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Gravano to Take Stand at New York Mob Trial
'Sammy the Bull' Will Be Reputed Hit Man's Defense Witness
By TOM HAYS, AP

NEW YORK (Sept. 27) - For years, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano was the government's star cooperator against the likes of late mob boss John Gotti.

Now, in perhaps the strangest twist in a tortured relationship with prosecutors, Gravano has reinvented himself as a defense witness for a reputed hit man.


'Sammy the Bull'



AP file
Gravano admitted to 19 murders as a mob hit man, but served only five years in prison on racketeering charges.

Lawyers for the defendant, Thomas "Huck" Carbonaro, say Gravano has agreed to help their client fight charges he plotted to silence a boastful mob turncoat in 1999 with a land mine.

The alleged target: Gravano himself.

The defense says Gravano will testify that Carbonaro was a loyal friend who was indebted to him. After all, they claim, Gravano persuaded prosecutors not to bring murder charges against Carbonaro and other Gambino crime family members more than a decade ago.

"That's precisely why Carbonaro would never hurt Gravano," attorney John Jacobs told a judge at a pretrial hearing last week.


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Gravano, then a Gambino underboss, claims that as he was helping prosecutors bring down Gotti in 1991, he cut an informal deal with prosecutor John Gleeson in which the government agreed not to prosecute Carbonaro and others.

Gleeson, now a federal judge, has not commented on the claim, although prosecutors say such a deal was never made. Still, Jacobs argued, prosecutors "had direct evidence that Carbonaro and his crew participated in six murders. They chose not to prosecute and honor Gravano's request."

Gravano's motive for agreeing to testify in Carbonaro's case remains unclear, but it could be payback.

Last year, prosecutors successfully sought the toughest punishment possible - 20 years in prison - for Gravano's conviction in a multimillion dollar Ecstasy ring in Arizona. They argued that the former cooperator betrayed the government by dropping out of the witness protection program and returning to a life of crime.

Gravano, 57, had admitted to 19 murders as a mob hit man, but served only five years in prison on racketeering charges under a deal with prosecutors to testify against mobsters including Gotti, who died in prison last year.

Gravano had lived openly in Arizona after he dropped out of the witness protection program, and even taunted the mob in a series of 1999 interviews.

"They send a hit team down, I'll kill them," Gravano said. "They better not miss, because even if they get me, there will be a lot of body bags going back to New York."

Prosecutors allege the Gambino family offered Carbonaro and others cash and promotions to kill him.

The men allegedly hatched a plot to blow up Gravano with a land mine, or shoot him with a hunting rifle. Authorities say Carbonaro dropped 50 pounds and grew a beard so he could stalk Gravano without being recognized.

Gravano was arrested before the hit was carried out, authorities say. He is now serving his drug-trafficking sentence at "Supermax" in Florence, Colo., the federal government's most secure prison.

Carbonaro has pleaded innocent to murder conspiracy and racketeering charges. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.


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