November 2, 1987
So many hits over the years, so many goodfellas who have paid the price. Perhaps some mafiosi are not at all happy with the way they shuffled off this mortal coil and are still hanging around, trying to come to grips with what happened to them.
Take the case of Michael DeBatt, who was a mob casualty, one of the many who have been whacked over the years. This is not to say DeBatt was completely innocent himself, but it’s highly probable that he got in over his head.
DeBatt was a friend of Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, and also a member of Gravano’s Gambino family crew. Gravano had at one time been very good to DeBatt, helping his family deal with loan-shark debts after the death of his father, and more or less taking the young lad under his wing. According to Gravano, who later famously became one of the biggest mob informers ever, DeBatt took part in the murder of Frank Fiala. But that’s just Gravano’s testimony. No murder charges against DeBatt were ever laid.
DeBatt was doing okay for a while. He had a wife and child, a nice home and a restaurant—Tali’s—that was helping to pay off some of his father’s debt, as well as giving DeBatt a new start. So what went wrong?
Unfortunately for DeBatt, it was drugs—cocaine and crack. Gravano’s crew used to deal the stuff, but Gravano really didn’t like his boys partaking in it, at least not heavily. DeBatt got hooked pretty badly and the drugs started to have an effect on his personality, causing bizarre behaviour. He developed paranoia and took to holing up in his house and keeping watch at the front window, waiting with loaded gun for an imaginary hit. In DeBatt’s unsound mind, no one was going to get him without a fight.
DeBatt was becoming a liability, and as a rule, the mob doesn’t put up with that kind of thing for long.
Allegedly, it was Gravano himself who arranged the hit. The old friendship that had supposedly existed between him and DeBatt was now irrelevant—DeBatt had to go. On November 2, 1987, after attending a wedding, DeBatt came back to his restaurant. There he was murdered in front of the bar, his body left to cool by the orange electric light of the jukebox.
And that should be the end of the story, but it’s not. It’s said that the spirit of Michael DeBatt still haunts the place where he was gunned down. From time to time a ghostly voice can be heard whispering the name “Mike”, while phantom faces can be seen peering out of mirrors. Those who work there feel as if they are constantly being watched, as shadowy figures disappear down the basement stairs.
Who knows? Maybe it is DeBatt, trying to find a little peace and a little justice.