Gay's as good as dead, mob turncoat testifies
By ROBERT GEARTY and DAVE GOLDINER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
It's an unwritten rule of the mob - if you're gay, you die.
A Mafia turncoat testified yesterday that he ordered the killing of a mob soldier because he heard the man had performed a sex act on another man.
"What's the rule in [the Mafia] about this?" federal prosecutor John Hillebrecht asked snitch Vincent (Vinnie Ocean) Palermo.
"You die," Palermo replied.
Palermo, a former DeCavalcante crime family boss, offered up his killer credentials as he testified at the racketeering trial of aging reputed Genovese mobster Federico (Fritzy) Giovanelli in Manhattan Federal Court.
The gay slay rule came up as Palermo recounted ordering the 1992 killing of DeCavalcante underboss John D'Amato, to which he pleaded guilty when he agreed to cooperate with the feds in 2000.
Palermo, 58, said he started becoming suspicious of D'Amato's sexuality after hearing "a lot of different rumors."
Using a slang term for oral sex, Palermo said he ordered the hit after another mobster told him that D'Amato's girlfriend said he once performed the sex act on a man at a "swinger's club."
"Is that a euphemism for sex?" asked Hillebrecht.
"Yes," the snitch replied.
Palermo also backed up prosecution claims that Giovanelli illegally tipped him off about his impending arrest in 1999.
Giovanelli, 73, allegedly gleaned information about the indictments of several mobsters from an unidentified mole inside a federal prosecutor's office.
Palermo admitted giving more than $1million to his children to avoid allowing the feds to seize it after his arrest.
"To Bill Gates it's not a lot of money," Palermo said. "To me, it is."
Originally published on April 29, 2004