Howard Santos, a reputed Gambino associate who was "busted last year for a series of big ticket commercial burglaries throughout the metropolitan area," has switched to Team America as reported by Jerry Capeci for The Huffington Post: "The ex-burglar is prepared to testify about the 'structure' of the crime family in the upcoming racketeering trial of several defendants facing sex-trafficking charges involving a minor." Related: Mafia Exploitation Of Kids: Really A New Low?
Capeci further reports that after Santos began cooperating his three co-defendants in the burglary bust pleaded guilty including "Jonathan Mascuzzio -- whose father Anthony, a close associate of the late John Gotti, was shot to death in 1988 as he tried to extort money from the owner of a Manhattan disco."
In connection with the disco death, a June 19, 1988 article ("Police Say Man Slain at Disco May Have Been Aide to Gotti") from the New York Times states: "Anthony Mascuzzio . . . was found spawled on the floor Friday in the basement of the Bedrox Disco at 316 West 49th Street. He had been shot twice, once in the back and once in the neck, police said." The disco's owner, Dave Fisher, apparently had grown tired of the shakedown racket to which many bars and clubs in New York City are subjected, and shot the mobster in self-defense after wrestling away his gun. Fisher "later committed suicide," and Bedrox Disco was taken over by its co-owner Steven Kaplan as reported by Rhonda Cook for The Atlanta Constitution. In 2001 Kaplan went on trial for allegedly paying strippers to perform sex on pro athletes at his Atlanta, GA strip club Gold Coast as then reported by Greg B. Smith for the Daily News: "Assistant U.S. Attorney Art Leach alleges the Gold Club was a money machine for the mob family run by the ailing crime boss, John Gotti." During the trial Kaplan pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, and in January 2002 was sentenced to sixteen months in prison as then reported by Greg B. Smith for the Daily News.
Jonathan Mascuzzio's brother Anthony was sentenced to prison in 1998 for his role in an attack against a black man as then reported by Lawrence Goodman for the Daily News.
