Jul 28, 2006 3:12 pm US/Eastern
Ex-Gambino Boss Cries For Friend; Gets Prison Time
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
A former boss of one of New York's most notorious mafia families broke down and sobbed Friday as he interrupted his own sentencing to beg a judge to have mercy on a jailed friend.
One-time Gambino chieftain Arnold Squitieri, 70, made the emotional plea in a federal courtroom in Manhattan as his lawyers tried to limit his own punishment for racketeering and extortion.
The aging mobster was more composed a few minutes later when he heard his own sentence: 7 years and 8 months in prison.
"Not bad, eh?" he quipped to his family as he was led, smiling, from the courtroom.
A career criminal who has already served hard time for manslaughter and heroin distribution, Squitieri seemed more concerned with what might happen next week at the sentencing of imprisoned mafia captain Alphonse Sisca.
Sisca, one of 32 reputed Gambinos who were charged along with Squitieri, has had a hard year. After the 63-year-old was imprisoned, his son died of tongue cancer, his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, his daughter-in-law got thyroid cancer and his mother-in-law passed away.
"If you're going to be merciful, be merciful to him," Squitieri urged U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein. "He's a broken man. I'm begging you. Be kind to him."
Like Squitieri, Sisca pleaded guilty to helping oversee a racket that engaged in illegal gambling, loansharking and extortion. He faces between six to seven years in prison at his sentencing next Wednesday.
The once-feared Gambino clan has been in disarray since the imprisonment and death of its last powerful godfather, John Gotti, and the prosecutions of his brother, Peter Gotti, and son, John "Junior" Gotti.
Prosecutors said Squitieri became acting boss in 2002, but his life at the top was brief.
In just two years, an undercover FBI agent posing as small-time Sicilian wiseguy "Jack Falcone" had so thoroughly infiltrated the Gambino crew that he was offered membership.
Of the 32 reputed Gambinos charged as a result of agent Joaquin Garcia's work, almost all have pleaded guilty.
At his sentencing Friday, Squitieri's lawyers sought to portray him as a dedicated and devout family man who gave to charity.
Hellerstein acknowledged that he was a "complicated person."
"He's a good man in many ways," the judge said. "But he has done very bad things."
Hellerstein chided Squitieri for returning repeatedly to mob life after past prison stints, and for encouraging his son -- now also imprisoned -- to follow in his footsteps.
In the current case, the gang used threatened violence to extort money from a restaurant owner in Greenwich, Conn., construction companies in New York's suburbs, a trucking company in NJ, a nightclub owner in the Bronx and a New York radio station.
It's got to stop," Hellerstein said of Squitieri's unrepentant life of crime.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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