Murderous mob turncoat Frankie “Fapp” Fappiano testified on Nov. 23 that he delivered construction payoffs to Gambino crime family boss Peter Gotti. He also said that the Gambino crime family’s grip on organized labor let him and other mobsters on union payrolls cash in on construction assignments at Trump Tower, the IBM building and the MTA’s Lexington Avenue subway.
Fappiano, who pleaded guilty in the hit on suspected mob snitch Ed Garofalo, also fingered Gotti’s co-defendant, Thomas “Huck” Carbonaro, as one of the drivers who participated in the murder. He said that he collected kickbacks in exchange for labor peace or enabling the firms to use cheaper, non-union labor, and that the Gambinos and other crime families pocketed “millions and millions of dollars” over two decades.
Gotti is charged with plotting to rub out Gambino underboss-turned-mob-turncoat Salvatore “Sammy Bull” Gravano, whose testimony put his brother, the late Mafia boss John “Dapper Don” Gotti, away for life. Aside from his role in the attempted Gravano murder, Carbonaro is charged with participating in two murders – including the Garofalo killing.
During some six hours of testimony in Manhattan federal court, Fappiano said he was named by then-acting Gambino street boss John “Junior” Gotti — John’s son — to be the point man in overseeing unions such as Local 282 of the Intl. Bhd. of Teamsters Local 23 of the Laborers Intl. Union of N. America. Fappiano said after taking his cut, he would give Peter 66 to 75 percent of the payoffs in wads of cash ranging from $1,000 to $25,000 every few weeks or a month. This arrangement ran from 1994 to 1996.
Under cross examination by Gotti lawyer Joseph Bondy, Fappiano admitted he lied more than a dozen times under sworn oath about his mob ties during a deposition as part of a corruption probe by the IBT. [New York Post, 11/24/04]