The Mafia Encyclopedia (57 page)

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Authors: Carl Sifakis

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BOOK: The Mafia Encyclopedia
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Page 160
A youthful Waxey started out in crime as a rather efficient pickpocket on New York's Lower East Side, and picked up his nickname because he could slide a victim's wallet out of his pocket as though it were coated with wax. As he perfected his criminal talents, Gordon graduated to labor slugging, joining the Dopey Benny Fein Gang, which included such other eager bashers as Louis Lepke and Gurrah Shapiro.
As with so many criminals of the era, it was Prohibition that made Waxey. He became a protégé and junior partner of Arnold RothsteinMr. Bigin rumrunning, and became one of the leading illicit liquor importers on the East Coast. By the mid-1920s, Gordon was raking in between $1 million and $2 million a year in personal profits. He boasted a plush suite of offices on 42nd Street, owned nightclubs, speakeasies, illegal gambling joints, and a fleet of oceangoing rumrunners. He owned a brewery in New Jersey and a large distillery in upstate New York. His distilleries in Philadelphia cut, reblended and rebottled booze for scores of leading bootleggers around the country. In his personal life, Waxey maintained an expensive apartment on New York's Central Park West, and lived in a castle, complete with moat, in southern New Jersey. For conveyance, he collected a fleet of fast and glossy automobiles.
Prohibition bootleg king Waxey Gordon,
Meyer Lansky's arch Foe in the so-called underworld
war of the Jews, was eliminated by a Lansky-Lucky Luciano
double-cross that fed evidence to prosecutor Tom Dewey.
Gordon was powerful enough even to force his way into a "shotgun partnership" with the Luciano-Costello-Lansky-Siegel forces in New York, although hostility between himself and Lansky grew so intense that it became impossible for them to sit at the same table together. The ill-feeling between them became known within the underworld as "the War of the Jews," and that meant actual warfare. Each suspected the other, rightly, of double-dealing. Lansky hijacked many of Gordon's liquor shipments, while Lansky correctly suspected Gordon of dealing with the mafiosi who opposed Luciano. Several gunmen in each camp were killed by their opposite numbers.
In the 1930s Gordon also warred with Dutch Schultz, each anticipating the end of Prohibition, and each jockeying for control of the future legit beer distribution rights in New York. By that time Gordon had been dubbed New York's Public Enemy No. 1. Neither Schultz nor Lansky could knock Gordon off because he enjoyed the fierce loyalty of his men, who would not be lured into any betrayal plot.
Finally the Lansky-Luciano forces figured out how to get rid of Gordonlet Uncle Sam do it. Gordon was tossed to the income tax wolves. Jake Lansky, Meyer's brother, fed information to the tax men about Gordon's operations and income, and a young, ambitious federal prosecutor named Thomas E. Dewey showed that the bootleg king took in $2 million a year while reporting an average net income of a mere $8,125 annually. In December 1933 Gordon was convicted, never suspecting the role in his downfall played by Lansky and Luciano; he was sent to Leavenworth under a 10-year sentence.
When he got out in 1940, Gordon was flat broke. All his property and wealth was seized or gone. He jauntily told reporters: "Waxey Gordon is dead. From now on it's Irving Wexler, salesman." But Gordon's downfall was not yet complete. Desperate for a stake, Waxey tried very minor-league crime capers; in 1951, he switched to some small-time narcotics dealing. He was caught as he was passing a $6,300 package of heroin to a federal narcotics informer.
Weeping to arresting officers, Waxey cried: "Shoot me. Don't take me in for junk. Let me run, and then shoot me!" One of the aging gangster's confederates pulled $2,500 from his pockets and slipped two diamond rings off his fingers. "Take this," he pleaded. "Take me. Take the whole business. Just let Pop go.''
To the end, Waxey Gordon had the full loyalty of his men. At the age of 63, he was given 25 years to life, and shipped off to Alcatraz. It was a cruel punishment; Alcatraz was for dangerous prisoners, which Waxey
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was not. It didn't much matter. He only lived six months, dying of a heart attack on June 24, 1952.
