John did ask to see my son, but John never said a bad word about my ex-husband. John was concerned for my son’s well-being. He told him to keep his head up, stay in school. Michael is a liar. I’d like to tell my ex-husband, “What kind of a sick person are you to turn around and put your son in the middle of this trial? You say you became a rat because John asked to see your son and you believed that John would influence your son to tell you not to do what you were going to do? What kind of man are you to say that about your son? Don’t you think of the consequences? It’s bad enough that you left him out here with your same name—first, middle, last name—on the streets.”

WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT MICHAEL JR.
I’m tired of people bad-mouthing my son. Just because he doesn’t accept what his father did, that doesn’t mean that he is involved in “the life.” They say he is a wannabe gangster. My son is not a wannabe gangster. My son was brought up that you don’t rat on your friends. If you get into a fight, you don’t tell the teacher. You take care of it yourself. Children and spouses should not suffer for the sins of their fathers or husbands. But I received letters cursing me: “How do you people show your faces? Your families are rats.”

A ‘CLOCKWORK ORANGE’ OBSESSION
Last summer, after Scars and her brother took the stand against Junior Gotti during his first trial (the jury hung 11-1 on a conviction for racketeering), Toni Marie grew increasingly isolated and depressed. She started seeing a therapist and decided to investigate her ex-husband’s fascination with A Clockwork Orange, his favorite movie.

He rented it one night when my son was 2. He told me, “This is a great movie. I had to watch it in college for psychology. I’ll explain it to you because it’s pretty deep.” I watched it about three times with him over the years. I knew that there was sex and violence, rape and murder—these weird kids doing this crazy stuff.

Recently I said I have to find out why was he so intrigued. So I went online, typed in “clockwork orange,” and sure enough, it comes up about a young, charming criminal who volunteers to be brainwashed to reform criminals in exchange for a shorter sentence. The lightbulb goes off. Oh, my God, this movie is about this man. A clockwork means an artificial mechanical human being and orange is similar to orangutan, a hairy apelike creature indicating something bizarre internally but appearing natural, normal on the surface. And that’s Michael. He was charming, nothing ever bothered him. But in the end, this was all planned. He did exactly what this person did.

Michael DiLeonardo’s views about A Clockwork Orange could not be obtained for this story. After spending three years in prison for murder, he was released and now lives in an undisclosed location with his new wife, Madelina, and their 6-year-old son, Anthony.

Toni Marie didn’t attend her ex-husband’s court appearance last week—but she was sure Scars would be as cocky on the stand as he was that first night at the Players Club, when she refused to give him her phone number and he handed her a slip of paper with three numbers she could use to reach him. “All three were wrong,” she says. “I should have known then. Three wrong numbers! That goes to show you what a sicko he was.”

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