NEW YORK, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Karen Gravano, daughter of mobster-turned-government informant Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, has been cast in the U.S. reality series "Mob Wives."
The New York Daily News said the show has started taping and is expected to debut on VH1 next year. It follows five women linked by blood or marriage to organized crime.
The elder Gravano has been accused of killing 19 people and is currently serving 20 years for Ecstasy trafficking.
Detractors say his daughter should not be profiting from her father's crimes by appearing on a mob-themed television show, the Daily News said.
"She grew up a little spoiled brat on blood money," Jackie Colucci, whose brother, Joseph, was killed by the elder Gravano in 1970, told the newspaper. "She should be ashamed that her father is a murderer and a drug dealer. I would be ashamed and crawling in a hole and staying out of the limelight. We're the victims. My brother's kids grew up without a father."
Karen Gravano said she wants people to see there is more to her than just her family history.
"As far as the situation with my father, for the last 20 years I've always had that attention so it's nothing new," she told the Daily News. "I'm trying to get out of that shadow."
