Surviving the Mob (11 page)

As Andrew prepared to start his third year as a member of Nicky’s crew, he began to think of where he wanted his career to take him. But he didn’t know then that his encounter with Ralph Burzo on East 2
^nd
Street was only months away. And he hadn’t yet learned his lessons about Mob politics and loyalty. However, his education would soon begin when he got into trouble and Nicky Corozzo’s support wasn’t quite what he expected.

For Andrew, winds of change were on the way.

10

At some point during their working years, most people take stock of where they are and where they want to go with their careers. Although he didn’t have what the majority of us would consider to be a normal job, Andrew was striving to be a professional in his chosen field, so he had work-related decisions to make. As he improved his criminal skills and became more valuable to his boss, he started thinking about a step up the career ladder. In his case, that meant becoming a made man.

Traditionally, to become a made member of the Mafia, the inductee had to be of full Italian or Sicilian descent. However, to become a made man in the Italian-American Mafia today, the candidate must only be of half-Italian descent on either his father’s or mother’s side, provided he has an Italian surname. A frequent example of a made member who wasn’t a full-blooded Italian is John A. “Junior” Gotti, whose mother was of Russian and Jewish descent. However, with a person as powerful as his father behind him, the traditional requirement was waived.

And the nominee should also have “made his bones” by committing a murder on behalf of his Mafia family or crew. Many Mafia families, especially the more violent factions,
don’t consider a killing for personal reasons to meet this requirement.

If a man does get made, his elevated status entitles him to additional respect and financial rewards. In addition, he is not allowed to be killed without the permission of the Mob hierarchy—in essence, making him untouchable to his organized-crime rivals or enemies.

Andrew believed he had a legitimate shot at becoming a full member of the Gambinos in spite of his youth. He was qualified in regard to his ancestry. He’d demonstrated his loyalty and his ability as an earner who would do whatever it took to protect his turf. And even though he hadn’t yet committed murder for Nicky, it wasn’t for a lack of willingness to pull the trigger when necessary. He didn’t think he was someone special, but that he was as deserving as the others in his crew. Besides, as Andrew describes the made-man issue as he knows it, the rules and requirements of tradition weren’t always adhered to.

“People hear a lot of things about being made that sound good, but just aren’t true in the real world. For example, made men aren’t supposed to be involved in drug dealing. You’ve gotta kill somebody to get made. Everybody who gets made has been there and done that. They won’t tell their men to do anything they haven’t done themselves. That’s all bullshit. The human element involved makes some of these so-called rules a joke.

“Does anyone really think organized crime doesn’t make a huge amount of money from the drug business? I was involved in dealing pot and shook down dealers of hard drugs. I kicked money to Nicky and he passed some of it on to the family boss. And one of the reasons John Gotti was at odds with Paul Castellano was because Gotti’s crew was into the drug business in a big way selling heroin and Castellano was pissed off about it. He didn’t mind collecting his envelope. But he was worried that if those guys got busted, it would be
bad for the family’s image.

“I’ll tell you how this made-man thing really worked in New York City. In order for guys to get straightened out [become made], their names had to be submitted to the Commission [the heads of the five New York City crime families] when the books were open. Opening the books was like an enrollment period. And all the families opened the books at the same time. It didn’t happen that often, because with all the pressure the law was putting on, it was tough to get the five bosses together in the same place at the same time. It might happen once a year or it could be a couple of years between enrollments.

“When the books did open, the crew boss gave his list of candidates to the head of the family, who put the names in front of the Commission. Any of the five bosses could block anybody’s name regardless of what family the guy was associated with.

“Let’s say the nominee had robbed somebody from another family’s crew, then didn’t make it up. He might have borrowed money and didn’t pay it back. Or maybe he went into an establishment run by another family and acted like a cowboy, getting in fights and causing damage. Any of these things could be seen as meaning the guy wasn’t honorable or mature enough to become a member. He could get a no vote because one of the five thought he was too young and needed more seasoning.

