All language subtitles for Very.Scary.People.S04E06.WEBRip.AAC2.0.x264-BTN.en

♪♪

Gravano:
My name is Salvatore Gravano.

Early in my life, I was given
the nickname "Sammy the Bull."

I have been involved
with organized crime since 1968,

when I became
associated with a guy

named "Shorty" Spero
of the Colombo family.

I committed many types of crimes
when I was with Shorty,

including my first murder.

In December of 1985, John Gotti,
I, along with some others,

murdered Paul Castellano.

We took over the family.

♪♪

Welcome to "Very Scary People."

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

In 1985,
Sammy "The Bull" Gravano

helped plan and carry out

one of the most stunning
Mafia murders in history,

the slaying of Gambino
crime boss Paul Castellano.

The brazen attack took place

outside a steakhouse
in Midtown Manhattan,

while Gravano and his
co-conspirator, John Gotti,

watched from
across the street.

Gravano had broken
one of the most sacred rules

of Cosa Nostra,

and he wasn't finished yet.

For years, he remained
on the periphery,

but in time,
he would take center stage

and become the most
important insider

to ever testify about mob life.

Here's part two of
"Sammy the Bull."

♪♪

McShane: Sammy, the guy
is known for two things ...

he makes money,
and he murders people,

and he's very good at both.

[Doorbell rings]
Colucci: Detectives came

and told me that they found
my brother's body.

It was devastating.

McShane: Sammy said afterward,

"The easiest thing was
pulling the trigger."

Gabriel:
He started understanding

this was something
he could do

and wouldn't
be afraid or hesitate

to ever do it again.

He was obviously
a cold, homicidal killer.

Cosa Nostra is the American
version of the Mafia.

To be invited to be a member

was really the pinnacle
of achievement.

It's what these guys dream of.

McShane: Castellano told him,

"There is no God anymore
for you.

We are your God."

If you break the oath
of omertà, silence,

your soul should burn in Hell.

Hunter:
He believed it 1,000%.

Gabriel: From the day
Paul Castellano

was given the position of boss,

there were a lot
of disgruntled people.

John Gotti had his reasons
for wanting Paul dead,

but he started learning
that there were other guys,

like Frankie DeCicco
and Sammy Gravano,

who, likewise, were
very dissatisfied with Paul.

The feeling from
Gravano and DeCicco

was that Gotti was the lesser
of all the evils that they had.

So they decide that
they're going to take out

Paul Castellano.

Gabriel: This was a big deal
they were doing.

Gravano:
We implemented the plan.

We took 11 people on the hit.

Hunter: The guys came up
wearing the Russian fur hats

and their white trench coats
and bang, bang, bang.

Schuch: Mafia kingpin
"Big Paul" Castellano

was gunned down, gangland style,
in Midtown Manhattan.

You're now thinking,
"This is war."

There will be
other prices to pay.

♪♪

There is a dragnet out
for the hitman who executed

Mafia godfather
Paul Castellano.

Look at this man's face.

He may already be
the new godfather.

Lawmen believe he may
have also been behind this.

His name is John Gotti.

What happened kind of
brings you back to reality

to what they're really,
at the core, all about,

essentially,
barbarians and murderers.

Raab: Before
the Castellano murder,

Gotti was not a well-known
figure in organized crime,

practically unknown.

By knocking off Castellano,
Gotti, overnight,

became the top person
in the Gambino family.

McShane: Well, there's a meeting
at the Ravenite Social Club,

which is in Little Italy,

and there was just
a steady parade

of Gambino family members
coming in to greet the new boss.

Gotti automatically
promoted Gravano to capo,

and Frank DeCicco
became the underboss.

Gabriel: We were fortunate
that we had

some very well-placed sources

to let us know,
within days to a week,

almost all of the 11
participants in the hit.

There was no doubt
this was a John Gotti-led hit.

We were surprised to learn
when we started hearing

the names Frank DeCicco
and Sammy Gravano.

We thought Sammy Gravano and
Frankie were Castellano's guys.

We realized there was a lot
more happening underneath

than we understood
at the time.

Papa: John Gotti was sort of
this emerging character.

He was a rising star.

