Surviving the Mob - Dennis Griffin [71]
“He said, ‘You’d better listen to what I’m sayin’ or I’ll put you in the fuckin’ ground.’
“I told him, ‘I heard ya. You go to Nicky and Lenny. And if they don’t go to bat for me, do you think that makes me more dangerous to you or less dangerous? As far as puttin’ me in the fuckin’ ground, why don’t you try it right here and right now?’
“At that point Danny Cutaia cut in. He warned me that I was out of line. He said, ‘You’re on thin ground here.’
“I said, ‘Mind your own business, you motherfucker. You think I don’t know what your plan is? You couldn’t kill me on your best day, you bastard.’
“As I walked away, Wild Bill was still hollering threats. I started laughing and kept on going. It wasn’t funny, though. I’d challenged bosses from two other families. And that wasn’t allowed. If I’d put my hands on either of them, Nicky and Lenny would have had to go along with my murder. That was the resolution required under Mob protocol. But a verbal confrontation didn’t mean an automatic death sentence.
“Wild Bill didn’t waste much time makin’ his beef. Within five days, I got word that Mike Yannotti was looking for me to tell me I had to come in for a meet with Nicky. I called Mike and told him I was out of town and would be away for a couple of weeks.
“In early December, I arranged to meet with Nicky, Lenny, and some of the crew at a diner on Flatbush Avenue. When I got there, I bullshitted with the guys. They seemed glad to see me and said they couldn’t believe how long I’d been able to stay on the run. I made a joke of it. I said that if I’d known life on the run was going to be so good, I’d have done it years earlier.
“After about five minutes of that, Nicky got down to business. He said he called the meeting because there were a lot of things to discuss. The first thing was the Wild Bill situation. He told me to explain to Lenny what was going on. I went through the whole deal, right up to the thing on the street corner.
“When I finished, Lenny reminded me that if I ever touched Wild Bill or Danny, there was nothin’ he or Nicky could do for me. They’d have to give me up—I’d have to die.
“I said Wild Bill treated me like a fuckin’ mutt. If he was doin’ that to me, what was he sayin’ about them?
“Lenny thought it over a few seconds. Then he said he liked my story better than Wild Bill’s. He wanted me to pick him up later that afternoon and we’d go to Wild Bill’s social club and resolve the matter once and for all. I said okay.
“After that, Nicky asked me about the bank robberies. I said I didn’t know what he was talkin’ about. He said he knew about the New Jersey job and wanted to know where his money was. I told him I was on the run and needed every dime I could get my hands on. But I promised to send some money to him the next week. That seemed to satisfy him.
“Next he said he was gonna make some changes. He wasn’t sure what to do with me. He was thinking about having me work directly with Mike Yannotti or Lenny. He said he was leaning toward Lenny. I remember thinking how great it would be if I went with Lenny. You could talk to him like a friend. With Nicky, it was all Mob all the time. He was like a machine. Getting away from him would be the best thing that could happen for me.
“I asked him why he was making these changes. He said he was stepping up. That meant he was taking over as boss of the Gambino family. And in the life, the boss can’t have his own crew, because it would show favoritism. So he said he was putting me with Lenny and Mike would be my go-between.
“With that out of the way, Nicky said he had some serious law-enforcement problems. The feds were after him and his taking over the family would double the speed of their investigation. He expected to be arrested at any time. But even with that hanging over his head, the door was open for him and he had to grab the opportunity. After all, that was what every gangster who came up from the streets dreamed of being some day: