ade one wrong move. Sammy Gravano, who grew up in Brooklyn, earned his nickname for his courage and refusal to be bullied, even by much larger, much older kids. He chose to become a wise guy and was eventually a "made" member of the Colombo crime family, moving from smaller crimes such as burglaries and stickups to the larger operations of gambling, loan-sharking operations, and the occasional mob-sanctioned murder. Gravano was horrified at the Mafia's slow transition from its traditional low profile and traditional refusal to involve "civilians" in its assignations. Gravano tells how the Mafia controlled the construction business in New York and describes the significant hits on such figures as Paul Castellano and more than a dozen other Mafioso, all of which were not solved until Gravano provided the needed information to law enforcement officials. Gravano never believed that he would ever turn against his associates and still refuses to blow the whistle on those who he considers his friends. When Gotti, however, took over as the mob boss and flaunted his newfound fame, courting the media, and endangering the future of their secret operations, he grew increasingly more disgusted. "John just fell in love with himself," Gravano says in the book. Due in part to Gotti's actions and his tendency to believe his own press and his fame, he led to the downfall of his crime family. Gotti turned into a self-obsessed, egomaniac. His own insistence on having a solid, powerful presence at a social club in Little Italy allowed surveillance teams from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to identify the whole Gambino family and eventually led to its downfall. In the book, Gravano says that he believes the Mafia is currently on unstable ground but that he also believes that Cosa Nostra could make its appearance again. "I hear the Chinese, the Russians are going to move in. Believe me, they can't put together what took ...
