The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), commonly known as the Shanghai ranking, is a publication that was founded and compiled by the Shanghai Jiaotong University to rank universities globally.^[1] The rankings have been conducted since 2003 and updated annually. Since 2009, the rankings have been published by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy.^[2]

The ARWU is regarded to be one of the three most influential and widely observed international university rankings, along with the QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings^{[citation needed]}. Its consistent and objective methodology is praised when compared with other rankings. However, it has also been criticized for its heavy focus on the natural sciences over the social sciences or humanities, and over the quality of instruction.^[3][4]

Methodology[link]

The ranking compares 1200 higher education institutions worldwide according to a formula that took into account alumni winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (10 percent), staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals (20 percent), highly-cited researchers in 21 broad subject categories (20 percent), articles published in the journals Nature and Science (20 percent), the Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index (20 percent) and the per capita academic performance (on the indicators above) of an institution (10 percent). The methodology is set out in an academic article by its originators, N.C. Liu and Y. Cheng.^[5] Liu and Cheng explain that the original purpose of doing the ranking was "to find out the gap between Chinese universities and world-class universities, particularly in terms of academic or research performance."^[6]

The methodology used by the Shanghai Rankings is largely academic and research oriented. A new international ranking created by Youth Incorporated Magazine, uses more practical factors such as recruiter perception, student responses and satisfaction.^[7]

Influence[link]

As the first multi-indicator ranking of global universities, ARWU has attracted a great deal of attention from universities, governments and media. A survey on higher education published by The Economist in 2005 commented ARWU as "the most widely used annual ranking of the world's research universities."^[8] In 2010, the Chronicle of Higher Education called ARWU "the best-known and most influential global ranking of universities".^[9]

One of the factors in the significant influence of ARWU is that its methodology looks globally sound and transparent. EU Research Headlines reported the ARWU's work on 31st Dec 2003: "The universities were carefully evaluated using several indicators of research performance."^[10] Chancellor of Oxford University, Prof. Chris Patten, said "the methodology looks fairly solid ... it looks like a pretty good stab at a fair comparison." Vice-Chancellor of Australian National University, Prof. Ian Chubb, said "The SJTU rankings were reported quickly and widely around the world… (and they) offer an important comparative view of research performance and reputation." Margison (2007) also commented the ARWU ranking that one of the strengths of "the academically rigorous and globally inclusive Jiao Tong approach" is "constantly tuning its rankings and invites open collaboration in that."^[11] Philip G. Altbach named ARWU's "consistency, clarity of purpose, and transparency" as significant strengths.^[12]

The ARWU ranking and its content have been widely cited and applied as a starting point for identifying national strengths and weaknesses as well as facilitating reform and setting new initiatives. Bill Destler (2008), the president of the Rochester Institute of Technology, draw reference to the ARWU ranking to analyze the comparative advantages the Western Europe and US have in terms of intellectual talent and creativity in his publication in the journal Nature.^[13]

European commissioner of Education, Jan Figel, pointed out in an interview in 2007 that "if you look at the Shanghai index, we are the strongest continent in terms of numbers and potential but we are also shifting into a secondary position in terms of quality and attractiveness. If we don't act we will see an uptake or overtake by Chinese or Indian universities."^[14] Also, Enserink (2007) referred to ARWU and argued in a paper published in Science that "France's poor showing in the Shanghai ranking ... helped trigger a national debate about higher education that resulted in a new law... giving universities more freedom."^[15] The world leading think tank Rand Corporation used the ARWU ranking as evidence in their consultancy paper to the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.^[16]

In two subsequent research papers^[17][18] published by Academic Leadership (2009), then in an article ^[19] published by the Times Higher Education (2009), Paul Z. Jambor of Korea University established the connection between any unfavorable image/reputation universities may develop (and/or their association, by country, to those universities linked to the wrongdoing) to a halt in their climb or even to a drop in their Times Higher Education – QS World University Rankings. This is because 40% and 10% of THE – QS World Methodology is based on Academic Peer Review and Employer Review respectively. In essence, any unfavorable image developed by a group of universities, associated by country, tends to harm their collective rankings. For this reason, universities worldwide should seriously consider adhering to internationally accepted standards so that they do not run the risk of sliding in the ranks on the international front. Consequently, a number of critics consider this aspect of THE – QS World University Rankings unfair and even biased.^[20]

The new Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE-Reuters), published since 2010 is based on a revised Methodology.^[21] In the Methodology of the THE-Reuters World University Rankigs, the 'Papers per research and academic staff' {at 4.5%} and the 'Citation impact (normalised average citation per paper)' {at 32.5%} indicators make it evident that a university's ranking heavily relies on the number and quality of research papers written by its faculty. With 95% of research papers written in English,^[22] the relationship between English language use and a university's subsequent ranking thus becomes ever more clear. Jambor highlights the connection between actual English use and university rankings in a pair of research papers^[23][24] respectively published by the US Department of Education: ERIC and Academic Leadership.

