Gotti's Rules

by George Anastasia

  He was told to sit in a straight-backed wooden chair in a sparsely furnished office. Shortly after he took his seat, a tall, thin police agent, a Brazilian who apparently worked with or for Interpol, strode into the room and sat behind a desk. He had a file with him, which he perused, then began asking questions. Alite didn’t respond. The agent smiled, got up, and casually walked around the desk. He leaned over and whispered in Alite’s ear. Alite could smell the tobacco on his breath.

  “Listen carefully, gringo,” he said. “You are not in America. You have no rights here except the ones I choose to give you. We can do this nicely, as gentlemen, or we can do it my way. And if we do it my way I can assure you that you will be a long time recovering from your injuries.”

  Alite smiled to himself despite the situation. He had made the same speech to dozens of guys back in New York, guys he confronted over underworld business, guys who wouldn’t pay or who were selling drugs where they shouldn’t or who, for whatever reason, had been singled out by one of the Gottis for a beating. Alite knew the agent wasn’t making an idle threat. Alite was trying to figure out how to respond when the agent stood up and said, “Just think it over, gringo. I’ll be back.”

  With that, the agent began to walk out of the office.

  Alite held up his handcuffed wrists. The agent smiled.

  “Yes, the jewelry,” he said. “I’m afraid the reports on you indicate that you are a very dangerous man. The cuffs will remain. Think about what I said.”

  Four hours later, the agent returned. By that point Alite was struggling to control his bladder and bowels, sweat was running down his face, neck, and back, and the handcuffs and leg irons were eating into his skin.

  This time Alite responded to the agent’s questions. He first complained that he was having trouble understanding because the agent spoke in a dialect, used slang, and talked quickly.

  “Bullshit,” the agent said. “We have heard you speak on the phone. We know you understand Portuguese.”

  Alite then realized that he had been right. He was being watched. He told the agent he could understand and speak, but asked him to talk slowly and more distinctly.

  The agent smiled.

  “Now we are getting somewhere,” he said.

  The interrogation lasted for another forty minutes. Alite was asked about John Gotti and the American Mafia. He was told that he would be extradited to the United States to face murder charges. And he was asked if, while in Brazil, he had worked with organized crime and had engaged in any criminal activities.

  Alite answered truthfully that while in Brazil he had done nothing wrong. He tried to tap-dance around the other questions, but in fact the agent didn’t really seem to care. He told Alite there would be a press conference in the morning and that he would be wise to answer any questions posed by the media while keeping in mind that he was a “guest” of the Brazilian government. In other words, the agent explained, say whatever you want about New York and John Gotti, but think twice before you say anything that might embarrass me or my office.

  Alite spent that night in a cage somewhere in the basement of the abandoned building. His cuffs and legs irons were removed when he was thrust inside, but that was a small consolation. There was no food. No water. No toilet. A guard was assigned to watch him at all times. The guard paced across the top of the cage. There was nothing else inside, just a concrete floor. Alite’s bowels were bursting. He hollered to the guard, telling him he needed to use the bathroom.

  “Gringo,” came the reply, “you will not be leaving this cell tonight. Do what you have to do. No one cares.”

  Alite took off his shirt, ripped it in half. He used one half as his toilet. Then he used the other half to wipe himself. When he was done, he threw the soiled pieces of his shirt outside the cell. Then he tried to settle in for what would amount to a long night and his first introduction to the Brazilian prison system.

  At first he paced the cage, trying to clear his head. He did some exercises, hoping to relieve the tension and ultimately tire himself out so that he might get some sleep. But the pacing and the sweating attracted what seemed like flocks of mosquitoes, the biggest he had ever seen. Without a shirt, he was an easy target and they attacked continually. When he slowed down and stood still, he was less of an attraction. He tried to curl up on the floor and there he did find some respite from the bugs. But within minutes, rats were scurrying over his legs and feet, nipping at whatever skin was exposed.

  And that’s the way John Alite spent his first night in custody in Brazil. He would spend two more years in circumstances that were similar, if not as extreme. He had decided not to waive extradition. He had already done some research and knew that the laws in Brazil might be in his favor. If he could find a lawyer and if he could find a court that would give him a fair hearing, he believed he had a shot at winning an extradition fight. The alternative was going back to Tampa, one of the toughest federal districts in the country, to face murder and racketeering charges that could result in a life sentence. Another option, and one that he would explore in detail, was escape and flight. If he stayed in Brazil, there was always a chance that he could find a way out—out of the prison and out of the country.

