Mob Wives: What is "The Sammy Deal?"

Sammy's Biography, a compelling read

On episode 4 of Mob Wives there was a lot of talk about "rats," mainly Gnatalie and Junior. In one scene, at the end, Victoria Gotti meets with Big Ang to discuss the consequences of Junior's testimony. The long and short of it is this: there was a robbery that Junior participated in with Ang's cousin and another man. An innocent man was killed and Junior was the one  responsible for his death. Junior took a plea deal, wore a wire and testified in court. For his cooperation Junior got 11 years. The other two men, one being Ang's cousin, got 30 years. Ang needs Victoria's advice about how to approach Renee about this situation. What Renee has to do with this I don't know, ask Ang.

Now, during this discussion between the two women, the subject of "rats" comes up. And, because Junior took a plea deal and cooperated, he qualifies as a "rat." It must have hit a nerve with Victoria Gotti. Victoria made a comment that I took to be a cheap shot at Karen. She said Junior got, what "they" call, "The Sammy Deal." A sweet deal. Now I have done a lot of reading and watched plenty of videos and I have never heard of "The Sammy Deal" before. But I don't know everything, so I took to the internet and researched the term in case I missed something somewhere. Nope. Nowhere on the internet is the term, "The Sammy Deal," used except for the blogs written after Mob Wives episode 4 aired. I suppose it might be used among those in the lifestyle OR it might be something Victoria totally made up out of thin air to stick it to Karen. Not nice.

It's a very long story, but Sammy Gravano did not just wake up one day and decide to cooperate with authorities. It went against everything he believed. A lot of things happened to help him decide that was what he needed to do. The Feds had an overwhelming amount of information against John Gotti without Sammy's cooperation; and all their evidence was provided by John Gotti via wiretaps. The Feds played six hours of FBI recorded tapes for the jury. Tapes that were full of family secrets. It was Gotti's own arrogant and reckless attitude that was responsible for getting himself, Locascio and Sammy arrested. But, it was what happened during the year after their arrest, while they were in the Manhattan Correctional Center awaiting trial, that finally persuaded Sammy to cooperate. The Feds played tapes for Sammy where Gotti was saying things to throw Sammy under the bus. Gotti also picked the lawyers for both himself and Sammy and told Sammy he could not meet with his attorney unless Gotti was present. Gotti would not allow their cases to be tried separately. Sammy started to get a very bad feeling. These are Sammy's own words:

"All John had to do was come to me once during that eleven months we were together and say, 'Sammy, I'm sorry. My big f***ing mouth got you indicted, number one. Number two, let's try to get a severance for you, so you could fight your case. F*** the public. Let's try to fight this so that one of us, all of us, a couple of us, get out of this f***ing mess.'

"If he done that, I would have never cooperated with the government, not in a million years would I have cooperated."

"In addition to the fact that Gotti never apologized for mouthing off to the extent that he had dug a deep hole for Gravano, Sammy felt that the defense team, hand picked by John, was going to set him up for the fall."

(From Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, By Allen May, Chapter 19 "The Bull" Becomes "The Rat"). This is a 26 Chapter online source that you might find interesting.

*****

This is really is a very long and compelling story. Gotti and Gravano worked hand in hand for years. Gotti was not the "innocent" lamb and Sammy "the rat." After they were arrested Gotti told the FBI things like people would meet with Sammy and then disappear. He tried to make it seem as though Sammy acted on his own and not on Gotti's orders. His plan was to shift the blame on to Sammy. It was only then, and after agonizing deliberation, that Sammy agreed to a plea deal. I have read about crimes, arrests, plea deals, you name it. But, to my knowledge, I have never come across the phrase, "The Sammy Deal," anywhere.

And, I have to add, I was excited to see Victoria Gotti on the show, even though she made some critical remarks about it over the years. She is, after all, the daughter of a mob boss, and I thought she fit in very well with the show. However, that little "zinger" she threw in didn't sit well with me. I felt bad for Karen.When Karen addressed Renee's meeting with Victoria, I thought she handled it with class. She took the high road . She could have thrown in a jab herself on camera, but she didn't. It would be very interesting if Karen and Victoria had their own sitdown and the truth about what went down between their fathers all came out.

I'm sure Karen is still sitting alone in the "truth room" waiting for someone to step in for some real talk. Alicia? Victoria? Gnat? Unfortunately, no one wants to hear the truth.