Gravano, while powerful,

financially strong
in the family,

I don't think he was that much
on the radar, as of yet,

probably because
he didn't want to be.

Hunter: Sammy was perfectly fine
living in the shadows.

He cared very greatly
that nobody knew who he was.

Gabriel: Sammy's in
the administration now.

He's very loyal.
It's business.

He's going to be loyal
to his boss.

He's going to do
whatever his boss wants.

Gravano was a guy who brought
a lot of money into the family.

Gabriel: Sammy was
the construction guy.

He was bringing huge envelopes
every month to John Gotti.

About a million dollars
per year.

♪♪

One of the problems
with knocking off Castellano

was that it really antagonized

one of the most important
mobster leaders in the country,

Vincent "Chin" Gigante, who was
the head of the Genovese family.

Gabriel: After they kill Paul

and they meet with
"Chin" Gigante,

who's the head
of the commission,

John goes there
with the story,

"We don't know
what really happened to Paul.

The captains voted me in
as the boss."

So Chin said, "All right.

We understand, but somebody's
gonna have to pay

for that little thing
that happened there."

♪♪

About four months later,
Frankie DeCicco,

he's at his Brooklyn club.

DeStefano: And Frank DeCicco
and another guy

went over to a vehicle
outside the club, got in,

and just
as they opened the door,

and just ready to sit down,

a bomb goes off.

The car was blown
to smithereens.

Feldman: The explosion was heard
for nearly half a mile,

a sharp punctuation to an
otherwise quiet Brooklyn Sunday.

DeStefano: Sammy Gravano was in
the club when the bomb went off,

rushed out,
saw Frankie DeCicco.

Man: All of a sudden,
boom, just like that.

Couple of people trying to take
the people inside out.

They were trying to get them
out of the car.

Gabriel: Sammy runs over,
and he's holding Frankie.

This was his guy.

Gravano: Picking him up,
a lifelong friend of mine,

was sickening how
I saw him ... dead.

DeStefano: DeCicco was,
more or less, killed instantly.

They thought they were
going to blow up Gotti,

but the day of the incident,

Gotti didn't show up at the club
the way he was expected to.

Feldman:
Organized crime experts say that

Gotti himself may now be
on someone's hit list

and that the DeCicco hit
may have been just the start.

As for this latest mob hit,
they say they have no suspects.

Gabriel:
After Frankie gets blown up,

then that's when I would say

Sammy's prominence
even gets a little bit higher.

Sammy was almost gonna
now fill that Frankie void.

Papa: He moved up the ranks.

He became a consigliere,

he became an underboss,

then he was really a member of
the inner sanctum of the family.

More responsibility, more money.

John clearly relied on Sammy.

McShane: The public persona
of Gotti and Gravano

was that they were like
best friends, kind of

1 in 1A atop the world
of organized crime.

And, as we know now,
that started fracturing.

Raab: Gotti misjudged
a lot of people,

and the most important person
he had misjudged

was Sammy Gravano.

♪♪

Man: Morning, John.
Good morning.

John Gotti didn't become so much
the head of the Gambinos

as he became
the star of his own show.

Tell me about it.

Hunter: Immediately,
John Gotti starts wearing

extraordinarily
expensive suits.

He's getting photographed.

He's spending a lot of money
on his haircuts, on manicures,

on things that aren't really
the normal purview

of an underworld boss.

He was a mob star.

It's almost like a guy
from a movie come to life.

It was The Post,
my former employer,

that labeled him
"The Dapper Don."

Reporter: How you feel,
Mr. Gotti?

Gotti: Pretty good.

Papa: Sammy Gravano
was not thrilled

that John Gotti
likes to be in the papers,

that he had fans,
people that idolized him,

people that came up to him.

Gravano thought Gotti, you know,
was such an egomaniac.

He was attracting
so much attention.

Gabriel: The guy was
out every night,

seemingly, could care less
about his family back in Queens.

Sammy, in contrast,
did his mob business by day,

but then, when evening came,
he'd be home with the family.

Sammy Gravano wanted
to keep the low profile,

wanted to just go
do his business.

I think, down deep,
Gravano still believed

John didn't deserve
to be the boss.

