I knew then that he was either dead or on the move.. The past is the past, you know what I mean? "It's up the river for you John," read the frosting on the cake. Gene Foster, I piped him on the beach. Tweets. "Junior" Gotti which allegedly distributed eight kilograms of cocaine per month. I batted a guy in the city for Vinny and the Philly mob with the okay from Gotti. Live on UFC FightPass! (Ohhe sometimes used a blackjack, which is a short, weighted and concealable bludgeoning device.) Is it fair to say based on the different numbers you previously testified to under oath, 30 in Carneglias trial, 35 in this trial, that you honestly dont remember exactly how many people you may have shot, right?one of Gottis lawyers asked during his cross. Alite also began cooperating against fellow mobsters, many of whom had started ratting on he and others while he was a fugitive. [22][24] Federal prosecutors from Brooklyn and Tampa described Alite's cooperation as "extraordinary" and "substantial" when submitting statements to the judge responsible for sentencing Alite for two murders and other crimes. Moreover, he accuses the feds of falsifying some things he told then. Alite has claimed he had an affair with her, which shes vehemently denied. I completely agree with Davethat he would have been tasked to work Alite if he had notified his superiors of the relationship, says Wong. [2][14] He also arranged for the purchase of Mirage, a Tampa nightclub. In July 2020, he appeared in the Fear City: New York vs The Mafia Netflix docuseries. South Florida was under siege and under water Thursday amid a storm that dumped 25 inches of rain over some coastal areas, flooding homes and highways and forcing the shutdown of a major . He used extortion and physical intimidation as expansion and management tools. John wonders if his personal redemption (and work with delinquent or at-risk kids) can lead to endorsement opportunities. A One-In-A-Million Friendship: The G-Man and the Mob Hitman. I'm trying to think who else is dead. While Alite is hardly the first retired mobster to do good deeds, what makes his storyparticularly compelling for inner-city youth is that he wasnt just a killer, he was a big earner for the mob. [2], As federal racketeering indictments were handed down for his group's activities in the Tampa area, Alite fled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in January 2004, and lived and worked in the Copacabana neighborhood, according to the Brazilian Federal Police. Gotti says Alite was a member of his mob crew for barely two years (1989-91) before he chased him away from the family, in part because of a tip that he might have become an informant. Before they divorced, John and Carol had two children together, a son named Jimmy and a daughter named Chelsea. John Pennisi revealed that information yesterday. He was the most violent cooperating witness that I've ever encountered. SHOP John Alite Custom Baseball Bats - JOHN ALITE $200.00 USD Shipping calculated at checkout. I would have fell in that last case.. (This was confirmed earlier this year by the Gambino familys house lawyer in a conversation with Gangland Newss Jerry Capeci, the dean of mob reporters.) He agreed to testify against John in court during his racketeering trial, but his statements were largely undermined during cross-examination, which made the jury see him as an unreliable source and excusing John. In 2006, theNew York Post, as well as reporter Capeci, penned scoops about the proffer, and in 2015 author Anastasia published the actual 302. Infighting in the Philadelphia Mafia between rival factions led by John Stanfa and Joey Merlino left the organization in disarray and allowed Alite to take control of the lucrative valet parking business on Delaware Avenue, as well as in South Jersey and Atlantic City, within a year of moving to the area. Follow: @WitsecMafia. I always appealed to his greater good.. It led to his being tagged Tefflon Jr. by the press, just as his dad had been called the Tefflon Don.(Note:This excludes a 1999 case, in which Junior pled guilty on the eve of trial to bribery, extortion and the threat of violence.). I happened to be standing there, says Gentile. Another photo taken years earlier, in 1984, shows Gotti Jr, Alite and Gambino associate/drug dealer John Gebert standing together on a beach pier. Stemming from the racketeering charges in Florida, the authorities found Johnny to be involved in a lot of other crimes as well. The people who are writing the music for Johns album are in their early 20s, early 30s, and the people who buy their music are kids who have been affected directly or indirectly by the gang culture, says Nash, who is also Alites co-manager on entertainment ventures. Junior