“Contrary to popular belief, money and politics play a big part in whose names get submitted and who get their badge [are inducted]. I know of people who had lots of money and bought their way in. I’m talking about guys who never broke an egg, much less shot or killed anybody. You’d be surprised at how quick tradition goes out the window when a wannabe dangles a hundred thousand dollars under a boss’ nose. But these types want the prestige of being made. They don’t really want to work with or run a crew. So other than making
a mockery of the eligibility requirements, they don’t really hurt anything.

“The same isn’t true in other cases, though. I said earlier that the Mob is rife with nepotism. When a boss sponsors a blood relative or close friend for membership who isn’t qualified, problems can result. I mean, how much credibility will a guy have when he orders somebody to do some work if he’s never pulled the trigger himself?

“When I was doing time in a federal prison in 1997, a Lucchese capo named Georgie Conte was inside with me. He was a trigger man with a solid reputation and was highly respected. He told me about how one guy tried to get around that requirement. Another Lucchese capo wanted to get his son made, but the kid had never committed an act of violence. So the son was assigned to participate in a murder. A few days before the hit, the kid went to Georgie’s home. He admitted that he couldn’t go through with the murder. He wanted Georgie to do the killing for him for fifty thousand and give him the credit for it. Georgie turned him down and the kid didn’t go on the hit. But his father had enough clout that he got made anyway.

“Some people aren’t capable of doing violence and I’m okay with that. But don’t put somebody like that in a position of power where he can order people to do what he doesn’t have the guts to do himself.

“And there are lots of guys who deserve to get in, but don’t. Maybe they don’t kiss the boss’ ass enough. Maybe they’re too good at their job and pose a threat to the boss. Those capos aren’t about to give more power to somebody who could end up replacing them.

“These things don’t sit well with some of the old-time made men or the younger guys waiting for their chance. But what can you do about it? Even John Gotti bent the rules to get his son made. So in the modern-day Mafia, you can
get your badge if you’ve got enough money, know the right people, or are a big enough earner.

“And the benefits of being a made man aren’t cast in stone, either. It all depends on who does what to whom. For instance, Gambino crewman Roy DeMeo [car thief and cold-blooded killer] could get away with about anything he wanted to, because everybody was afraid of him. He could take out a made man and nobody said shit. If somebody not as strong looked at a made man the wrong way, he could get the death sentence.

“But in 1988 I thought there was a good chance Nicky would put my name in when the books opened. I’ll never know whether he would have or not, because Ralph Burzo came along. And that deal blew me out of contention.”

As described in the first chapter of this book, on April 8, 1988, Andrew shot a man named Ralph Burzo. In order to put that incident in context, it was necessary to review several years of his life immediately prior to the shooting. That accomplished, Andrew can tell his side of the story, explaining what happened that day and in the days that followed.

“At that time my relationship with Dina was strained. We weren’t living together. She was staying with her mother and I’d started dating another girl. Had she not been carrying my child, we probably wouldn’t have been in contact at all. But Dina said she wanted me to be at the hospital when the baby was born and asked me to attend Lamaze classes with her. She also told me she needed a car to get to the classes and doctor appointments. So I gave her a substantial amount of cash to buy a car. She said she had an uncle who ran a car lot and she’d get something from him. A day or two later, she came to the horse room on Stillwell Avenue driving
a green Tnunderbird. She said she’d purchased the car from her uncle.

“That night, I went to her place to go to the Lamaze class. My new girlfriend was using my car, so we took the Thunderbird. On the way, the cops pulled us over for a traffic violation. They ran the plate and checked the insurance card and found everything had expired three years earlier. I asked her how her uncle could have let her drive out of his dealership with no insurance and expired plates. She gave me a story that I bought, but it turned out to be a lie.

“After the class we went back to her mother’s and I spent the night. The next morning we went outside and as we approached the car, I saw this guy there changing the windshield wipers. I’d never seen him before and had no idea who he was. He was about ten years older than me and looked like a weight lifter. He wasn’t that tall, but he was stocky—around two hundred forty pounds or so. I thought maybe he worked for Dina’s uncle and he’d been sent over to put on the new blades.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but I learned later that as I was getting close to the car, Dina was walking behind me gesturing to this guy to get out of there. When we got to the Thunderbird she said, ‘Andrew, this is Ralph.’ Ralph didn’t say hello or offer to shake hands. He just turned around and walked away.

