Prison for Gambino Underboss

NEW YORK — The 70-year-old underboss of the Gambino crime family was sentenced today to 15 years in prison and fined $820,000 for racketeering.

Joseph (Piney) Armone, who was described as reputed Gambino godfather John Gotti’s underboss during his nearly three-month trial in federal court in Brooklyn, listened calmly to a sentence that could mean he will die behind bars. “There is no doubt this defendant is a high official in a major crime family,” Judge Jack Weinstein said before sentencing. In 1966, Armone was sentenced to 15 years on drug-dealing charges. Prosecutor Douglas Grover said Armone “learned absolutely nothing” by spending “a good deal of his life in prison. When he got out, he went right back to the life he had performed.”