says his father didnt know Alite. I was a gangster killing people. The violence youre involved in and then youre worrying aboutthis?, Alite and the agents would laugh over it. Now, a lot of people don't get killed. (Arillottahimself, in fact, since he became a cooperator a decade ago. But his biggest move is to try and launch an online gambling venture based in South America, for which he travelled to many countries to study gambling parlors and speak with online betting experts. For insight, it even had various interviews from everyone involved, including attorneys, special agents, and mob figures. For years he was John A. Richie Gottis son-in-law who we left on the side of the Belt Parkway, I batted him, I left him there for dead The Kuzanowski brothers, two of them I baseball-batted. [17][1], In January 2008, Alite pleaded guilty to racketeering charges that included two murders, four murder conspiracies, at least eight shootings, and two attempted shootings as well as armed home invasions and armed robberies in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida, stemming from his alleged involvement in a Gambino crew in Tampa, Florida. Manny I shot in Ridewood for, I think were good. ), Alite and Gentile sprung from different worlds, but they share this much in common: Humble roots, and aggression that began in their childhoods. The next time he feels it necessary to celebrate his freedom because of John Alite, tell him I said he will never be able to truly claim the law of innocence.. THAT WAS THEN: John "Junior" Gotti (left), with John Alite holding his baby son, Jimmy. We were successful with this particular jury, showing that we could not let a violent criminal like Mr. Alite get away with his crimes, while Mr. Gotti, who was not violent in our opinion, be convicted. Dave opened up to Alite about his family tragedies, while Alite opened up about how his prison stints were destroying his relationships with his kids. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. I just have to be vigilant and always check myself and remind myself that I have a different life now. Why? John Alite, the star prosecution witness in John "Junior" Gotti's racketeering and murder trial, said Victoria was wearing dark glasses when she showed up at a Queens social club he owned. In photo's far right: Peter "One Eyed Pete" Gotti, who became boss after Junior. It's ludicrous. The feds were hovering around Alites businesses in New York, New Jersey and Florida, while a growing number of gang members were flipping like pancakes. As a thug, Alite got rich from the usual gangster stuff like extortion, loansharking, drug-trafficking and illegal sports gamblingwhile washing the profits through legitimate assets. Hed really rather charm you than hurt you., Alites therapist also helped him conquer a severe case of hypochondria that he suffered after he returned from his years as a fugitive. Gentile says he never debriefed Alite, nor did he even suggest (until after John became a fugitive) that his pal become an informant. Hes not intelligent enough to be in the same room with me.. Nor did he ask for specifics about his crimesand Alite volunteered none, other than saying he was having severe problems with gangsters in New York and Florida. But hes agoodman., What followed was an hour of bloodcurdling revelations, regrets and warnings. In September 2021, Alite was the subject of an episode of National Geographic's Locked Up Abroad. Its like an alcoholic or drug addict. In fact, IknowI wasnt ready., On the subject of Gentiles chance meeting and the evolution of his friendship with Alite, Gotti isnt buying it. But when Alite learned that Gotti Jr had secretly met with feds, he figured it was only a matter of time before Gotti and others turned on him. Weve had coffee. Anybody I knew in that world would have made an example of him from a telephone pole. #11 - John Alite & Gene Borrello Talk to Hootie, Former Gambino Associate John Alite 59.8K subscribers Join Subscribe 1.9K Share Save 173K views 2 years ago The Johnny & Gene Show Full. [13], Alite later led a crew in Tampa, Florida that extorted rival valet businesses, and reported to Gambino capo Ronald Trucchio. Ive dreamed of every which way to tear his body apart. He was on a payphone in 1995 when Alite shot him. Everybody laughs, because if it wasn't for John Alite, I would not have been home. The event took place in September in Camden, New. [16] Later that year, Alite was arrested for illegal possession of a firearm in violation of a parole agreement and spent three years in prison. John Alite is telling his truth, But it's his version of the truth. As a part of his plea deal, Johnny had agreed to turn into an informant against the family and