‘Sammy the Bull’ Gravano Has a Few Goddamn Thoughts About The Irishman


Inevitably, when a movie is based on actual events in living memory, viewers start to ask questions about the veracity of what they just watched. That’s particularly true of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, which deals with the mystery behind vanished Teamsters chief Jimmy Hoffa, because generally accepted mob history seems to have been rewritten to place obscure gangsters at the center of the action.

Unable to just say “Fuhgeddaboudit,” I decided to call Salvatore Gravano, a.k.a. Sammy the Bull, and ask him about the real-life hits at the heart of The Irishman, which was just nominated for Best Picture and Director Oscars. The 74-year-old former Gambino family underboss, who is preparing to launch a podcast, is widely regarded as the most important witness in law enforcement’s battle with the Mafia. The ex-wiseguy, who admits to involvement in 19 murders — including the infamous 1985 Paul Castellano hit outside Sparks Steak House that brought John Gotti to power — was arrested on December 11, 1990, and soon cut a deal with prosecutors.

I reached him at an undisclosed location, and here’s his personal movie review, slightly condensed and edited. If you haven’t seen The Irishman yet, take note: Spoilers are everywhere.

What were your impressions of The Irishman?

It was not as well done as I thought would be, with everybody who was in it. They could’ve did a much better job. You know, they’re all big actors when it comes to Mafia movies, stuff like that. So I really actually thought it would be a lot better.

It was very long. That’s number one. Number two, a lot of the stuff in the actual movie was wrong. The Irishman did not do the shooting. He’s not the guy who killed Jimmy Hoffa. From what I understood it was given to Tony Provenzano, who was a very powerful captain of the Genovese family, and his man, his guy Sally-something-or-other, whatever the fuck his name was — I can’t think of it.

“Sally Bugs” Briguglio?

Yes, Sally Bugs. From what I understood, he was the guy who actually killed Hoffa. So the story was wrong. It was all done wrong! Matter of fact, Joe Pesci, the guy he played?

Russell Bufalino.

Yeah. They exaggerated Russell Bufalino’s part in this thing. There’s times in the movie when they are talking about getting back to “the real boss,” like it’s Bufalino. Angelo Bruno was the boss of the Philadelphia mob, not Russell Bufalino. So they got this whole fucking thing twisted and turned around. I don’t know who told them what. Now, Russell Bufalino did head a faction — I’m not sure if he was a boss or he was a major captain. But I don’t even know if he had any part in the damn thing. So they got the whole thing fucked up.

Frank Sheeran, the real-life Irishman, talked to Charles Brandt, who wrote the book the movie was based on. Sheeran died a year before the book came out. But taking credit for the Hoffa hit and the famous Joe Gallo hit makes for a good story. Do you think that might have been the driver here — selling books?

I didn’t really think about where it came from and how it came about, but it was wrong — the Gallo hit really had nothing to do with this whole movie. They got the Irishman killing Gallo, which is insane. He had no part in that whatsoever. I believe it was Carmine Persico and a few other people who killed him … I don’t know how [the filmmakers] did what they did.
I guess they took it from that book with all this bullshit in it, and they ran with that. So now I guess they got to live with it.

In Underboss, the book you collaborated on with Peter Maas, you say that the Gallo hit was sanctioned by mob boss Joe Colombo because Gallo refused to meet with him.

That’s who put it out. It was a Colombo thing. There was a war. And the second part of that war, when Crazy Joe Gallo came out of prison, I was with the Colombo family. I was with the Carmine Persico faction and then was transferred out to the Gambino family. [After Joe Colombo was killed in 1971,] Persico took over and I believe he had four guys finish the job. The restaurant where Crazy Joe got shot, Umberto’s Clam House, was [Genovese family member Matthew Ianniello] Matty the Horse’s restaurant. He was part of that hit. He okayed it. A Colombo member saw Gallo come in, and it was a spur-of-the-moment thing. I think they sent a message to Matty right away. He gave a nod. “He’s in my restaurant? Go ahead, take him out.” They went in the fucking restaurant and shot him.

What did you think of the way they treated the Hoffa hit?

I mean, this wasn’t a complicated hit. They exaggerated his part. He was running the union. When he went to prison, they liked him. He was their boy. From what I understood, when Hoffa came out, they told him, “First of all, legally, you can’t run the union. Secondly, you could be a middle man between us and [the union head] because you still have a lot of knowledge about the union. Whatever comes down from the unions, you will get a nice piece of it. Then you will hand over the other piece where it belongs. To us. We run the union. We own the union.” He wouldn’t accept it. They had a few conversations with him, and then the decision was: Fuck him, take him out.

Would that have been Angelo Bruno? Who would sanction that?

It might’ve been a couple of bosses that had something to do with that union. It might been Angelo Bruno. Obviously, it must have had something to do with the Genovese family.

Were you a fan of Goodfellas?

Yeah, I was a fan of Goodfellas, and I knew some of the people that were involved in that whole thing. And that was fairly accurate. You know when they went through the basement to get into the Copacabana? That’s the way I used to get in. Me and my friends, we’d go right down there — boom, right in, sitting at somebody’s table. That’s the way we lived. It had a lot of truth, though I’m sure there was some Hollywood involved.

Did the details of the Hoffa hit seem right to you?

What they done with the body, I really don’t know. I don’t think anybody really knows for sure unless you were involved in it. This is not something that they normally talk about! In the movie, they burned him. I don’t buy the story they took them back to New Jersey. Why would they tell a hit guy, “Go kill him in Detroit, and then drive back with him in the trunk of a car a thousand miles”? I can’t even imagine somebody telling me something like that. I would tell him, “I’ll kill him — you drive him back. If we get stopped for a fucking bad light or a speeding ticket or something, we got a dead body!” That don’t make sense at all.

