situation was handled. I was trying to expand my operations in that part of town. If I’d have backed down, when the word got around, other people would have challenged me. And it would have reflected badly on the whole crew. Interlopers might figure if I could be pushed around, the rest of the crew was probably soft too. And if I wanted to become a made man in the future, I had to prove I could hold down my territory. For all those reasons, my response had to be fast and decisive.
“The very next day I went to the park with two friends. I had them wait at the entrance, guns in hand, while I wentto look for the new drug kingpin, a guy named Ivan. Under my jacket I had a police baton that had been drilled out in the center and filled with lead. Ivan was sitting on a bench with six or seven other guys around. As I approached, they thought I was there to make a buy and asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted to see Ivan, that I heard he had some good stuff. As Ivan got up, I pulled out the baton and hit him on the crown of his head. The sound of the impact was so loud that one of my friends ran over and said, ‘Please, Andrew! Don’t hit him again. You’ll kill him.’
“With Ivan unconscious on the ground, I pulled my gun and told Ivan’s boys if I ever saw any of them in the park again, I’d kill them. The next day I flew to Jamaica and stayed for a couple of weeks to let the heat die down. Ivan and his crew never returned to the park.”
THE HORSE ROOM
In December 1986, Nicky opened yet another door for Andrew. He asked his underling to learn how to operate one of the horse rooms the crew ran. These betting parlors were the Mob’s equivalent of the Off Track Betting (OTB) sites run by the New York State government. They were not only patterned after OTB, they were set up using actual OTB technology and were an important part of the crew’s income. Nicky’s guys had bribed an OTB cleaning crew to let them into the building at night. They took the computer chip, had it duplicated, then returned it.
“I was real excited when Nicky assigned me to learn the horse room. He had me train in one of the small rooms for a week or so in late December. I liked the job and enjoyed learning it. The place I was working at was run by a girl named Margo. I remember one day that I couldn’t work my assigned shift and asked her to switch with me. When I pulled up in my car to go to work, the cops were there and they were takingMargo out in cuffs. I felt so sorry for her, because on a normal day it would have been me under arrest. She took it well, though, and we laughed about it later.”
Right after New Year’s Day 1987, Nicky put Andrew in one of the bigger OTB operations. It was a great opportunity, but it almost cost him his life.
For Andrew, 1986 had been another successful year financially and personally. Fraudulent automobile, employment, and credit-card deals had generated a lot of money. His drug and shylocking businesses were going strong. And he was being groomed for taking on the additional responsibility of running a horse room. His personal stature had grown over his handling of the attempted takeover of his Utica Park drug operation and he was engaged in a passionate but stormy liaison with Dina. Although his personal relationship with Mike Yannotti was still somewhat strained, professionally they were working well together.
As for the crew, their concerns over the family’s direction under John Gotti’s leadership never materialized. In fact, Andrew and his crewmates at the street level liked their new boss’ blue-collar style. John Gotti was going to be good for business. Or so it seemed.
8
Gambling and the New York Mob
Gambling accounted for a major portion of the Gambino family’s income, as it did for all the New York City crime families. The operations were run by individual crews within each organization and the take often ran into the tens of millions of dollars per year per crew . The
“The very next day I went to the park with two friends. I had them wait at the entrance, guns in hand, while I wentto look for the new drug kingpin, a guy named Ivan. Under my jacket I had a police baton that had been drilled out in the center and filled with lead. Ivan was sitting on a bench with six or seven other guys around. As I approached, they thought I was there to make a buy and asked me what I wanted. I said I wanted to see Ivan, that I heard he had some good stuff. As Ivan got up, I pulled out the baton and hit him on the crown of his head. The sound of the impact was so loud that one of my friends ran over and said, ‘Please, Andrew! Don’t hit him again. You’ll kill him.’
“With Ivan unconscious on the ground, I pulled my gun and told Ivan’s boys if I ever saw any of them in the park again, I’d kill them. The next day I flew to Jamaica and stayed for a couple of weeks to let the heat die down. Ivan and his crew never returned to the park.”
THE HORSE ROOM
In December 1986, Nicky opened yet another door for Andrew. He asked his underling to learn how to operate one of the horse rooms the crew ran. These betting parlors were the Mob’s equivalent of the Off Track Betting (OTB) sites run by the New York State government. They were not only patterned after OTB, they were set up using actual OTB technology and were an important part of the crew’s income. Nicky’s guys had bribed an OTB cleaning crew to let them into the building at night. They took the computer chip, had it duplicated, then returned it.
“I was real excited when Nicky assigned me to learn the horse room. He had me train in one of the small rooms for a week or so in late December. I liked the job and enjoyed learning it. The place I was working at was run by a girl named Margo. I remember one day that I couldn’t work my assigned shift and asked her to switch with me. When I pulled up in my car to go to work, the cops were there and they were takingMargo out in cuffs. I felt so sorry for her, because on a normal day it would have been me under arrest. She took it well, though, and we laughed about it later.”
Right after New Year’s Day 1987, Nicky put Andrew in one of the bigger OTB operations. It was a great opportunity, but it almost cost him his life.
For Andrew, 1986 had been another successful year financially and personally. Fraudulent automobile, employment, and credit-card deals had generated a lot of money. His drug and shylocking businesses were going strong. And he was being groomed for taking on the additional responsibility of running a horse room. His personal stature had grown over his handling of the attempted takeover of his Utica Park drug operation and he was engaged in a passionate but stormy liaison with Dina. Although his personal relationship with Mike Yannotti was still somewhat strained, professionally they were working well together.
As for the crew, their concerns over the family’s direction under John Gotti’s leadership never materialized. In fact, Andrew and his crewmates at the street level liked their new boss’ blue-collar style. John Gotti was going to be good for business. Or so it seemed.
8
Gambling and the New York Mob
Gambling accounted for a major portion of the Gambino family’s income, as it did for all the New York City crime families. The operations were run by individual crews within each organization and the take often ran into the tens of millions of dollars per year per crew . The
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