Michael "Mickey" DeBatt (pronounced Di-Bat; c. 1949 – November 2, 1987) was a Gambino crime family mob associate who was involved in the gangland slaying of drug trafficker Frank Fiala.
Biography
DeBatt was born to first generation Calabrian emigrant Mackie DeBatt in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn who grew up in the same neighborhood as future friends and criminal associates Sammy Gravano and Frank DeCicco. He had one sister named Rosanna DeBatt-Massa. He was very close to his sister over the years. Michael is perceived to have been a "connected guy" with the Gambino crime family but never officially inducted into the organization. He performed various tasks for Sammy Gravano and others. Michael was the successful owner of Tali's Restaurant and Lounge located at 6205 18th Avenue in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. It is also suggested that his father Mackie suffered from the psychological disorder of being a pathological gambling addict. DeBatt did not inherit his father's gambling addiction. Although he had a steady source of legitimate income from his restaurant, he became indebted to many loansharks and bookmakers around Brooklyn. It is also shown that Mackie was able to afford to pay for his son's tuition and send him off to college. After his death the mobsters started to threaten and muscle his wife to settle his outstanding debts. Although his father did not want his son to become involved in organized crime, DeBatt became a close childhood friend and acquaintance of budding Gambino crime family mob associate Nicholas Mormando, with whom he became involved in joint ventures after returning from his failed studies at Wake Forest University. Close friend, mob wife Lynda Milito, the widow of murdered Gambino crime family mobster Liborio Milito said in her biography, "Michael DeBatt wasn't being allowed to earn with Sammy. So Louis Milito took Mike under his wing and made him a bouncer at The Plaza Suite. He was a lost soul after the death of his father ... He told everyone he was taking over the bar out of the kindness in his heart for the family, because of the debts and by taking over he was wiping out the debts." He later worked at a short-lived restaurant called The Golden Gate Restaurant on Knapp Street in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn as a maître d', a restaurant owned by Sammy Gravano and Louis Milito.
DeBatt was a huge and intimidating man. His life remained financially unstable, along with Sammy Gravano's until he took over ownership of his father's restaurant and settled his late father's loanshark and bookmaker debts. Sammy Gravano later said, "For one week he (himself) would be flush with cash, but two weeks later he would be broke. He never saved any money. He shopped for clothes, picked up tabs at restaurants and night clubs, handed out huge tips and dined on champagne and filet mignon at the Copacabana. Sammy later said of himself, Michael and his young aspiring mob associates, "Fucking kids, all dressed up like jerk-offs, running around, doing a little gambling, doing a little this and that" and then broke again and it's "macaroni and ricotta at home or spaghetti, past e olio, with the oil and garlic."
In the 1970s, DeBatt married an Italian-American woman after returning from Wake Forest. They had a daughter in 1983. He moved into a home and lived with his wife and daughter at 1774 58th Street, not far from his restaurant and lounge, which he still operated. In 2001, when Sammy Gravano was brought to trial for being the ringleader of an ecstasy trafficking ring, his sister showed up in Federal District Court and told reporters, "I wanted to give him a little agita" and "I'm happy to see him in jail clothes. Anything he gets is a plus. It's better than the five years he got."
His father Mackie was a close friend of Sammy Gravano and Gambino crime family mob associate who became indebted to loansharks and bookmakers including and Sammy Gravano. Mackie died in December 1981 of natural causes leaving his wife, his son Michael and daughter Rosanna under financial strain and heavily indebted. His son Michael later stood up for his family and confronted the loansharks and bookmakers to protect his elderly mother and took on the sole responsibility of handling his late father's debts. Michael DeBatt's mother approached Sammy Gravano and pleaded with him, "Sammy, please help us." His father's friend and later personal mentor, became involved in the DeBatt family financial affairs at that point. He got rid of the threatening loansharks and bookmakers. He took over Mackie's bar to help settle the debt that DeBatt still had outstanding with himself. Along with working at Tali's Restaurant and Lounge he worked as a bouncer at Sammy Gravano's classy nightclub, the Plaza Suite throughout the 1970s to 1985 when The Plaza Suite closed. Eventually with the help of Sammy Gravano and working on his own criminal endeavours, DeBatt was able to settle his father's outstanding debts to the loansharks and bookmakers. He closed the bar down and remodelled before opening it up as his own with Michael as the "front man" and manager of the lease.
