Locascio

Thirty-year-old Lisa Locascio is walking through what she hopes will soon be her new living room.

POLITICAL HOT TOPICS: June 24, 2009 2009

The proof of his innocence, says Locascio, is hidden away in the single-most devastating piece of evidence that prosecutors used to convict the late Dapper Don and send him to a lonely death behind bars - a fate that the ailing 78-year-old gangster is desperately seeking to avoid.

Jerry Capeci: Frankie Loc: John Gotti Whacked Louis DiBono, Not Me Jerry Capeci 2010

At their sentencing, Locascio praised Gotti as a great man and said that his only crime was being a good friend of John Gotti.

Jerry Capeci: Frankie Loc: John Gotti Whacked Louis DiBono, Not Me Jerry Capeci 2010

At trial, Locascio - who was "made" in the 1950s and elevated to consigliere in 1990 - often attended sidebar conferences.

Jerry Capeci: Frankie Loc: John Gotti Whacked Louis DiBono, Not Me Jerry Capeci 2010

But if jurors had been able to hear what Fankie Loc swears he told Gotti in the middle of their discussion about the ill-fated DiBono, "they would have realized I opposed and prevented DiBono's murder," said Locascio.

Jerry Capeci: Frankie Loc: John Gotti Whacked Louis DiBono, Not Me Jerry Capeci 2010

"It is my clear recollection that, after telling Gotti that 'I predict that he's going to bring you fifty,' I told Gotti, in sum and substance, to take the money and forget about his anger with DiBono," Locascio recalled in an affidavit filed last week.

Jerry Capeci: Frankie Loc: John Gotti Whacked Louis DiBono, Not Me Jerry Capeci 2010

DiBono, in fact, was murdered ten months after this conversation, for reasons of which I am unaware, but which to my knowledge, had nothing to do with the conversation of December 12, 1989, said Locascio.

Jerry Capeci: Frankie Loc: John Gotti Whacked Louis DiBono, Not Me Jerry Capeci 2010

No one has ever heard the Locascio-redeeming words, but the convicted consigliere says he knows he said them so they have to exist.

Jerry Capeci: Frankie Loc: John Gotti Whacked Louis DiBono, Not Me Jerry Capeci 2010

Locascio is currently housed at a prison hospital in Massachusetts, and is too ill to attend the court session.

Jerry Capeci: Frankie Loc: John Gotti Whacked Louis DiBono, Not Me Jerry Capeci 2010

More than once, after listening to a whispered report from Frankie Loc, Gotti would turn to reporters, smile, and point to Locascio and mouth the word, "Counselor."

Jerry Capeci: Frankie Loc: John Gotti Whacked Louis DiBono, Not Me Jerry Capeci 2010