Criticism[link]

College and university rankings often stimulate controversy (see Criticism of college and university rankings (North America) and Criticism of college and university rankings (2007 United States)) and the ARWU is no exception. A 2007 paper published in the journal Scientometrics found that the results from the Shanghai rankings could not be reproduced from raw data using the method described by Liu and Cheng.^[25]

In a report from April 2009, J-C. Billaut, D. Bouyssou and Ph. Vincke analyze how the ARWU works, using their insights as specialists of Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM). Their main conclusions are that the criteria used are not relevant; that the aggregation methodology has a number of major problems; and that insufficient attention has been paid to fundamental choices of criteria.^[26]

The ARWU researchers themselves, N.C Liu and Y Cheng,^[6] think that the quality of universities cannot be precisely measured by mere numbers and any ranking must be controversial. They suggest that university and college rankings should be used with caution and their methodologies must be understood clearly before reporting or using the results.

Others have pointed out, the ARWU is known for "relying solely on research indicators", and "the ranking is heavily weighted toward institutions whose faculty or alumni have won Nobel Prizes": it does not measure "the quality of teaching or the quality of humanities."^[4][27]

Ioannides et al. suggested that (in common with all ranking systems they reviewed), the ranking lacked construct validity modest concordance between the Shanghai and Times rankings. They highlighted measurement precision, and transparent methodology as important issues.^[28]

Like the Times Higher Education's rankings, the ARWU has been criticized by the European Commission as well as some EU member states for "favour[ing] Anglo-Saxon higher education institutions".^[29]

The Youth Incorporated Rankings don't lay much focus on research done by faculty. The focus of the rankings is more on recruiter perception and student satisfaction.

Rankings[link]

The table below contains the overall rankings as ordinal numbers (i.e., 1 is best, 2 is second best, etc.) from 2003 to 2010 for all universities that ranked in the top 100 in one of the years tabulated.^[1] The ranking is omitted for years in which the school did not land within the top 100. Note the full ranking contains over 500 universities. If a university is not listed in this table, it did not rank in the top 100 in any of the eight years tabulated.

