Surviving the Mob - Dennis Griffin [91]
After a couple of reconnaissance missions, from New York to Arizona, the plot was ready to go. But in February 2000, when Mangiavillano was driving along FDR Drive, word came over the radio that Gravano had been arrested on drug-distribution charges.
“I had regrets that we didn’t get to accomplish the mission after all the work we’d put in,” Mangiavillano said.
Months later, Peter Gotti complained to associate Michael “Mikey Scars” DiLeonardo that he’d spent $70,000 on the Gravano hit and had no body to show for it. He questioned whether Carbonaro and Mangiavillano had actually made it to Arizona.
The FBI confirmed that they had. Over several months, Special Agent Theodore Otto retraced their route westward from Brooklyn to Phoenix. It all checked out, right down to the snowstorm in Amarillo.
Based in large part on Fat Sal’s statements, federal prosecutors in Manhattan leveled new charges against Peter Gotti and Carbonaro, both of whom were already under an unrelated indictment in Brooklyn. And on December 22, 2004, on the strength of testimony from Mangiavillano, DiLeonardo, and two other mob turncoats, Gotti and Carbonaro were convicted of their roles in the plot to kill Gravano.
During his three days on the witness stand, Mangiavillano told jurors, “I pray to God at night that freedom comes.”
A few days later, his prayers were answered. A Brooklyn judge released Mangiavillano from prison into the federal Witness Protection Program.
As 1999 came to a close Andrew was still incarcerated, but he too was beginning to see a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel. If he could win a reduced sentence for his parole violation, freedom might not be that far away.
21
2000
For Andrew the year 2000 started out with anticipation. He was sure the government was putting together additional cases that involved his past information and future testimony. But which cases were they? The government didn’t disclose its intentions to witnesses until they felt the time was right. So guys like him were left to wait and wonder what was going to happen next.
While biding his time, Andrew also wondered when prosecutors would get around to charging Nicky Corozzo and Mike Yannotti in the murders of Robert Arena and Thomas Maranga, for which he’d provided them with information when he rolled in 1997. Going on three years later, he was still waiting to hear that arrests had been made or indictments issued.
Andrew was sure that from the time his cooperation with the government became public in 1998, Corozzo, Yannotti, and many others had been waiting for the law to knock on their door with an arrest warrant. And as the drug dealers and bank robbers were reeled in, the others had to know their turn was just a matter of time. So he probably wasn’t the only one playing the anticipation game.
Nicky Corozzo and Mike Yannotti were his main interests, though. He had to give up the dealers and robbers in order to fulfill his agreement with the government. But Nick and Mike had been responsible for the death of his best friend. And that put them in a different category.
Corozzo was already in prison on racketeering charges unrelated to the Arena murder and wasn’t scheduled for release until 2004. But Yannotti was still on the streets.
Andrew recalls what was going through his mind at the time.
“I was curious about what it was like for Mike. And every so often, I tried to put myself inside his head and the heads of some of my other former crew members who still had their freedom. They’d committed crimes with me and they knew how the government operated. Their witnesses were required to tell all they knew about everybody. They couldn’t pick and choose who they gave up. With that knowledge,