Gotti Plotted Slayings, Prosecutor Says

John Gotti masterminded the assassination of the head of the nation’s largest organized crime family so he could replace him, a federal prosecutor charged Wednesday at the start of the alleged crime boss’ trial.

In his opening argument to a jury of six men and six women, U.S. Atty. Andrew J. Maloney predicted that secret government tape recordings of Gotti--plus the testimony of a top aide, Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano, who has turned government witness--will win a conviction.

“This is a case of a Mafia boss being brought down by his own words and his right arm and perhaps, in the course, bringing down his whole family,” Maloney said in U.S. district court in Brooklyn.

Maloney told the jurors that the tapes would reveal both the business of the Gambino crime family and crimes that Gotti and co-defendant Frank (Frankie Locs) Locascio committed.

“This is not a complex case. The defendants will tell you in their own words,” Maloney said.

The prosecutor said that just before Christmas in 1985, Gotti orchestrated the killing of Gambino crime family head Paul Castellano so that he could gain control of the organization. Gotti learned that Castellano and a top associate were planning to eat dinner at a Manhattan steakhouse, Maloney told the jurors, and he and other mobsters got together “to take out the boss.”

“Gotti and his people were waiting. They (Castellano and his associate) are killed before they can leave their car. The shooters walk off into the evening rush hour. John Gotti becomes boss of the family,” Maloney said.

Gotti watched the prosecutor impassively from the defense table as he delivered his opening statement. After being acquitted at three previous trials, Gotti, 51, faces federal charges including murder, murder conspiracy, racketeering, gambling, tax evasion and loan sharking.

The government charges that Gotti is the boss of a violent criminal enterprise that has committed numerous murders and other crimes. “The boss is all-powerful, who has the power of life and death over his membership,” Maloney said.

The government is counting on Gravano to corroborate what is said on the tape recordings it will introduce. Maloney said that the tapes will show at one point that Gotti was worried about being arrested and offered Gravano the position of “heir apparent” in the Gambino family.

“The unthinkable happens,” the prosecutor said. “Salvatore Gravano contacts the FBI. He comes in and makes a deal. You will hear him confess to all the murders he is involved in.”

In his opening statement, postponed when the father of an alternate juror was hospitalized with a suspected heart attack, defense lawyer Albert J. Krieger is expected to hammer hard at Gravano’s credibility.

Judge Leo Glasser disqualified Gotti’s longtime lawyer Bruce Cutler after the government argued in pretrial proceedings that Cutler’s close relationship made him “house counsel” for the Gambino crime family. The government also said that Cutler’s voice is on tapes that the jury will hear.

The trial is expected to take at least three months. If convicted, Gotti and Locascio, the reputed under boss of the Gambino family, could be sentenced as multiple offenders to life in prison.