Infamous mob canary Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano claims in a rare new videotaped interview that Gambino crime-family boss John Gotti damaged the Mafia more than he ever did.
“People cheer about what [Gotti] was doing. [But] he did more damage to Cosa Nostra being out there and putting it on Front Street than 10 cooperating witnesses put together,’’ Gravano said in a YouTube interview, apparently referring to the late Dapper Don’s flamboyant style and in-your-face approach to the feds.
Gravano’s chat with YouTube interviewer Patrick Bet-David appeared to be the first time he’s talked on camera in more than 20 years — since his sit-down with ABC-TV’s Diane Sawyer in 1997.
The ex-underboss — whose turncoat testimony helped the feds finally nail the Gambino chief in 1992 — added of Gotti, “Most of the real gangsters believe that and know that.
“I’ve got 22 years in prisons. I’ve bumped into a lot of guys,” the chrome-domed rat insisted to Bet-David in the clip posted Friday.
“Bobby, he was the underboss in Boston. And he said, ‘Sammy, you wanna know the truth? I hear more crying and complaints about John than you, the position he put you in. And he betrayed you. When he betrayed you like that, that was a rat move.’ ” said the ex-Mafioso, seemingly referring to former Boston mob capo Robert “Bobby” DeLuca, who was sentenced to 66 years behind bars in 2018.
Gravano added of his former Gambino boss, “Your job as John Gotti is not to put me away so you can get out and I can take the weight — that’s a rat move.”
Gravano, an admitted mass murderer, turned rat in exchange for a sweetheart prison deal and eventually a life in Witness Protection. Meanwhile, Gotti was convicted of murder, extortion, racketeering and tax evasion in 1992 and died of throat cancer in prison in 2002 while serving a life sentence. Before his conviction, he also was known as the “Teflon Don’’ — because criminal charges never stuck to him.
Gravano then famously left the federal protection program in the mid-1990s, claiming it was too restrictive.
He ended up getting nabbed for running a massive ecstasy ring in 2001 and was charged in both Arizona and New York over it, landing concurrently 19-year and 20-year concurrent prison sentences.
He was released early in 2017.
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