Sammy The Bull Quotes

Put it in their face,” Gotti urged Sammy the Bull Gravano. “They want to see fucking lions and tigers and that’s what we are.

Seizing on the reduced-ranks situation, Gotti urged Gigante to reinforce his family with forty additional men. Sammy the Bull Gravano knew that Gotti was scheming to undercut Gigante and to court loyalty from the new Genovese cadre by informing them that he was responsible for their admission into Cosa Nostra.

To those inclined to defend Trump, they might consider how it would have looked if President Obama had called the FBI director to a one-on-one dinner during an investigation of senior officials in his administration, then discussed his job security, and then said he expected loyalty. There would undoubtedly be people appearing on Fox News calling for Obama’s impeachment in an instant. This, of course, was not something I could ever conceive of Obama doing, or George W. Bush, for that matter. To my mind, the demand was like Sammy the Bull’s Cosa Nostra induction ceremony—with Trump, in the role of the family boss, asking me if I have what it takes to be a “made man.” I did not, and would never.

During the silence that followed, I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way. The president of the United States just demanded the FBI director’s loyalty. This was surreal. To those inclined to defend Trump, they might consider how it would have looked if President Obama had called the FBI director to a one-on-one dinner during an investigation of senior officials in his administration, then discussed his job security, and then said he expected loyalty. There would undoubtedly be people appearing on Fox News calling for Obama’s impeachment in an instant. This, of course, was not something I could ever conceive of Obama doing, or George W. Bush, for that matter. To my mind, the demand was like Sammy the Bull’s Cosa Nostra induction ceremony—with Trump, in the role of the family boss, asking me if I have what it takes to be a “made man.” I did not, and would never. I was determined not to give the president any hint of assent to this demand, so I gave silence instead. We looked at each other for what seemed an eternity, but was maybe two seconds or so. I stared again at the soft white pouches under his expressionless blue eyes. I remember thinking in that moment that the president doesn’t understand the FBI’s role in American life or care about what the people there spent forty years building. Not at all.

He was robbing us blind, the cocksucker. “Now Ralph Spero ain’t a made guy. He never got made. But it’s an awkward situation. He’s Shorty’s brother and I’m with Shorty. I decide it was better to sell the joint, get the fuck out. Learn my lesson and tomorrow’s another day. Basically, that was what I did with people, if they turned out to be pieces of shit. I tried to avoid confrontations. If you pushed me too far over the line, then I would react. But there’s enough people to shoot in the head without looking for it all the time.

Sometimes, no matter how smart you are, you can’t avoid getting tripped up.

So I think I picked that up from Toddo, too. Sitting there in thegarden listening to him, he’d be so wise. A lot of times, I thought he was like a witch. How the fuck did he know how this or that would turn out? But he did. It was amazing. Like, he’d always know when to pull out of a deal—right before the bust.“So one day I finally asked him how he did it. He told me, ‘You know what it is, Sammy? In my position, a hundred people a day come to me with different problems. You see that roof over there? Say, you ask me what would happen to you if you jumped off it. If I’ve never seen anybody jump off before, I don’t know the answer for sure. But if I’ve watched a hundred people jump, maybe I’ve seen ninety-two of them break an ankle,crack a hip, sprain their knees. Eight of them are in real good shape. They don’t get hurt. Now person one hundred and one comes to me and says, ‘I’d like to jump off that roof.’ ‘Don’t do it,’ I tell them. ‘You’ll break your ankle. You’ll hurt yourself.’ I know now that ninety-two percent of the time, I’ll be right. I’m not that smart. I know from my age and from the amount of people who ask me for advice what the outcome will be. I’ve done it over and over. Someday you could be in the same position. You’ll see, this will come naturally to you. I think you have all the right qualities.

Remember that in life. Listen with both ears. You listen to one story. You listen to the other one.Someplace in the middle is the truth. It’s up to your own brains and knowledge to determine what to do, if you know the background of the people who are involved. Don’t ever react to anything in life—legitimate or illegitimate—by listening just to one side. You got plenty of time to react. Listen to both sides. Think about someplace in the middle and make up your mind. Then react. Then you do what you want.

Revenge for Frankie