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Merry Christmas Wiretappers! In part 2, I interview Steve St. John, a former prison inmate who served time with retired New York Police Detective William Priest who was an informant for John Gotti. I recently reacquainted myself with Steve St. John after a mutual acquaintance told me he had gone straight and was asking questions about some of the officers and agents who worked on his case. I was the sergeant in charge of a surveillance team who helped the FBI build a case against Steve for trading Dilaudid for stolen property. After I met him, I was convinced he had made a significant life change and we have become friends. Steve was a great help in the making of my last movie Brothers against Brothers: The Civella Spero War. I wanted a stripper to offer a lap dance to an actor playing an undercover cop and he found me a lady to fill that role. I needed a vintage car and he had a friend who has more than 30 vintage cars.
Steve has some great stories about working in a prison bakery with the ex-police detective. He also was friends with the Gotti capo named Joe Butch Corrao who brought Gotti the inside police source. We learn that Joe Butch was not a man to fool with, even as he became advanced in age and many other prison stories.
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Interesting show. Joseph Corrao was a 2nd generation Gambino capo. His father James “Jimmy the Blond” Corrao was also a Gambino capo and when he died in 1976, his son inherited the crew. When Joe Corrao died in 2001, his 6 foot 4 son Vincent (“Vinny Butch”) inherited the crew, but after serving 5 years on a RICO conviction (2005-2010), it appears that he is now a soldier. Corrao’s Mulberry Street restaurants and his social club are long closed. His restaurant “Cafe Biondo” was also used as a loan shark bank. Joeseph Corrao was a major topic in the book “Boss of Bosses” written by two FBI agents assigned to the Gambino Family.
Bob, thank you for your input on this interesting story. I think I need to check out that book.
Thanks for the reply. One minor correction from my post, Joe Butch’s father’s name was Vincent, not James. I enjoy your podcast since I grew up in NY and was not familiar with the midwest activities of LCN. I’ll make a donation to keep the podcast going.
I attended High School in with the children of LCN members but had no idea until later in life when I read about them or their fathers and grandfathers.
Hello GREAT work here,
I would love to support your podcast,
How can I listen to the actual recor dings from the bugs and get copies of the transcipts?
I have a lot of them with rolling captions in the Kindle version of my book, Leaving Vegas. Otherwise, I might sell them of some of them but the price may be a bit high.