y into two camps. Sammy was behind the idea of new leadership of a unified family. Sammy told Angelo that he would see how DeCicco and Robert DiBernardo would react to such a proposal before he made a firm commitment. After DeCicco agreed, the three key players were committed: Gotti, Gravano and DeCicco. DiBernardo, a very rich and influential man with strong Teamster connections, signed on shortly afterwards. Now Gotti needed someone of the older generation, a traditional capo in the family. Joseph Armone fit the bill. By getting Armone to join the Fist, they reduced the possibility of a civil war within the family. Gotti and his co-conspirators knew that they had to lay the groundwork for their plan well beyond the Gambino family. In Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain's book Gotti: Rise and Fall the strategy is described:Members of the Fist contacted influential men in three other Cosa Nostra families -Luchese, Colombo, and Bonanno -- and asked for support if "something happened" to Paul. They approached men they regarded as the next generation of leaders, because most of the current leaders had fallen victim to the RICO (racketeering law) sword and were awaiting trial and facing life in prison without parole. For obvious reasons, Paul's friend Chin Gigante was not contacted. On the day of Paul Castellano's assassination, DeCicco carried on some important political preparations. He went to the Sparks restaurant to make sure that the other capos there did not think that their lives were endangered and to do his best to prevent them from taking any retaliatory action against whoever they thought was responsible. A couple of days after Paul's death, elderly consigliere Joe Gallo called a meeting of all the Gambino family capos at a restaurant owned by Gravano. Gallo had already warned Gotti that his contacts with the younger leadership of the other families didn't count. Only the Cosa Nostra Commission could have a leader...
