documentaries, Elli Hakami, Gerard Gravano, Jason Stefaniak, Jim Cope, Julian P. Hobbs, movies, reviews, Rose Akre, Sammy Gravano, Shaun Attwood, Sons of Ecstasy, true crime, TV
January 10, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Elli Hakami and Julian P. Hobbs
Culture Representation: The documentary film “Sons of Ecstasy” features an all-white group of people discussing the crimes of former feuding drug kingpins Gerard Gravano and Shaun Attwood, who were multimillionaire rivals in the Ecstasy drug trade in Phoenix.
Culture Clash: Gerard Gravano (the son of former Gambino family mafia member Sammy “The Bull” Gravano) and Attwood (a British immigrant) had a bitter rivalry that turned violent.
Culture Audience: “Sons of Ecstasy” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries about high-level drug dealers who were caught and punished.
“Sons of Ecstasy” tells a compelling story about the 1990s feud between former drug kingpins who had a fierce rivalry over dealing Ecstasy in the Phoenix area. This documentary doesn’t glorify their crimes and shows how greed comes at a heavy price. It’s also a story of how a son’s self-esteem can be based on blind ambition to be more financially successful than his father’s.
Directed by Elli Hakami and Julian P. Hobbs, “Sons of Ecstasy” is about the feud that erupted between former drug traffickers Gerard Gravano and Shaun Attwood, who are both interviewed for the documentary. In the 1990s, they both had a bitter competition to rule the Ecstasy drug trade in the Phoenix area. Both men both came to the area as “outsiders” and were determined to become multimillionaires from selling Ecstasy, usually at nightclubs and rave parties.
“Sons of Ecstasy” shows from the beginning that Gerard Gravano’s motivation to make a name for himself as a tough crime boss was mainly influenced by his experiences as the son of Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, the former member of the New York mafia’s Gambino crime family, who testified against his former boss John Gotti in 1991. Sammy is also interviewed in the documentary.
Gerard says although Sammy never told him to become a criminal, Gerard felt pressure to do something with his life to prove he could emerge from Sammy’s shadow with an outlaw image of his own. In the late 1980s, Gerard, his sister Karen and their mother Debra (who became Sammy’s ex-wife) moved from New York City to Phoenix, after the FBI informed the family that the mafia had put a murder hit on Gerard. Sammy relocated to Phoenix later, after he spent several months in the FBI’s witness protection program in Colorado.
Attwood came from a very different background. He was raised in a middle-class family in Liverpool, England. His father was an insurance salesman. His mother was a homemaker. After graduating from college with a business degree, Attwood moved to Phoenix (because his aunt lived there), with the goal of becoming a rich stockbroker. Attwood says he was heavily influenced by the 1987 movie “Wall Street” and the famous line uttered by the movie’s main character Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas): “Greed is good.”
In the documentary, Attwood says although he became a successful stockbroker, he got burned out on the job. He decided to become an Ecstasy dealer after he got hooked on the Ecstasy-fueled rave scene in Phoenix and saw he could make more money by dealing Ecstasy than by being a stockbroker. Attwood had the nickname English Shaun when he was a drug dealer. Attwood (who seems to be the most remorseful out of all the convicted felons who are interviewed in the documentary) also says he became addicted to Ecstasy and other drugs during his drug-dealing years.
Gerard Gravano and Attwood, who were both in their 20s when they became Ecstasy kingpins, each had cohorts who were among the most trusted in their respective inner circles. Attwood says that he had about 200 people working for him when he was raking in millions of dollars a year through the drug trade. Certain people who were closest to Gerard and Attwood were either their most loyal allies or worst enemies.
Gerard’s main partner in crime was Tom Papa, an experienced drug dealer who was originally from New York’s Long Island. Papa was not interviewed for this documentary because the documentary says that Papa can’t be located. (It sounds like he’s probably in witness protection.) Gerard says that Papa was the person who convinced him to become an Ecstasy dealer.
Sammy Gravano also got into trouble for funding Gerard’s drug business, which is something that Sammy still denies. The outcome of Sammy’s legal case is discussed in “Sons of Ecstasy.” In the documentary, Sammy says that he quit a life of crime after getting out of the witness protection program. Sammy also says that he was very angry when he found out that Gerard was a drug dealer. In the documentary, Karen describes her father as a reformed man and a great father who kept his criminal activities and his family life very separate from each other.
Attwood says the two most-trusted people in his inner circle were Jason Stefaniak (nicknamed Schooly) and Peter Mahoney (nicknamed Wild Man). Stefaniak, who is interviewed in the documentary, was Attwood’s most lucrative seller and the person most likely to go on plane flights as a drug trafficker for Attwood. Stefaniak brags that when he went to nightclubs, it was easy for him to make $14,000 to $18,000 a night from selling Ecstasy.
Attwood and Stefaniak both describe their relationship as Atwood being like a “big brother” to “little brother” Stefaniak. Mahoney (who died in 2020, at age 49) was friend that Attwood had known from their childhood in England. Attwood convinced Mahoney to move to Phoenix to be Attwood’s security chief/”enforcer.”
As the feud between Attwood and Gerard Gravano escalated, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency began to pay closer attention to the fact that massive quantities of Ecstasy were being bought and sold in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. It was only a matter of time before avarice and reckless acts of revenge would lead to certain people’s downfalls. Also interviewed in the documentary are United States district attorney Jim Cope and two law enforcement agents who went undercover in Phoenix for Ecstasy drug busts: Matthew Shay and Rose Akre.
“Sons of Ecstasy” is a well-paced recounting of what happened when Gerard decided he wanted to take over Attwood’s dominance of the Ecstasy business in Phoenix. It’s a story filled with not only fierce loyalty but also vicious betrayal. There’s also an added layer about what these crimes can do to families. Ultimately, this documentary serves as a cautionary tale of how short-term greed can bring long-term suffering and damage that need years of recovery.
Max premiered “Sons of Ecstasy” on January 8, 2025.