  Alite’s arrest stirred a media sensation. There was a press briefing the next day.

  Beforehand, the arresting agent again warned Alite about what he might say to the media. Then two guards threw a package wrapped in brown paper at him. Inside were some clothes. He was taken to a dank and dirty bathroom where he was allowed to “wash” at the sink. He ran some water through his hair and over his body, trying not to scratch or irritate the dozens of welts from the mosquitoes and rats that covered him.

  The perp walk and the flashing cameras told him that his arrest was big news. He said little during the press conference to incriminate himself, trying to remain as vague as possible. When asked about Gotti, he was evasive.

  “Anyone who has ever lived in New York knows who he is,” he said. “I knew him from the neighborhood.”

  He said he had no idea what the charges were that he was facing back in the United States and denied that he was a member of the Mafia. The only time he was completely honest was when he was asked if the Mafia had sent him to Brazil to set up an organization there.

  “I came to Brazil because I love this country,” he said. “I love its cities, its mountains, its people. I wanted to live here forever and I was very happy. That’s all. No other reason.”

  The headlines in the local papers screamed the story the next day. INTERPOL PRENDE MAFIOSO QUE SE REFUGIAVA EM COPACABANA was the headline on the front page of POVO, a Rio de Janeiro daily. CHEFE MAFIOSO AMERICANO E PRESO NO RIO PELA INTERPOL, read the headline in the Diário de S. Paulo.

  After the press conference, Alite was taken to a police van and driven to Presidio Ary Franco, one of the most notorious prisons in the Brazilian system. During the ride, two of the Interpol agents tried to scare him.

  “Gringo,” they said. “You are going to the worst prison in Brazil, maybe the worst in the whole continent.” Then they laughed. Alite didn’t react. But later another agent said to him quietly, “Gringo, this is no joke. You are going to a terrible place where terrible things happen every day. The worst of the worst. But if you have money to spread around, and I pray to God you do, there are ways to make life bearable. My advice, be very careful. Go slowly. Be stingy with your trust.”

  CHAPTER 18

  When Alite was arrested in Rio, Junior was still in jail. The feds had come with another indictment while Gotti was finishing out his sentence at Ray Brook. The new racketeering charges, handed down in July 2004, focused in large part on the 1992 plot to kidnap and kill Curtis Sliwa. Gotti was denied bail and remained a federal inmate even after he had finished up the seventy-seven-month sentence from his 1998 case.

  The Sliwa allegation added a new twist to the tabloid saga that had become the Gotti story. The bombastic self-promoter who founded the Guardian Angels was the perfect vi
ctim for a criminal organization that sought celebrity over secrecy. And the trials that followed—there were three, each ending with a hung jury—provided even more fodder.

  By this point, of course, Vicky Gotti had turned into an author and a reality TV “star.” Her show, Growing Up Gotti, purported to offer an inside look at what life was really like for the daughter of the famous Mafia don. Her three teenage sons, their hair heavily gelled, their attitudes Long Island arrogant, were costars.

  The show provided all you needed to know about the state of the American Mafia in the new millennium. The “honored society” that had spawned Mario Puzo’s classic Godfather saga had become the stuff of comic books, talk radio rants, and supermarket tabloids, a caricature of itself, an organization that couldn’t even live up to the standards of The Sopranos, the then wildly popular HBO series.

  Junior was trying to maintain a low profile at the time, insisting that he had left the mob behind. But the new indictment could lead to another extended stay in a federal prison. Even if a jury accepted the argument that he had quit in 1999, he could still be liable for events that happened before that date. And the Sliwa assault certainly fit that timetable. So Junior decided to take a different approach.

  In January 2005, as Alite sat rotting in a Brazilian prison, Gotti arranged through his attorneys Jeffrey Lichtman and Marc Fernich to meet with federal authorities to discuss the possibility of cooperating. The proffer session took place on January 18, 2005, at the U.S. Attorney’s Office at 500 Pearl Street in lower Manhattan. Gotti was still in federal custody at the time and was probably brought to the meeting by federal marshals.

