Ex-Mafia Hit Man Talks About Being In The Mob, Strain On His Family In New Interview

Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, the mobster-turned-FBI informant who helped take down the Gambino crime family, says that he still carries regret from his time in the mafia.

Chief among the regrets? Being in the mafia in the first place.

In an interview with ABC News, Gravano expressed the pain he inflicted on his family.

"Being a gangster, actually in my life, was a curse," Gravano said. “It did affect my family."

"I gotta take that responsibility that it [being a mobster] did trickle down. What I did hurt them," he continued.

Gravano was involved in over 19 murders in New York City. He was also part of a group that conspired to kill Gambino boss Paul Castellano in 1985. During his time with the mafia, he gained a reputation as one of its most violent members. In 1991, Gravano became an FBI informant and his later testimony played a pivotal role in the conviction of John Gotti one year later.

Gravano himself was sentenced to five years in prison in 1994, but he ultimately served only one year due to his cooperation with the government and four years already served behind bars.

Gravano is now a YouTuber who produces podcasts about his role with the mafia and has close to half a million followers. In his interview, Gravano detailed the process of going from a violent mafia underboss to a government informer.

By his telling, the strain on Gotti’s family from his criminal work and the notoriety that he cultivated around his name played a role in his choice to turn on the mob. Gravano became wealthy from his work with the mafia and it provided his family a degree of comfort, but he still did what he could to protect them away from his other life.

His children — Gerard and Karen — recounted how they were shunned because of their father's reputation. In the upscale Todt Hill neighborhood of Staten Island, families warned their children to avoid associating with Gravano's children.

Gravano himself recounted one incident where he blew up at the parents who had said his children were not welcome in their home.

“[I said] ‘Bro, are you a good dad to your kids?... What if they didn’t have a dad? You think this is gonna end good for you?” said Gravano in the interview. “He was, I think, petrified. And it woke me up because I said, ‘What the f--- are you doing? They're legitimate people.’ And I left.”

After testifying against Gotti and serving time in prison, Gravano left the Northeast and began a new life in Arizona. Families of Gravano’s victims told ABC News that they felt they were denied justice because of his lenient sentence and doubt the idea that the former gangster has turned over a new leaf.

Gravano admitted that his actions were "ugly" but insisted that it was also just part of what mobsters called "the life."

"It was so ugly. Would you [Gravano himself] change it? Yes, the way I feel now. But even looking now, I couldn't,” Gravano said.