Organized Crime: Wanted: A New Godfather

It was bad luck to be a gangster in New York City last week. As the jury forewoman chanted the verdict — guilty of murder, guilty of racketeering, 13 counts in all — godfather John Gotti could only sit with his thin-lipped smile frozen while the underworld came crashing down around him. In guarded talks, the Gambino family’s second string scrambled to regroup, shuddering with the knowledge that turncoats were singing, the feds were listening and more indictments were on the way.

It was a very good week, on the other hand, to be one of the U.S. Attorneys or FBI agents who for six years had tried and tried again to scratch the Teflon Don. Each time the elusive leader of the nation’s most powerful crime family persuaded the jury he was nothing more than a misunderstood plumbing salesman. But this time the government’s case looked perfect. The witnesses did not lose their memories on the stand. The tapes were clear. The underboss spilled the grim details. The jury was protected. “The Don is covered with Velcro,” said the assistant director of the FBI’s New York office, James Fox, “and every charge stuck.”

Throughout the 10-week trial Gotti gave every indication that he still < believed in his own invincibility. He wore the trademark suits and helmet of hair like armor, as though his natty legend would protect him once again. Overflow crowds craned for a glimpse of him; the tabloids kept up a colorful commentary, not only on the testimony about loan-sharking, extortion and murder but also on his choice of neckwear and the fluff of his pocket handkerchief. In court he made mocking gestures, blew a kiss at lead prosecutor John Gleeson and growled loudly at U.S. Attorney Andrew Maloney. At one point Judge I. Leo Glasser threatened to throw Gotti out of the courtroom.

It was the judge’s conduct of the trial that may give the defense its excuse for appeal. First, Glasser barred Gotti’s longtime lawyer Bruce Cutler from defending him. Then, in light of charges that the last two Gotti juries had been tampered with, he ordered that the jurors remain anonymous, identified only by number, and sequestered for the duration of the trial.

The ever indignant lawyers instantly called the trial “a glorified frame- up” and vowed to appeal. But whatever the outcome, John Gotti is now an unmade man. Many lower-rung mobsters did not like his high-profile strutting for the media; they were especially outraged that it was his right-hand man, Salvatore “Sammy Bull” Gravano, who delivered up his old mentor, as well as underboss Frank Locascio. “The safest place for John Gotti is in jail,” observes Michael Cherkasky, head of investigations for the Manhattan district attorney. Gotti may hope to run the Gambino operation from prison, as Colombo boss Carmine Persico, serving 100 years, is trying to do with his family, but dissension is too strong among the Gambinos.

For one thing, their empire is under siege from all sides. The nation’s 24 Mafia families, which make at least $60 billion a year, are a tempting target for the new Asian and Hispanic gangs that are moving in on their territory. The government has more big cases in the pipeline. In New York, where the Mob is most virulent, four of five bosses are in prison or under indictment, and two more leaders of the Colombo mob were arrested last week for murder. “Our cup runneth over,” exulted Maloney.

That leaves the remaining capos jockeying for position, a scramble that began long before the trial was announced. With such enormous stakes, the godfather race could touch off a Gambino war. Three candidates lead the field. Capo James “Jimmy Brown” Failla has a strong track record in running the ; lucrative private garbage-carting business, but at 73 he may lack the stamina for big-time crime. Joseph “Butch” Corrao can cite success in overseeing gambling, restaurants and loan-sharking in Manhattan’s Little Italy. Then there is John Gotti Jr., 28, cut from the same cloth as his father but widely disliked. Tommy Gambino, son of the family’s founding father, once seemed a likely successor, but in February he pled guilty to antitrust charges and was ordered to abandon the trucking monopoly that gave the family control of the garment center.

The toll taken by internal warfare is reflected in the fading power of New York’s Lucchese, Bonanno and Colombo families. The Genovese family, the Gambinos’ rival for power, has not been as hard hit by internal strife. The Genoveses, with only 300 soldiers, may find this an ideal time to muscle the Gambinos out of some of their business.

Nowhere across la Cosa Nostra is there a leader with the clout and thuggish charisma of John Gotti. Following the verdict, Gotti’s distraught daughter, Vicki Agnelli, hurled an angry comment at reporters: “My father is the last of the Mohicans. They don’t make men like him anymore. They never will.” Law- enforcement officials surely hope she is right.