against John A. Gotti. You could say were friends, Newell confirms to Forbes. Alite phoned Gentile collect from around the world, including from Brazil prisons on smuggled phones. Due to his cooperation with prosecutors, he was released on a five-year supervised release in 2012. He lived there for 10 months before authorities arrested him. At center [+] is Gambino family soldier Frank Radice. Gentile says that had he done so, his bosses would have pressured him to get Alite to inform, and hed have refused their orders. David Gentile and John Alite (l-to-r), [+] at Mare Monte restaurant, Haddonfield, NJ. And, we bet, like us, youre curious to know more about him. Or, more importantly, how the fuck does he sleep at night., Not well. John Alite Once a mobster for Gambino Family, now an advocate against living a life of crime. [3][4] Alite grew up in the same neighborhood as John Gotti's son, John A. Gotti, with whom he was boyhood friends. In late 2006, he was flown in chains in an FBI jet to Florida, where he pled guilty to a long list of crimes ranging from murder, racketeering, kidnapping and drug trafficking, to armed invasions of homes and businesses. It was dismantled by the government. Even so, he broke the mob oath ofomerta[silence] by accusing various mobsters, politicians and a police detective of crimes, and telling the feds about a family plan to convert a garbage dump into a prison that would be sold to the city for $20 million. com on February 18th I 'followed' over 1,000 people who were following John Alite from the JAF Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts but only to alert them of the website and if one of these people. He would hide behind others and blame them when the heat was on. He felt Alite would never cooperate.Alite says he was once given a machine gun by Gambino members to kill Junior, but that this hit was also called off. Gotti, however, finds the absence of such notes suspicious and suggests they may have been shredded. Its a small thing but it means youre not being very precise.. Camden, NJ one of America's most violent cities. I had an empire. John Edward Alite was born on September 30 th, 1962 in Queens, New York City to second generation Albanian immigrants with roots in Gjirokaster. I mean, it's insane. Despite his history, despite what people want to say about him, I would trust him with with my life. So I can keep going with story after story. His history speaks for itself. Nonetheless, he tells Forbes, if he was an Italian, he would have definitely gotmade, maybe even in a high position.Put another way:To us he was an Albanian mafioso, with total respect., (The Bull is lying, erupts Junior, who calls Alite a nobody who was chased from the Gambino family after merely two years of family service. He died; they pulled the plug on him. Don't miss it. You may opt-out by. John Hennigan drops Harley Morenstein three times, scores third-round KO 10:12 p.m. Probation Office claiming that Alite broke the terms of his supervised release in a New Jersey gun case which prompted an investigation that sent Alite back to prison for three months. But two for sure. You know, we watch movies, and we sit there and say, Yeah, okay, that's a movie and Oh, gosh, that's shocking. But then if you actually take a real human being who has done that and morehow thefuckdoes he wake up? He says he came away at times feeling that Alite was embellishing. Government witness and racketeering convictions, "A dirty, rotten, double crossing (true) story of what happened to the Italian American mob", "From the archives: From a Brazilian prison, John Alite talks Gotti and fights extradition", "John Alite n Kosov: Do formoja ushtrin time, sikur ta dija q shqiptart jan kaq trima", "Rrfehet mafiozi shqiptar me origjin nga Gjirokastra: Si e rrzova perandorin e krimit t 'Cosa Nostra-s', "John A. When I told Gotti that Gravano recalls Alite as a good guy and stand-up enforcer for the Gambino family, Gotti snapped: Hes lyingand asserts that Gravano did not even knowofAlites existence during his mob years. Because that set the tone for all my subsequent Teamster investigations, since my reputation was now out on the street.. My life was a mess and now my lifes about a message, Alite said, after Gentile hugged him and handed over the mic. He began associating with "made" members and associates of the Philadelphia crime family, as well as the independent 10th & Oregon Crew. Frankie Geekie I did, And the number of people you shot, who survived? John Leguizamo offers up a simple inspiration for his latest series. But the health Icouldcontroleat right, exercise, see a doctor.. Gotti Sr. ordered it from prison and was also convicted of the hit. I didnt keep fucking rosters. Time and