'Son for a son'

Dapper Don threatened to kill Gravano's kid - witness

BY THOMAS ZAMBITO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Dapper Don John Gotti made a deal with his personal devil.
As long as mob snitch Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano agreed not to squeal about son John A. (Junior) Gotti's mob doings, the Dapper Don vowed not to kill Gravano's only son, Gerard.

"It was a son for a son," mob informant Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo testified yesterday at the mob scion's racketeering trial in Manhattan Federal Court.

"Leave my son out," DiLeonardo paraphrased the Dapper Don as saying. "Don't get him pinched, leave my son alone, and we won't kill your son or hurt your family."

It's unclear whether the pact between the don of the Gambino crime family and his underboss was struck before Gravano turned on Gotti in 1991 or after.

DiLeonardo said Junior Gotti told him the story when they were still friends, before the Gambino capo became the highest-ranking member of the crime family since Gravano to betray his fellow wiseguys.

The Dapper Don kept up his end of the bargain.

Gerard Gravano, 28, is still alive and serving a 15-year federal prison stretch for his role in a Phoenix-based drug ring he ran with his father's help.

But assuming DiLeonardo's account is true, Gravano broke his promise in Peter Maas' 1997 biography, "Underboss," in which he outs Junior Gotti as a mobster by recalling a sitdown between the Dapper Don and the Colombo family boss, Vincent (Chin) Gigante.

"One thing I'll never forget from that meeting was John telling Chin in sort of a proud way that his son John Junior had just been made," Gravano says. "Instead of congratulating him, Chin said, 'Jeez, I'm sorry to hear that.'"

Gotti, 42, was inducted into the Mafia on Christmas Eve 1988 - the same night DiLeonardo was inducted. Gravano also failed to live up to his promise of keeping his son away from the life of crime he led.

"I wanted my son to be legitimate, to have nothing to do with what I did," he says in the book.

Prosecutors expect to wrap up their case against Gotti by early next week.

Gotti is accused in a wide-ranging conspiracy that includes ordering thugs to silence radio host Curtis Sliwa for his repeated on-air attacks on the Gotti clan following the Dapper Don's 1992 racketeering conviction.

DiLeonardo said that Gravano, while admitting to 19 murders, failed to implicate members of his own crew in crimes and suggested that federal prosecutors let him get away with it because they wanted to convict the Dapper Don.

"John was the golden goose," DiLeonardo testified.

Originally published on September 2, 2006


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If this is true, then I'd have to believe that the deal was made between Gotti and Gravano immedeatly AFTER Gravano turned rat. What reason would Gotti have to make a deal like that and threaten the life of Gravano's son while Gravano was still in the good graces of Gotti?

To me it just wouldn't make sense for Gotti to even bring up that kind of a deal before Sammy turned rat.


Don Cardi