"Meet the new mob — same as the old mob.
Thirty-three years after John Gotti carried out his audacious hit on crime boss Paul Castellano, which flouted Mafia rules and brought a wave of devastating prosecutions under the Dapper Don’s brash reign, New York’s five crime families have reverted to their old-guard ways.
No more press conferences or TV appearances.
No more weekly meetings with capos at favorite restaurants or social clubs.
No more shootouts between warring factions.
No more wire rooms for taking wagers.
Instead, gangsters try to keep their heads down and earn as they’ve done for decades, with drug dealing, loan-sharking, running strip clubs and protection rackets and skimming from union construction jobs, cops and prosecutors say.
Bookmaking is still a lively trade, but most of it is done online using offshore accounts, not at smoke-filled gambling dens.
...This more careful approach to La Cosa Nostra — this thing of ours — has the Mafia looking to bounce back.
...And the most infamous mob rat of all, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, the homicidal underboss whose testimony put former best friend John Gotti in jail, is alive and well.
And free as a bird.
Even with all the changes in the Mafia, some things remain the same.
“They’re still part of the fabric of New York City,” said a law-enforcement source.
“They’re never going to go away.”
Read on.
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