University	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Aarhus University	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	93	97	98
Arizona State University	1000	1000	1000	100	96	93	94	81
Australian National University	49	53	53	54	57	59	59	59
Boston University	98	87	81	81	85	83	74	77
Brown University	49	82	86	85	70	71	69	65
California Institute of Technology	3	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
Carnegie Mellon University	61	62	62	56	60	62	59	58
Case Western Reserve University	51	65	65	70	78	83	87	97
Columbia University	10	9	9	7	7	7	7	8
Cornell University	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12
Duke University	33	31	31	31	32	33	31	35
École normale supérieure - Paris	1000	85	93	99	83	73	70	71
Emory University	99	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	100	100
Free University of Berlin	95	1000	1000	99	83	1000	1000	1000
Harvard University	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Hebrew University of Jerusalem	94	90	90	60	64	65	64	52
Humboldt University of Berlin	1000	95	95	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000
Imperial College London	17	23	23	23	23	27	26	26
Indiana University - Bloomington	1000	1000	1000	97	90	92	93	90
Johns Hopkins University	24	22	22	20	19	20	19	18
Karolinska Institutet	39	46	46	48	53	51	50	42
King's College London	75	77	77	83	83	81	65	63
Kyoto University	30	21	21	22	22	23	24	24
Lund University	93	92	92	90	97	97	1000	1000
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	4
McGill University	79	61	61	62	63	60	65	61
McMaster University	86	88	88	90	87	89	91	88
Michigan State University	87	80	80	80	80	83	86	86
Moscow State University	1000	66	66	70	76	70	77	74
Nagoya University	68	97	97	98	94	1000	82	79
New York University	55	32	32	29	30	31	32	31
North Carolina State University	99	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000
Northwestern University	29	30	30	33	29	30	30	29
Ohio State University	81	73	73	66	61	62	62	59
Osaka University	53	54	54	61	67	68	71	75
Pennsylvania State University	40	43	43	42	43	42	45	43
Princeton University	7	7	7	8	8	8	8	7
Purdue University	80	71	71	73	68	65	65	69
Rice University	61	75	75	87	87	97	99	99
Rockefeller University	28	29	29	30	30	32	32	34
Rutgers University	38	44	44	46	47	54	55	54
Stanford University	2	2	2	3	2	2	2	3
Stockholm University	1000	97	97	84	86	86	88	79
ETH Zurich	25	27	27	27	27	24	23	23
Technical University of Munich	60	45	45	54	56	57	57	56
Texas A&M University	70	1000	1000	88	91	88	88	95
Tohoku University	64	69	69	76	76	79	84	84
Tokyo Institute of Technology	1000	1000	1000	89	99	1000	1000	1000
Tufts University	83	99	99	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000
University of Arizona	55	76	76	76	74	77	77	78
University of Basel	96	91	91	81	82	87	85	86
University of Birmingham	1000	93	93	90	92	91	94	99
University of Bonn	1000	99	99	1000	99	97	98	93
University of Bristol	55	60	60	62	62	61	61	66
University of British Columbia	35	36	36	36	36	35	36	36
University of California, Berkeley	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	2
University of California, Davis	36	42	42	42	43	48	49	46
University of California, Irvine	44	55	55	44	45	46	46	46
University of California, Los Angeles	15	16	16	14	13	13	13	13
University of California, Riverside	88	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000
University of California, San Diego	14	13	13	13	14	14	14	14
University of California, San Francisco	13	17	17	18	18	18	18	18
University of California, Santa Barbara	26	35	35	35	35	36	35	32
University of Cambridge	5	3	2	2	4	4	4	5
University of Chicago	11	10	10	8	9	9	8	9
University College London	20	25	25	26	25	22	21	21
University of Colorado	31	34	34	34	34	34	34	32
University of Copenhagen	65	59	59	56	46	45	43	40
University of Edinburgh	43	47	47	52	53	55	53	54
University of Florida	75	67	67	53	51	58	58	68
University of Freiburg	1000	88	88	93	94	96	1000	1000
University of Ghent	99	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	90
University of Göttingen	91	79	79	85	87	90	90	93
University of Groningen	84	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000
University of Heidelberg	58	64	64	66	65	67	63	63
University of Helsinki	74	72	72	74	73	68	72	72
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	45	25	25	25	26	26	25	25
University of Illinois at Chicago	96	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000
University of Iowa	90	1000	1000	95	97	1000	1000	1000
University of Leiden	78	63	63	72	71	76	72	70
University of Manchester	89	78	53	50	48	40	41	44
University of Maryland, College Park	75	57	57	37	37	37	37	36
University of Melbourne	92	82	82	78	79	73	75	62
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor	21	19	19	21	21	21	22	22
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities	37	33	33	32	33	28	28	28
University of Munich	48	51	51	51	53	55	55	52
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	52	56	56	59	58	38	39	41
University of Nottingham	1000	80	80	79	81	82	83	84
University of Oslo	63	68	68	68	69	64	65	75
University of Oxford	9	8	8	10	10	10	10	10
University of Paris 6 (Pierre and Marie Curie University)	65	41	41	45	39	42	40	39
University of Paris 11 (Paris-Sud 11 University)	72	48	48	64	52	49	43	45
University of Pennsylvania	18	15	15	15	15	15	15	15
University of Pittsburgh	53	48	48	48	49	52	50	56
Sapienza University of Rome	70	93	97	100	1000	1000	1000	1000
University of Rochester	72	52	52	74	75	73	77	82
University of Sheffield	68	69	69	69	72	77	81	88
University of Southern California	40	48	48	47	50	50	46	46
University of Strasbourg	1000	82	82	96	99	1000	1000	1000
University of Sydney	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	97	94	92
University of Texas at Austin	47	40	40	39	38	39	38	38
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas	34	36	36	38	39	41	48	49
University of Tokyo	19	14	14	19	20	19	20	20
University of Toronto	23	24	24	24	23	24	27	27
University of Utah	81	95	95	94	93	79	80	82
Utrecht University	40	39	39	40	42	47	52	50
University of Vienna	84	86	86	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000
University of Virginia	67	1000	1000	1000	1000	95	91	96
University of Washington	16	20	20	17	16	16	16	16
University of Wisconsin–Madison	27	18	18	16	17	17	17	17
University of Zurich	45	57	57	58	58	53	54	51
Uppsala University	59	74	74	65	66	71	76	66
Vanderbilt University	32	38	38	41	41	42	41	53
Washington University in St. Louis	22	28	28	28	28	29	29	30
Yale University	8	11	11	11	11	11	11	11

