See Nicky Cowboy and Mikey DeBatt from Sammy's crew. Both whacked for being crackheads.
Don't believe everything you read. Especially when what you're reading was written by someone trying to cast themselves in a favorable light.
Did they use cocaine? Yes. Is that why they were killed? No.
Let's just say half the reasons Sammy gives to explain most of his admitted murders are half truths.
Fair enough, and I can definitely see him having other motives. We are all pulling from the same sources here, though (books, interviews, court transcripts, etc.) Unless you have insider knowledge of his crew workings that you'd like to share, then I'll stick to what's in public record.
I knew all 3 of the men mentioned above, 2 for my entire life, 1 peripherally. Nicky was killed more for reasons related to his nickname. They didn't call him cowboy for nothing. He was wild, and in that life it can be a liability. It's also not a coincidence he was killed just 3 weeks after Castellano. Yes, he drank and used cocaine, so did many guys around Sammy. Funnily, he had been with the Columbos for years before the Gambinos. He was moved after he and Carmine Sessa's brother shot someone that didnt die. A mistake that caused a lot of problems for both of them. Nicky's father was an old time Columbo associate who had owned a private sanitation business and had done time himself.
DeBatt I knew less of, but I know enough about Sammy to know that while drugs may have been a part of his reasons - and not that drugs aren't reason enough sometimes- it wasn't the only one. Sammy didn't usually operate that way.
You can stick to the books, that's fair enough. But lots of things never make into them, especially books like Sammy's, written to cast him in a better light.