  The story of his flirtation with the feds didn’t surface until October 2006, twenty-two months later. That’s when Jerry Capeci, writing his popular “Gang Land” column at the time for the New York Sun, quoted “sources” who provided details about the meeting, including Junior’s version of the Danny Silva murder, the John Cennamo “suicide,” and the payoff to a local police detective to keep Gotti’s name out of the investigation.

  Capeci wrote that the now-retired police detective John Daly did not respond to requests for comment about the allegations. He also noted that back in the early 1990s, Daly had adamantly denied taking a ten-thousand-dollar bribe from Gotti Sr.

  In the column, Capeci also quoted Gotti’s criminal defense attorney Charles Carnesi, who said that Junior had confirmed the meeting had occurred, but said his client never had any intention of cooperating.

  Capeci wrote that Carnesi told him that Gotti “has acknowledged that there was a meeting, but he steadfastly maintains that he did not incriminate anyone in any criminal activity during the meeting, nor did he ever consider cooperating or testifying against anyone. Had it been his desire to make such a deal, his lawyers at the time would have made the deal.”

  Rather than engage in a debate about what was said and what was intended during the debriefing session, what follows is a replication of the five-page FBI 302 memo from the meeting John A. Gotti and his lawyers had with the feds back in January 2005. Alite, who has read it, said it was a typical Gotti attempt to lay blame on others. He said the version of events depicted by Junior, at least the events that Alite has knowledge of, is a blend of fact and fiction. The allegations in the memo are not being presented as fact for the purposes of this story, but merely to show that Gotti met with authorities and, in a very real sense, was willing to throw the names of others—mobsters, cops, businessmen, and elected officials—into his descriptions of the criminal activities of the Gambino crime family. The names of the businessmen and politicians have been X’d out in this version because they have never been charged with a crime and, if asked, would in all probability deny the allegations. Daly’s name remains because he has already been identified in news reports and has denied that he ever took any money from the mob. There are no other changes to the transcription of the memo as it appears here. In fact, the misspelling of the Silver Fox (it was written at the “Sliver” Fox the first two times it was mentioned in the memo) is given as it appears in the document.

  It is also interesting to note that while the interview took place in January 2005, it wasn’t officially transcribed until a year later. By that point the feds or Gotti or perhaps both sides had decided that a cooperating deal based on the proffer wasn’t possible. Alite believes the feds rejected Gotti because they knew he was lying about his own culpability.

  FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

  Date of Transcription: 01/16/2006

  JOHN A. GOTTI, also known as (aka) JUNIOR (GOTTI, JR.) (Protect Identity) was present at the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York (SDNY), 500 Pearl Street, New York, New York on January 18, 2005 for a proffer session. This meeting was arranged at GOTTI, JR.’S request. Also present were GOTTI, JR.’S ATTORNEYS, Jeffrey Lichtman, Esq., and MARC FERNICH, Esq., as well as Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAS) Robert Buehler, Joon Kim and Jennifer Rodgers, SDNY.

  After GOTTI, JR. and his attorneys read the proffer agreement and the terms of that agreement were explained to them by the AUSAS, GOTTI, JR. signed the agreement. GOTTI, JR. thereafter provided the following information.

  The Murder of Danny Silva

  In the early morning hours of either March 11th or 12th, 1983, GOTTI, JR., along with friends MARK CAPUTO and ANTHONY AMOROSO, were present at the SLIVER FOX bar located on 101st Street and Liberty Avenue in Queens, New York. At some point, TOMMY Last Name Unknown (LNU) aka “ELFIE” approached GOTTI, JR., who was seated at the bar with a female friend, DONNA (LNU). According to GOTTI, JR., “ELFIE” repeatedly bumped into him. Words were exchanged, one thing led to another and GOTTI, JR. ultimately hit “ELFIE” with a broken glass bottle. GOTTI, JR. then stabbed “ELFIE” with a knife that GOTTI, JR. had obtained from AMOROSO.