See also:
War of the Jews
.
Gotti, John (1940- ): Imprisoned Godfather
Both the Mafia and prosecutors agreed that the most important "godfather" in American crime through the 1990s would be John Gotti, subject of course to the vagaries and uncertainties of mob longevity and legal prosecutions. As one observer has stated, "There's no doubt in my mind the press will be labeling him the new 'Boss of Bosses'if he lives that long."
Gotti was cut from the old mold, a type some law enforcement officials say hasn't been matched around New York Mafia circles since the demise of Albert Anastasia, the chief executioner of Murder, Inc., and reportedly Gotti's underworld idol.
By 1985, Gotti was considered the top capo in the Gambino crime family, the most powerful Mafia organization in the nation. At the time, he was running racketsat JFK airport as well as other Gambino operations throughout the New York metropolitan areaand was a particular favorite of underboss of the group Aniello Dellacroce, an aging but still brutal mafioso. As much as Dellacroce liked Gotti, boss Paul Castellano hated him, or more accurately feared him, which in the Mafia automatically breeds hatred.
In 1985, both Castellano and Dellacroce were indicted on a number of charges. Both in their late 60s, long prison terms would effectively end their reigns in the mob. It looked like just a simple waiting period for Gotti.
He waited in style, brutal perhaps, but suave. "Gotti looks like a movie star," said a detective who knew him quite well. "He wears hand-tailored clothes, drives a big black Lincoln and likes good restaurants."
One of five brothers, Gotti worked his way up through the Mafia ranks. He became a capo as a reward for "good works" he did for the late family chief, Carlo Gambino. In 1972 Gambino's nephew, Manny Gambino, was kidnapped by other underworld characters who demanded a $350,000 ransom. After part of the ransom was paid, the kidnappers murdered Manny and buried the corpse in a New Jersey dump. The FBI arrested two suspects while Carlo Gambino put out a contract on a third, James McBratney. McBratney was later dispatched in a Staten Island bar by a three-man execution squad. Gotti, convicted as one of the death squad, served a portion of a seven-year sentence in Green Haven prison. He was no stranger to iron bars, having previously done time for hijacking.
On his release, Gotti was welcomed back by Gambino who saw to it that he moved up rapidly for services rendered. In 1978 or 1979 Gotti was named a capo and became a top associate of Dellacroce. Gotti was known to feel that Dellacroce deserved to be the head of the family instead of Castellano, as thought many other mafiosi. But Dellacroce kept Gotti in line.
Subject only to the uncertainties of mob longevity and legal
prosecution, drapper John Gotti was regarded by many
experts as the certain "Godfather of the 1990s," combining the traits
off ruthlessness and cunning to a degree that could match that
of Al Capone. It was not to be, although it took seven years
for the law to depose him.
Dellacroce knew he was dying of cancer. He told Gotti to be patient, a characteristic that was not Gotti's long suit. Nor was gentility. Toughness was the key. He was once overheard telling another mafioso: "Can you beat thisthey're telling me I'm too tough for the job. Can you imagine what our thing [Cosa Nostra] is coming to?"
On another occasion he was overheard chastising an underling for not returning his phone calls. "Follow
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orders," he was reported to have said, "or I'll blow up your house." The underling, obviously cowed, apologized and swore it wouldn't happen again. "You bet it won't," Gotti was quoted as saying. ''I got to make an example of somebody. Don't let it be you." Seasoned officers swore that if they had shut their eyes and just heard words, they would have been sure it was the ghost of Albert Anastasia talking.
All the law could do was watch Gotti, around whom odd things had a way of happening. Something or other happened to 51-year-old John Favara, a friend and neighbor of Gotti living in the Howard Beach section of Queens. In 1980 Favara ran over and killed Gotti's 12-year-old son, Frank, in a traffic mishap officially declared accidental. Four months later Favara was shoved into a car by some men as he left his job in a furniture plant and was never seen again.
