GRAVANO AND SON PLEAD GUILTY TO RUNNING ECSTASY DRUG RING

Returning to the same federal courthouse where his turncoat testimony
brought down nearly 40 members of the mob, Salvatore Gravano pleaded
guilty yesterday to running a multimillion-dollar Ecstasy ring with
his son in Arizona.

Mr. Gravano is the Mafia killer known to gangsters and book editors
alike as Sammy the Bull. During his court appearance, the government
said he could be sent to prison for up to 15 years for his drug
offense, a sentence that would be three times the length of the five
years he has already served for murdering 19 men in the service of
the mob.

The one-hour hearing in Federal District Court in Brooklyn was
reminiscent of feeding time at the public zoo. Anxious news reporters
jostled for space with excited federal prosecutors. They all sat
together in the gallery with a handful of angry women related to men
Mr. Gravano had killed.

When Mr. Gravano walked into the second-floor courtroom, he looked
tired and sallow, and shocked that so many people had turned up to
watch him enter a plea. He turned to his son, Gerard, who also
pleaded guilty in the case, and muttered, "This is unbelievable."

When Judge Allyne R. Ross asked Mr. Gravano what he had done, he
answered flatly: "I lent money to people. They distributed Ecstasy."
When it was Gerard Gravano's turn, he said in an equally monotone
voice, "I bought, sold and took Ecstasy."

After the pleas were entered, the elder Mr. Gravano's lawyer, Lynne
F. Stewart, told reporters that the Brooklyn prosecutors who once
worked with a cooperative Mr. Gravano were eager to avenge themselves
on him now that he had reverted to a life of crime.

"Vendetta," she said.

Ms. Stewart also said the Gravanos were in negotiations with the
authorities in Arizona, where the entire Gravano family - father,
mother, daughter and son - are facing drug conspiracy charges brought
by the state. The federal sentences that Mr. Gravano and his son are
to receive on Sept. 11 will most likely be served concurrently with
the prison terms handed down by the state, she said.

That bit of news seemed to irk Rosanne Massa, whose brother, Michael
DeBatt, was shot five times in the head by Mr. Gravano in November
1987.

As Ms. Stewart stood outside the courthouse in front of a bank of
television cameras, Ms. Massa called out to her, "Send Sammy our
regards. And tell him we'll see him the next time."