Who Is the Father of Karen Gravano’s Daughter Karina Seabrook?

Getty Karina Seabrook attends Beautycon Festival New York 2019 on April 06, 2019 in New York City.

Karina Seabrook is the granddaughter of one of the most notorious mobsters in history, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano. Her mother, Karen Gravano, was featured on MTV’s Mob Wives and according to Cheatsheet, Karen was determined to keep Seabrook away from a life of organized crime.

So who is Seabrook’s father? His name is David Seabrook and he lives in Arizona. He was not around for much of his daughter’s childhood because he spent nearly a decade in prison after she was born. Karina Seabrook is Italian on her mother’s side and her father is Black.

The family is featured on the second season of MTV’s docuseries Families of the Mafia. The new season premieres on July 15.

David Seabrook Said Karen Gravano Didn’t Initially Tell Him That Her Father Was Sammy the Bull But Said Sammy Embraced Him

Karen Gravano met David Seabrook, who was from Queens, in 1996 at New York City’s China Club, according to an interview Seabrook gave with the radio station Hot 97. He said he and Karen Gravano noticed each other at the club but that she made the first move. They eventually became engaged but never tied the knot.

Seabrook claims Karen Gravano waited about six months before telling him that she was the daughter of Sammy the Bull. Seabrook told Hot 97, “me being from the hood, I don’t really care. It don’t matter. Because Italians don’t really move in the same circles as we move in.” So while Seabrook said the criminal connection didn’t intimidate him, he did describe Sammy the Bull’s history as “concerning” because of the John Gotti connection.

A quick recap: Sammy the Bull was the underboss of the Gambino crime family and admitted that he was directly involved in killing at least 19 people, ABC News reported. But he served only five years in prison because, in the early 1990s, he agreed to become a government informant. As Fox 10 Phoenix reported, Gravano turned on boss John Gotti, and Gotti was sentenced to life in prison. Sammy the Bull briefly entered the witness protection program after getting out of prison in 1995, but soon decided he didn’t want to live under a different identity.

Seabrook said there was never any racial tension with the Gravanos. He told Hot 97 that when he finally met Karen Gravano’s family, they were accepting of him. Seabrook said Sammy the Bull welcomed him “with open arms” and said that if his daughter loved him, he would as well. Eventually, Sammy included Seabrook in his Mafia-related activities. Seabrook told Hot 97 that Sammy told him, in a sort of joking manner, “you’ll be the first made Black man in America.”

Seabrook & Gravano Were Both Involved in a Mafia Drug Ring

Seabrook and Karen Gravano were both actively involved with the Gravano family’s criminal activities. They were part of an illegal drug ring that moved ecstasy from New York to Arizona, ABC News reported. According to Time magazine, the drug ring sold up to 10,000 pills every week and earned about $1 million per month.

After a lengthy investigation and surveillance work, police busted the drug ring in February 2000, according to Time. Officials arrested more than 40 suspected members of the organization, including Sammy the Bull, his wife Debra Gravano, and their adult children Karen and Gerard Gravano. David Seabrook was also among those arrested.

The AP described David Seabrook as Sammy the Bull’s son-in-law at the time. Karen Gravano and David Seabrook were arrested at the family’s large Phoenix home, the AP said.

Sammy the Bull, Gerard Gravano and Seabrook were all sentenced to prison. But Karen Gravano and her mother both received probation, ABC News reported.

Karina Seabrook was born in July 1999. She was less than one year old when her parents were arrested for their involvement in the massive drug ring. In a preview clip of the new season of Families of the Mafia, Karina Seabrook mentioned how her parents, grandfather and uncle had all gone to prison. She said she wanted to “break the chain” and go down a different path than the rest of her family had done.

David Seabrook Spent 18 Years of His Life Behind Bars But Reconnected With His Daughter After He Was Released

LinkedInDavid Seabrook is the father of Karina Seabrook, who is featured on “Families of the Mafia.”

Seabrook is now in his early 50s. He explained to Hot 97 that he spent 18 years of his life behind bars. He said he was locked up for the first time when he was 14 after a conviction for attempted murder. He said he spent time on Rikers Island and was within the juvenile system.

In 1987, when he was 19, he received another prison sentence. He got out when he was 26.

Seabrook was 32 when he and the Gravanos were caught in the drug ring. He ended up serving about nine years in prison for that case. While he was locked up, Seabrook said he completed a college degree in business.

Since then, Seabrook has also established a relationship with his daughter. According to Distractify, Karina lived with him in Arizona for about four years after he was released from prison. She moved back to New York to live with her mother when she was 14.

According to Cheatsheet, David Seabrook now runs a staffing agency called Emmploy. He wrote on LinkedIn that he started the company “under the premise of “Creating a workforce where everyone can belong everywhere”. I say this because as an African American, I’ve been subjected to countless rejections in the job market as a result of discrimination…. My company Emmploy is a diversity hiring start up that helps companies connect with and recruit underrepresented ethnic minority candidates for jobs and apprenticeships.”

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