Word: underbosses
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...gravelly voice, Salvatore Gravano lives up to his nickname, "Sammy the Bull." But as he said on the witness stand last week, his enemies are more likely to start calling him by a new moniker, "Sammy the Rat." In five days of often chilling testimony, the former Gambino family underboss calmly described the secret inner workings and rituals of La Cosa Nostra and provided gory details of the 19 killings he admitted taking part in. Most of all, he tried to hammer nails into the legal coffin of John Gotti, the head of the Gambino crime family...
Even so, Mob leaders will have to contend with an increasingly disloyal work force. Gravano, 46, had been scheduled to go on trial in January, along with Gotti, on 11 counts of murder and racketeering. Instead the brash and big- necked underboss is expected to provide a wealth of secrets about the Gambino family's businesses. Gravano was the Dapper Don's "ambassador" to New York City's $10 billion-a-year construction industry and was in a position to know about the group's ties to food distribution, the garment trade and waste hauling. "Never in a million years...
Caramandi can take some of the credit for Gravano's turning canary. Caramandi's defection in 1987 helped lead in turn to the flipping of Philadelphia underboss Philip (Crazy Phil) Leonetti, who was scheduled to testify in the January trial against Gotti and Gravano. According to a five- page debriefing obtained by TIME, Leonetti told federal agents in late 1989 about the 1981 Valentine's Day murder of gangster Frank Stillitano, whose body had been found in the trunk of a rental car. Leonetti said members of the Philadelphia crime family had met with Gravano and other Gambino mobsters...
...Lucchese family (members: 125) suffered three leadership changes this year alone. One boss was jailed, while another, Alphonse D'Arco, fearing an internal assassination, has been singing to the feds. An underboss is on the lam, and a 450-lb. caporegime who survived 12 bullet wounds in a rubout attempt last summer has become a government witness. Like the Colombos, the family is now split into two factions. Before Gravano's defection last week, the Gambinos were rumored to be considering a takeover of the floundering Luccheses, whose talents include garbage hauling and stolen-car rings...
...member Genovese family remains the richest, most powerful and least damaged crime group. Experts believe Vincent (Chin) Gigante is still the boss, even though last March a court found him mentally unfit to stand trial. Gigante suffered a blow in October when his talented underboss, Venero (Benny Eggs) Mangano, was convicted of extortion in the window-replacement industry. And federal racket busters have weakened the family's hold on such labor unions as the Teamsters and Longshoremen. But the Genovese gang remains a sturdy symbol of the Mafia's grip on society. As investigator Coffey puts it, "The Mob will...