John Alite

John Edward Alite (born September 30, 1962) is an American former Gambino crime family associate and a government witness who testified against the crime family and John A. "Junior" Gotti in 2008. That year, Alite pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, including two murders and a variety of other crimes, and in 2011, was sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison. Due to his cooperation with prosecutors, he was released on a five-year supervised release in 2012. Alite has estimated that he shot between 30 to 40 people, beat about 100 people with a baseball bat, and murdered six people. Later in life, Alite publicly denounced the life of organized crime and became a motivational speaker, podcaster and books author.

Early life

Alite was born on September 30, 1962 in Queens, New York City; his grandparents were Albanian immigrants from Gjirokastër, "John Alite, shqiptari me origjinë nga Gjirokastra, i lindur dhe i rritur në Queens të NYC, nga i biri i një taksisti" and grew up in Woodhaven, Queens. He received a baseball scholarship to the University of Tampa, but dropped out after three years. He grew up in the same neighborhood as John Gotti's son, John A. Gotti, and were boyhood friends. He was Gotti's best man at his wedding in 1990. Alite's first wife was Carol, and his second wife was Claudia DiPippa; he has four children.

Criminal life

Alite was associated with the Gambino family, and led a crew in Tampa, Florida that extorted rival valet businesses, and reported to Gambino capo Ronald Trucchio. He also arranged for the purchase of Mirage, a Tampa nightclub.

In 1995, Charles Carneglia and Alite were involved in a major conspiracy to murder John A. Gotti. Later that year, Alite was arrested for illegal possession of a firearm in violation of a parole agreement and spent three years in prison. After his release, Alite earned an additional three months back in prison for acting as a go-between for corrupt prison guard Troy Kemmerer who was smuggling sperm donation kits in and out of Allenwood Federal Prison for inmate Antonino Parlavecchio, who was trying to impregnate his wife Maria.

As federal racketeering indictments were handed down for his group's activities in the Tampa area, Alite fled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in January 2004, and lived and worked in the Copacabana neighborhood, according to the Brazilian Federal Police. He lived there for 10 months before authorities arrested him. He served two years in prison in Brazil and was eventually extradited to federal authorities in Tampa, for trial in 2006.

Government witness and racketeering convictions

In January 2008, Alite pleaded guilty to racketeering charges that included two murders, four murder conspiracies, at least eight shootings, and two attempted shootings as well as armed home invasions and armed robberies in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida, stemming from his alleged involvement in a Gambino crew in Tampa, Florida. Alite agreed to testify in the trial of Gambino family enforcer Charles Carneglia, who was found guilty of four murders and is now serving a life sentence.

Alite was also a government witness in the unsuccessful racketeering trial against John Gotti Jr. Prosecutors indicted Gotti for racketeering and murder conspiracy charges, stemming from an alleged drug trafficking ring in Florida, and the murders of George Grosso in 1988, Louis DiBono in 1990 and Bruce John Gotterup in 1991. Alite testified that Gotti was responsible for at least eight murders, among other crimes.

Alite's testimony was largely undermined during cross examination. On December 1, 2009, the 12 jurors announced that they had failed to reach a unanimous verdict on all the charges against Gotti and the judge declared a mistrial and released Gotti. Interviewed after the trial, the jurors said that they did not find Alite to be credible. Federal prosecutors from Brooklyn and Tampa described Alite's cooperation as "extraordinary" and "substantial" when submitting statements to the judge responsible for sentencing Alite for two murders and other crimes.

On April 26, 2011, Alite was sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison. In January 2012, he was released on a five-year supervised release; in October 2015, a letter was written to the U.S. Probation Office claiming that Alite broke the terms of his supervised release in a New Jersey gun case which prompted an investigation that sent Alite back to prison for three months.

Later life

Alite later became a youth motivational speaker on avoiding crime. He has four books that he co-wrote, ''Gotti's Rules'' (2015), ''Darkest Hour'' (2018), ''Prison Rules'' (2019), and ''Mafia International'' (2021)''. ''In July 2020, he appeared in the '' Fear City: New York vs The Mafia'' Netflix docuseries. On March 25 2020 he started his own podcast, called
Mafia Truths with John Alite
'. In September 2021, Alite was the subject of an episode of National Geographic‘s ''Locked Up Abroad''. Later he featured in a Gamology react video on ''Hitman 3'' where he provided commentary on the game and how it compared to his exploits as a former hitman.

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alite, John
American people of Albanian descent
1962 births
American Mafia cooperating witnesses
Gambino crime family
Living people
American gangsters
People from Woodhaven, Queens
People extradited from Brazil
People extradited to the United States
American people convicted of murder
People convicted of racketeering
American people convicted of robbery
American people convicted of burglary
American motivational speakers
Organized crime memoirists
American memoirists
Non-fiction writers about organized crime in the United States
American male non-fiction writers