♪♪

The spotlight is getting
brighter and brighter

and brighter on John Gotti.

I think Gotti, somehow,
thought he would get away

with whatever he wanted to do.

He's waving red flags,
screaming, "Catch me, catch me."

And Gravano knew
if Gotti was in trouble,

he'd be in trouble.

No worries.
What's the difference?

DeStefano: As he progressed
in the crime family,

Gotti became more vulnerable
to prosecution.

Reporter: John Gotti
is the claimed head

of the most powerful
Mafia crime family

and ran, they insisted,

numerous gambling
and loan-sharking operations.

There's a US attorney
in Brooklyn

who brings an indictment
against John Gotti.

Reporter:
Gotti and six codefendants

were charged under
the RICO Act, which stands for

Racketeer Influenced
Corrupt Organization.

DeStefano: In the racketeering
case in Brooklyn,

his underlings learned about
the identity of a juror.

Sammy went to John and said
he could get to the guy.

And so it was agreed that
Sammy would deliver $60,000,

and, at the very least,
he would get a hung jury.

Gravano: I sent word to John.

On one piece of paper,

there's a stick man
hanging from a noose.

He knew ... hung.

It's a hung jury.

It ultimately got to
the point where

he convinced all the other
jurors that the case was thin,

and they got to an acquittal.

Reporter: It was
a happy John Gotti

who ran out of
US District Court in Brooklyn,

because he had escaped
a possible 40-year prison term.

He knew he wasn't going
to get found guilty.

I got somebody.

End of story ...
he beats the case.

Which became, of course,
part of the legend, right?

"The Teflon Don."
Nothing sticks.

Feldman: Over an almost
four-year period

beginning in 1986,

he managed to beat
not one, not two,

but three
criminal cases against him

on charges ranging from
assault to racketeering.

Man:
We find him not guilty.

Papa: This was extremely
frustrating for law enforcement

because John Gotti walks away
in a state case.

John Gotti walks away
in a federal case.

Law enforcement
had egg on their face.

[Indistinct crowd chatter]

♪♪

Gabriel: Robert DiBernardo
was another Gambino captain.

He was a big earner,
big pornography guy,

got a lot of his money
from there.

Not particularly a tough guy,

but he was well respected
in the family.

McShane:
Gotti becomes convinced

that DiB is somehow
speaking behind his back,

so he just sends word
that DiBernardo has to go.

DeStefano: Gravano said he
tried to talk him out of it.

There's no real reason
to kill him, for insults?

What is this?

He couldn't be
talked out of that.

So, they had DiBernardo
come to a meeting

in Sammy's office.

Gravano:
DiB comes a little early.

He sits at a table
directly across from me.

We shake hands.

I say,
"You want a cup of coffee?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, Joe..." ...

the "Old Man" Joe Paruta ...

"...get DiB a cup of coffee."

DeStefano: And while
DiBernardo was distracted

by talking to Gravano,

"Old Man" Paruta
came up behind DiBernardo

and shot him in the head.

They never found the body.

Now, after Gotti was acquitted
in those trials,

the FBI made him
a national priority.

Papa: They were determined
to figure out a way

to bug whatever
they had to bug,

surveil however
they had to surveil,

and they were going to
gather evidence to put him away.

DeStefano: Gotti would use
Ravenite Social Club as a base

after Castellano was killed.

McShane: Gotti was in the
Ravenite down in Little Italy

most every day, and so,

if you're in the family
and you wanted to see him,

that's where you came
to see him.

Gabriel:
Sammy came probably

three to four nights
out of the week.

McShane: The club was under
constant surveillance,

pretty much, by the FBI.

Papa: Not only
was the Ravenite bugged,

the hallway was bugged.

The curb in front
of the Ravenite was bugged.

Gabriel: Sammy and John
would come out,

they would do these walk talks
that were very frustrating

to the microphones,

but he probably had
more walk talks with Sammy

than anybody else.

DeStefano: At some point,
the FBI learned that Gotti

was going upstairs
to an apartment

rented by the widow
of an old Gambino soldier.

And they would use
that apartment

to conduct their business.

And the FBI were able to figure
out that this was where

all these conversations
were happening.

And they were right, you know?

