Ex-Mobster Leaves Prison With New Id And A Bounty On His Head

NEW YORK - Call him Sammy the bull's eye.

Salvatore "Sammy The Bull" Gravano is getting out of prison this spring and joining the Witness Protection Program with a new name, a new hometown and a mob-ordered bounty - reportedly worth up to $1 million - on his head.

"You can assume there's a mob contract on anybody who's cooperated, especially when they testify against the head of a family," says Ronald Goldstock, ex-head of the state Organized Crime Task Force.

Gravano did just that - twice - during a series of trials in which his testimony produced convictions against 37 former associates. Jailed with Gravano's help were Colombo family boss Victor Orena and the biggest prize of all: former pal John Gotti, the Dapper Don, the head of the Gambino family empire.

"If John Gotti could get his hands, feet or any other body part on Gravano, he would kill him," said Howard Abadinsky, president of the International Association for the Study of Organized Crime.

"But you cannot achieve the death of Sammy the Bull without the help of Sammy the Bull."

Translation: If Gravano quietly relocates to an undisclosed location under an assumed name, keeps his surgically altered profile low and follows the rules, survival won't be a problem.

Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno did all that, and died in his sleep at age 79.

"If Gravano obeys the rules, he's likely safe," Goldstock agreed. "The guys looking for him tend to be parochial. They have no idea where Albuquerque is."

"In reality, Sammy's been sentenced to life," said ex-U.S. Attorney Andrew Maloney, whose office helped turn Gravano. "The rest of his life he'll be looking over his shoulder."

Published reports said Gotti had placed a $1 million cash bounty on the Bull. And while Gotti loves to talk - his secretly recorded conversations were as damning at his 1992 trial as Gravano - he rarely minced words when it came to violence.

Authorities say Gotti is still running the Gambino family from his jail cell in Marion, Ill.

The federal Marshals Service has handled 6,439 witnesses and 8,079 of their family members since 1971, but no one who has followed its strict guidelines has been hit, said Marshals spokesman Bill Licatovich.

"We've never lost an individual in the program who stayed and followed the rules," he said. "We have had some people go back to where they testified - we call that the `danger zone' - that were killed."

Old neighborhoods are dangerous, but so are old habits. Joseph "The Animal" Barboza, an enforcer who testified against New England crime boss Joseph Patriarca, was bludgeoned to death in 1976 after using his new identity to start a second life of crime.

Barboza, 3,000 miles from home in San Francisco, couldn't resist the lure of "The Life" - the high-rolling, hard-living world of mob action.

Henry "Wiseguy" Hill, after relocating to Redmond, Wash., put it this way: "I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook." Hill was booted from the program in 1987 after a cocaine conviction.

"Sammy is not a guy used to living a nice, placid life," Abadinsky said of Gravano, a millionaire construction boss who once toured Manhattan night life with Gotti.

"He liked the excitement. He liked being in the life. And the fact that he's taken out of it doesn't change that personality."

No one - not the FBI, the U.S. attorney, the Bureau of Prisons or even his attorney - is saying when Gravano will be sprung.

Not that such information would make Gravano an easy mark. Abadinsky offered a word of caution for anyone believing they can get rich quick on Gravano.

"John Gotti may say, `Hey, I want this guy hit.' But who the hell's going to do it?" he wondered. "Hitting Sammy the Bull is not easy. He's a dangerous man. And unless he's very careless, he's going to stay alive."