Gotti Trial Reveals FBI Agent was Paid $12,000 a Month

FBI agent Robert Herbster told the jury that Lewis Kasman was paid $12,000 a month to cover his expenses. Kasman the adopted son of the late John “Dapper Don” Gotti was recruited by the FBI 13 years ago.

According to Herbster, Kasman was paid that amount from 2005 to 2007. It is believed he was recruited to full cooperating witness in 2005 when some Gotti family members were leaning on him for money. Last year Kasman was a ‘star witness’ in a trial in Florida, testifying against Gambino gangster Vincent Artuso.

Kasman has been testifying at the fourth trial of John Gotti Junior. He is on trial for racketeering and for his involvement in three murders. John Gotti Junior seems to have his father’s ability to survive in the courtroom though. His father earned the nickname “Teflon Don” for what seemed to be the inability to make any charges stick although he was finally imprisoned for life in 1992 and died there in 2002. (Kasman was entrusted with his eulogy). The previous 3 trials against Junior have all ended with either a hung jury or a mistrial.

In 2005 and 2006 he was on trial in the Manhattan court on charges of planning to kidnap Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels crime-fighting group. His defense was that he had quit the mob in the 1990’s. He is using the same defense in his current trial.

This time he stands trial for his involvement of the murders of three men (among the other racketeering charges). The first was drug-pusher George Grosso who was shot in December 88 and his body dumped in Flushing Meadow Park. The second was Louis DiBono, a construction worker. He had been shot seven times and was found slumped in a car in the basement of the World Trade Center on Oct 4 1990. The third victim was Bruce Gotterup who, according to the prosecution, was a threat to Gotti’s drug dealing activities. In 1991 he was found face down on the boardwalk at Rockaway Beach having been shot in the face.

The star witness in this trial is expected to be John Alite. He is a previous Gambino associate and friend of John Junior. Gotti was best man at his wedding. He also won his friendship and allegiance through dealing cocaine, even though drugs were a no -no in the family. This ‘friend’ turned ‘rat’ is alleged to have plenty to add to the trial including the killing of two men in Queens in 1988 and 1991 that Alite claims were slain on Gotti’s say so.

Defense lawyers for Gotti will be trying to persuade the jury that he had gone straight. They also say the government relies too heavily on ‘rats’ who will lie about their client to protect themselves.

Many people are hoping to see that this will be the end of John Gotti Junior’s visits to the Manhattan courtroom, and possibly mark an end to the Gambino Mafia ‘madness’. Or will payments of $12,000 a month still need to be made to try to get the mob members behind bars?