Henchman: 'Sammy Bull' Taught Us To Be Wiseguys.
By KATI CORNELL SMITH, New York Post April 2002 An admitted "ecstasy" peddler took the stand at Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano's sentencing hearing yesterday and said his mentor gave him lessons in how to be a mobster while they ran a drug ring in Arizona. Michael Papa, 25, said Gravano - the Mafia stoolie who helped convict John Gotti and Vincent "Chin" Gigante - taught him:
* To use Nextel cell phones because they're hard to tap.
* To use revolvers rather than semiautomatics because they're less likely to jam.
* How to structure their drug ring and keep its books.
Papa's testimony came on the first day of Gravano's two-day sentencing hearing before Brooklyn federal Judge Allyne Ross. Gravano, 56, who has pleaded guilty to buying the club-drug ecstasy in New York and selling it to teens in Arizona, faces serious jail time.
Prosecutors Linda Lacewell and Noah Perlman are asking for a 20-year sentence, although the recommended range under federal guidelines is 121/2 to 15 years. Papa, the major distributor and bookkeeper of the $500,000-a-week operation, testified he and other ring members were "in awe" of Gravano.
When he first met Gravano in 1999, he said, "I was kind of star-struck. I couldn't believe I was in a pool at Sammy the Bull's house and having a conversation."
Papa said Gravano was known to ring members as "the boss" or the "big man." And he described how the one-time Gambino underboss would dig into his safe - which once contained $500,000 - to lend his crew whatever they needed to buy ecstasy.
He recounted how ring members would gather at Gravano's Scottsdale restaurant, Uncle Sal's, where he would regale them with stories - many dealing with murders - from his mob days in New York.
"We were going to use his name to monopolize the ecstasy market in Arizona," said Papa. "People feared Sammy the Bull's name, and they pretty much did what we wanted."
Papa testified Gravano was thinking about forming an Arizona mob that he would head and had already started planning how to extort money from area strip clubs. He said after the ring was busted and he met with government officials to discuss cooperating, he got a call from Gravano's son, Gerard.
"He told me that if I did flip, I would only get a few years off my sentence but I would have to watch my back," Papa testified. Gravano, who is expected to testify today, claims in court papers that Papa was actually the ring's leader.
He contends his only role in the ecstasy operation was in lending Gerard money on a couple of occasions.
Gerard Gravano, 25, who also pleaded guilty to distributing ecstasy, was dropped from the hearing yesterday after he agreed he would not appeal a sentence of 14 years or less.
