I've often wondered about the credibility of Casso's account, to be honest. Testifying against Gigante would have been his best shot at getting the "Sammy deal" he was hoping for, and he went off the rails after he wasn't used at Gigante's trial.

I wonder if the Veterans and Friends bombing was more of a Corallo/Furnari thing, with Chin doing little more than nodding his head.

I remember Casso said it was at someone's house chin meet with ducks and even thou they didn't love Paul he was a boss. Wasn't the bomb guy one of the west sides loaned out to Vic n gas. Good plan. I still don't believe ducks or chin would have let anyone brown or Marino in that family know there's a hit on gotti. It would just great creatcreate mistrust between families. They seen Colombo turn on Joe bonanno and the profaci guy. No need to let another family now.

Yeah, the bomb expert was a Genovese associate. Chin and the Genovese were the driving force to kill Gotti. When Mouw showed up to Gotti's house, he didn't say the Luccheses were the ones out to get him.

here is an interesting article from Capeci on the bombing:

"Apparently, the effort to divert suspicion away from the real killers worked, according to an account of a conversation later that day between Gotti and then-capo Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano, obtained by Gene Mustain and myself. The conversation appears in our book, GOTTI: Rise and Fall.

"The bomb was fuckin' something," said Gotti. "The car was bombed like they put gasoline on it. You gotta see the car. You wouldn't believe the car."

"I saw it John," said Gravano, "I pulled Frankie out."

"I heard, Sammy. I heard it was too late."

"Who the fuck did it?" said Gravano.

"I don't know...Who the fuck knows?" said Gotti.

"Chin?"

"Nah, he wouldn't use fuckin' bombs, he'd want you to know. It's some renegade element."


http://www.ipsn.org/characters/DeCicco%20Bombing.htm

I always heard the bomb was used to make him think it was the Sicilians. But which Sicilians in particular? The Cherry Hill group?

I think a good indication would be, when exactly did Gotti bump John Gambino to capo?
The timing would give a clue as to his level of trust at certain points. After the FBI told him the Genovese were after him, maybe he felt he could relax a bit around the Sicilians and to solidify his position with them made him officially a capo.

It might be too late a time line though, the Manna thing was like, what 88?

Actually, nah none of the times match...