Jury Told Murder Is ‘Soul’ of Gambino Crime Family

The government on Friday wrapped up its case against John Gotti, telling jurors that “murder is the heart and soul” of the Gambino organized-crime family.

“Murder played a central role in this enterprise,” Assistant U.S. Atty. John Gleeson said. He added that Gotti, as head of the crime family, “did not go out and shoot people in the face, he had other people do it for him.”

Defense lawyers maintain that the government’s star witness, Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano, is responsible for the murders and other crimes. They were to present their final arguments today.

Prosecutors charge that Gotti ordered the Dec. 16, 1985, shooting deaths of Gambino boss Paul Castellano and Castellano’s bodyguard Thomas Bilotti to seize control of the nation’s most powerful and visible crime syndicate. The men were gunned down on a busy midtown Manhattan street outside a popular restaurant.

Gotti, 51, and co-defendant Frank Locascio, 59, also are accused of other murders, loan sharking, labor corruption and tax violations. Both have been in jail without bail since their arrests in December, 1990, and face life in prison if convicted of the most serious crimes.

“I submit to you that no reasonable person could dispute that John Gotti is the boss of the Gambino crime family since Paul Castellano was murdered in 1985,” Gleeson said. “John Gotti cannot, will not and need not admit that. Murder is the heart and soul of this enterprise.”

The government’s case was based on hours of secretly made FBI surveillance tapes and the testimony of Gravano, the 47-year-old Gambino underboss and Gotti’s best friend until last fall when he turned against his longtime criminal associates and agreed to testify against Gotti.

“We caught six hours and it’s absolute mayhem. Who they murdered, who they are going to murder, why they have to murder people,” Gleeson said of the private conversations taped in the inner sanctums of Gotti’s favored hangouts. “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

Gleeson said Gravano’s testimony “makes the proof absolutely suffocating.”

He asserted that Gotti ordered people killed when he feared that they might turn against him, when he thought they had not showed proper respect or to take over their businesses.