  According to GOTTI, JR., a melee ensued involving approximately 30 to 40 of the bar’s patrons. GOTTI, JR. recalled that among those involved in the melee were: DANNY SILVA, JOHN and GREG MASSA, ANGELO CASTELLI, JOEY CURIO, First Name Unknown (FNU) RILEY and JOHN CENNAMO. GOTTI, JR. stated that DANNY SILVA was stabbed and killed during the melee.

  GOTTI, JR. described a meeting which occurred a short time after the incident at the SLIVER FOX, between ANGELO RUGGIERO, SR., and New York City Police Department (NYPD) Detective, JOHN DALY. GOTTI, JR. drove RUGGIERO to the meeting, which took place at the Sherwood Diner located near the Five Towns, on the Queens-Nassau County border. Before the meeting GOTTI, JR. and RUGGIERO discussed the purpose of the meeting. According to GOTTI, JR., RUGGIERO was carrying a brown paper bag containing $25,000 in cash. GOTTI, JR. observed RUGGIERO sit in the rear of the diner and meet with DALY and an unknown white male. RUGGIERO advised GOTTI, JR. that the $25,000 cash payment was made to DALY to get his (GOTTI, JR.’S) name out of the SILVER FOX murder investigation. While GOTTI, JR., did not directly meet DALY, DALY did acknowledge GOTTI, JR. on his way out of the diner, as GOTTI, JR. sat waiting in the car.

  Following this meeting with RUGGIERO and DALY, GOTTI, JR. was instructed by his father, JOHN J. GOTTI, (GOTTI, SR.) to leave New York for a while until things “cooled down.” GOTTI, JR. left New York for Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he remained for some time. At some time GOTTI, SR. joined him in Florida and the two eventually returned to New York.

  Upon GOTTI, JR.’S return to New York, he learned that JOHN CENNAMO, one of DANNY SILVA’S friends who was present at the SILVER FOX the night SILVA was stabbed and killed, was dead, apparently having hung himself.

  GOTTI, JR. provided the following as background:

  ANGELO RUGGIERO was ‘put on the shelf” by GOTTI, SR. after the murder of JIMMY HYDELL in 1986. HYDELL was tortured and killed by members of the Luchese Organized Crime Family because he (HYDELL) and others had shot and tried to kill ANTHONY ‘GASPIPE’ CASSO. The Luchese Family learned that RUGGIERO was behind the attempt to kill CASSO and demanded that RUGGIERO himself be killed. GOTTI, SR., who was very close to RUGGIERO, did not have RUGGIERO ki
lled. Instead, RUGGIERO was “put on the shelf.”

  Prior to HYDELL’S murder, members of the Luchese Family summoned Gambino Family members JIMMY “BROWN”FAILLA and JOE ‘BUTCH’ CORRAO to the location where HYDELL was being held. According to GOTTI, JR., FAILLA and CORRAO were summoned to that location so that they would be present when HYDELL admitted his and RUGGIERO’S involvement in the attempted murder of CASSO. Prior to the Luchese Family killing HYDELL, FAILLA and CORRAO obtained Gambino Family member DANNY MARINO’S approval to kill HYDELL., because, according to GOTTI, JR., HYDELL was MARINO’S nephew.

  Even though RUGGIERO had been “put on the shelf,” GOTTI, JR., continued to meet with him in violation of mafia protocol. GOTTI’S father, (GOTTI, SR.) reprimanded him on occasion for meeting with RUGGIERO. GOTTI, JR. learned from RUGGIERO that in the weeks and months after SILVA was killed at the SILVER FOX, CENNAMO put continued pressure on the police department to investigate his (SILVA’S) murder. RUGGIERO told GOTTI, JR. that CENNAMO “pressed” his (GOTTI’S) name in the investigation and his (GOTTI, JR.’S) role in the bar fight that led to SILVA’S murder. RUGGIERO told GOTTI, JR. that he (RUGGIERO) and others had obtained NYPD DD5S [official police department reports] of the SILVA murder investigation from DALY. RUGGIERO then advised GOTTI, JR. that CENNAMO’S death, which appeared to be a suicide, was in fact a murder and that he (RUGGIERO), JOE WATTS and WILLIE BOY JOHNSON had killed CENNAMO on GOTTI, SR.’S orders. RUGGIERO told GOTTI, JR. that DETECTIVE JOHN DALY provided background information regarding CENNAMO which the Gambino family used to locate him.