Wilfred Johnson

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Wilfred Johnson

FBI mugshot of Wilfred Johnson
Born September 29, 1935
Brooklyn, New York city, New York
Died August 29, 1988
Brooklyn, New York city, New York

Wilfred "Willie Boy" Johnson (September 29, 1935 – August 29, 1988) was a close friend of Gambino crime boss John Gotti and was also an FBI informant from 1969 to 1985. He provided the FBI with information relating to John Gotti and other members of the Gambino family.

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[edit] Early life

Johnson was born on the Brooklyn waterfront, one of five children of a Native American father and an Italian mother. Johnson's father, John Johnson, was an abusive alcoholic who frequently beat his wife and children. Johnson's father often spent his entire paycheck on alcohol. Johnson's mother would periodically desert her husband and children, only to return later. This dysfunctional and vicious childhood helped mold Johnson into a criminal.

Johnson's criminal career began when he was only nine years old; he was arrested for stealing money out of a store's cash register. Johnson's school life was quite traumatic as well. The boy had a hair-trigger temper that frequently got him into trouble. At age 12, Johnson either fell or was pushed off the school roof during a fight. As a result of this accident, Johnson sustained head injuries that would plague him with persistent headaches for the rest of his life.

[edit] Entry into organized crime

As a young man, Johnson was 6'6" and weighed close to 300 pounds. This led him to become a Mafia enforcer. By 1949, he was running a gang of thugs in East New York who strong armed debtors into paying their mob debts. In 1957, Johnson met John Gotti for the first time. Gotti was a 17 year-old high-school drop-out and Johnson was a street thug perpetually in trouble with the law.

When Gotti joined the Gambino family, Johnson came with him. Johnson became known as the 'terminator' because of his skill with strong-arm work. Requiring a steady income, Johnson was given a modestly-successful gambling operation. Because Johnson was only half-Italian from the wrong side of the family, he could never become a made man. However, he brought in money as well as anyone else in the family. Johnson married an Italian woman and never had a mistress. In Johnson's mind, he was part of the family.

[edit] Cooperation with the FBI

In the late 1960s, Johnson the loyal soldier would turn against his crime family. It started in 1966, when Johnson was imprisoned for armed robbery. His Capo, Carmine Fatico, vowed to financially support Johnson's wife and two infant children. However, Fatico soon broke this promise. Johnson's wife, who was to remain loyal to him throughout all his prison terms, was forced to go on welfare. Johnson felt the mob was not living up to its obligations.

In 1967 during an FBI interview, someone spotted Johnson's apparent dissatisfaction with the mob. After his release from prison, the FBI approached him about becoming an informant. Reluctant at first, Johnson finally agreed to talk in return for the government dropping some counterfeiting charges. Johnson also wanted to pay back the Gambinos for their dishonesty.

[edit] Career as Informant

During his 16 years as an informant, Johnson provided information on all the different New York Mafia crews that he worked on and the FBI used that information to make arrests. However, as his FBI 'handler', Special Agent Martin Boland noticed, Johnson refused to discuss his background or childhood in any detail.

One of the most significant pieces of information provided by Johnson was how the crew was avoiding FBI wire taps and bugs. The crew was using a parked trailer in a junkyard owned by Paul Vario in Brooklyn.

Johnson provided the FBI with information on a large-scale narcotics ring, run by John Gotti and others, called the 'Pleasant Avenue Connection'. He revealed that Gotti and Angelo Ruggerio had murdered Florida mobster Anthony Plate. Johnson also had details on the murder of James McBratney, the man who kidnapped Emanuel Gambino.

[edit] Exposure

In 1985, Johnson's career as an informant came to an abrupt end. In a public hearing that year, Federal prosecutor, Diane Giacalone inadvertently revealed that Johnson was working for the FBI. Johnson's FBI handlers tried to convince him to enter the Witness Protection Program, but for some reason he refused.

On August 29, 1988, Bonanno family hitman, Thomas Pitera ambushed Wilfred "Willie Boy" Johnson as he walked to his car and shot him to death. Pitera had done this as a favour to Gotti. Pitera would eventually be convicted of six murders, include Johnson's.

[edit] Further reading

  • Davis, John H. Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. ISBN 0-06-016357-7
  • Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8

[edit] External links