The press started calling him the “Teflon Don” because the government could not make a case stick.
The O’Connor case did nothing but add to Gotti’s reputation as a man who could not be brought down by the law. Surveillance tapes which revealed Gotti ordering his people to assault O’Connor, to “put a rocket in his pocket,” and testimony from a jailed Westie, Coffey’s old nemesis, Jimmy McElroy, which supported the charge that Gotti hired his gang to do the job, failed to convince the jury. Gotti was acquitted of ordering the shooting of John O’Connor.
The law enforcement community and even the judge seemed shocked by the verdict. Television news reports contained interviews with people on the street who were beginning to believe maybe Gotti was, as his lawyers claimed, a victim of some government plot against an honest plumbing supply salesman. Or were the prosecutors so incompetent that mob lawyers were running circles around them?
But Coffey and his colleagues had a different view of why Gotti was so successful at walking out of court. “He fixed the cases,” Coffey says matter of factly, and evidence had come to light supporting his theory.
“In the first case, they clearly scared the refrigerator salesman to death. Who would testify after a visit from a Gotti henchman?” says Coffey. “In the armored car case, we believe a Westie named Bosco Radonovitch, a Croatian who is now on the lam in Yugoslavia, got a seventy-five-thousand dollar bribe to one of the jurors to sway the other jurors into, a not guilty vote.
“And in the O’Connor case, a New York City detective who was eventually indicted on corruption charges got information from unsuspecting court officers about what the jury was arguing about behind closed doors. The information was passed to Gotti lawyers who used it to manage their case more effectively. These were good cases against him. He beat them by going outside the law and he got away with it. I’ll never forget his remark about the odds of beating the case the night I arrested him. It shows what a cheap bastard he is. He had the case fixed and he still only offered me three to one. Well, he got his eventually.”
Gotti “got his” in his fourth trial. On December 11, 1990, Gotti, his personal enforcer, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, and Gambino family consiglieri Thomas Locascio were arrested by federal agents working under orders from Andrew Maloney, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a raid on the Ravenite Social Club. Also netted in the raid was Carlo Gambino’s son Thomas, who eventually had his case separated from Gotti’s and plea bargained his way out of jail.
Gotti, Locascio and Gravano were held without bail in the Metropolitan Correction Center until January 1992 when they went on trial for racketeering, loansharking, obstruction of justice and eleven murders, including the ambush of Paul Castellano.
The media dubbed the trial the “mob trial of the century” and it lived up to its billing. Behind the scenes Joe Coffey was kept busy by the prosecution team. He was an invaluable source of information about how the Gambinos did business. Thirty-one surveillance tapes recorded by the State Organized Crime Task Force helped make up the federal case. And one of Joe’s best informants actually made nine face-to-face recordings of conversations with Gotti. As Joe says, “You’d, think Gotti and the rest of the mutts would have finally learned to stay out of the Ravenite and the Bergin Club, or at least not talk business inside. They were even tipped by the corrupt detective that we had taps in the clubs. We were not dealing with the faculty of Harvard.”
Hundreds of reporters from all over the world circled the federal courthouse in Brooklyn each morning of the trial fighting for a quote from the defense team. All this was played out against the background of one of the most violent gang wars in New York’s history.
As the capo di tutti capi sat in his cell or in his chair at the defense table, the soldiers of the Colombo crime family were gunning each other down in record fashion.
Before the Gotti trial reached the halfway point, six soldiers, a Colombo capo and two innocent civilians were dead as jailed boss Carmine Persico spit out orders to stop the advance of a new boss chosen by the Mafia Commission which presumably included John Gotti. There had not been so much mob gunfire since the Coffey Gang had been formed.
And then, as if the trial of John Gotti needed more drama, the government revealed that Sammy “The Bull” Gravano would forevermore be known as Sammy “The Canary.” Gotti’s most trusted aide turned on him, hoping to avoid a life sentence. In court he testified not only how Gotti had planned the murder of Castellano, but was actually at the scene outside Sparks Steak House when the shooting took place. In almost a full week of testimony, Gravano revealed the underbelly of the Gambino family as it was run by Gotti: One murder after another. Gravano admitted following orders to kill his brother-in-law who had been suspected of disloyalty. He described in chilling detail the murder of Robert DiBernardo who ran the pornography operations for the Gambinos and had fallen into disfavor with Gotti. “The Canary’s” song put Gotti in a cage for life. He and Locascio were found guilty and sentenced to life without parole. The following day Gotti was in the federal prison in Marion, Illinois. It is a jail so tough that Amnesty International has it on its list of inhumane prisons.