“I asked Dina who in the hell he was. Did he work for her uncle? Now the tears and the truth came. She told me that Ralph was the guy she bought the car from, not her uncle. She’d been afraid to tell me that.

“I asked her how much she paid for it. She said she hadn’t actually given him any money yet. He was letting her use the car for a while. The more I heard, the less I liked the arrangement. The lies had me pissed off. And I knew deals like that usually come with strings attached.

“Dina drove me back to my house and I called my buddy
Sammy [Karkis]. I told him I had a situation that was buggin’ me. I wouldn’t get my own car back until later and asked him to drive me around to look for this Ralph guy, so I could get to the bottom of what was really going on. Sammy picked me up and we drove back over toward Dina’s. As we drove down East Second Street, there was Ralph, walking down the block.

“I got out of the car, walked up to him, and told him we had to talk. I said we had to get the car business straightened out. Dina didn’t need favors from anybody. If he wanted to sell the car, we’d buy it. That’s the way it had to be.

“Ralph had a bad attitude right from the start. He said that was a matter between him and Dina and he wasn’t going to talk with me about it.

“I said, ‘You’re telling me that what goes on between you and Dina is none of my fuckin’ business? I’ll tell you somethin’ right now. If you want trouble, you’ve got the right guy. This is your lucky day.’

“Ralph wasn’t impressed. He said, ‘I don’t give a shit who you got in that car or who in the fuck you think you are. I’ll give you a beatin’ and him too.’

“Now I was really pissed off. This motherfucker thinks he’s going to tell me that what he does with the mother of my child is none of my business and get away with it? I didn’t want to back off and I couldn’t have even if I did. Here I was thinking about getting made and I’m gonna let this prick back me down? If I couldn’t handle a guy trying to make a move on my woman, where in the fuck was I goin’ in the family?

“Ralph started to take off his windbreaker to be ready to fight. As he did, he turned his head slightly. I pulled the thirty-eight out of my pants and shot him behind his ear. Lucky for both of us the bullet struck bone and splintered. He went down, but he was alive and conscious. I squatted next to him and was ready to fire a second round into his head to finish him off. Before I pulled the trigger, I looked around and this old woman was looking right at me. I stood up, put the gun
back in my pants, and jumped in the car with Sammy. We drove past the woman and made our getaway.

“After a couple of blocks, I had Sammy pull over. I got out of the car and threw the gun on the roof of a body shop. Then he dropped me off at the horse room.

“I borrowed a car and drove around for a while. I called Nicky’s future son-in-law Vinnie Dragonetti and Anthony Gerbino and told them what happened. Then I went to a friend’s house, took a shower, and changed clothes. After that I returned the borrowed car and got my own car back. I called Dina, picked her up, and drove to her father’s home in New Jersey. I figured I’d be safe there until I could find out if the cops were trying to find me. At that point Dina knew something was up, but I hadn’t told her the whole story yet. By the time we got to her father’s, the police had already been to Dina’s mother’s place looking for me.

“I found out later that the reason the cops got onto me so quick was because Ralph was in and out of consciousness. When he was awake, he told them he didn’t know what happened to him. The last thing he remembered for sure was talking with somebody named Andrew. He didn’t know my last name, but he described me as Dina’s husband. He also told them that I had been in a car with a kid named Sammy. I was totally unaware that Ralph had met Sammy previously. He didn’t know his last name either, though. With all that information, they figured me to be the Andrew guy pretty fast and the search was on.

“When the cops went to my mother’s, they said they wanted to speak with her about her son. Right away she thought I was dead and they showed up to give her the news. They told her I was wanted for questioning in connection with a shooting—I wasn’t the victim. She shut the door on them. When they drove away, she got in her car and met up with Mike Yannotti, Anthony, and Richie. They went to the street where I told Anthony I’d thrown the gun on the roof to
find it and get rid of it. They rode up and down that area on the elevated subway checking the roofs and couldn’t locate the gun. It was never found. Not by them and not by the cops. To this day I have no idea what happened to it; it just disappeared.