Fireside With The Underboss - "If We Pay This Money, Our Children Will Become Victims"

After Carlo Gambino’s nephew is kidnapped, he uses John Gotti and Angelo Ruggerio to get revenge. Sammy tells the story of the hit that laid the groundwork for John and Angelo to become made into the Gambino family.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
If we pay them this money andget him back, all of our children
will become victims of this. Hey, guys, today I got a story,

(00:50):
a pretty good story. It's aboutManny Gambino, a nephew of Carlo
Gambino. It was kidnapped. Theysent the letter to the family. They
wanted two hundred and fifty thousand toget him back. The family reached out

(01:11):
to Carlo Gambino immediately, I thinkit was his sister's kid, and he
got involved. He told them notto talk to the police, not to
report it, so none of themdid. He also met with the mother
and father and his kid and said, I've come to the conclusion that we're

(01:38):
not going to pay the money.Of course, the mother and father would
throw him back. They did havethat kind of money. It would have
been easy payoff. But Carlo Gambinoexplained to them that if we pay them
this money and get him back,all of our children will become victims of

(02:02):
this. It will get out thatwe paid two hundred and fifty tho all
of our children. At one timeor another, we'll get kidnapped. We
can't pay it, We'll jeopardize theentire family. The mother and father finally
agreed not to have police involved andnot to pay the money. He was

(02:28):
tortured from what I heard, andhe was definitely killed when the ransom wasn't
paid. Carlo Gambino reached out toeveryone to find out what happened, and
they came up with this guy mcbrattney, an Irish guy hung out with a

(02:52):
few other guys. Some of themwere Irish, some of them were Italian,
and he got in touch with NeilDellacroch, the under boss. He
brought him in and they all spokethe administration, the boss, the underboss,

(03:15):
and the gosier. Neil had suggestedto use John Gotti that he was
up and coming in the mafia,wasn't a made member then Angelo Raggerio they
were with Neil. Carlo Gambino agreed. Neil grabbed John Gotti, Angelo Raggerio

(03:40):
and gave them the contract. JohnGotti and Angelo didn't one Ralph on the
hit. He was a cookie snortingcoke, getting high all the time.
They didn't want to trust him,but they had to take him. That

(04:00):
was the order. That day theywent on to hit. They got handcuffs,
badges. They knew where this guywas in a bar. They were
going to go there and make believethey were cops arrest him. He would

(04:21):
think he was being arrested, goout to the parking lot, and Ralph
Garnoni would shoot him when they movedmade the move. Ralph was in on
the side in the dark area,actually snorting coke while this thing was going

(04:44):
on. Angelo and John Gotti madea move on him at the bar.
They identified themselves as cops. Hedidn't buy it. They went to grab
him. He started pushing and findingback. People were in the bar a
lot of confusion. Ralph Gunner onlycome out from the darkness to a few

(05:12):
shots in the air, told everybodyagain against the wall. The guy was
actually pulling John Gotty and Angelo inthe opposite direction towards the other end of
the bar. At this time,Ralph turned around and shot him right in

(05:35):
front of everybody and they ran out. There was a lot of witnesses,
John Gotti, Angelo Raggiio, andI believe Ralph. I'm not sure if
he got pinched yet, but theygot pinched for what Ralph did and that

(05:57):
it was getting high while it wasgoing on. I guess they convinced Carlo
Gambino and Deil that this Ralph shouldbe killed for what he did. Now
they're going to go to prison.Carl and Neil gave the order. Ralph

(06:17):
was killed for what he did.John Gotti and Angelo Viggiio got a high
powered lawyer. He was a connectionlawyer. He had connections within the justice
system with the judges the whole nineyards. They were found guilty or copped

(06:44):
out whatever, and I think theywere sentenced to three years or four years.
They wound up doing three years onthe murder. That laid the groundwork
for Angelo Vigiio and John Gotti tobecome made members in the Gambino family.

(07:08):
That was their reward from Carlo Gambino. It went on for a while,
they ran around and John's reputation startedto grow. From that point. The
rest of the story, he excelledto become the boss of the family.

(07:30):
But that's a story that everybody knows, so I'm not really going to get
into that part of it. Ijust wanted to let you know what happened
before this whole thing and what happenedwith Manny Gambino. Nobody ever kidnapped a
Gambino again. So around the ranksthe old times. They said, Carlo

(07:59):
Gambino did the right thing. He'ssmart. They would have became a target,
of course, of course, thekid his life, but it goes
in a shore. That was thedecision everybody abided back at until today.

(08:20):
It was a good decision. Bythe way, they never cooperated with the
police at any given time, evenwhen the police came to them to tell
him their son was dead. Iunderstood that the mother and the father said
we don't have a son and closedthe door on the police. So I

(08:46):
thought, you guys may be interestedin hearing that story and what I was
told from behind the scenes. Ireally took no part in the murder,
but I was with toddo Arello anda captain and he told me and the
entire story blow by blow. SoI told it to you, guys.

(09:07):
I hope you enjoyed it. Ifyou enjoy it, press like subscribe all
the time. I'll see you soon, and don't forget guys. Catch Families
of the Mafia on MTV every Thursday.