by Doug Windsor
365Gay.com Newscenter
New York Bureau
(New York City) In a scene that played out like a storyline from The Sopranos, a former mafia hit man told a New York court that he killed his mob boss because the man engaged in gay sex.
Anthony Capo, a former soldier for the New Jersey-based DeCavalcante family testified that he killed John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato after finding out about his secret life.
"Nobody's gonna respect us if we have a gay homosexual boss sitting down discussing La Cosa Nostra business," Capo said in Manhattan federal court.
D'Amato was gunned down in 1992.
The revelation came as Capo was testifying at the racketeering, murder and conspiracy trial of Stefano "Steve" Vitabile, a DeCavalcantes' counselor, and alleged capos Philip Abramo and Pini Schifilliti.
The DeCavalcante mob family is often described as the real-life inspiration for the Sopranos.
Capo told the court he learned that D'Amatos liked men from D'Amatos' girlfriend.
"She told me John D'Amato and her were going to sex clubs in the city, swapping partners and John was engaging in homosexual activity," he said.
Capo said the hit was approved by the family's leaders but without the consent of the commission of all New York crime families, making it a "very delicate matter."
"The rule in La Cosa Nostra is not to take down a boss without the permission of the commission," Capo said.
Capo described how in 1992 he and another mobster arranged to pick up D'Amato from his girlfriend's home in Brooklyn.
"John D'Amato got in the car and sat in the back," Capo said. "He said, 'Let's go eat,' and as we drove away, I turned and shot John D'Amato."
©365Gay.com Ltd® 2003
NEW YORK - A mobster-turned-snitch told a jury yesterday how he shot his Mafia boss dead -- insisting the murder was to protect the family name because the crime chief was gay.
It's a storyline that has yet to be seen on The Sopranos, though it originates from the same Mafia family that claims to have inspired the hit television series.
There was additional drama as Anthony Capo detailed more of his crimes, which included home invasions, arson, battery and fraud.
Just minutes after telling how he had placed a pillow cover over the head of a victim, then cocked a gun, there was a loud bang in the Manhattan courtroom.
Many in the room ducked for cover, and someone in the public gallery whispered: "It sounded like a gunshot."
After a moment of panic, heads raised to hear the court clerk say a courtroom speaker had burst.
As hearts palpated, the judge was not long in asking for a short recess.
Mr. Capo is a star prosecution witness in the racketeering, murder and conspiracy trial of three alleged leaders of the DeCavalcante family organization.
With John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato at its head, the New Jersey family was one of five Mafia organizations operating in the New York area in the early 1990s.
Whether or not The Sopranos is based on the DeCavalcante family, the current trial is already proving to be a scriptwriter's gold mine.
Names mentioned yesterday included "Johnny the Horse" and "Frank the Beast." Coincidently, Mr. Capo's surname is also shorthand for "captain" in Mafia circles, though he, himself, was a lower-level mobster.
He expanded yesterday on the murder of Mr. D'Amato after testifying on Monday that he and others had wanted to prevent the family from becoming a laughingstock.
"Nobody's gonna respect us if we have a gay homosexual boss sitting down discussing ... business," he told the federal court.
He said the OK for the killing came from Stefano "Steve" Vitabile, the family's 67-year-old consigliere, who is among the three on trial.
Trying to have Mr. Capo admit to other motives, defence counsel Tony Servino suggested yesterday members of the organization were perhaps unhappy about certain promotions Mr. D'Amato had made, or about his borrowing money from fellow crime bosses.
Mr. Capo stuck with his original explanation.
Mr. Capo said he learned of his boss's homosexual activities after Mr. D'Amato fled to Florida fearing police had taped him discussing a murder.
The information came, he said, from Mr. D'Amato's girlfriend, identified as Kelly.
"She was crying, hysterically crying," he said. "She said, 'John's gay.' She talked about how they had gone to sex clubs."
Though he had considered Mr. D'Amato a close friend and mentor, Mr. Capo said he was "disgusted" by the news.
"I questioned her over and over to make sure she was telling the truth," he said. "She begged me not to tell nobody."
Mr. Capo said he shared the information with his immediate bosses, among them Tony Rotundo, a "capo," and Vincent "Vinnie Ocean" Palermo, a fast-rising mobster and later the family's boss.
Mr. Capo said the three of them discussed killing Mr. D'Amato because of his homosexuality.
The murder took place in 1992 after Mr. D'Amato returned to New York and had Mr. Capo drop him off at Kelly's home in Brooklyn.
Mr. Capo said he agreed to shoot Mr. D'Amato with an automatic pistol he was given, despite his preference for revolvers. "It had to be done in a hurry," he explained.
Recalling Mafia rules that call for all regional crime families to agree on killing a boss, Mr. Capo said the conspirators decided to carry out a "sneak" killing, where no one would take credit.
Mr. Capo said a mobster friend, Victor DiChiara, drove him to Kelly's home, where Mr. D'Amato was expecting to go to dinner with them.
He told the jury how he turned to Mr. D'Amato in the back seat and shot him twice in the face. Mr. DiChiara said: "He's moving. Do it again," Mr. Capo testified, adding that he obliged.
Asked how he felt afterward, Mr. Capo said: "I was happy I didn't get caught."
Mr. Capo has also admitted to another murder and to a slew of other crimes.
Awaiting sentencing and facing a possible life term, he is testifying as part of a deal for a possible lighter sentence.
The boss of the Mafia family on which the TV series The Sopranos is believed to be based was executed by one of his own soldiers because he was gay and they feared that if news got out the family would be ridiculed by the rest of the underworld, a Manhattan court has been told.
"Nobody's gonna respect us if we have a gay homosexual boss sitting down discussing La Cosa Nostra business," an informer told the court.
John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato, head of the DeCavalcante family, the biggest Mafia family in New Jersey, was shot dead in 1992 after it was rumoured that he was having relationships with other men.
When a DeCavalcante soldier, Anthony Capo, heard the tale from D'Amato's girlfriend he was incredibly angry.
"She told me John D'Amato and her were going to sex clubs in
the city, swapping partners and John was engaging in homosexual activity," Capo
told the court on Wednesday. "It shocked me . . . He couldn't be acting that way
- he was a leader of men."
Capo was giving evidence in the trial of Stefano "Steve" Vitabile and two other mobsters charged with racketeering, murder and conspiracy.
Early in 1992 Capo and another man, Victor DiChiara, picked up D'Amato from his girlfriend's home. As D'Amato sat in the back of the car, Capo turned and shot him four times.
In Mafia culture there is a strict taboo against homosexuality.
"It's all predicated on male prowess and violence," said Clare Longrigg, author of a forthcoming book, No Questions Asked: The Secret Life of Women in the Mob.
"They all have wives and they all have at least one mistress. If they are gay then they would have to keep it incredibly quiet."
So strong is the prejudice that even after the family's leaders had approved D'Amato's murder, they had to be careful how they went about it, lest word of his sexual orientation leaked out.
Normally they would have had to confer with the heads of other crime families before executing someone as senior as D'Amato.
But to share the news was considered so humiliating that they preferred to break Mafia law instead.
"We knew we'd have to sneak him - kill him without permission," Capo said.
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