December 2, 2008
Gotti Goes on Trial
Indictment Includes 5 Murders
The racketeering indictment accuses John Gotti of committing five murders, conspiring to murder a sixth person, gambling, loan-sharking, obstruction of justice and tax evasion. Co-defendant Frank Locascio is charged with murder, conspiracy to murder, gambling, loan-sharking, obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting Gotti's tax evasion. Both face life in prison if convicted.
According to the indictment:
Paul Castellano was killed shortly after he told Gotti that he planned to break up Gotti's crew and reassign its members to other crews. Castellano reportedly had become angry after learning that Gotti's crew was involved in heroin trafficking, a violation of a family rule.
(Castellano and Thomas Bilotti, an alleged captain, were shot to death outside Sparks Steak House at 210 E. 46th St. in Manhattan on Dec. 16, 1985, two weeks after the family's underboss, Aniello Dellacroce, died of cancer.)
The indictment does not name the triggermen. But it charges that Gotti and two top aides, John Carneglia and Anthony Rampino, were in the vicinity at the time.
Gravano was directly involved in two other murders. In early 1986, Gravano asked Gotti's permission to murder Robert DiBernardo of Hewlett, L.I. On June 5, 1986, after Gotti authorized the murder, DiBernardo disappeared.
Gotti also directed the murder of Liborio Milito of Staten Island at Gravano's request. Milito disappeared on March 8, 1988. Both DiBernardo and Milito had been confidants of Castellano, and both had business interests with Gravano.
Gotti, Locascio and Gravano conspired to murder Louis DiBono, a construction contractor from Muttontown, L.I., in late 1989. DiBono was found shot to death in October, 1990, in a parking lot at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. (Law-enforcement authorities have speculated that DiBono, an alleged Gambino soldier, was killed because of mob fears that he was cooperating with a government probe into the construction industry.)
In 1989 and 1990, Gotti, Locascio and Gravano conspired to kill Gaetano Vastola of Colt's Neck, N.J., an alleged member of New Jersey's DeCavalcante crime family, out of fear he might become a witness against them. (Vastola now is serving a 20-year prison term for racketeering and narcotics dealings.)
Gotti failed to file federal tax returns for 1984 through 1989 and attempted to defraud the IRS in its collection of taxes on his income as a crime boss.
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