years ago
36:32the day he disappeared.
36:35She immediately went out
36:36and bought a copy of a Mafia cop
36:38and in it saw photographs
36:40of both Eppolito and Kara Capo
36:42and then was absolutely certain
36:44that these were the two people
36:45who were outside her house
36:46the day that her son Jimmy disappeared.
36:48The Mafia cops may have retired as hitmen
36:51but they're not home free.
36:55When the mother of a former mob associate
36:57recognizes her son's killer
36:59a former NYPD detective
37:01and Lucchese family enforcer
37:03plugging his book on television
37:05she takes action
37:06that triggers another hard look at him
37:08and his partner.
37:10She ends up contacting
37:11the New York City police department
37:12and that restarts
37:15the investigation into
37:17Louis Eppolito and Steven Kara Capo
37:19and ultimately leads to their indictment.
37:22I was a very highly decorated cop.
37:23I worked very hard my whole life
37:25and I just want the people to know
37:27that I'm not the person
37:28that they're portraying me.
37:30I wouldn't do that.
37:31Put my life in jeopardy
37:32disgrace the badge
37:34take everything that I'd work for
37:36my whole life
37:38and throw it away
37:39and kill somebody in the street
37:41like a cowboy.
37:42It's not my style
37:44it's not me.
37:47The verdict came back guilty
37:48on all counts.
37:50Louis Eppolito
37:51and Steven Kara Capo
37:53directly participated in
37:55and aided and abetted
37:5711 murders
37:59and attempted murders.
38:01Judge Weinstein gave them
38:02each a sentence
38:03of life imprisonment
38:05and I believe
38:06that was the just sentence
38:07for the crimes they had committed.
38:09The mafia cops
38:11are the last act
38:12in the Lucchese family saga
38:13but over in the Gambino Empire
38:15thanks to secretly placed bugs
38:17the FBI is on the verge
38:19of taking down
38:20their biggest mobster yet
38:21John Gotti.
38:22On December 12, 89
38:24we had what we call
38:25our smoking gun.
38:27Gotti was at a meeting
38:28earlier that day
38:29where some of the guys
38:30who were with him
38:31were complaining
38:31that they lost
38:32a big construction job
38:33to Sammy the Bulls Company
38:35so John was steaming
38:37and when he's steaming
38:38he doesn't care
38:39what he says
38:39too often
38:40these guys
38:41they're not smart enough
38:42to realize
38:43they shouldn't be talking
38:44they shouldn't be saying stuff
38:45they think they're
38:46in a secure area
38:47and they're not
38:48the old time guys
38:50wouldn't even talk
38:50on the phone
38:51so John goes
38:52a long tirade
38:53why they
38:54have to kill
38:55Louis De Bono
38:56why they killed
38:57Robert Di Bernardo
38:58why they killed
38:59Louis Melito
39:00he blamed Sammy the Bull
39:01Gravano
39:02for all three
39:02and just that one tape
39:04alone we knew
39:04we had John
39:05on the night
39:07of December 11th
39:081990
39:08we arrested
39:09all these guys
39:09John Gotti
39:10Frank Focasio
39:11Sammy the Bull
39:12Gravano
39:12and Tommy Gambino
39:14at the Ravenite
39:15Social Club
39:15I was part of
39:16the task force
39:17that took him down
39:18and we take him
39:20down in the street
39:20and we throw him
39:21up against
39:22the play class window
39:23and I put my hand
39:24around to toss him
39:25and he's got a
39:27what I thought
39:28was a gun
39:29I said
39:29are you packing
39:30and it turns out
39:32it was a big
39:32belt buckle
39:33that I thought
39:34was a gun
39:35so I put him
39:36in the car
39:37and he's going
39:39into the car
39:40he turns to me
39:40he goes
39:40I give you
39:41three to one
39:42I beat this
39:43after we made
39:44the arrest
39:45we had what
39:46they called
39:46a detention hearing
39:47to prove
39:47these guys
39:47are a danger
39:48of the community
39:49and so we played
39:50that 12-12-89 tape
39:52it was one
39:52of the first ones
39:53the beauty
39:54of tapes
39:55is you can use
39:56them not only
39:56to make cases
39:57but to turn guys
39:58or you can go
39:59to a guy
39:59and say
40:00listen to what
40:01your boss
40:01is saying
40:01about you
40:02and I'm watching
40:03Gotti sitting
40:04next to Gravano
40:05and Locascio
40:05at the defense table
40:06of course
40:08Gravano's never
40:08heard this before
40:09and we start
40:10playing the tape
40:11and you hear
40:12Gotti calling Sammy
40:13a green-eyed
40:14little monster
40:14and Gotti
40:16begins
40:17musing over
40:19the fact
40:19that he doesn't
40:20trust Gravano
40:22maybe you should
40:23take him out
40:24Sammy's ready
40:26to explode
40:26John's with
40:27to dive
