Surviving the Mob - Dennis Griffin [72]
“Nicky turned to me and made the sign of a gun with his thumb and finger. He said if he did get arrested, there’d be a lot of work [killing] to do. Then he looked around at everybody and he said, ‘Do you hear me? I said if I get arrested, there’s gonna be a lot of fuckin’ work to do.’
“Nicky grabbed my hand and said, ‘And we’re gonna start with that fuckin’ Baby Huey in Queens.’ Baby Huey was what we called Junior Gotti. Nicky looked at me and Mike Yannotti. He said, ‘Okay. Start gettin’ familiar with this guy.’ Mike nodded. I said sure, whatever had to be done would be done. Nicky said he’d contact me later by beeper and we’d get together. Then the meeting ended.
“Two hours later, Lenny and me drove to the sit-down at Wild Bill’s social club. Lenny told me to wait outside while he went in and talked with Wild Bill. He said he was going to settle the problem, but not use his new position in the Gambino family to abuse him. That meant to me that with Nicky’s rise to boss, Lenny was probably going to be the underboss.
“Lenny was gone for about an hour. When he came back he said, ‘You know, this guy hates your fuckin’ guts. But he agreed to settle your debt for seven thousand. Get it to him as soon as you can. So as of now, this thing is squashed. You watch out for yourself anyway, though.’
“I asked him if this was squashed, why I had to still be careful. I mean, for the time being Nicky and Lenny were two of the most powerful gangsters in New York. Wild Bill was just a crew boss. If they said the beef was squashed, it should have been squashed.
“Lenny said he wasn’t talking about Wild Bill. He wouldn’t elaborate, but he gave me a warning. ‘I don’t want ya’ to get caught with your dick in your hand. Don’t trust nobody. Not even in your own backyard, kid.’
“Was Lenny telling me that Nicky was getting ready to give the order to have me whacked? Would Mike Yannotti be the assassin? I didn’t know and he didn’t say. But that statement put me on a serious red alert. When I dropped Lenny off, he gave me one more piece of advice. ‘If they start calling you in [for meetings] too many times, do yourself a favor and don’t go after a while.’
“By the end of that day, I felt I had no choice but to continue to keep an eye on Wild Bill, who was still upset with me over the money deal. I knew how Danny Cutaia felt about me. And from what Lenny had told me, I wasn’t in very good shape with Nicky either. I was already being very careful. How much more cautious could I be?
“Nicky wanted to meet with me again about a week later. But before that took place, he was arrested on federal racketeering charges in Key Biscayne, Florida.”
On December 18, 1996, Nicky Corozzo was arrested on charges of attempted murder, loansharking, and racketeering. A newspaper report of the arrest said Corozzo was nabbed by federal agents as he emerged from a swim in the Atlantic Ocean at the Sonesta Beach Hotel in Key Biscayne, shortly before he was to depart for New York City. Officials said the arrest was certain to create even more disarray in the Gambino crime family.
The arrest coincided with the unsealing of a 20-count indictment that accused Corozzo of an array of charges, including running the Gambino gang’s crime activities in South Florida for at least four years, operating a vast loansharking ring that charged extortionate interest rates up to 260% a year, and arson.
Investigators said that Corozzo was believed to have succeeded John Gotti as the godfather of the Gambino family after leaders in the city’s four other Mafia factions—the Genovese, Lucchese, Colombo, and Bonanno families—demanded that Gotti step down. They’d complained that Gotti, serving a life sentence for murder and racketeering, could no longer effectively run the Gambino group from a cell in the federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois.
Also indicted on racketeering charges with Corozzo was Leonard DiMaria, who officials said was Corozzo’s right-hand man and had recently taken command of Corozzo’s old Brooklyn crew. DiMaria was arrested by the FBI