See also[link]

• College and university rankings
• Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings
• Global University Ranking
• Webometrics Ranking of World Universities

References[link]

External links[link]

• ARWU
• Jambor, Paul Z. 'The Changing Dynamics of PhDs and the Future of Higher Educational Development in Asia and the Rest of the World' Department of Education – The United States of America: Educational Resources Information Center, September 26, 2009 (Accessed in October, 2009)

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Prince Royce
Background information
Birth name	Geoffrey Royce Rojas
Born	New York City, New York, United States
Genres	Latin pop, bachata, R&B
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, record producer, musician
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Top Stop, Atlantic
Associated acts	Sergio George
Website	www.princeroyce.com

Geoffrey Royce Rojas (born May 11, 1989), known professionally as Prince Royce, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer from New York City, New York. At an early age, Royce took an interest in music and into his teenage years, began experimenting with music and writing poetry. By age nineteen, Royce met Andrés Hidalgo, who became his manager. Hidalgo later introduced Royce to Sergio George, who immediately signed him to his label after hearing three of his demos.

In March 2010, he released his eponymous debut studio album, which generated two commercially successful singles, "Stand by Me" and "Corazón Sin Cara". Both songs reached number-one on the Billboard Tropical Songs chart while "Corazón Sin Cara" reached number-one the US Hot Latin Songs chart. The album, itself, was a commercial success, reaching number-one on the US Billboard Latin Albums and Tropical Albums charts. The album earned Royce three awards at the Premio Lo Nuestro Awards, including Tropical Male Artist of the Year. He also received three more at the Billboard Latin Music Awards in 2011, which included Tropical Album of the Year for Prince Royce.

Life and career[link]

1989–2009: Early life and career beginnings[link]

Geoffrey Royce Rojas was born on May 11, 1989 and raised in The Bronx, a borough of New York City, New York.^[1] He is the second oldest out four children, born to a Dominican father, who was a taxi-cab driver, and a Dominican mother, who worked at a beauty salon. ^[2] When he was young, he participated in choir in elementary school, competed in talent shows and, at the age of thirteen, began writing poetry which turned into songwriting. Recalling his first time performing before a crowd, he said, "Elementary school, I was singing a Christmas song. I felt really comfortable on stage."^[3] At age fifteen, Royce had began making music and at age nineteen, met Andrés Hidalgo, who became his manager.^[3][4] Hidalgo began helping Royce work hands-on with bachata music. That was the specific moment in which Royce had decided that pursuing a musical career is what he wanted to do.^[3] Hidalgo later introduced Royce to Sergio George, who immediately signed the former to his label, Top Stop Music, after listening to three of his demos.^[2]

2010 Eponymous Debut Album[link]

Royce released his eponymous debut studio album on March 2, 2010.^[5] The album was produced primarily by Hidalgo and Sergio George, with co-production duties by Royce.^[6] Carlos Quintana, of About.com, described the album's musical production as "Bachata with R&B and Pop sounds", while AllMusic's Jason Birchmeier credited Hidalgo for the "crisp production job, which is often spare but adds touches of urban beats here and there."^[7][8] Shortly after its release, it debuted on the Billboard Latin Albums chart at number fifteen.^[9] The lead single from the album, "Stand by Me", a remake of Ben E. King's 1961 song, peaked at number one on the US Billboard Tropical Songs chart, and also reached number eight on the Hot Latin Songs chart.^[10][11] The album's second single, "Corazón Sin Cara", was released in mid-February 2010 and peaked at number one on both the US Hot Latin Songs and Tropical Songs charts.^[12] The album itself had eventually reached number one on the US Billboard Latin Albums chart and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).^[9] In December 2010, Royce recorded a song with Sergio George called "El Campo de Sueños", which is used as the theme song for Domingo de Grandes Ligas on ESPN.^[13]