They bugged it,
and Gotti spoke freely

about almost everything.

And they thought they were safe

because they thought nobody
was going to go there.

Farinella: If Gotti would have
just kept it close to the vest,

things would be
totally different,

but he just couldn't
keep it inside.

He had no self-control.

Raab: They got numerous tapes.

This was what the FBI had been
looking for for five years,

and now they had him
dead to rights.

♪♪

Me and Louie were like "this"

for a very, very long time.

McShane: Louie Milito was from
the neighborhood in Bensonhurst,

and he and Gravano
became best friends

and eventually
business partners.

Gabriel: Louie becomes
part of Sammy's crew,

very trusted ally,

did hits for Sammy,
was on hits with Sammy.

The kids, the wives
knew each other well.

They called Sammy
"Uncle Sammy."

At some point, the relationship
starts declining a little bit.

Louie Milito starts
having some problems,

some of it is jealousy
'cause Sammy's

rising in the ranks
in the family.

He's making a lot more money.

McShane: Years later, in 1988,

Milito was upset because he had
been passed over for a promotion

within the Gambino family.

DeStefano: And Milito
was bad-mouthing people

who John had elevated

to the role of
significant captains.

And you badmouth people
who Gotti likes,

it's not going to
sit very well.

Sammy had asked Gotti
for permission to kill him.

Milito's fate was sealed
at that point.

According to Sammy,

there was a meeting
of Louis Milito and others

in a social club.

Raab: Milito shows up
unarmed and unconcerned,

thinks he's in safe territory,

and he gets a cup of coffee,
orders a cup of coffee.

Gabriel: Louie Milito went
by way of a lot of people

that were killed around
Sammy Gravano.

You're at a bar,
somebody serving you coffee,

you're nice and relaxed,

and as some of that's
happening,

guy comes behind and boom,
you're shot in the head.

[Silenced gunshot]

Gravano:
I was there for a reason.

I wanted him to die like a man.

DeStefano:
Milito was never seen again.

Body was never found.

♪♪

Feldman: For months,
prosecutors have strongly hinted

that they hope to indict
John Gotti on new charges.

By 1990, press reports
were coming out

that Gotti was going
to be indicted.

It was the Castellano murders,
labor racketeering.

And the plan was for Sammy
to go on the lam so that,

if Gotti were arrested,

Sammy would be able to
control the crime family

from a secret location.

Gabriel: It's John's idea
to send him.

We're not sure how long
it's going to last,

but, again, knowing the fabric
of the man, he's a family guy.

It's one thing to be away
from the mob,

but he's going to be away
from his wife and kids,

and that wasn't
a comfort zone for him.

So, Sammy just
came back into town.

That's what we were waiting for.

We wanted to get them
all together.

McShane: Gotti summons him
to the Ravenite.

Sammy thinks, "Why are you
meeting at the Ravenite,

which has been under
FBI surveillance

since a week
after the Castellano hit?"

It seemed like a bad idea
to Sammy,

who turned out to be right.

He was picked up as soon
as he walked in the door.

Federal FBI agents
and New York Police detectives

arrested the leadership
of the Gambino crime family.

The man believed to be
the godfather of godfathers

is waking up this morning
in a New York City jail.

Polk: Also charged with Gotti,
his mob underboss,

his consigliere,
and this mob capo.

Raab: After the arrests,
they were indicted,

and they all wound up in the
Metropolitan Correction Center.

Gabriel: Sammy faced
very similar charges to John.

It was multiple murders
and labor racketeering,

but those were the heavy ones,

so he was facing
mandatory life sentences.

Sammy and Gotti
went to pretrial hearings

soon after
they were arrested.

The government played
some of the tapes

that they'd made
at the Ravenite building.

Raab: Gravano,
for the first time,

heard what Gotti
had to say about him.

Gotti is heard bad-mouthing
Gravano about his greediness.

John is lamenting the fact
that Gravano is out of control.

Every time he makes
somebody a partner,

he kills them,

and then,
we get the heat for it.

There was one comment
where Gotti referred to Sammy,

and it made it sound like

he was almost trying
to take over the family.

Papa: Gravano was
sitting there with his lawyer,

and he didn't like
what he was hearing.

