John Edward Alite, also known as Johnny Alletto, is an American former Gambino crime family associate, and later informant against the crime family and John A. "Junior" Gotti. Alite is an admitted murderer, armed robber, and drug dealer who used violence as a means of accomplishing his illegal goals. He has estimated that he had shot between 30 to 40 people, baseball batted 100 people, and murdered six people. Later in life, Alite has publicly denounced the life of organized crime and became a motivational speaker and a writer.
Early life
Alite was born on September 30, 1962 in Queens, New York City; his grandparents were Albanian immigrants from Gjirokastër, 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. In 2009, his ex-wife Carol complained, while testifying in court, that Alite owed her money in child support for his two children; he later married Claudia DiPippa.
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 informant
In January 2008, Alite pleaded guilty to 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 Gotti. 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 prosecuters 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, and in October 2015, Gotti wrote a letter 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 three books that he co-wrote, Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia, Darkest Hour: John Alite: Former Mafia Enforcer for John Gotti & The Gambino Crime Family, and Prison Rules. In July 2020, he appeared in the Netflix docuseries.