The album had earned Royce a nomination for Best Contemporary Tropical Album at the 2010 Latin Grammy Awards.^[14] Later that night, Royce performed the song "Stand by Me" alongside Ben E. King.^[15] At the 2011 Premio Lo Nuestro Awards, Royce had won three awards in the Tropical genre, including Male Artist of the Year, New Soloist or Group of the Year and Song of the Year for "Stand by Me".^[16] Royce was also nominated for 6 awards at the 2011 Billboard Latin Music Awards. Ultimately, he had won three of them, which were Tropical Airplay Solo Artist of the Year, Tropical Album of the Year for Prince Royce, and Tropicals Albums Solo Artist of the Year.^[17][18] Royce had collaborated with Daddy Yankee on a song entitled, "Ven Conmigo", which will be included on the latter's album, Prestige.^[19] In May 2011, Royce signed on with Atlantic Records to released English-language albums. It is a joint partnership between Sergio George's Top Stop label and Atlantic. Royce is currently working on his second studio album, in which Mike Caren, Executive Vice President of A&R for Atlantic, said will be mostly in English with Latin music influences.^[20] It was announced by Enrique Iglesias that he will be touring with Royce and Pitbull as special guests during a leg which began in mid-September 2011.^[21]

2012 Phase II Album[link]

On April 10, 2012, Prince Royce released his second studio album titled Phase II.^[22] The 13-track album incorporates a variety of music styles from Bachata to Mariachi.^[23] The album contains songs in both English and Spanish, as well as melodies atypical to traditional Bachata music.^[24] Driven by the popularity of its lead single Las Cosas Pequeñas, Phase II became the number one selling Latin album on iTunes. Las Cosas Pequeñas debuted at #1 on Billboard's Tropical chart, and eventually reached the #1 position on Billboard's Latin Songs chart.^[25]

The week of Phase II's release, Prince Royce attended four autograph signing events in the United States. His appearance at a Chicago, Illinois location of F.Y.E. broke an attendance record for most visitors to an in-store music event.^[25]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Singles[link]

List of singles, with selected chart positions and certifications, showing year released and album name

Featured singles[link]

Music videos[link]

Guest appearances[link]

Awards and Nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Prince Royce on Twitter

Doug Bruce (born 1967) is the subject of Rupert Murray's 2005 documentary film Unknown White Male.

Bruce claims to suffer from an extremely rare, and possibly purely psychological, form of retrograde amnesia. In the film, Bruce alleges that suddenly one day, his entire episodic memory bank of his entire life went missing. According to Bruce, he first became aware that he "didn't know who [he] was," when he had "awakened" on a New York subway train, with no recollection of who he was, including his name, life experiences, family, friends, home and work. After the alleged incident that led to the alleged amnesia, he claims to have gone to the police station and since they didn't know what to do with him, he was admitted to a hospital psychiatric ward, where, with no name to use, 'Unknown White Male' was written on his hospital medical charts and records.

Hospital stay[link]

After a few days in the hospital, Bruce claims a phone number was suddenly found hidden inside a Spanish phrase book in the bag he had been carrying. Little else was found on him other than some dog medicine; he had no wallet, bank cards, or other identifying documents. The phone number was the mother of a girl, Nadine Abramson, whom he had tried to court. Abramson goes to the hospital to identify him as 'Doug Bruce', a prosperous Englishman who had formerly been a successful banker in Paris, and was studying for a degree in photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Abramson characterized Bruce to a reporter from the Washington Post in this way: "He seemed like this typical kind of total Eurotrash banker dude. He was chasing models, had this big loft, 'let's go to Biarritz.' For a few seconds, it was appealing." ^[1] She told the reporter that she had stopped returning his calls because she was not interested. The Washington Post reporter writes that her friends thought the amnesia claim was suspicious, given the circumstances, although Abramson herself was persuaded of the veracity of his story.^[2] In the same article, Abramson is quoted as saying Bruce seemed to relish his new status as an "amnesiac," printing up business cards that said "Unknown White Male" and handing them to girls he met at bars.^[3]

Hoax suspicions[link]

