Reputed Gambino crime family soldier John “Johnny G” Gammarano has passed away according to a recent report.
According to the feds, he became a made member of the mafia back in the 1980s and held the rank of acting capo in the Gambino family at various times during his long career in organized crime. Gammarano was reportedly one of the three men inside Sparks Steak House back in 1985 when former Gambino family boss Paul Castellano was assassinated. In early 1990’s he was indicted along with 16 other alleged mobsters including reputed Gambino family capo Joseph (JoJo) Corozzo and former New Orleans mafia boss Anthony S. Carollo in a video poker based racketeering scheme.
“John Gammarano”
His name surfaced again in the testimony of former Gambino capo Michael “Mikey Scars” DiLeonardo during the John A. “Junior” Gotti racketeering trial. According to DiLeonardo, Gotti planned to whack Gammarano, capo Daniel Marino, and associate Joseph Watts over a beef in the Cosa Nostra families lucrative construction rackets. DiLeonardo testified that Gotti believed the mob trio has been skimming cash from the rackets since the 1990s and had set a meeting to discuss the matter with plans on killing them if he wasn’t satisfied with their explanation. He said he stocked a Bensonhurst apartment with body bags and instructed a pair of gunmen to hide in a bedroom and make a move if Gotti gave the signal but the hit never went down.
The men arrived in a limo accompanied by a civilian according to DiLeonardo so there was no way the hit could have gone down. During the meeting, Watts explained that he was given carte blanche when it came to construction and had permission to do it from the “Dapper Don” John Gotti. DiLeonardo said Junior took Watts word for it and he was satisfied at that point. Although maybe Gotti never completely forgave the three mobsters because he reportedly detailed crimes that they committed during a secret proffer session with the feds in 2005 when he was making a failed bid to get out from under racketeering charges.
The death of Gammarano leaves one less link back to a historic era of the Gambino family and the NY mafia.
Another old timer is now gone. He seemed like a pretty old school low key kind of mobster considering the fact that he was in the mix for these well publicized Gambino family stories over the years yet his name never really stuck out and I am sure many don’t know much about him and his mob career over all.
He was not that low key, back in the early 90’s he owned a bar in Bay Ridge “Foul Play” Monday Night Football there was like a who’s who of wise guys. RIP
Ive only rarely heard that name. Story shows just how treacherous Gotti Jr was becoming. Wasnt Joe Watts one of Gotti Sr’s best friends? By all accounts a real tough guy as well. He was one of the guys that Mikie Scars made unusual comments about eluding to the possibility that he may have been a non Italian Made guy. I’ve never found any concrete answers regarding Watts being formally inducted but there was some talk of it. Wouldn’t be surprised if Junior had no plans to ever go through with killing those guys and was just posturing to save face in front of the troops. Not saying Junior never killed or wasn’t capable but I get the impression he was no stone killer like Watts or some of the others. Junior has always appeared like a spoiled child riding fathers coat tails. Just the way it appears from an outsider. Just never struck me as any kind of impressive character. His father for all his faults and arrogance was said to be a proper tough guy at least. Maybe too much of a tough guy and not enough finesse to balance out the top spot in a Borgata that large and powerful at the time.
Yeah Watts was a Gotti Sr guy and I have not seen any info from a legit source confirming that he was ever made and most likely was just a well connected associate. I am not sure if Gotti would have whacked those guys in the end either and it is very possible he was just puffing up for the guys around him.
Yea I forget where I read it but it was an interview with Mikie Scars and he made some cryptic comments regarding the status of Watts. No one was quite sure what he meant. No doubt Watts was an associate on a higher level then most. Some of these guys are almost as good as Made with maybe just a few exceptions just like some early Outfit guys like Murry Humphries, Jake Guzik. The German Schweighs, Gussy Alex. No Average Made Soldier was telling those guys what to do. Jimmy Burke also probably. Can you imagine some regular Wiseguy from any family trying to muscle those guys or pull rank. Even Frattiano was sort of admonished by The Outfit bosses for messing with Sydney Korshak. He mentioned that in his own book.
Watts was never inducted but supposedly holds the honorary rank of captain. He was real close with Gotti sr.and allegedly did alot of hits for him. The highest ranking non- Italian with the Gambino family allegedly..
That would make sense. I can see him having an unofficial title like that. Gotti definitely had a lot of power in his heyday but he was no Vito Rizzuto hah
Hey guys I know that this is completely off-topic but here’s a very intriguing and recent article about the Italian Mafia’s connections to the Far East. It’s mostly about the Ndrangheta but also mentions a Sicilian which could mean that Cosa Nostra is somewhere in the picture as well. For anyone interested here’s the link.
http://thediplomat.com/2017/07/how-the-calabrian-mafia-discovered-hong-kong/
good read