Gravano was fuming.

Sammy Gravano, I think,
began to realize

that John Gotti
wasn't his friend.

DeStefano: Sammy was
getting the sense that,

you know, "I'm being set up
to take the fall here."

Papa: Gravano did not
trust Gotti anymore.

Gravano felt there were changes
in stories and situations.

Brevetti: And then you have to
take Gravano's word for it,

that John basically told him
the lawyer ...

the lawyers

that they hired
were prepared to create

this defense theory
that it was all Sammy.

The case against him
was very, very strong.

Papa: And Gravano was not
going to be the one

that would be stuck going to
prison for the rest of his life

when, maybe,
Gotti would walk away.

John turned on Sammy,
and that led to,

"It's either going to be
my demise or John's demise."

And that's when
he called the FBI.

Feldman: In a stunning
development in the federal case

against reputed
Mafia godfather John Gotti,

well-placed sources say

Gotti's right-hand man
has turned against his boss

and will now cooperate
with the government.

Salvatore "Sammy the Bull"
Gravano is in FBI custody.

And when John heard it,
I'm told, he just went ashen.

It was like, oh, my God.

DeStefano: It was
one of these seismic moments

in the history
of organized crime.

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome back to
"Very Scary People."

In November of 1991,
Sammy "The Bull" Gravano

committed the ultimate
Mafia double cross,

turning government informant

on his former boss,
John Gotti.

Gravano is now himself
a prime target

for assassination by the mob.

So, while the FBI questioned him
about his murderous past,

they kept him holed up
in a secret location.

♪♪

Gravano:
After I left Gotti,

the government
took control of me.

They took me to Quantico.

It's a military base.

Papa: What did he know?

How much
was he going to reveal?

Sammy had to
confess to everything,

his life of crime.

That's the contract you make
with the government

when you defect and turn sides.

McShane:
And he's telling stories

that only a guy
who was right there,

working alongside John Gotti,
could tell,

very damning stories.

We didn't know how many murders
he was responsible for

until he told us.

DeStefano:
He admitted to complicity

to as many as 19 homicides.

Gabriel: His attitude was,
"I didn't kill those guys.

They committed suicide."

They broke the rules,
they knew what they were doing,

they knew they
got themselves in trouble,

and they knew
what the penalty was."

♪♪

Papa: Sammy Gravano,
underboss of the family,

was going to take the stand in
a showdown against John Gotti.

Feldman: There is a lot at stake
for the federal government

and for John Gotti
in the murder racketeering trial

that moved into high gear
Wednesday.

Thus far, Gotti has beaten
three raps against him

in state and federal courts.

There was papers
that were put up

in his neighborhood,
around the courtroom,

with a rat
with his face on it.

Nobody ever thought they
would see somebody so high up

give up omertà
to testify against a boss.

The atmosphere was tense.

Everybody sat in that courtroom
holding their breath.

♪♪

DeStefano: Sammy's role was
to authenticate and interpret

what was going on
in the tape recordings.

Gabriel: He had just
incredible recall,

and he didn't leave details out.

He didn't overstate.
He didn't understate.

DeStefano:
When Gravano testified,

the families of the victims

got to know,
sometimes for the first time,

who was really involved
and who had set this up

and how these things happened.

Said he pulled the trigger
only once in 19 homicides.

Somebody from the family
called me and said,

"Sammy the Bull
just confessed to murders,

and he said your brother was
the first one to be murdered."

Finding out that it was Sammy,

who was supposed to be
my brother's good friend,

it was horrible.

Gabriel: He wasn't concerned
with having to admit to it.

This was mob business,

and it just comes off
differently.

It's more important that you're
not seen as a liar to a jury.

♪♪

Raab:
There was no end to hits

that Gravano
carried out under Gotti.

Gotti was a merciless
character, egomaniac,

and anyone he thought
that insulted him

or didn't obey
the slightest order,

Gotti had one solution ...
kill 'em.

Feldman: Gravano also
calmly talked about

how he murdered a close friend,
and, Wednesday,

Gravano disclosed
that he also killed

the cousin of his
brother-in-law

in a mob dispute.

Sammy would lay the blame
for all of it on John Gotti.