Due of the extreme rarity of Bruce's form of amnesia, the length of it (Bruce has not regained his memory and therefore is a medical anomaly), as well as myriad inconsistencies in his story, there have been claims that the film is a hoax. The filmmakers and subject deny this. Various publications discussed the improbability of Bruce's story, which centers around being the only documented example of extended, full-blown amnesia in the world to date. Others concentrate on dissecting the various incongruent statements Bruce has made regarding his alleged trauma.^[4][5] Bruce reveals in an interview that, before his own bout with amnesia, a close friend suffered from short-term amnesia after a sporting accident; this experience inspired the friend to change his life completely and move to Bali to become "a healer".^[6] It has been speculated that this friend's experience with amnesia inspired Bruce's malingering.

According to filmmaker Rupert Murray, his documentary Unknown White Male is a uniquely filmed exploration into the phenomenon of amnesia from the perspective of an alleged amnesiac, and it includes video film footage which Bruce filmed himself beginning within a week of the start of his alleged amnesia.

External links[link]

• Doug Bruce at the Internet Movie Database
• Is it a hoax?
• A Trip Down Memory Lane (Washington Post)
• New Man (The New Yorker)

Notes[link]

Salvatore "Sammy The Bull" Gravano
Born	(1945-03-12) March 12, 1945 (age 67) Brooklyn, New York, US
Ethnicity	Italian-American

Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano (born March 12, 1945) is a former underboss of the Gambino crime family. He is known as the man who helped bring down John Gotti, the family's boss, by agreeing to become a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) government witness.

Originally a mobster for the Colombo crime family, and later for the Brooklyn faction of the Gambinos, Gravano participated in the conspiracy to murder Gambino boss Paul Castellano. Gravano played a key role in planning and executing Castellano's murder; other conspirators included John Gotti, Angelo Ruggiero, Frank DeCicco, and Joseph Armone. After Castellano's death, Gotti elevated Gravano to underboss, a position he held at the time he became a government witness. At the time, Gravano was the highest ranking member of the Five Families to break his Cosa Nostra oath and cooperate with the government. His testimony drew a wave of Cosa Nostra members to also become government witnesses.

Childhood and early life[link]

Salvatore Gravano was born in 1945 to Giorlando (Gerry) and Caterina (Kay) Gravano. He was the youngest of three children, and the only boy. The Gravano family lived in Bensonhurst, a largely Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn. Early on, one of Gravano's relatives remarked that he looked like his uncle Sammy. From that point on, everyone called Gravano "Sammy" instead of "Salvatore".^[1]His father ran a small dress factory and maintained a good standard of living for the family.

At age seven or eight, Gravano started stealing two cupcakes every day from a corner store in Bensonhurst on his way to school. After being caught by a store employee, a disraught Gravano received a stern warning. At age 13, Gravno joined the Rampers, a prominent street gang in Bensonhurst ref name="Underboss"/>

Gravano did poorly in school, possibly due to dyslexia. However, teachers dismissed his problems as "being a slow learner." Gravano was held back from grade advancement on two occasions. At first, other children taunted him about this at school, but the taunting ended after Gravano assaulted several bullies. When Gravano reached age 16, the school refused to keep him any longer. Gravano's father tried to redirect and discipline his son, including forcing him to attend Mass, but had little success.^[1]

In 1964, Gravano was drafted into the United States Army and served in the United States. While an enlisted man, Gravano mainly worked as a mess hall cook. He rose to the rank of corporal and was granted an honorable discharge after two years. ^[2]

In 1971, Gravano married Debra Scibetta; they had two children. As of 2012, his daughter Karen Gravano was appearing on the VH1 reality series, Mob Wives.^[2] Later in his mob career, Gravano was ordered to help arrange the murder of his brother-in-law, Nicholas Scibetta.^[3] Gravano is also the brother-in-law of Gambino capo Edward Garafola and Mario Garafola.^[1] Gambino was a childhood friend of Colombo crime family associate Gerard Pappa.^[1]

Colombo associate[link]

The Mafia had been in Bensonhurst for a long time; several "wiseguys" hung around a bar that a young Gravano and his father frequently passed. On one occasion, they helped Gravano recover a stolen bicycle. At one point, one of these mobsters was so impressed by Gravano's fighting ability that he nicknamed him "the Bull."^[4] The nickname stuck.

