Howard Blum - Gangland: How the FBI Broke the Mob

HOW THE FBI BROKE THE MOB

HOWARD BLUM

POCKET BOOKS

Praise for Howard Blums Investigative Milestone GANGLAND

An exciting tale, full of brave words and heroic deeds and dashing men and sexy women In its detail, GANGLAND convinces. Fascinating

Tom McNamee, Chicago Sun Times

A blockbuster, this suspenseful and superbly written expos written by former New York Times reporter Blum will surely hit the headlines. Blum chronicles the struggle to build a flawless case against Gambino Family boss John Gotti by the FBIs C-16 squad, a latter-day incarnation of Eliot Nesss Untouchables.

Publishers Weekly

As easy to read as a crime noveland the real-life denouement is easily as satisfying as that in any fictional police thriller.
GANGLAND offers amazing portraits of the inner circles of Gottis underworld, and of the agents who worked the case, and a detailed reconstruction of how the FBI used one of the most sophisticated electronic surveillance operations in bureau history. Blums tightly written narrative makes for a page-turning story of a classic struggle.

Bill Wallace, San Francisco Chronicle

The best Mafia book in quite a few years Blum delivers excitement and tension.

Thomas Gaughan, Booklist

Mr. Blum himself has clearly done a job of investigative digging. An absorbing report on how a special unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation eventually gathered enough evidence to convict John Gotti, the seemingly indestructible crime boss.

The story Blum tells is important.

GANGLAND reads like a police thriller. Chalk one up for the good guys.

Bill Leyden, Florida Times-Union

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

Fascinating Blum has indeed written a book with a new Gotti angle. He is a first-rate reporter.

Steve Weinberg, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

John Gotti is the subject of Blums intensively researched, hypnotically absorbing true-crime report. There have been other excellent books on Gotti, but none written with Blums flair for drama. Diligent research reveals itself in unusual details about Gottis character.

Kirkus Reviews

A solid, readable gripping tale Blums a talented writer who knows how to milk a scene for its dramatic potential.

Ray Locker, Tampa Tribune-Times

GANGLAND completes the job begun by Nicholas Pileggi in Wiseguy. Blum has made good use of the transcripts of the wiretaps his FBI heroes planted in the Ravenite Social Club in Little Italy. He provides vivid shards of the daily digest of high crimes and low humor. Blum handles his material like a good screenwriter.

Bill McKibben, New York Daily News

Chilling Rich in detail, GANGLAND offers a blow-by-blow account of the FBIs effort.

Ann Zivotsky, Blade Citizen-Preview (CA)

The riveting behind-the-scenes account of the risks taken and the battles lost and won in the all-out effort that finally landed Gotti in jail. GANGLAND is an action-packed page turner, a real-life detective thriller.While this true-life saga may rival the best in detective fiction, it also exemplifies the best in investigative reporting, documenting in detail the real inside story that was never covered in the national press. Intensively researched and expertly written, GANGLAND is one unforgettable scene after another.

The Florida Newspaper

Books by Howard Blum

NONFICTION

Wanted! The Search for Nazis in America

I Pledge Allegiance... The Story) of the Walker Spy Family

Out There

Gangland

FICTION

Wishful Thinking

The sale of this book without its cover is unauthorized. If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that it was reported to the publisher as unsold and destroyed. Neither the author nor the publisher has received payment for the sale of this stripped book.

POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Copyright 1993 by Howard Blum

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

For information address Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-671-90015-3

ISBN-13: 978-0-671-90015-1

eISBN-13: 978-1-439-14143-4

First Pocket Books printing August 1995

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Cover photo by UPI/Bettmann

Printed in the U.S.A.

This book could not have been written without the unprecedented help I received from the FBI. I was granted official access to everyone who played a role in building the Bureaus case against John Gotti. I interviewed officials in Washington and New York, members of the Special Projects Group in Quantico, Virginia, and agents from the C-16 squad who did the actual street work which culminated in Gottis indictment and conviction. I met with members of the team who broke into the Ravenite Social Club in the middle of the night and planted the bugs. I spent time with the technicians who designed one-of-a-kind electronic devices used in the case. I spoke to the agents involved in turning Sammy the Bull Gravano, as well as the men who debriefed him and even boxed with him. I interviewed at length the men who, over a number of years, hunted for Gottis spy in law enforcement. And I had an opportunity to question several of the agents who recruited confidential informants from the Mobs own camp. Some talked with me on the record. Others demanded anonymity. But in the course of all these interviews many of which began while I was writing about the investigation for The New York Times Magazine and continued over many months I was able to piece together the inside story of how the FBI made its case against John Gotti.

I also met with state and federal prosecutors, New York City police officials, and defense attorneys. And I reviewed thousands of pages of trial and audio surveillance transcripts, as well as volumes of previously confidential police and FBI reports filed during the Gotti investigation.

Further, this book could not have been written without the cooperation of a few members of the Gambino crime family who, for whatever reason, also allowed themselves to be interviewed. Their story, too, is told in these pages.

A more extensive list of my sources and a detailed, chapter-by-chapter attribution for every quotation and incident I record is included in a final Authors Note.

This book is for my gang: Jenny, Harold Anthony, and Anna.

With love.

Revenge is a dish best eaten cold.

An old Sicilian proverb

The Mole File

FROM THE APARTMENT WINDOW FTVE FLOORS ABOVE SOHO Billiards, Scott Behar had a perfect sight line. He sat on a steel folding chair that was cushioned with a blue and orange Lets Go Mets pillow. The chair had been placed right next to the window, and when he parted the white vertical blinds just a crack, he could look straight down Mulberry Street.