again, we were able to corroborate and verify, through victims and other evidence, the information provided by John, who Trezevant says also helped them solve very old cold-case murders. He landed a baseball scholarship to the University of Tampa, but an injury ended that career dream. Gentile, who has spent long hours with him on the project, has some gaming experience to make sure it stays kosher:he once worked as an executive for a gaming group, responsible for background checks on vendors. I forgot about him. When you keep something bottled for a long enough period of time, like a volcano it spews.). Ex-Gambino mobster John Alite (center) tweeted in April that he was outside Citi Field for the Mets' home opener, and he included a photo of himself clad in a bright orange hoodie. John Alite. So I look at each day that I get through as another day; I dont look at next year. His main focus was labor racketeering in Philadelphia, which was then flooded with corrupt unions extorting businesses, and he worked some of the citys biggest mafia cases. Thus, to avoid a lengthy stay in prison, in 2008, he pleaded guilty to two murders, four murder conspiracies, at least eight shootings, two attempted shootings, armed home invasions, and armed robberies around New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Then, in 2004, as federal racketeering charges were being handed out near his crew in Tampa, he fled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The event took place in September in Camden, New Jersey, which, despite its small size (pop: 115,000),ranks among the ten most dangerous cities in America. Current and former law enforcement officials vouched for Alites credibility and transformation. Fucking tons. It was now the hitmans turn to help the agent. 1,271 Followers. Exposing the truth about John Alite and his web full of lies. But hes a smart guy, he could deduce what I was trying to say without telling him, John, the only option you have is to become a rat. That would have torpedoed the relationship., After Gotti Sr. died in prison in 2002, the Gambino family started crumbling fast. Aside from being a source of legitimate income, Alite used his valet parking businesses as a means of laundering money he was making from drug dealing, gambling and loansharking. "I wanted to do a show where people watch this and say, 'I wanna be Latino!' or 'Damn, too bad I'm not Latino . In photo's far right: Peter "One Eyed Pete" Gotti, who became boss after Junior. The men engaged in small talk while watching their kids play. Frankie Burke [killed 1987] and me did two murders. John was a tough guy on the streets of Queens, he had a reputation. In retrospect, Im sorry to have scared him half to death, and I could have hurt him badly. Finally, Alite may be the only former mafia hitman to launch a music career. My cousin Billy Kaso, actually we battedhim. One juror told the press that the jury was unanimous in finding Alite the least credible of the witnesses. 100%.. Saw him in court and gave him a big smile and said, I told you Id see you again.Why behave this way? Today he understands that the hypochondria was his way of not dealing with the underlying causes of what was really bothering me like, Ive got cancer because I didnt want to concentrate on life in jail because Gotti is meeting with the government. But thats untrue,maintains Phil Scala, a retired longtime head of the FBIs Gambino squad. I didnt keep a scorecard in my house and write down one more notch. And he knows the only way anybody would even believe anything about him is use the name Gotti. Hes cashed in on my name., Alite on the Gottis:Junior and his father built their names off the violence from people like me. The ones on my property [15-acre New Jersey estate], I told them two, but I believe it was three. They didnt charge me with the murder. One such individual, who belonged in the latter category, was John Alite. Instead, the next time he saw him at the rink, he handed him his card. Media. They range from the FBIs Otto and prosecutor Trezevant,to a cold-case homicide detective and Gambino family specialist named Steve Kaplan who had tried (fruitlessly) to turn him against Gotti in the late 1980s. Hes done more than 20 such talks. One I shot in Forest Park on Baby Carriage Lane. Maybe someone like this actuallycancelscancel culture, she says. In 2003, with the feds closing him on him and his businesses, he boltedmoving through more than a dozen countries with fake passports until he was captured in Brazil on an Interpol warrant and tossed into one of that countrys worst penitentiaries. John Alite & Felix Levine are BACK together after a few years away from doing their highly popular show together. His relationship with