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Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano Recalls Getting ‘Set Up’ by John Gotti on ‘Families of the Mafia’ (Exclusive)toofab.comon July 29, 2021 at 3:00 pm

“I’m sure the Gottis are not gonna be happy when this comes out.”

Sammy “The Bull” Gravano is ready to take on John Gotti once again, this time on a new podcast about his time in the mob.

In this sneak peek at Thursday’s new episode of “Families of the Mafia” on MTV, Sammy and his daughter Karen discuss his latest media ambitions — and why he decided to speak about his underboss years for the Gambino crime family on “Our Thing with Sammy the Bull,” which launched last December.

Saying he decided to go the podcast route to tell his “life story,” he added, “I don’t know how many seasons and how many episodes until you capture my whole life story, I mean, there were so many lies, so many deceptions of what went on, why I left the mob, John, why I cooperated.”

John, of course, is crime boss John Gotti. Gravano turned on Gotti back in 1991, agreeing to help take him down after hearing wiretapped conversations in which John implicated Sammy in a number of murders. In exchange for his testimony, Gravano admitted to his role in killing 19 people, pleaded guilty to racketeering and was sentenced to five years in prison. Gotti, meanwhile, was sentenced to life and died of cancer in 2002 while behind bars.

“My ultimate goal is to tell the truth,” Sammy explained to his daughter in the footage. “Whether you like me, whether you hate me, whether you love me, whatever the thing is, I want them to know the truth.”

When Karen wondered if he would tell everything, he said, “I believe that if you’re gonna tell the story, you gotta go out and tell it all.”

“I’m sure the Gottis are not gonna be happy when this comes out,” said Karen, who then brought up the wiretapped tapes.

“Once I got busted and I heard all these tapes, hidden tapes with John Gotti, most of those things he was talking about was lies,” Sammy told his daughter. “John said I was killing people, taking over their businesses, killing union guys and taking over the unions. That never happened. So when I heard that on tape, I was in shock.”

The clip ends with Sammy saying John was “planning to take me out” and “was setting me up.”

After Sammy went underground following his initial release from prison, both he and Karen were arrested in 2000 in connection to an ecstasy ring he was running between Arizona and New York. He wound up serving even more time behind bars, while Karen was put on probation. According to MTV, the new episode will also show Karen’s daughter and Sammy’s granddaughter, Karina, struggle “to see both sides of their past criminal actions.”

“Families of the Mafia” airs Thursdays on MTV.

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