***********************

TOM'S TESTIMONY 1996-2000

"When I was seventeen years old, they came to me, and they gave me a gun. This time it wasn't an old gun. It wasn't rusty, and this time it had bullets in it. And I took a vow that I would live and die by that gun. A piece of paper was put in my hand. It was set on fire. They said that if I betray the Mafia, I would burn like this paper was burning and go to hell."

and this

"It wasn't long before that I was called to use the gun. They called me in. And they said, "Tom, you've been doing very good. You're making a lot of money for yourself. You're making a lot of money for us." And I was always big and strong and knew how to take care of myself. I was a fighter. And they used to send me out to collect money. I was seventeen and eighteen years old, and they would send me out to grown men to collect money they owed. And I always came back with every penny. I was very proud of it. If I had to beat them up with a baseball bat or stab them with an ice pick, whatever I had to do, short of killing them, I would do to bring the money back. And I was very proud of this. I was growing in the Mafia. I was getting a reputation. And they said, "Now, is the next step. Some men have hijacked a truck in the Garment District. It was an inside job. We killed the man on the inside. That's already taken care of. But, the two men that hijacked the truck, they're hiding out in Kansas. We want you to go there. We want you to shoot both of these men. We don't want you to kill them. We just want you to set an example for everybody to see what happens if they should steal from us." And they said, "We don't want you using your right name. So, we have some identification for you. Here's the plane ticket. Just go there. Soon as you get off the plane, somebody knows who you are. They'll come to you. They'll give you keys to the car, and they'll give you a gun. And they'll give you pictures of the two men that we want to shoot. And they'll tell you exactly where they are. Just go there. Shoot the two men and come right back." Everything that they told me was exactly the way they told me. When I got there, a man met me. He gave me the keys. He gave me the gun. He gave me pictures. He gave me directions. I went there. I shot the two men. I came back to the airport. Kept looking in the rear view mirrors. Nobody was following me. I made a few extra turns. Felt very safe. Got back to the airport. Waited until they were boarding the plane. And I got on the plane. And all that was on the plane was policemen. And as soon I boarded the plane, they said my name. They put handcuffs on me. Telling me I was under arrest for shooting two men. And they even knew the names of the two men. I didn't even know their names. I only had their picture. Brought me before a judge. And the judge said, "You know, you're Italian. You're from New York. And you're down here shooting people. Are you in the Mafia? Is this a contract?" And I had taken a vow of silence at seventeen years old, and I didn't even answer the judge. And he said, "If you're going to be quiet like this when you come before me for the trial," he said, "I'll send you away for the maximum time that I can." When it came time for me to go before the judge, I still kept that vow of silence. I didn't say a word. He sentenced me to two 5 to 10 year sentences in the Kansas State Penitentiary.

*************************************

"The New York Daily News
Mar. 3, 1992

Gang Land Column
By Jerry Capeci

"F. Lee Bailey was seated in the front row yesterday, squeezed in with familiar faces from the John Gotti support group: Peter Gotti, Jack D'Amico and Joseph DeCicco......

......New York FBI boss James Fox and supervisor Bruce Mouw, the boss of the FBI's Gambino squad, were seated two rows behind......

....... Gravano continued on his mission, to satisfy his current bosses in hopes of possibly getting out of prison, alive....

.... a marked contrast to the fate of Joseph (Joe Piney) Armone, who was buried yesterday after being waked at the same Brooklyn funeral home where Frank DeCicco, Gotti's first underboss, was laid out when he was blown up and killed in 1986....

Since Christmas 1987 – when Armone was convicted of racketeering and opted for federal prison rather than denounce the Mafia--until last week when he died of natural causes at 74, Armone had been in federal prison.

Armone, like the current underboss sitting next to Gotti, Frank (Frankie Loc) LoCascio, was "made" before the "books were closed" by Mafia bosses in 1957 after a nationwide conclave in upstate Apalachin, N.Y., was raided by the law.

....Yesterday, after Gravano had testified that he couldn't get "made" because the books were closed from 1957 to 1975, Prosecutor John Gleeson asked: "Did you ever learn a reason for that?"

"No," said Gravano. "

*************************

Coppola bodyguard testifies he severed Mafia ties in 1983 

Thomas Papanier, a co-defendant in the racketeering trial of Carl Coppola who has been linked to the Mafia, testified Friday that he once was proud of his association with New York's Gambino organized crime family and that his friendships gave him access to exclusive restaurants and nightclubs. 

But Papanier denied being a member of the Gambino syndicate and said he moved to Atlanta to work for Coppola's Jilly's rib restaurants in 1983 to sever his informal ties with organized crime and "start my life over".