Nicholas Corozzo
Nicholas (Little Nick) Corozzo, a Gambino capo who was primed to succeed John Gotti as crime family boss was hit with federal racketeering charges and arrested by the FBI on a sunny beach in Key Biscayne two days before Christmas in 1996. He was ordered held without bail.
The FBI says Corozzo was pushed for the position of boss by Gotti's imprisoned, younger brother Gene, and that Little Nick reluctantly agreed to accept it when Gotti's older brother Peter also backed him for the job. On Jan. 23, 1997 he was snared again, this time in a New York-based FBI sting, and it began to look like he would be following the Gotti brothers to the joint for a long stretch. Corozzo pleaded guilty to both racketeering indictments and was sentenced to eight years. He began his prison stretch in Fort Dix, N.J.. He was later transferred to a federal prison in McKean, Pennsylvania, finally settling down at an institution in Ashland, Kentucky. He was due to be released on June 11, 2004, but let out a day early when his release date was made a federal holiday in honor of the late President Reagan.