Peter Gotti Accused In Mob Plot

The brother of the late mob boss John Gotti was charged Monday with plotting to kill Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, the Mafia turncoat whose testimony helped send Gotti - better known as "the Dapper Don" - to the federal prison where he died last year.

Peter Gotti was named in an indictment that included five other Gambino family members already charged in a wide racketeering conspiracy that included the alleged plot to kill Gravano. Gravano was arrested in a drug case before the hit could be carried out.

The new indictment in Manhattan federal court told little about the scheme, saying only that Peter Gotti and others conspired from October 1999 through May 2000 to kill Gravano and boost their own status in the crime family.

Prosecutors said the Gambino family - which Gravano once dared to hunt him down - would pay an unspecified amount of money for the hit.

Peter Gotti was convicted in March of racketeering and other charges. That case accused him of taking control of the Gambino crime family after John Gotti's son was jailed.

Peter Gotti's lawyer, Gerald Shargel, did not immediately return a telephone message for comment. Gotti faces up to 70 years in prison on the new charges, which also include allegations he tried to extort construction companies in the metropolitan area.

Gravano confessed to roles in 19 murders when he agreed to testify against his former boss, John Gotti. The deal resulted in his freedom after serving only five years on racketeering charges.

Gravano eventually left the witness protection program, living openly in Arizona as he taunted the Mafia during interviews in 1999.

"They send a hit team down, I'll kill them," Gravano told Vanity Fair magazine. "They better not miss, because even if they get me, there will be a lot of body bags going back to New York."

By Larry Neumeister