Gravano is not a "hero" as he would like everybody to believe. He is cowardly mobster who turned government witness because he couldn't do the time. Although it is an accepted and necessary practice within law enforcement to use such detestable people to get what the government considers "bigger fish", the tragedy in Gravano's case is that his now almost glorified status as a "mob hero," an oxymoron if I ever heard one, could have been history that never happened.

Sammy Gravano was the creation of the FBI. Although it is true that Gravano was necessary to put John Gotti behind bars in 1990, it is also true that the government could have accomplished the same thing in 1987 -- without Gravano and long before many people lost their lives -- had the FBI cooperated with Federal prosecutors and not tried to sabotage the DEA supported case every chance they could. And that being the case, Gravano would not have had the opportunity to turn informant and would most likely be in prison where he belongs for any one of his previous crimes.

On 3-28-85, John Gotti and numerous other Mafia soldiers were arrested for Federal racketeering charges by the DEA and the New York City Police Department... now known as 'Gotti One'... and this writer personally slapped the cuffs on Gotti after an investigation which started in early 1981. An investigation in which the FBI was originally a part hut chose to drop out early-on due to, as FBI Supervisor Bruce Mouw explained, "a conflict of interest."

Why would the FBI, the nation's premier antagonist against La Cosa Nostra, ever dream of taking such an obvious counter-productive action? The answer is complicated but the bottom line is -- as Vanity Fair writer Fredric Dannen aptly expressed a few years back -- there are "just not enough celebrity criminals to go around" and the FBI wanted John Gotti all to themselves. And to make matters worse, the DEA and the police had also targeted and arrested "Willie Boy" Johnson, an FBI Top Echelon mob informant who was out of control, and charged him in the racketeering indictment with conspiracy to murder Anthony Plate, another mobster whose body has never been found.

The sabotage, non-cooperation and hostility by the Bureau can be considered one of the all time great low points in law enforcement, a profession which should take pride in cooperation and the spirit of brotherhood. The bureau's dishonor fully exhibited itself when an irate FBI agent threatened the case's female prosecutor who it unsuccessfully had tried to have fired, "If you were a man, I'd punch you right in the face!", she was threatened.

However, on 3-13-87, a Friday, the jury returned verdicts of not guilty on all counts. Although the case was sound and had been more than proved, the unexplainable had happened and the FBI rejoiced. Now the FBI could release its powers on John Gotti and subsequently convict him using the likes of homicidal manic Sammy "The Bull" Gravano.

On 4-5-92, The New York Times explained the unexplainable. The jury foreman had taken a $60,000 bribe to throw the case and the FBI had information that the jury had been tampered with but but failed to tell DEA, the New York City Police Department, prosecutor Diane F. Giacalone nor the Federal Judge hearing the case. The Times':

"Because the info about tampering came from a a highly sensitive source, no announcement was made at the time and the trial was allowed to proceed. Even the Judge, Eugene H. Nickerson, and the two prosecutors Diane Giacalone and John Gleeson, were not informed. Instead the info was carried to the chief district judge, Jack B. Weinstein, who authorized disclosure of the jurors names to Federal investigators so the jury fixing allegation could be checked. At least one juror had been contacted, they learned. But out of continuing fears of exposing the tip, FURTHER INVESTIGATION CEASED."

"Meanwhile, on a day of many developments in Gotti's pending murder and racketeering case, prosecutors revealed they were investigating jury tampering in the 1987 case even before the jury returned its stunning acquital. Prosecutor John Gleeson disclosed that the FBI had obtained the identities of the supposedly anonymous jurors, which drew charges of government tampering by Gotti's brother Peter and defense lawyers."

In court, however, Gleeson said prosecutors trying the case were kept unaware of the investigation by a 'Chinese wall' of silence."

"The FBI's behavior verges on the criminal I interviewed witnesses who said the FBI told them not to talk to me-that's unbelievable I don't trust them, no prosecutor does."

It has been estimated that over 70% of crimes committed in the United States are drug related. Many DEA agents believe that if they were permitted to do their jobs, by the book and without interference from competing agencies -- as well as unscrupulous, self-interested DEA managers -- they could eliminate the drug factor in crime... and reduce overall crime dramatically.