Jan. 20, 1997

GASPIPE'S FOLLIES

By Jerry Capeci

IT was Dec. 31, 1996 and Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso was agitated.

Once one of the richest and most feared gangsters in New York, the former underboss of the Luchese crime family was spending his fourth consecutive New Year's Eve in a federal prison. The future didn't look so good for the 56-year-old mobster.

He began cooperating with the feds in 1994, but hasn't been used yet as a trial witness. Casso, who admitted taking part in 36 gangland style slayings, is awaiting sentence. And if the feds don't find any use for him soon, he'll be hard pressed to get less than the life sentence he faces.

So, as Casso strolled along an elevated walkway in the special cellblock for cooperating witnesses, he rolled a magazine into a billy club and attacked Salvatore (Big Sal) Miciotta, another jailed mob informer.

The magazine didn't prove to be much of a weapon, and the guards had to rush in and save Casso - 5 foot 8, 165 pounds - before his angry 350-pound adversary canceled his subscription.

Miciotta, who has admitted involvement in four homicides, began cooperating in 1993, has testified against his former associates several

times and is serving a 14-year sentence. He and Casso have been feuding for months.

The fight broke out after dinner, sources said, as Miciotta, 50, was playing cards with other inmates. Casso "came up behind Big Sal," leaned through a railing and started beating Miciotta on his head with the magazine, said one source. "Since this was not a very efficient weapon, and (since) Big Sal is a very large man, this did not render Big Sal helpless."

Miciotta grabbed him by the shirt, pulled him though the railing, and "beat the daylights out of Gaspipe until the (guards) got him off Gaspipe," said the source.

After the fracas, both men were placed in solitary confinement to await transfers to other federal prisons with special units for cooperating witnesses.

The feds would not comment about the altercation.

"I'm not surprised about the outcome but I am surprised that Gaspipe started up with Sal," said one law enforcement source. "Without his gun, Gaspipe was not a tough guy. Sal could handle himself and towers over him."

At least Casso ended the year with a little excitement.

 
GAMBINO capo Danny Marino, (right) a former New York City detective and a third man were charged with illegally wiretapping the home phone of Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano after he agreed to testify against John Gotti.

Along with long time Gotti pal Joseph Watts and mobster Dominic (Fat Dom) Borghese, the men allegedly tapped his Staten Island home phone in a desperate attempt to find out something they could use to undermine his testimony against Gotti.

The men also set up a listening device on cellular phone conversations between Gravano and his wife Debra, according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday.

The wiretapped conversations were monitored with equipment set up in Borghese's Staten Island home, which was not far from Gravano's in 1991, when the tap was installed. Borghese is now cooperating and will be the key witness for the government.

Marino, currently serving seven years for taking part in a mob slaying for Gotti, is due to be released in the year 2000. If convicted, Marino, 56, retired detective John Ryan, 64, and Gary Furio, 52, face up to 10 years on the wiretapping charges.