Michael DeBatt later became a habitué of Sammy Gravano's other after-hours club, the Bus Stop also located in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. He became a protégé of Gravano's along with Joseph (Stymie) D'Angelo Sr.'s son, Joseph Jr.
Varsity football career
DeBatt's physical stature, endurance and strength earned him the reputation as an excellent athlete. During high school, he was a varsity football player who showed tremendous skill on the field. Unlike many of his criminal associates he successfully graduated from high school and had been awarded an athletic scholarship to Wake Forest University in North Carolina to play for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons football team. The Wake Forest Demon Deacons is an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. While at the university he was trained and coached by Chuck Mills. It seemed that DeBatt would pursue a career as a professional athlete and not become involved in organized crime like his father.
He successfully played on the team for a while as a linebacker (in Witness to the Mob Vincent Pastore playing DeBatt says he was a tight end) but eventually left before earning his certificate or diploma and returned to New York City where he pursued a life as a career criminal in organized crime like his father had. It is unknown why he left Wake Forest University, whether it was from financial, academic or behavioral issues. He never discussed his failed university education among his criminal associates. It is unknown what field of study Michael had interest in pursuing at the university. As an avid football fan he would attend the minor league football games played by Frank Gotti, the son of Gambino crime family boss John Gotti along with Junior Gotti, Victoria Gotti and Peter Gotti.
Married life and fatherhood
DeBatt married an Italian-American woman from the neighborhood in the 1970s after returning from his failed tenure at Wake Forest University. His wife bore him a daughter in 1984. He moved into a home and lived with his wife and daughter at 1774 58th Street, not far from his restaurant and lounge which he still operated. In 1985 his marriage and Tali's Restaurant and Lounge began to suffer after DeBatt became addicted to cocaine and later crack cocaine. From the potent narcotic he fell into a paranoid schizoid state and did not want to go to work anymore. It is unknown if his wife knew about his addiction to cocaine and crack. He suffered from delusions that people were after him and he began to fear for his life and suffer from agoraphobia and hardly left his house at 1774 58th Street. At the trial of Sammy Gravano in 2003 his wife was too distraught to attend, along with her daughter.
Cocaine and crack addiction
Like his friend Nicholas Mormando, DeBatt became addicted to crack cocaine sometime during the Crack epidemic in 1984. He suffered from a paranoid psychosis brought on by the effects of the drugs. Gravano later surmised that his friend Nicholas Mormando got DeBatt addicted to the potent narcotic. He later became involved in murder and committing robberies to support his habit. He became estranged from his wife and children. Gravano later said, "He went crazy. He didn't come down for days. And when he does, he's sweating, he's all jumpy. His wife came to me (Gravano) crying, "I don't know what happened to him. He sits in the house behind a window with the blinds down, and he's got a rifle." She also stated that he told her, "If they come, I'm gonna battle it out." While Sammy Gravano and his crew did not approve of drug use, they did not have problems channeling the tasks of dealing to associates. It is unknown exactly who supplied Michael, or if it was Nicholas Mormando.
Career as a restaurateur
After his father died in 1981 he focused entirely on working on the restaurant business, taking over ownership management of his father's restaurant and working as the night-shift bartender. The restaurant would provide him with a legal means of income and keep him out of the public eye and being scrutinized by the Internal Revenue Service for his illicit gains as a criminal. Tali's eventually became the main criminal headquarters for rising Gambino crime family capo Sammy Gravano in the mid-1970s until DeBatt's murder. After his murder, his sister sold the family's business. While the restaurant served as a meeting place and headquarters for the crew of then-capo Sammy Gravano and his associates, no murders were performed on the premises. In 1985 Tali's Restaurant and Lounge began to suffer after DeBatt started using drugs. He began to suffer from delusions that people were after him and began to fear for his life, always keeping a gun on him. To support his habit he began pulling home invasions. While this was well known to Sammy Gravano and fellow criminal associates he was never arrested or convicted of burglary.
The slaying of Frank Fiala
Frank Fiala was a drug trafficker and a powerful and wealthy Gambino crime family associate. He is not to be mistaken as a relative of Gambino crime family capo James Failla. He wanted to rent out The Plaza Suite to throw himself a birthday party. Fiala started to act very strange and unstable. He took DeBatt and other Plaza Suite employees on rides on his private Lear jet. He was in the nightclub all the time, consuming cocaine in large quantities and handing out bags of cocaine to patrons of the club.