Blood Ties: The Slaying of Salvatore “Sally Daz” Zottola
Murder Sheet
MurderSheet
3.8 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 16 August 2022
⏱️ 44 minutes
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Summary
Organized crime figures are known for ordering vicious assaults and heinous murders. So when an alleged "wise guy" ended up in trouble a few years ago, authorities suspected that underworld in-fighting was behind it all . But the case of Sylvester "Sally Daz" Zottola ended in a horrific way that almost no one saw coming.
True crime researcher Stephen Popkin returns to help the Murder Sheet discuss this tangled, twisty case. He also authored this script. Email him at dvdjsteve@gmail.com.
Popkin's sources:
The New York Times's coverage of the case: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/18/nyregion/mafia-zottolo-mcdonalds-killing.html
NBC's coverage of the case: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/son-man-dad-brother-mob-killed-nyc-drive-thru-mcdonalds-hit-murder-hire-plot-prosecutors/1063025/
The New York Post's coverage of the case: https://nypost.com/2007/12/21/vinny-gorgeous-winds-up-doing-time-for-a-spell/
The U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York statement on the case: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/son-victim-slain-mcdonalds-drive-through-indicted-murder-hire-conspiracy
Click Track's coverage of the jukebox industry: https://www.clicktrack.fm/p/the-dark-history-of-the-jukebox-how
Gangland News: https://ganglandnews.com/index.htm
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Content warning, this episode contains descriptions of murder and violence. |
| 0:08.8 | To the very end, Sylvester Sally Daz Zatola was a man stalked by death. |
| 0:15.4 | The Bronx real estate developer and reported banana crime family associate was violently |
| 0:20.9 | attacked several times over a period of about a year by unknown rivals. |
| 0:27.4 | In September 2017 and October 4, 2018, these attackers coordinated multiple violent assaults |
| 0:36.1 | against Sylvester Zatola and his son, Salvatore Zatola. |
| 0:40.7 | Here's true crime researcher Stephen Popkin. |
| 0:43.3 | He's going to take us through this very twisted case. |
| 0:46.4 | On December 17, Sally Daz was hit with a bat near his own in the Bronx. |
| 0:52.3 | And soon after a man stopped him, also near his home and punched him in the face and then |
| 0:58.5 | ran away. |
| 0:59.5 | On November 26, 2017, he was driving when a dark-colored man cut him off and made him stop. |
| 1:09.4 | Then a government tried to force him into a car in an attempted kidnapping, but he managed |
| 1:14.7 | to escape. |
| 1:16.5 | And again in December, as he walked in on burglars ransacking his home, one of them pulled |
| 1:22.8 | out a knife and stabbed him repeatedly in the neck, leaving him hospitalized and in critical |
| 1:29.1 | condition. |
| 1:30.1 | Law enforcement sources say that they arrested Sally Daz in June of 2018 for possessing |
| 1:37.2 | an unlicensed gun and allegedly shooting at a man who he had said pulled a gun on him |
| 1:43.8 | outside his home. |
| 1:45.6 | There would be a salient disappeared, but Sally Daz was scheduled to appear in court |
| 1:50.5 | over the incident. |
... |
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