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John Gotti
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John Joseph Gotti, Jr. (October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was the boss of the Gambino crime family after the murder of the previous boss Paul Castellano. He became widely known for his outspoken personality and flamboyant style that eventually caused his downfall.
In 1992, Gotti was convicted of racketeering, 13 murders, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit murder, illegal gambling, extortion, tax evasion, loansharking and was sentenced to life in prison where he died 10 years later.
He was known by the media as the "The Dapper Don" because of his habit of wearing expensive clothes and "The Teflon Don" after the law enforcement was unsuccessful in putting him in prison earlier.
i was born to Italian-American parents John Gotti Sr and Philomena "Fannie" Gotti.
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Encyclopedia
John Joseph Gotti, Jr. (October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was the boss of the Gambino crime family after the murder of the previous boss Paul Castellano. He became widely known for his outspoken personality and flamboyant style that eventually caused his downfall.
In 1992, Gotti was convicted of racketeering, 13 murders, obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit murder, illegal gambling, extortion, tax evasion, loansharking and was sentenced to life in prison where he died 10 years later.
He was known by the media as the "The Dapper Don" because of his habit of wearing expensive clothes and "The Teflon Don" after the law enforcement was unsuccessful in putting him in prison earlier.
Early life and family
Gotti was born to Italian-American parents John Gotti Sr and Philomena "Fannie" Gotti. He was 12 when his family moved to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn where he and his brothers Peter and Richard became part of a local street gang. A cement mixer tipped over when he tried to steal it, crushing Gotti's foot, giving him a limp that would last him his life.
Gotti married Victoria DiGiorgio on March 6, 1962. They had five children, Angela (Angel), Victoria, John A. "Junior" Gotti, Peter and Frank. John Gotti did not think very highly of his family, being recorded on video as saying "I took garbage Gotti blood and contaminated it with DiGiorgio blood." Gotti was also recorded on video as saying to his daughter Victoria "I'm not your father or John's father or these kids's grandfather."
A brutal and short tempered family man, John Gotti used to subject his wife and son to regular beatings. This has been proven by FBI tapes, and later became media fodder for the New York papers.
Criminal career
Gotti's criminal career with the Gambinos began with fencing stolen goods from Idlewild Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport).
In February 1978, United employees identified Gotti as the man who signed for the earlier stolen merchandise. The FBI arrested him for the United hijacking soon after. Two months later, while out on bail, Gotti was arrested a third-time for hijacking--this time stealing a load of cigarettes worth $50,000 on the New Jersey Turnpike. Later that year Gotti pled guilty to the Northwest hijacking and was sentenced to four years at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. Prosecutors dropped the charges for the cigarette hijacking. Gotti also pled guilty to the United hijacking. Gotti spent less than three years at Lewisburg.
After he was released from prison, he was placed on probation and ordered to find a legitimate job. Meanwhile, he returned to his old crew at the Bergin club, still working under caporegime Carmine Fatico. Fatico was indicted on loansharking charges and made Gotti the acting capo of the Bergin Crew reporting to Carlo Gambino and Aniello Dellacroce. After Gambino's death, Paul Castellano, Gambino's brother-in-law, was elevated to the head of the crime family. Castellano was not well-respected by his underlings. When Gotti's crew was found to be selling heroin, against the rules of the family, Gotti and others, fearing reprisals, had Paul Castellano shot six times along with his bodyguard, Thomas Bilotti, outside Sparks Steak House. Gotti then took control of the family.
Gotti was arrested several times throughout his career, serving time in both state and federal prison (including a manslaughter conviction in connection with the 1973 shooting death of low-level Irish-American gangster James McBratney, who had kidnapped and killed Emmanuel Gambino, Carlo Gambino's nephew). By the 1980s, he was referred to by the news media as the "Teflon Don" as he avoided conviction on racketeering and assault charges.
Death of Frank Gotti
On March 18, 1980, 12-year-old Frank Gotti, youngest son of John Gotti was run over and killed on his bicycle by neighbor John Favara, whose children were friends with Frank Gotti.
Police found Favara was not to blame in the accident, which was officially ruled accidental and no charges were ever filed against him. However, in the months after the accident, the word "Murderer" was spray-painted onto Favara's car. On May 28, Victoria DiGiorgio Gotti, Frank's mother, attacked Favara with a metal baseball bat, sending him to the hospital. Favara decided not to press charges and was planning to move out of Howard Beach. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), on July 28, 1980, before Favara and his family were able to move, he was shoved into a van by several men near his work. There were several witnesses to the abduction, and accounts ranged from him being beaten with a baseball bat, shot with a silenced .22 caliber pistol, or both. In January 2009, prosecutors claimed Charles Carneglia, an alleged mob soldier awaiting trial on five murders, dissolved Favara's remains in a drum of acid kept in Carneglia's basement.
Arrest and imprisonment
Gotti was under electronic surveillance by the FBI; they caught him on tape in an apartment discussing a number of murders and other criminal activities. The FBI also caught Gotti denigrating his underboss, Salvatore "Sammy The Bull" Gravano. On December 11, 1990, FBI agents and New York City detectives raided the Ravenite Social Club and arrested Gotti, Gravano, Frank Locascio, and Thomas Gambino.
Gotti was charged with 13 counts of murder (including Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti), conspiracy to commit murder, loansharking, racketeering, obstruction of justice, illegal gambling, and tax evasion.
Gotti was tried in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York before United States District Judge I. Leo Glasser. The federal prosecutor's evidence was overwhelming. Not only did they have Gotti on tape, but they also had several witnesses to testify against Gotti. Philip Leonetti, a former Underboss in the violent Philadelphia crime family, was going to testify that Gotti bragged that he had ordered Castellano's execution. Then, Gotti's own Underboss Gravano voluntarily agreed to testify against his boss and Consigliere Frank LoCascio with the promise of being entered into the Witness Protection Program. On April 2, 1992, after only 13 hours of deliberation, the jury found Gotti and LoCascio guilty on all 13 charges. On June 23, 1992, Judge Glasser sentenced Gotti to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. He was sent to the United States Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois, where he was kept in a cell 23 hours a day. Four days later, his father died of heart failure. While in prison Gotti paid the Aryan Brotherhood $50,000 a year for protection. Gotti later offered $100,000 to the Aryan Brotherhood to kill Walter Johnson, a black inmate who had brutally beaten him. The Aryan Brotherhood accepted Gotti's offer. The prison guards surmised that Johnson was in danger and began moving him to different locations and ultimately transferred him to another prison where he was eventually paroled.
Death and funeral
Gotti died of throat cancer at 12:45 p.m. on June 10, 2002 at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, where he had been transferred once the cancer was diagnosed. Gotti had the lower half of his jaw removed due to the cancer and was fed through a tube. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn announced that Gotti's family would not be permitted to have a Mass of Christian Burial but allowed Gotti's family to have a Requiem after burial.
Further reading
- Blum, Howard. Gangland : How The FBI Broke the Mob. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. ISBN 0671687581
- Capeci, Jerry and Gene Mustain. Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti. New York: Penguin, 1988. ISBN 0-02-864416-6
- Capeci, Jerry and Gene Mustain. Gotti: Rise and Fall. New York: Onyx, 1996. ISBN 0-451-40681-8
- Davis, John H. Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. ISBN 0-06-109184-7
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