Michael de Batt - Biography - Falling Out With Gravano Crew and Murder

Falling Out With Gravano Crew and Murder

Like his friend Nicholas Mormando, DeBatt became addicted to crack cocaine and cocaine sometime during the crack epidemic in 1984. He suffered from a paranoid psychosis brought on by the effects of the drugs. Gravano later surmises that Mormando got DeBatt addicted to the potent stimulant. He later became involved in murder and committing robberies to support his habit. He became estranged from his wife and children. Gravano later said, "He went crazy. He didn't come down for days. And when he does, he's sweating, he's all jumpy. His wife came to me (Gravano) crying, "I don't know what happened to him. He sits in the house behind a window with the blinds down, and he's got a rifle." She also stated that he told her, "If they come, I'm gonna battle it out." Sammy later stated:

"I lost control of him. I tried to talk to him, but he's too far gone. He ain't listening. And he's done work (murder) with us and our family. He was a good man, Mike, until this. Not only did I like him, I went back with his father, who was originally with me. Remember, when the father died, I took the kid under my wing. I know the mother, the wife. These people came to my farm in Jersey. They came to my house. They came to my parties. This just tore my fucking insides out. Afterwards, I stayed with them, helped them. But there's nothing I can do about Mike. This was the life. I got John (Gotti)'s permission. Mike worked the bar at Tali's. I decided he would be killed in Tali's and to leave him there to make it seem to the cops that the murder was because of a robbery."

So nobody would think that it was related to the Gambino crime family or any organized crime matter. After a Mafia-family wedding, Michael had gone back to Tali's with Thomas Carbonaro and Eddie Garafola, expecting the wedding party to join them as usual. "But the only ones who went back there were four murderers", says his sister Rosanna. Thomas (Huck) Carbonaro shot Michael while he was stationed behind the bar counter at Tali's. He was shot several times in the head and neck with a handgun on November 3, 1987. He left behind a wife and several children. Michael's lifeless body was found face up on the floor in front of the restaurant's juke box by the night shift manager who was coming in to work. His pockets were emptied, his jewellery removed and the cash register cleaned out. Police investigators stated that while DeBatt had no criminal record, he was reputed to have associated with members of the Gambino crime family. Sammy's brother-in-law Eddie Garafola and Louis Vallario were present when the murder was fulfilled. Gravano waited at The Brown Derby, in Brooklyn with John Gotti when Edward came in and advised them both that the murder of Michael DeBatt had been carried out.

His murder remained unsolved until Sammy Gravano agreed to become a stool pigeon and testify against John Gotti to avoid prosecution for numerous crimes. He was the thirteenth victim of nineteen that Gravano confessed to the authorities of having orchestrated their murder or personally carried it out. Later, in 1995 Gravano's close friend and criminal associate Joseph (Stymie) D'Angelo, who helped DeBatt murder Frank Faila would be murdered in the same restaurant. Before the murder of DeBatt, Gravano arranged to have Nicholas (Nicky Boy) Mormando murdered for the same reasons. He had become heavily addicted to crack cocaine among other things, and was a liability to become a stool pigeon like DeBatt. In fifteen years since the murder of Michael, no one has been formally charged with the murder. He is survived by a wife and daughter who was four years old at the time of his death.