Tony Roach Dead At 71

Anthony "Tony Roach" Rampino, the Gambino mobster whom law enforcement suspected was involved in John Gotti's 1985 coup against Paul Castellano and the 1980 revenge killing of John Favara who accidentally ran over Gotti's 12-year-old son, died yesterday as reported by John Marzulli for the Daily News:  "The colorful mob character had been suffering from heart and respiratory ailments."  At the time of his death  Rampino was serving a 25-to-life sentence on a 1987 heroin trafficking conviction.  Mark Feldman, a former federal prosecutor, calls Rampino "as Mafia as a guy gets without being a made member."  Rampino never was inducted into the Gambino family over concerns about his drug use, and he earned the moniker "The Roach" because he smoked marijuana joints down to the very last bit.