“Those first three months of 1992 saw organized crime in New York change forever,” Coffey says. “First of all, the Colombos destroyed what was left of a disintegrating organization. With the Bonanno family practically out of business New York is left with only three Mafia families: the most powerful, the Genovese family; the Gambinos, but now without a real godfather, and the Luchesse family. But even they are not the powers they used to be.
“The Genovese family which dates back to Lucky Luciano has the most legitimate investments and the most to lose by strongarm tactics and drug dealing. The Luchesses are survivors, but will not produce a godfather. With Gotti locked away for life, with no true successor thanks to the conviction of Locascio, the Gambinos will never be the same.”
Coffey says the most telling evidence of the progress made by law enforcement is the turning of Sammy Gravano. “Gotti clamming up to the end is a bit of a throwback. The scene in Goodfellas where Paulie and the boys enjoy their steak dinners in prison is history. It was accurate, but it is history.
“Public, officials are no longer so easy to corrupt. The prisons are now run by the black and Latin inmates. A Mafia hood is just another con these days,” says Coffey. “So it’s much easier to make them cooperate. They used to call going to jail ‘going on vacation.’ It’s no longer a vacation for them. That’s why Sammy Gravano turned. He didn’t have the guts to go to prison.”
Black and Latin gangs are also taking over much of the profits from the Mafia in the inner cities. Their use of violence makes Mafia hitmen seem like choirboys as they wipe out entire families and gun down police officers and journalists. As a result the suburbs of America are seeing more and more organized crime activity.
Extortion of construction contracts for work on malls, environmental crimes like illegal dumping of toxic wastes, video shops, gambling among workers in industrial parks and office complexes, increasing auto theft and insurance fraud, and drugs in suburban schools is more and more the work of the nation’s Mafia families.
In New York State the Organized Crime Task Force has taken steps to beef up its activities in suburban areas. Joe Coffey has been put in charge of the Mid-Hudson Task Force which investigates organized crime in Westchester, Rockland, Orange and Sullivan Counties. There is plenty of work ahead.
Image Gallery
Detective Sergeant Joseph Coffey.
Joseph Coffey, Sr. and Margaret Coffey.
The original “Coffey Gang” that solved 82 Mafia murders—after being presented with the New York–New Jersey–Connecticut Detective Crime Clinic Award as the Top Investigative Team of 1980.
Leo Ladenhauf’s body as found in the trunk of his car at LaGaurdia Airport.
Carmine Galante after lunch at Joe and Mary’s, July 12, 1979. Galante’s murder was believed to be a mob hit.
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br /> Joe Coffey and Chief of Detectives James Sullivan (seated) and the rest of the team that cracked the Ladenhauf Case—the first case broken by the Coffey Gang.
Detective Larry Mullins, Police Commissioner Robert McGuire, and Joe Coffey (from left to right).
Guns recovered from the mob as a result of “Operation Clyde.” Kenny “The Rat” O’Donnell was the informant who set up the operation.
The Son of Sam Task Force Omega. Joe served as supervisor. Captain Joe Borelli is on Joe’s left. To the left of Joe Borelli is Task Force Commander Timothy Dowd.
Joe escorting Joe Frazier back to his dressing room after the first fight with Ali, March 1971.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book records the vivid memories of Detective Sergeant Joseph J. Coffey, Jr. It is based almost entirely on his recollection of events, how he was motivated by them, and how he affected their outcome. It depicts his role in the history of the New York Police Department’s fight against crime. There were many people who urged us to put these memories into words. Time and again we turned to these friends and colleagues for their invaluable assistance. With special thanks to Detective Sergeant, NYPD Jim Mullaly (Ret.), for making the introduction of both of us to Tom Dunne. Dr. Sheldon Shuch contributed in ways that cannot be measured.
James Sullivan, former Chief of Detectives NYPD, Richard Esposito, Ed Fischer, Steve and Sharon Hittman, Patti Aronofsky, Doug Kahn and Stephen Mangione also contributed in words and deeds.
And thanks to Pete Wolverton; and to Tom Dunne for his encouragement and his cool, guiding, hand and his faith in both of us.
THE AUTHORS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joseph Coffey (1938–2015) was a legendary NYPD detective whose career involved some of the most spectacular investigations of the 1970s. Best known for taking the confession of the serial killer known as the Son of Sam, Coffey led major campaigns against organized crime and drug smuggling and was one of the detectives who investigated the famous 1978 Lufthansa heist, which inspired the film GoodFellas.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
Copyright © 1991 by Joe Coffey and Jerry Schmetterer.
“Teflon Gone” copyright © 1993 by Joe Coffey and Jerry Schmetterer.
Cover design by Mauricio Díaz
ISBN: 978-1-5040-3799-0
This 2016 edition published by MysteriousPress.com/Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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The Coffey Files Page 26