Gotti Jr had soured years earlier, he says, so hed kept away from Gotti physically for the better part of a decade. Its best summed up with bullet points (pun intended): At the heart of their conflict is this:Alite says Gotti wont admit and accept thathe became a rat while Alite was still holed up in a Brazilian prison fighting extradition and remaining loyal to the clan. Alite also hopes to brand himself to companies that might see value in employing a reformed hitman as a pitchman to sell products. I always simply said, John, take care of whatever it is that has got you totally immersed in anxiety. Now, Johnny has become a youth motivational speaker and author. In his past life, his body would literally shake before assaulting a fellow hood, and it was often impossible for him to stop unless fellow gangsters pulled him away (which was never easy. One member of Alite's crew, Keith Pellegrino, was a drug supplier to the 10th & Oregon gang. Grosso's corpse was dumped off Grand Central Parkway in Flushing Meadows Park. Alite was also a groomsman at the wedding of Johns sister Vicki (see photo). Next Id look to an inexpensive Mens Wearhouse-type chain. Gentile calls Gotti the epitome of a modern-day Fredo Corleone, nothing more, nothing less. Fredo, of course, is the fictional Godfather charactera brother of the bosswho ratted on his family. Asked about their feud,former family underboss Sammy Gravano says, They have athing. John Alite Facts . For the songs, Alite was asked questions about his past, and then fired away without a script, says David Nash, whose London-based company (Fat Pigeon Music Publishing) is producing the album. Since Alites ancestors hail from Albania, points out Gravano, he could never be more than an associate of the family. Mob reporter Anastasia finds this amusing:If his proffer offer had gone forward,hed have been the Boss of theWITSEC Mafia., Thanks in large part to Alites testimony in 2008, a Gambino soldier named Charles Carneglia was convicted by a jury and is serving life. I had a John Wayne mentality. The Groomsmen: Vicki Gotti's 1984 wedding to Carmine "The Bull" Agnello (alongside her), who [+] allegedly put out a contract on Alite a decade later. 33 Following. A week later, they ran into each other again at the rink. Podcast on YouTube now ! He spoke about shooting dozens of fellow hoods; abandoning his kids as a fugitive; the brutality of his 14 years of prison stintsand about getting betrayed in the mid-2000s by the Gambino mob, then crumbling under the reign of the infamous Gotti family. [18] Alite agreed to testify in the trial of Gambino family enforcer Charles Carneglia, who was found guilty of four murders and is now serving a life sentence. He says Gentile was Johns contact point since the 90s.Responds Dave:That is absolutely and categorically false. Gotti. [19], Alite was also a government witness in the unsuccessful racketeering trial against John Gotti Jr.[20] Prosecutors indicted Gotti for racketeering and murder conspiracy charges, stemming from an alleged drug trafficking ring in Florida, and the murders of George Grosso in 1988, Louis DiBono in 1990 and Bruce John Gotterup in 1991. For reasons unclear, the feds and Gotti didnt move forward with the cooperation. When John would get a headache, he had a brain tumor; he went from a stubbed toe to cancer, recalls Charlotte Braziel, a former FBI agent who was part of his debriefing team. But some find that hard to swallow, given that Alite was the star witness, and that the jurywhich deliberated for 11 days until deadlocked ended up pretty evenly split on the counts. His formative years were spent in Woodhaven, Queens before attending Tampa University on a scholarship. Another photo taken years earlier, in 1984, shows Gotti Jr, Alite and Gambino associate/drug dealer John Gebert standing together on a beach pier. Nobody believed John Alite, and thats why Im home, says Gotti. In background, hands folded: family capo Thomas "Tommy Sneakers" Cacciopoli. Ricky Stratton I shot in the head on the Jackie Robinson Parkway. Their deeply-personal blood feud has gone virtual, having bled out into social media. The world that I was a part of would have slaughtered Johnny Alite. Only in America when theres 500 platforms that a guy like this can flourishTo honor my father, I would never sit across the table from him. On the other hand, Gotti Jr., a onetime defacto boss of the Gambino family, lambasted Alites bonafides. Jimmy the Gent also played a behind-the scenes role in the first homicide that Alite was directly involved in. Alite and Gotti are mortal enemies who dispute one anothers accounts of almost everything. In the mid-1990s, Alite relocated to the Philadelphia area, where he owned homes in the