Mafia killed boss for being gay

An informer, testifying at the trial of three alleged mob bosses in New York, described the secret gay life of mob boss John D'Amato, a colleague of the late John Gotti. Prosecutors on Thursday played a 1991 videotape of Gotti kissing D'Amato while Anthony Capo testified that D'Amato was killed at the hands of his Mafia peers because he was gay. According to the New York Post, Gotti was unaware of his friend's sexual orientation when he greeted D'Amato, then acting boss of New Jersey's DeCavalcante crime family, with a peck on the cheek. Capo explained why the clan, which considers itself the model for TV's The Sopranos, feared the revelation. Having a gay boss was "devastating to our brigada," said Capo, using an Italian word for a mob family. "Nobody's going to respect us if we have a gay homosexual boss sitting down discussing business with other families." Capo said he first learned his boss was gay from D'Amato's two girlfriends, who told him that though he was married, D'Amato went to sex clubs for couples swaps and sometimes had sex with men. D'Amato fled to Florida, and Capo told his bosses in the DeCavalcante crime family about D'Amato's secret life. They decided he had to be killed for breaking mob rules, Capo said. "That is a rule," Capo said. "When I got straightened out, they didn't tell me, 'Don't be a homosexual,' but that was a rule."