Infamous Gambino Crime Family hang out
The Ravenite Social Club was located at 247 Mulberry Street in Little Italy, New York City. Famous for being the place where John Gotti held private meetings here in a second floor apartment, while unknowingly being bugged by the FBI. This ultimately led to the arrest and subsequent indictment of Gotti. He died in prison in 2002. The club is now a shoe store.
Early history of the Ravenite
Long before Gotti took control, 247 Mulberry Street had been a hangout for mafioso. From the 1930s it passed through the hands of notorious mobsters like Joseph La Forte Sr. and Aniello Dellacroce.
Some sources say the club was founded in 1926 first as the Alto Knights Social Club (after an old street gang during Prohibition) and it became a hangout for Lucky Luciano and others. It is said that Carlo Gambino took over in 1957 and he renamed the club "The Ravenite" after his favorite poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. Gambino stopped using the club when he discovered police were keeping a closer eye on it. Other sources say this is not true and that the famously low-key Gambino never frequented social clubs.
Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce takes over
One thing that is known for sure is that infamous and respected Gambino heavyweight, Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce took over club in the 1960s. He used the Ravenite as an “underworld kangaroo court” and is also rumoured to have used the club to hold discussions seeking support to remove Carlo Gambino as head of the family.
It was frequented and used as the headquarters of the Gambino crime family throughout the late 1970s and 1980s.
FBI starts investigating the Ravenite
Dellacroce never did take over the family, with the position of boss going to Paul Castellano after Gambin died. It was during Castellano’s tenure that investigations into the Ravenite really stepped up. In March, 1980, the New York Citizen reported that a grand jury was investigating whether the club was being used to plan crimes like drug trafficking, murder conspiracies, loan sharking and theft.
Dellacroce was arrested at the Ravenite by Internal Revenue Service agents in 1984 on charges of evading an unspecified sum of taxes. Law-enforcement agents also planted a bug at the club in 1980 that they say recorded discussions about the murder of Carmine Galante, who was slain in 1979.
John Gotti takes over
When Dellacroce died and John Gotti took over he made it his center of operations and expected his capos to pay him respect at the club weekly. This was very unpopular with many, including consigliere Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano, as it provided the FBI with a who's who of the Gambino family.
Ravenite and upstairs apartment is wireptapped
Around 1990, the FBI was able to infiltrate the club and an apartment above it, installing voice recorders and other wiretaps. The FBI then used recordings against Gotti. Exterior surveillance also recorded numerous union officials outside the Ravenite Social Club, helping the FBI in connecting the boss of the Gambino crime family to the city's labor unions.
Gotti and Gambino heavyweights arrested at the Ravenite
John Gotti was arrested for the final time on December 11th 1990 in his main meeting place in Manhattan, the Ravenite Social Club.
Gotti was taken into custody with Frank Locascio (underboss in the Gambino family); Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano (consiglieri); and Thomas Gambino, (capo and the late Carlo Gambino's son).
Federal Marshals seize the Ravenite
The building that contained the Ravenite, at 247 Mulberry St, was owned by Gambino family member Joseph (Joe The Cat) LaForte. Federal Marshals later seized the building and auctioned it off to the highest bidder.
When Marshals informed the club’s tenants that they were losing the Ravenite, they received an icy response, the New York Daily News reported.
“Listen, fella,” one obviously agitated club member said last night before slamming the door on a Daily News reporter, “we been here 90 years. We’re losing the place. We have no plans.”
Sold out