Some of the situations
were just appalling.

Cardinale: And then, he got into
the crowning jewel of the case,

which was
the Castellano-Bilotti murder.

McShane: Sammy is there when
the plot is being hatched.

He's in the car
when the shooting happens,

sitting next to the guy
who ordered the hit.

You're hearing these details,

it sounds like something
from a movie script.

He nailed Gotti
to the Castellano cross.

Our obvious defense was,
this was typical of Gravano.

DeStefano: The defense depicted
Gravano to the jury

as evil incarnate,

a stone-cold killer
who would do anything

to remove people
who were in his way.

They were trying to portray him
as the person

who really was pulling
the strings on Gotti.

Feldman: Gotti's lawyer
told the jurors

that the jury box
they are sitting in

doesn't have enough chairs
to put Gravano's victims in.

Cardinale: Everybody he had
involvement with killing

was so that
he could better himself.

Ultimately, what he did
in that courtroom

was to better himself ...

come up with a story
that he knew could get him

his ticket to freedom.

Rook: The verdict
was like a bullet,

puncturing John Gotti's
longtime image

of invincibility
from the law.

The boss of the Gambino crime
family was found guilty today

on all 13 counts of murder
and racketeering.

Fox: Teflon is gone.

The Don is covered with Velcro,

and every charge
in the indictment stuck.

Feldman: This time,
the jury convicted him

on charges
that included five murders,

and he was sentenced
to life without parole.

Papa: It was over
for John Gotti.

He could say he had his honor
and Sammy Gravano did not.

But Sammy Gravano
was going to have a life.

DeStefano: Sammy agreed to
cooperate with the FBI

in any investigations
of any of those crimes

and any sort
of other information

he had about
organized crime.

He was so good that they brought
him back over and over again.

His deal is he cooperates.

When he's done cooperating,
he gets sentenced.

Brevetti:
Even a 20-year sentence

would have been a favor,

given the fact that
people in his position

were being given sentences
of 100 years.

He did his job on the stand,
and he did it for years.

Probably got better treatment
than any defector

in the history of the Mafia.

DeStefano: Largely because of
all the cooperation he gave,

he was sentenced
by Judge Glasser

to five years in prison.

♪♪

To the families, of course,
he was the executioner

who was getting
an unbelievable deal.

He admitted to 19 murders.

To get John Gotti, they had
to make a deal with the devil.

Tuchman: CNN has confirmed
that Sammy the Bull

will be released from jail
sometime this coming week.

He will move to
an undisclosed city or town

and assume a new identity
under the care of

the Federal Witness
Protection Program.

Gotti wanted him killed.

Papa: There was the
$1 million bounty on his head.

Gabriel: They relocate you.
It's not a place of your choice.

You truly, truly walk away
from your life,

your family, from your friends.

Papa: He had facial surgery.

He was going to have a new
identity and then disappear.

♪♪

Brevetti:
Sammy Gravano will say,

you know,
"There's an absolute rule ...

you don't talk

about what goes on
in the family.

Sweetingham:
He was very critical of Gotti

and, frankly, any mob boss

who sought out fame

or the limelight
or the spotlight.

Brevetti: But once you become
a government witness,

well, you've done it,
and so you can write a book,

and you can talk about it.

That's Sammy's logic.

♪♪

Sawyer: He agreed to talk
on the condition that we provide

former FBI agents
for his protection

and not broadcast until he had
dropped safely out of sight.

Here I am, the Mafia.

They have said you are the
single most important witness

ever to testify
against the mob.

I think I am.

He testified against
Vinny "The Chin" Gigante.

The head of
the Genovese family.

I believe the security tab
to protect Gravano

during his days
of testifying in Brooklyn

was like a quarter
of a million dollars.

They had helicopters getting
him in and out of the court.

Tyre: Gravano,
who admits to killing 19 people,

provided what
the prosecution lacked ...

a first-hand account
of Gigante's

alleged mob activities.

McShane: And they won
their conviction,

but the families of the victims,

people killed by Gravano,

came in the court,
you know, to watch him testify.

Tyre:
Under cross-examination,

Gravano acknowledged
that he had been paid

a quarter of a million dollars

to collaborate on his
best-selling book "Underboss"

and expected to get
a percentage of a movie deal

based on the book.