Despite his father's attempts to dissuade him, Gravano, like many of his Ramper colleagues, drifted into the Cosa Nostra. He first became associated with the Cosa Nostra in 1968 through Tommy Spero, whose uncle Shorty was an associate of the Colombo crime family under future boss, Carmine "the Snake" Persico.^[4] Gravano was initially involved in petty crimes such as larceny, hijacking, and armed robbery.^[1] He quickly moved into racketeering, loansharking, and running a lucrative poker game in the back room of an after-hours club, of which he was part-owner.^[4]

Gravano became a particular favorite of family boss Joe Colombo, who used Gravano to picket the FBI Manhattan headquarters as part of his Italian-American Civil Rights League initiative.^[1][2] Gravano's rise was so precipitous that it was generally understood that he would be among the first to become made when the Cosa Nostra's membership books were reopened (they had been closed since 1957).^[1]

In 1970, Gravano committed his first murder—that of Joseph Colucci, a fellow Spero associate with whose wife Tommy Spero was having an affair.^[2] Colucci reportedly was planning to kill Gravano and both Speros in retaliation. Gravano described the experience thusly:

"As that Beatles song played, I became a killer. Joe Colucci was going to die. I was going to kill him because he was plotting to kill me. I felt the rage inside me.... Everything went in slow motion. I could almost feel the bullet leaving the gun and entering his skull. It was strange. I didn't hear the first shot. I didn't see any blood. His head didn't seem to move.... I felt like I was a million miles away, like this was all a dream."^[1]

The Colucci murder won respect and approval from Persico for Gravano.^[2] Gravano later became a mentor to Colucci's son, Jack Colucci, who became involved in the construction industry as a Gambino associate.

Made man[link]

In the early 1970s, Colombo mobster Ralph Spero, brother of Shorty, became jealous of Gravano's success, fearing that he would become a made man before his son Tommy.^[4] To avoid conflict, Shorty Spero allowed Gravano to leave the Colombo family and join the Gambino crime family.^[2]

Now with the Gambinos, Gravano became an associate of capo Salvatore "Toddo" Aurello. Aurello quickly took a liking to Gravano and became his mob mentor.^[2] Around this time, Gravano took a construction job (he later claimed to have considered leaving the criminal life).^[1] A former associate, however, falsely claimed to the New York District Attorney's Office that Gravano and another associate were responsible for a double murder from 1969.^[2] After Gravano was indicted, he desperately needed money to pay his legal bills. He quit his construction job and went on a self-described "robbing rampage" for a year and a half.^[1] One week into the trial, the prosecution moved to dismiss the charges. Gravano later said of this legal problem:

That pinch (arrest) changed my whole life. I never, ever stopped a second from there on in. I was like a madman. Never stopped stealing. Never stopped robbing. I was obsessed.^[1]

Gravano's robbery spree impressed Aurello, who proposed him for membership in the Gambino family. In 1976, the Cosa Nostra's membership books were finally reopened and Gravano became one of the first to be sworn in.^[2]

Gambino soldier[link]

Family loyalty put to the test[link]

Gravano's loyalty to his dueling families was put to the test in 1978, when the erratic behavior of his brother-in-law, Nicholas Scibetta, attracted the attention of Gambino leadership. Scibetta, the brother of Gravano's wife, had developed an alcohol problem and soon started using cocaine. A series of altercations with mob associates followed, one of which ended with Scibetta's having his adversary arrested, earning Scibetta a reputation as a stool pigeon. Scibetta sealed his fate when he insulted the daughter of Georgie DeCicco, uncle of Gambino member Frank DeCicco.^[2] Hearing the news, Gravano gave his brother-in-law a beating in an attempt to forestall worse punishment. The elder DeCicco, however, was incensed and took the matter to boss Paul Castellano, who ordered a hit on Scibetta.^[2]

The order was given to Frank DeCicco, who was told not to inform Gravano. DeCicco gave the contract to Loborio "Louie" Milito and Josephy "Stymie" D'Angelo, Sr., two associates on Gravano's crew. After consultation, the three agreed it was wrong not to tell Gravano. DeCicco went to Castellano and persuaded him to give permission to inform Gravano, but Castellano also authorized DeCicco to kill Gravano if he opposed the murder. According to Gravano, he was initially livid at the news and threatened to kill Castellano, but DeCicco eventually convinced him opposition would be futile and Gravano acquiesced to the murder.^[1]