suburbs of Cherry Hill and Voorhees Township. (Im sorry for ranting like this, he said at the end of a 3 -hour phone call. It was all based on Gottis made men, associates and friends., From his corner of the boxing ring,Gotti maintains (sans proof) that Alite had been a rat since the 1990swith Dave Gentile his main FBI handler. When the definitive history of the American mafia gets written, it should include a chapter about Alite and Gentile [pronounced AY-lite and Gen-TEEL]. I try and stay out of peoples divorces.The Bull may not have a choice, however. Jimmy Calandra was also former friends with Alite. allegedly put out a contract on Alite a decade later. Gentile also co-formed a private investigative company that in 2013 sought a contract to provide guards at a New York airport. Meanwhile, Alite has helpedGentile cope with devastating personal tragedies in his own lifeincluding one that struck in October, a month after the Camden event, with the sudden death of his young grandson, Nicky, who his grandparents raised since childhood. Not so with the 2009 Gotti case, which resulted in the fourth (of four) hung juries that finally allowed Junior to be free of the feds. I'd be right now in Colorado ADX [supermax prison] dying like my father., Junior says he typically hosts his extended family for Christmas dinners, where Alite is remembered. 0:49. (It was declared a mistrial.) He joined the Bureau in 1979 and quickly developed a reputation for not letting bureaucratic protocols get in his way as he hounded the bad guys mercilessly. Search Live Science how long does reglan stay in your system. (More on that later, with input from a branding expert.). Alite says he once beat up Genie Gotti, Juniors uncle, in prison. By. 4,528 Followers. (photo: Haddenfield, NJ), Not surprisingly, Gentiles views of Gotti Jr are unflattering. He was sometimes combative and seemed to struggle just to be inhaling the same air as Gotti. Our kids are friends. After almost a year of hopping across the globe, John's past would ultimately catch up with him in Brazil. Hes been been working with a therapist for 15 years to understand and control his temper. Read More: Where Is Michael Franzese Now? Wear some Kevlar for it. John Alite is proven to be lying about not being in Florida "Tampa" on the night of his beat down . But Junior liked Alite, he didnt want to kill him, said Scars. That buddy of his was John Alite, a onetime murder-machine for the Gambino clanone of the famed "Five Families" of New York organized crime. Um, Mike Livigni in Port O Call. : The night before Alite (far left) was going to the clink in 1991 for assault, Junior [+] (sitting beside him) threw a party in his honor. Youre a dog. 128. rickyv419 1 yr. ago. We talk. By then, he was starting to soften up. Likes. ButRileyfelt he pinned too many of his crimes on Gottis orders, and he was troubled by some conflicting accounts by Alite of how many acts of violence he was involved in. Three at Flight 116. John is trying to connect with street kids. Johnny hasnt mentioned what led him to turn over a new leaf, but now, by focusing on his family, wife, Claudia DiPippa, 4 kids, and grandkids his private spiritual journey, and his mission to deter anyone from a life in crime, he lives a life that he is proud of. Event sponsor: Men Empowering Nations, a faith-based local non-profit. Dave talked him down, but he didnt listen and batted the guy anyway. Really it was a shame that John [Sr.] evenmadethis kid., In his own defense, Junior says:[My father] made me a powerful guy at a very young age, and I dont think I was ready. [1] Later in life, Alite publicly denounced the life of organized crime and became a motivational speaker, podcaster and books author. I tried to tell the government every serious crime that I did that I could think of., Given the spirit of the holiday season,one wonders if Alite and Gotti would agree to a Forbes-hosted sitdown over lunch to try and bury their beefs. Go to work, go to sports, you dont gotta be rich,implored Alite. Business Offers [email protected]. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. I believed in something that dont exist. Not long ago, Alite was on hand to help the Gentiles absorb their third family catastrophe when Nicky, who was only 27, died tragically in late October. But this time he was in no position to kill anyone. He was a bad person many years ago, said Gentile, putting it mildly. I always toast my fatherthis is to the chief.And then I say, Oh, here's to Johnny Alite.I always toast him. Hennigan's first boxing match was a successful one as he pulverized Morenstein with a right hand . BOTTOM: Junior leaving the courthouse, with Alite to his left (behind), and attorney Gerald Shargel to his right.