T-Shirt War: Verbal Bullets Fly In Mob Feud Between Revived Italian American Civil Rights League Lawyer And Sammy Bull Gravano

Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano says he wore it only a couple times, then quickly tossed it aside as inappropriate. But a simple T-shirt, emblazoned with “Bull 19,” has added more fuel to a growing feud between a leader of Joe Colombo’s revived Italian American Civil Rights League (IACRL) and the former right-hand-man-in-crime of Mafia boss John Gotti.

Criminal defense lawyer and IACRL vice president Gerard Marrone argues that the shirt which the turncoat Gambino underboss has worn stains his hands “with the blood” of his 19 murder victims. And that’s a major factor in the group’s push to convince FX to cancel its plans to air an upcoming weekly series about Gravano’s life, Gang Land has learned.

“Allowing him to profit and gain further notoriety from his crimes sends a dangerous message that violence, betrayal, and murder can be spun into entertainment and financial gain” and perpetuate “harmful stereotypes” about Italian Americans, says Marrone, whose clients have included members of the Gotti family. 

In an angry reply, Gravanotold Gang Land that Marrone and the IACRL “are hypocrites” who “don’t care about the people that were killed.” The Bull argues that “betrayal” is the key word in Marrone’s statement. “They hate cooperating witnesses and made a big deal about a T-shirt I wore a couple of times in my life” in a news release “so they look like heroes” to the gangsters they’re speaking for, he said.

“This guy is so full of shit,” said Gravano. “The shirt I wore has nothing to do with the 19 murders. First of all, I had nothing to do with it. Somebody brought it out. I didn’t like it. I put it on. I wore it a couple of times. It was on sale for a while. Then I realized it’s not good. It’s not representing what I thought it would represent, and I stopped selling it.” 

“(Marrone) calls himself a street lawyer, because he’s a street guy,” said Sammy Bull. “That’s who he represents — street guys. He doesn’t like people who cooperate. He wants to make a name for himself, and he wants to make money. Now he’s got a YouTube channel called the Street Attorney. It’s so obvious what he wants — to make money.”

The Street Attorneypodcast promotes itself as “raw, unfiltered, and inspiring.” It features Marrone as a “defense attorney, entrepreneur, and a survivor” who overcame a crippling injury when he was “shot in the spine” when he stepped in front of his younger sister as someone shot at her in 1994, and who calls his perseverance in becoming a lawyer a “real life Bronx Tale.“

The timing of the debut of Marrone’s podcast suggests a linkage between it and the new civil rights league: It debuted on January 10, the day before the IACRL news release was sent out.

In a 10-year-old version, called The Street Attorney, Marrone promoted himself as a mob mouthpiece who defended “made guys and bosses” is a 12-minute video that was used to pitch a weekly TV show about him. “If they get locked up, I get them out,” he said. “They trust me because I’m from the neighborhood. When someone here gets in a jam, they come to me. These are my people. I’m one of them, these streets are in my blood.”

Gravano said Marrone’s interests are clear: “What else is he doing?” The Bull asked and answered. “He’s representing guys who he wants back on the street. He takes pictures with John (Junior) Gotti’s kids. He brags about representing the Gottis,” Gravano said.   

For his part, Marrone proudly boasts of his work and friendship with the Gotti family. Marrone represented Junior’s wife Kimberly, and daughter Gianna, last year when they were charged with assaulting a woman at a high school basketball game in which Junior’s son Joseph was playing. The lawyer got the charges dismissed on technical grounds later that year. 

In 2016, Marrone defended Junior’s nephew John, when he was arrested for drug dealing and cops seized a load of oxycodone pills that he had stored at his grandmother Victoria’s home. John, 31, copped a plea deal, and served four years in state prison. Marrone also represented Gotti in 2017 when he was charged with arson, for which he copped a plea deal and received five years in prison.

Marrone told Gang Land that he and Junior Gotti are “friends,” and that they see each other about once a week. The attorney concedes that Gotti “supports” and is “happy” that the IACRL seeks to stop FX from airing a weekly series about the government’s star witness against his late father. But he insists that the erstwhile Junior Don, who is not an IACRL member, had “nothing” to do with the League’s decision. 

The attorney insists that the IACRL’s push to cancel the show “has nothing to do with the fact that (Gravano) was an informer, that he’s a rat. It has to do with the fact that he continues to open up these wounds” of his victims on his podcast and will soon be doing it on a “major television network.”

Marrone shares office space in Middle Village, Queens, with Elio Forcina, a lawyer who defended Gotti’s interests in a long-running legal dispute several years ago with turncoat gangster John Alite. Forcina is also an IACRL member who supports the League’s decision, but not as an attorney for Gotti, Marrone said.

Also among the League’s 300 dues-paying members is Roger Stone, the longtime pal of President Trump who was pardoned for his obstruction of justice conviction during The Donald’s first term. Marrone said the league also has the full support of many family members of Gravano’s victims.

“The families say, ‘Enough is enough,'” said Marrone. “It’s really outright disrespectful that these victims have to be victimized again by Sammy The Bull while he continues to profit from his violent crimes,” he said. “He’s made money, but his blog is kind of in the shadows. Now that he’s going to a major network, he’s coming out of the shadows and we’re going to go after him.”

“If he thinks he knows what I’m doing and what I’m thinking,” Gravano wondered, “why doesn’t he just come to me? And talk to me?” Instead, The Bull continued, “He says, ‘Cancel a show because of a T shirt I wore a couple of times in my life.’ That’s a joke.” 

“He’s part of a team that wants to hammer you, and call you names” if you’re a cooperating witness, Gravano said. “The people he represents, they’re a disgrace to Italian people,” he continued. “He admits. ‘I’m a street guy. I help guys get out of prison.’ So if you help John Gotti get out of prison who killed 13 guys, that makes you happy. Somebody who cooperates and helps the government, you’re mad. ‘Cause you’re mister good guy. Hypocrite.”

“And what about freedom of the press,” Gravano said. “And freedom of speech. I’m fed up with these people. These hypocrites. If you shut everybody down, and you get everybody to shut up, how would you know anything about how the Mafia runs?” The Bull continued. “How would you know how people think. Freedom of speech is an amazing fucking thing. This guy is against that. But he’s against that in one spot. Me. This is a one way thing against one person. Me.” 

Gravano asserted that Marrone and the IACRL probably know that “they’re not going to be able to stop” (FX from airing the series) but push to block the Sammy The Bull show makes them “look like heroes” and is a “personal gain” for them.

“I grew up on the same streets as Gravano, me in Queens and him in Brooklyn,” said Marrone, “and I come at this not only as a lawyer representing relatives of Sammy The Bull murder victims who are victimized over and over again, but also as a crime victim who was shot in the back.”

Marrone says the League is close to hiring a civil law firm to file a Son of Sam lawsuit to freeze any profits that the turncoat wiseguy makes from his crimes and distribute them to the relatives of Gravano’s victims. In the meantime, the lawyer had a few thoughts he wanted to share with The Bull.

“I think Sammy should focus on positive things in his podcast and use his vast platform to inspire and motivate people to do good instead of always talking about his crimes and the 19 people that he killed,” said Marrone. “Behind those 19 victims,” the lawyer said, “are hundreds of relatives and friends who constantly suffer every time the killings of their loved ones are brought up and open up the pain of that loss again. That’s not fair; it’s not right.”

“Quoting a guy like him, who represents wiseguys,” said Gravano, “is a joke. It’s so hypocritical, everything he’s doing. Why me? Why doesn’t he go after all the other people out there, all the mob movies and shows that keep coming out.”