John Gotti's grandson heard on secret wiretap of Bonanno captain
John Gotti Agnello was heard greeting Gaspare Valenti and Asaro when they turned up at the auto parts store sometime in November 2011 to see a mob associate identified only as Jumbo.
“How you doin’ Gar,” the 28-year-old son of Victoria Gotti and mobster Carmine Agnello can be heard greeting Valenti, apparently unaware he was wearing a wire for the feds.
Those were the only words from Agnello, best known from the reality TV show “Growing Up Gotti,” which ran from August 2004 to December 2005.
“This kid is a sweetheart,” Valenti was heard saying of Agnello as they entered the store.
Asaro, who is accused of helping pull off the $6 million Lufthansa heist immortalized in the movie “Goodfellas,” had shown up at the unnamed shop with Valenti to snag a number for somebody named “Richie Glen Cove,” the tape revealed.
Another recording, made on June 5, 2012, revealed Asaro’s disgust for Henry Hill, a mobster turned FBI informant whose biography was the basis of “Goodfellas.”
Hill helped plot — but did not actually take part — in the 1978 robbery at Kennedy Airport. He died in 2012.
Gaspare Valenti (l.) and Vincent Asaro (r.) had showed up at the unnamed shop to snag a number for somebody named “Richie Glen Cove,” the tape revealed.
“No, f--- him,” Asaro was heard telling his cousin Valenti, when asked him if he went to Hill’s funeral.
“That’s one less left of Lufthansa,” Valenti replied.
Asaro, who apparently did not hear Valenti, replied “What?”
So Valenti repeated himself.
“F--- him,” said Asaro. “C--------r.”
“He made a big thing like he was there with us,” Valenti said.
“Yeah,” Asaro replied. “Piece of s---.”
As the tapes played, Valenti’s hulking son, Anthony "Fat Sammy" Valenti was back in the Brooklyn federal courtroom staring daggers at his 68-year-old dad.
Vincent Asaro (center), on trial for racketeering, was one of four organized crime associates arrested, and is believed to be involved int he infamous 1978 Lutfhansa Heist.
The younger Valenti, a Bonanno hood, has been coming to the trial to support Asaro, 80.
He may want to rethink his allegiances after prosecutors played a tape in which Asaro tells Valenti he regrets that his son Jerome moved to have Fat Sammy join the Bonanno family.
“I told Jerry he should have never been straightened out,” Asaro was heard saying.
When the prosecutor asked Valenti if he wanted his son to join the mafia, he replied “No, never.”
As his father spoke, Fat Sammy stared up at the ceiling.
“I have no comment,” he said later.
Over the course of the week, the feds have played several tapes secretly recorded by Valenti in an attempt to link Asaro directly to the robbery.
Gaspar Valenti, a Bonanno associate, and father of Anthony "Fat Sammy" Valenti, testifies at Brooklyn Federal Court in connection with the Lufthansa heist.
They revealed that the once fearsome Asaro was down on his luck and broke. Prosecutors say he pocketed more than $500,000 from the heist, but blew most of the dough at the track.
Valenti was also in on the robbery, they say. He turned on Asaro because he too was broke and needed money to support himself and his family.
The last tape Valenti recorded was in June 2013. In it, as the FBI instructed, Valenti revealed himself as a turncoat by telling Asaro the feds are “all over Liberty Ave.” while they were heading out of a Queens diner.
That was a reference to the house where Valenti and Asaro in 1969 buried murder victim Paul Katz in the basement. Asaro is charged with strangling the suspected snitch with a dog chain.
Only three people knew that secret — Asaro, Valenti and James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke, the brains behind the Lufthansa score. And Burke was dead.
Suddenly realizing he’d been betrayed by his cousin, Asaro put his car in park and sighed, according to the transcript.
"I'll see you later Gar ... Don't call me!" Asaro snapped.
Valenti described the look on Asaro’s face to the jury.
"A look of disgust, a look of hatred," he said. "You had to be there to know the look. How could you do this to me? That was the look."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/grandson-john-gotti-heard-tape-vincent-asaro-trial-article-1.2408696
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