Gambino? What's a Gambino? Thomas Zambito Originally published on April 21, 2006
Arnold (Zeke) Squitieri didn't get past seventh grade, but the acting boss of the Gambino crime family knows enough not to admit the existence of the Mafia. Squitieri waved off Federal Magistrate Michael Dolinger yesterday when the judge asked whether he was pleading guilty to being part of a criminal enterprise known as the Gambino crime family.
Attorney Gerald Shargel jumped to his feet saying, "Mr. Squitieri makes no concession to the name of the enterprise."
Dolinger read the charges again, this time editing out the Gambino name. But the 70-year-old mobster wanted to be sure he had it right. "With the Gambino name out of it?" he asked.
Squitieri then pleaded guilty to racketeering charges that include shaking down construction companies in New Jersey, Westchester and Long Island.
Afterward, he turned to his wife, Marie, sitting in the front row of the courtroom with the couple's two daughters and son, and said, "I did it for you. I pleaded guilty because of you."
A third daughter, Ginger, a practicing attorney, sat at her father's side and assisted Shargel in the case.
Her dad is among a dwindling number of mafiosi reluctant to break the old mob code that denies the existence of the secret society.
Under a plea deal, Squitieri faces up to nine years in prison when sentenced July 28.
Squitieri took over the top post in the Gambino hierarchy after Peter Gotti's 2002 racketeering arrest. He had been named underboss by Dapper Don John Gotti himself.