Did it make sense to you that Sheeran left the gun on Hoffa’s body?

No, no. Fuck you — I’ll take care of the gun myself. That’s my gun. My prints on it. I ain’t leaving it to nobody. I don’t give a fuck who said that. Put the gun on top of the guy’s body? Why the fuck would you do that?

I guess because it’s a movie and it’s dramatic?

That’s gotta be it. But I mean, it’s ridiculous. I would never do that. And you can quote me, I would never do that.


https://www.vulture.com/2020/01/sammy-the-bull-gravano-has-thoughts-about-the-irishman.html

good read

sammy could have a great podcast if just talks about everyone . i want his take on galantes killing in brooklyn 1979. id listed to it for alittle while

. yeah there are certain subjects I want him to talk about

His induction ceremony- He has has always said it was 1976 and that he was the second batch of new made guys from that year so it must have been in Nov/Dec 1976. Also who else besides Charlie Aurelio was made with him

Johnny Keys Simone- he goes into great detail in his book but I’d like to hear more. Gravano put Simone over as a real man and old school mobster

John Favara- so many movies have incorrectly made it seem like Sammy had something to do with it which is false. At that time in 1980 Sammy and John barely had any interaction others than at weddings or maybe seeing each other
At the Ravenite sometimes. I wonder if he has an more info about the incident

funny now he knows who shot hoffa,is that in his book or sawyer interview or testimony? small did bit anyone can forget hoffa murder..

john favara was killed by charles carneglia and red bird gomes and some other rhode island guy i think gravano wouldnt have a clue i think john crew didnt even let him know the details just that they did the deed. cause it would point the finger straight at john gotti. i think he probaly mumbled like i want him dead but had no knowledge of the plot

if sammys podcast has john alite as a cohost im out wont even give it a secong but if its sammy say just interviewing other made guys who turned that would be something i know hes in contact with bobby what ever his name a capo from providence he flipped on the strip club shakedown and frank fapp, what if he got sal. vittale or mike scar a dozen colombo guys who flipped it would be a interesting podcast only do a few every few month kinda like crimetown. just a one on one with say michael franzese them 2 reminicing, be interesting but dont give me john alite who i have a feeling is gonna be behind it. then im done nope. that guys the least believeable ratt im think ever. just crazy bullshit lies one of his best is john gotti sent him in 1987 to tell joe n gallo the consig for the last 20yrs hes out. what the fuck bullshit. mind you alite like 25ish around 1987 lol crazy.

I know that. favara was killed by a combination of the Bergin crew and rhode island.

Has anyone ever disputed the existence of the Northeast Pennsylvania family, or that Bufalino was it's boss? Obviously, Gravano knows a million times more about the mob than me, he was in it. But is he saying there was no NE Pennsylvania family?
I put more stock in what he says about the Gallo hit, because Gravano was around the Colombos early in his career. He probably does know a lot about the colombos back then.

You’d be surprised how little some mobsters know about their own organization’s history, let alone other families.

I don’t know about Bufalino other then he was well liked and was very accommodating and easy to work with and I know Allie Boy knew him .
But never herd he was a boss herd he was like a skipper with most of the power and because he was so well liked he skated by a lot .

Canada was a big supplier of many things and very easy to bring in anything from Canada especially back in the day and when you have power and you are liked of a place that not many wiseguys would want to move in on I could see why people say he was a boss .

So I guess the Northeast Pennsylvania people was a crew of Philly not it's own family.

I think Sammy is just pointing out that the movie made Buffalino seem like a much bigger deal than he was, almost like he was more powerful than Bruno. When Bruno ran a much bigger family and probably had a lot more power than Bufalino.

And the movie also seemed to blend the Philly mob and the NE PA/Bufalino mob and didn't really explain that they're two completely separate organizations. The movie really glossed over a lot of things.

There have been sources in the past who thought the Bufalinos were just a crew for the New York families (I know one said the Lucheses, can't remember the specifics of the others), but they were definitely their own family. Just another example of how little some people about other families or even their own. Greg Scarpa didn't know the DeCavalcantes even existed for a while

Here's a video of Gravano testifying about OC involvement in boxing. He talks quite a bit about a dispute over a certain boxer between the Gambino family and Bufalino family. At this time it seems he absolutely recognized the Bufalinos as an independent family.

At 8:50 he starts talking about the dispute and mentions "the Bufalino family" by name. He also says Eddie Sciandra was the consigliere for the Bufalino family.

At 27:50 it shows a surveillance video of Gravano, Jojo Corozzo and Eddie Sciandra.

https://youtu.be/aHhuC-T-xlM

That seems conclusive, but then again even Lefty Two Guns and Anthony Mirra could've had a beef over whether Donnie Brasco was with one or the other, and Mirra and Lefty were in the same family. The Buffalino's could've beefed over who a fighter was with and still be a satellite family of another family. I don't know either way, just stating the what ifs.

My take on what he said about Bufalino family;

- sammy misunderstood the movie. Not at any point did the movie say that Bufalino was boss of philly just that he was close to Bruno. If you remember the arson scene Bruno it was all Bruno’s decision but Bruno said Bufalino helped you etc.

- the movie is 3 hours long and ain’t goodfellas type. Sammy is probably an impatient older man and muddled it up.

- sammy doesn’t dispute they’re a proper family just rambles about Bufalino really and says multiple things either way