Dominick Montiglio served under the orders of the famous mafia man Paul Castellano. He was arrested during a large operation led by Rudolf Giuliani, admitted his guilt and pled guilty in the subsequent trial, getting a deal with the FBI and thus into the witness protection program. He managed to not do time and also avoid the contract the mafia family placed on his head, and finally opted to make a living as a working artist.
Jurnalul National: How did you get inside the Mafia? Dominick Montiglio: I was born into it. My uncle, Nino Gaggi, was the right hand of Paul Castellano, the Capo of the Gambino Family. In my house was organized the meeting following which Big Paulie, which I deem to be the last romantic Capo of the Mafia, was elected "cappo dei tutti cappi." This time I was standing upstairs, guarding the front door with a machine gun in my hands. Maybe this was why I did not follow the special initiation procedure.
JN : Your parents had no say in this ? Were they part of the Family too? DM : My father was a boxer and a drunk. In fact my uncle took me out of my parentsâ home by force, as he was unhappy with the environment I was growing up into. I frequently met my father on the street, but he was forbidden from contacting me or engaging me in any type of dialogue.
JN: So Nino Gaggi was the mentor ⦠DM: More than that: we had a love and hate relationship.
JN: Can you go into details? DM: Sure. My dream was to become a professional jazz singer. I even had a band which was well received by the critics in those years. But Nino was against it, saying that was an unhealthy environment, with hookers, booze and drugs. However, I had a lot of those while working for the Gambino Family, said Montiglio smiling. Furthermore, my uncle decided that since I could kill for the government, I might as well do it for the Family â¦
JN: W