Nicholas Scibetta - Biography

Biography

Nicholas Scibetta was born and raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, like his future brother-in-law Sammy Gravano. He was the only son born to first generation emigrants, a Mr. Scibetta from Cammarata in the province of Agrigento, Sicily and an Italian-American woman Mrs. Zicarelli from Bayonne, New Jersey. Mr. Scibetta and Mrs. Zicarelli had had two daughters, Debra and Diane, before she gave birth to Nicholas. His mother was a housewife and their father was a "a terrific father, but very strict" man who was a certified electrical engineer who worked the night shift for Western Electric (now AT&T Technologies) putting together circuit boards for the telephone company. While it is said that Mr. Scibetta was a strict authoritarian, it is never mentioned in any way that he physically abused his children by the observations made by Gravano.

Sammy later said about the unidentified Mr. Scibetta, "a beautiful guy, a mild-mannered guy, totally legitimate, one of the nicest guys I ever met in my life. His whole thing was looking after his baby daughter (Debra), which is completely understandable to me. I didn't have a problem with that." He only let Sammy court their daughter and keep Debra out late if her sister Diane would go with them. When Sammy Gravano started dating Debra from a young age, his parents knew that Nicholas was a "crazy kid" who was always getting into trouble. This suggests that he suffered from psychiatric problems that at the time were never diagnosed, possibly attention deficit disorder. He was a maternal nephew of Joseph Zicarelli, a notorious capo in the New Jersey satellite faction of the Bonanno crime family. It is unknown if he is a distant relative of Buffalo crime family capo Santo Scibetta, who controlled Hamilton, Ontario. He was a close acquaintance of Gambino crime family mob associates Liborio (Louie) Milito and Joseph (Stymie) D'Angelo Sr. who would both eventually be involved in his murder. It is also suggested that while raised a Catholic along with his sister he was not a devout believer in the Roman Catholic faith and spoke of interests joining a cult or a "group" of dissidents, somewhere outside the state.