That angered the families
of his victims

who were suing Gravano
under New York's Son of Sam law,

which prohibits lawbreakers from
profiting from their crimes.

This is a man who based
his life and his career

on lies and deception.

Why is he now, all of a sudden,
a credible witness to anyone?

McShane: They were
pursuing legal action

to make Gravano
literally pay for his crimes.

♪♪

Sweetingham: After Sammy
testified in seven trials,

and he was going to
testify in many more,

he and his family,
his wife and his two children,

quietly moved to Tempe, Arizona,

where he went under
the name Jimmy Moran.

He pulled himself out of
the Witness Protection Program.

They wanted to live
where they wanted to live,

not where the program
was going to put them.

He's going to be looking
over his shoulder,

but he just wanted
to do it on his own terms.

Sweetingham: They bought
an eight-bedroom home

with a three-car garage
and a pool.

Sammy started
a pool construction business.

And he was doing very,
very well.

Sweetingham: They opened
a restaurant called Uncle Sal's

that his wife, Debra, ran,
and its motto was,

"The best-kept
secret in Scottsdale."

Gabriel: But, at some point,

he's hanging out
at the restaurant.

He had a little
reconstructive surgery done,

but it really didn't change
his appearance that much.

He still conducts himself
the way he conducts himself.

And, you know,
people started catching on.

His true identity gets unmasked

by a reporter from
The Arizona Republic

who tracks him down.

McShane:
The Sammy in Arizona story

gets national attention,
of course.

It spread all over the place.

Gabriel: Sammy thought
he was okay,

but he wasn't as safe
as he thought he was.

Sweetingham:
You can understand why the FBI

was so invested in Sammy.

He had helped them put away

more than three dozen
former mob associates.

Gabriel: We were prepping him
for one last trial.

We very much had an interest
in making sure

he played it smart
and he stayed alive.

♪♪

Sammy was always
protective of his son.

He didn't want to see
his son in the life.

Raab: He was so critical
of Gotti

for recruiting his own son,
John Gotti Jr.,

to become a made member
of the Mafia,

and he felt this was terrible,

that he would never do this
with his own family.

Sweetingham: But then,
in late 1998,

Sammy discovers
that his son Gerard

has been selling ecstasy pills

outside of nightclubs in Phoenix
with his best friend, Mike Papa.

Gabriel: His account of it was,
Sammy catches wind of it,

not real happy
with what they're doing.

McShane:
Sammy was not into that.

He kind of looked down on
the practice of selling drugs.

Sweetingham: Here was
the perfect opportunity

to set the boys straight,

but instead,
he didn't discourage them ...

he mentored them.

Brevetti: It's fast money.
It's easy money.

He's going to try to re-create
the life he had before.

Sweetingham: And pretty soon,
Gerard and Mike Papa

were carrying guns
and using Sammy's name

to influence and intimidate
other drug dealers,

and Mike Papa beats up
a drug dealer

who has ties to Israeli Mafia.

Eventually, the two rival groups
call a truce,

and they sit down
at Uncle Sal's,

and Gravano says to them,
"I own Arizona.

It is locked down,
and you cannot sell pills here

without going through me."

Farinella:
Not that he was innocent,

but he was trying to ensure

that his son and his family
was protected.

Sweetingham:
So DEA in Arizona and police

began an investigation they call
Operation Ecstasy,

and they had
some 11 wiretaps and bugs

listening to him
and his associates.

Gabriel: You would think
he'd be smarter

to have those kinds
of conversations on a phone,

but, you know, again, when you
don't think you're doing much,

you get stupid.

Napolitano: Beginning at about
6:30 this morning,

14 search warrants were served
by seven SWAT teams.

On February 24, 2000,
the DEA and Phoenix State Police

arrest Sammy.

They arrest his wife, Debra,

his daughter, Karen,
his son, Gerard,

Mike Papa, and 41 others.

We learned that
the Papa-Gravano organization

distributed 20,000 to 30,000
ecstasy pills per week

in the Phoenix
metropolitan area.

Sweetingham:
And they estimate that Sammy

and this ecstasy
distribution ring

was making $1 million a month.