According to police, after the death of young Frank, the Favara family was deluged with anonymous threatening letters and phone calls and their car was spray-painted with the word "murderer." From informers police got reports that Favara had been chainsawed to death and then dumped in a car that was put through a demolition machine and reduced to a one-square-foot block. There was no word on who the chainsawer could have been.
But there were more important things than a simple murder to worry about. Trouble was brewing in the Gambino family. Dellacroce was so ill he might never stand trial, but many of the young mafiosi worried about Paul Castellano standing up to the prospect of living out the rest of his life behind bars. There was worry that he might start thinking of swapping mob secrets for his freedom.
Gotti didn't seem worried. Then Castellano named a mobster close to him, Thomas Bilotti, to the position of capo, the equal of Gotti. If Dellacroce died, the story went, Castellano was going to name Bilotti underboss, and if he, Castellano, went to prison, Bilotti would take over as godfather. Gotti would be out in the cold.
Dellacroce died on December 2, 1985. Two weeks later Paul Castellano and his protégé Bilotti were shot to death outside a Manhattan steak house. Gotti was in.
Within eight days it seemed Gotti was in charge of the biggest Mafia family in the nation. He was the center of attention at a party in a reputed meeting place of the Gambino family, the Ravenite Social Club at 247 Mulberry Street in Little Italy.
"All the big shots from the family were there," an investigator was quoted, "and Gotti walked in like he owned the joint. He obviously had no fear of anyone."
In 1986, Gotti faced federal prosecution on racketeering charges that could take him out of action for some time. But Gotti probably marked a new trend in the Mafiaback to younger bosses, as was the case in the 1920s and 1930sbecause with the government hitting the mobs hard and going after the leaders, the Mafia worried whether the old dons could take the heat. If even one talked, the damage would be enormous. Younger bosses would have a different outlook. A 20-year sentence could mean getting out in six or seven years with good behavior. They could do such time standing on their heads; they could hang tough. Toughness was John Gotti's middle name.
And Gotti was adding a touch of coolness. Heading for an appearance in a federal courtroom, he insisted a female radio reporter enter before him. "I was brought up to hold doors open for ladies," he said.
It was the same sort of elegance that Al Capone, up until then a firm believer in violence, developed after becoming top boss when Johnny Torrio bowed out in 1925.
Gotti faced intensive federal prosecutions in the late 1980s, and it seemed highly likely that the young mob boss would almost certainly be convicted and would have to be replaced, if only temporarily, by a new leader of the Gambino family. But it was soon evident that even from behind bars Gotti was not about to hold still for being replaced. Given Gotti and his supporters' propensity for violence, it remained doubtful as well that the other New York crime families would dare to interfere with the powerful Gambinos. As one insider is reputed to have said, "When the Gambinos spit, the other families drown."
That meant any real opposition would have to come from within the family, and no one seemed capable of moving on Gotti, or his handpicked caretakershis brother Peter and a childhood buddy, Angelo Ruggeriowhile he was imprisoned for his trial. Then in early 1987, shocking government attorneys, Gotti beat the rap.
Next an effort was made to convict Gotti on RICO (1970 Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act) charges. The lead prosecutor was Diane Giacalone, but her case was ill prepared and promised little chance of success, partially due to backbiting between the prosecutors and the FBI team investigating Gotti, members of which felt they could eventually produce a stronger case. Gotti and his cohorts were acquitted, and the mob leader's reputation was truly made. He became known as the "Teflon Don" against whom criminal charges simply could not be made to stick. It made grand press for Gotti, but his days were numbered.
The FBI produced a solid RICO case against him based on 100 hours of incriminating tapes. And they convinced Gotti's underboss, Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, to flip and testify against his chief. Gravano, who confessed to 19 murders, was out to save his own neck, and some criticized the government for granting him

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