40:27under the table
40:28he's so embarrassed
40:29he's in Sammy's
40:30he's just planted
40:30the seed for that guy
40:31and that was
40:32the impetus later
40:32for him to cooperate
40:33and become a witness
40:34for us
40:35when I flipped
40:36in 84
40:36they treated us
40:37like we were
40:38movie stars
40:38the FBI
40:39guys didn't flip
40:41that was like
40:41oh my gosh
40:42you got a guy
40:43to come over
40:43that was like
40:44rare back then
40:45but around 85
40:4786
40:4787
40:48guys were flipping
40:49every other day
40:49among them
40:51Phil Leonetti
40:52a leading figure
40:53in the Philadelphia
40:53mob
40:54and the first
40:54underboss
40:55in the history
40:55of organized crime
40:56to cooperate
40:57with the United States
40:58government
40:58he's the first
41:00of many dominoes
41:01to fall
41:01I cooperated
41:03I ratted on everybody
41:04that's something
41:05that I grew up
41:07not believing in
41:08and something
41:08that I wasn't
41:09supposed to do
41:10but it was a decision
41:11I wanted to make
41:11Leonetti was really
41:13at that point
41:14the highest ranking
41:15mob member
41:17ever to turn
41:18to become
41:18a government witness
41:19a lot of people
41:21say Gravano
41:21saw what happened
41:22to Leonetti
41:22the kind of deal
41:23he got
41:24and he decided
41:25that's the route
41:26he was going
41:26to take as well
41:27in fact Leonetti
41:28at one point
41:28was going to be
41:29a witness against
41:29Scottie
41:30but once Gravano
41:31flipped
41:31they didn't need him
41:32as part of my
41:34cooperation
41:34I told the government
41:36about my life
41:36of crimes
41:37including the fact
41:38that I participated
41:39in 19 murders
41:40as a member
41:42of our family's
41:43administration
41:44I helped
41:45John Gotti
41:45run the family
41:46the case went
41:47to a jury
41:48on April 1
41:48and April 2nd
41:49they came back
41:50and they were
41:50convicted
41:50in all but one count
41:51and that was
41:53a magnificent day
41:54for law enforcement
41:55after four tries
41:57the mighty mob boss
41:58has been found
41:58guilty by a Brooklyn jury
42:00he now faces
42:01life in prison
42:02the Teflon is gone
42:03the Don is covered
42:05with Velcro
42:06and every charge
42:07in the indictment
42:08stuck
42:08he represented
42:10a rebel figure
42:12for people
42:14it was a hoodlum
42:14hoodlum
42:15but he chose
42:16that life
42:17or the life
42:17as he said
42:18chose him
42:19and he seemed
42:21to be enjoying
42:22the show
42:23the conviction
42:25of John Gotti
42:25was very significant
42:26because it disrupted
42:27the Gambino crime family
42:29but even more important
42:30than the conviction
42:31of Gotti
42:32the investigation
42:33of Gotti
42:33really led
42:34to the demise
42:35of the Gambino crime family
42:37it enabled the FBI
42:38to gather evidence
42:39against the whole
42:40leadership of the family
42:41all the powerful people
42:42in the family
42:43and indeed other families
42:44cooperating witness
42:45Sammy the Bull Gravano
42:47was the linchpin
42:47of the case
42:48his testimony
42:49not only helps
42:50bring down
42:50Gotti of the Gambinos
42:51but later
42:52Genovese family boss
42:53Vincent the Chin Gigante
42:55in 1997
42:56Gravano identified him
42:58as the head
42:59of the Genovese crime family
43:00he testified
43:01Gigante wore
43:02the familiar pajamas
43:03and a bathrobe
43:04at their first mob meeting
43:05but there was nothing
43:07unusual
43:07about his behavior
43:08for the first time
43:10in its 60 year history
43:11the American mob
43:12is on the ropes
43:13as high-ranking gangsters
43:15cooperate with the government
43:16and wise guys
43:17kill each other
43:18in the streets
43:18but in the 1990s
43:22one boss
43:22will bring back
43:23the glory days
43:24of the mafia
43:24a legendary killer
43:26and hijacker
43:26named Joe Massino
43:28who will restore
43:29the code of silence
43:30and make millions
43:31on Wall Street
43:32he is like
43:33the last Don
43:34all the other bosses
43:35have been convicted
43:36while a new generation
43:38of street gangs emerges
43:39these kids
43:40really did start as kids
43:41but they become killers
43:43who turn the streets
43:44of Brooklyn red
43:45with blood
43:46I never left my house
43:47without a pistol
43:48you know
43:48we were ready
43:49to go to war
43:49when I think back
43:53how much craziness
43:55was going on up there
43:56it was like
43:56a shooting gallery
43:57up there
43:58pop pop
43:58pop pop pop pop
43:59boom
44:00pop pop pop
44:02pop pop
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