Dominick Montiglio

Dominick Montiglio (born July 17, 1947) is a former associate of the Gambino crime family. The nephew of Anthony 'Nino' Gaggi, who was a powerful and respected captain in the Gambino family, Dominick became a government witness in 1983 after being arrested for extortion and went on to testify in two Federal trials aimed towards his uncle Nino and the violent DeMeo crew headed by Gaggi's subordinate Roy DeMeo.

Montiglio entered into the Witness Protection Program and was moved to 12 different locations, kicked out and reinstated four times. He had 21 different names in that time and testified in three federal trials. He left the Witness Protection Program over 15 years ago and returned to Brooklyn to become an artist.

He was born Dominick Angelo Santamaria in 1947 Brooklyn, New York. From childhood to early adolescence, he grew up in the same three-story red-brick home as his uncle Anthony Gaggi, who served as his father figure and who Montiglio would end up working for as an adult. During these early years, Montiglio was witness to a number of incidents that would cause him to realize that his uncle's occupation was different from the other adults in the household. He was a second cousin to Frank Scalise.

Dominick says that, as early as he can remember, his uncle Nino's way of life was pressed on him. When he was in 1st grade, Dominick told his uncle that he wanted to be a cop. Nino's response was that he hated cops and no one in the Gaggi family had ever been, or would ever be, a police officer. Later, during the outbreak of the Vietnam War, young Dominick expressed interest in becoming a soldier. Gaggi's response was that people were fools to die for anyone or anything but their family.

Years later at age 10, Dominick had been selected to become the class president. Upon telling his uncle about his newly acquired duties, which included writing down the names of troublemakers when the teacher was out of class, Nino allegedly ordered the boy to go back to his teacher and tell her that he could not accept the position. Montiglio says his uncle told him, “No one in our family can be a rat”.

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