I got the call,
and I was like,

"You gotta be kidding me."

He couldn't be that stupid.

♪♪

Feldman: Gravano
is back in the news ...

this time, in Arizona,

where he has lived
the past few years

after leaving the Federal
Witness Protection Program.

Gravano is charged
with helping finance

a drug ring that sold ecstasy,
a so-called designer drug.

They're being held on
a charge of conspiracy

to distribute
dangerous narcotics,

which is a class 2 felony
in Arizona.

Gabriel: So, the irony
of him getting arrested,

he may not see it this way,
but it actually saved his life.

There was an elaborate
murder-revenge plot against him

by Gambino family members.

They were going to
blow him up with a bomb.

And I think they came close
to being able to get him.

Then Sammy gets arrested
and doesn't get out on bail,

and that's the end of the plot.

I don't think he really ever
thought they would do it,

but they did.

♪♪

Sweetingham: So, after
Sammy's arrested in Arizona

on state charges,

the New York DEA and Customs

begins
a joint investigation on him.

In Arizona, they knew
that he was dealing ecstasy,

but they didn't know
who his source was.

In New York, they figure it out.

Sammy was getting his pills
from a New York wholesaler

who had ties
to Israeli organized Mafia.

So there were both federal
and state charges.

The federal charges were
definitely more serious,

and they carried more time,
for certain.

♪♪

Sweetingham:
Gravano and his son, Gerard,

go to court to plead guilty,

but, in fact, prosecutors were
ready to put on a whole trial

showing how Sammy created
his own little Mafia,

drug-dealing syndicate
in Arizona.

It appeared that
the court was disappointed

that he didn't utilize
his second chance

and that he was back in front
of a judge on different charges.

The judge sentenced Sammy
to 20 years in prison.

She also ordered him
on supervised release

for the rest of his life.

Colucci: It was important
'cause we wanted to make sure

that he was going to be
convicted of something,

anything.

I am pleased for the people
that he has hurt in this crime,

but I am not pleased that
he got away with 19 murders,

including my son.

♪♪

He had to pay $420,000
to the family members,

to be split up between them.

Sammy gets out from prison
in 2017.

Brevetti: He lost his teeth,
lost his hair,

was put in
solitary confinement,

but he survived.

Sammy had changed a lot.

Raab: He had contracted
Graves' disease,

a very serious
thyroid ailment.

Gravano had always been
a health nut,

and here he was ... gaunt,
his eyes were popping.

He had aged 50 years.

McShane: Ex-con...

convicted drug dealer...

mob rat ...

quite a résumé.
[Chuckles]

Gabriel: Sammy Gravano,
I think, as with any wise guy,

they're wise guys to the end.

Normal people obey the rules.

This is somebody who did not
and who lives to tell about it.

Gabriel:
It's really ironic.

He did a lot for the mob
to make the mob strong,

and he did a heck of a lot more
to weaken the mob.

And in order to better himself
at every stage,

he did very evil things.

But he is still out there
being Sammy Gravano,

and he's going to take advantage
of his reputation.

He's figured out a way
to turn his past into profit.

He has a podcast,
which he calls

Cosa Nostra ... Our Thing.

I know part of the life
is deception.

In planning a hit,
you're always doing something

or saying something,

and you're plotting
against a guy,

but usually it happens
one, two, three.

There's a bit of
a disconnect thinking,

well, there's
this friendly, warm guy.

On the other hand,
you know, he's a hitman.

There's a complete fascination
with people

who live fearlessly,
kill people,

doing it as part of business.

♪♪

Gabriel:
He's reliving those days.

He's not hiding from who he was
and who he is,

but thank God he's not
active in it, right,

because he was a force
to be reckoned with when he was.

♪♪

Gravano's former boss,
John Gotti,

spent the rest of his life
behind bars.

He died from throat cancer
in 2002

with his plan to kill Gravano
unfulfilled.

So many years after turning
government witness,

Sammy "The Bull" Gravano
was thought to be safe

from retribution.

Most of his Mafia contemporaries
are dead or behind bars.

He may have been New York's
first high-ranking mobster

to violate omertà,

but many others
have followed in his footsteps.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.