Alternate use: John A. "Junior" Gotti, his son, and John Gotti Agnello, his grandson (of the Growing Up Gotti TV show)

John Gotti (October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) (also known as The Dapper Don and The Teflon Don) was the boss of the Gambino crime family, one of the most feared of New York's mafia families. He became widely known for his outspoken personality and flamboyant style that made him the poster child for mobsters, an image that persists even today.

Career

John Gotti was born John Joseph Gotti, Jr. by John Sr. & Fannie Gotti. He had five brothers that also went into the Mafia life: Faisal, Peter, Gene, Richard and to a lesser degree, Vincent. Faisal, Peter, Gene and Richard were all made members of the Gambino family as John was.

Gotti started as a mob assassin and worked his way up to becoming captain of one of the most powerful groups in the Gambino family. His group, however, was caught selling drugs, against the rules of the family, and was about to be disbanded. To prevent this, Gotti and others organized the shooting of the Gambino family boss, Paul Castellano, on December 16, 1985. Castellano was shot six times outside Sparks Steakhouse in Manhattan and Gotti took control of the family.

Following his ascension to the position of Gambino family godfather, Gotti became known as "The Dapper Don", appearing in public in expensive $2000 hand-tailored Brioni suits and reveling in media attention. Gotti was extremely popular in his Queens neighborhood, where he organized free lavish street parties and festivals, and had a reputation for keeping street crime out. The annual Fourth of July party he hosted in Ozone Park, a neighborhood in Queens, which featured an elaborate fireworks display, was a major media event.

Gotti was arrested several times throughout his career, and although he served time in both state and federal prison (including a manslaughter conviction in connection with the shooting death of a low-level Irish-American gangster in a tavern on Staten Island in 1973), in the 1980s he was referred to by the media as the "Teflon Don" as he avoided conviction on racketeering and assault charges. Gotti bribed or threatened jurors in several trials. He also made use of police informants to keep a step ahead of investigators.

Gotti became something of a celebrity, and would frequently shake hands and pose for pictures with tourists outside the Ravenite Social Club in Manhattan where he conducted business. His ego and public self-promotion helped energize law enforcment efforts against him. His demand that his Mafia underlings show up for regular meetings at which they were forced to fawn over him as they greeted him curbside provided a bonanza for law enforcment. The FBI was able to identify many key Mafia members who might have otherwise escaped their scrutiny.

Gotti was long under intense electronic surveillance by the FBI. His club, phones, and other places of business were all bugged. To get around this, he held meetings while walking down the street and played loud tapes of white noise. Eventually the FBI caught him on tape in an apartment above the club discussing a number of murders and other criminal activities. The FBI also caught Gotti denigrating his underboss Salvatore "Sammy The Bull" Gravano. Angered and feeling he would be made a scapegoat, Gravano agreed to testify against Gotti. Despite having confessed to participating in 19 murders, Gravano was given only a five year sentence and then entered the Witness Protection Program.

Prison

Gotti and several associates were arrested in 1990. Gotti was convicted by a jury in the United States District Court in New York on April 2, 1992 for 13 counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, loansharking, racketeering, obstruction of justice, illegal gambling, and tax evasion; along with his consigliere Frank LoCascio. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole on June 23 later that year [1]. It was assumed that Gotti would serve his sentence at the new federal "supermax" facility at Florence, Colorado, but instead he was sent to the older federal penitentiary at Marion, Illinois, where he was kept in a solitary-confinement cell 23 hours a day.

Death

Gotti died of throat cancer at 12:45 PM on June 10, 2002 at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, to which he had been transferred once the cancer was diagnosed.

Following his death, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, New York decided that John Gotti would not be permitted a Mass of Christian Burial, or a Funeral Mass before burial. The Chancellor of the Diocese, Father Andrew Vaccari, had said that a Mass for the Dead would be permitted for Gotti at some point after the burial. The family was permitted to have Gotti buried at the mausoleum located at St. John's Cemetery in the Queens, New York. The Catholic Church in the past had denied funeral masses to other mobsters, such as Carmine Galante, and former Gambino boss "Big Paul" Castellano. But unlike Galante and Castellano, Gotti was granted a burial within a Catholic cemetery.

Family

On March 6, 1962, Gotti married Victoria DiGiorgio, by whom he had five children: Angel (born 1961), Victoria, John Jr., Frank and Peter. John and his family lived on 85th street in Howard Beach. Frank Gotti died in 1980 in a car accident; John Favara, the Howard Beach neighbor who was driving the car that hit Frank, was abducted shortly thereafter and his body was never found. John Gotti and wife Victoria were out of town when John Favara disappeared. The son, John is known as "Junior Gotti" and was acting boss of the Gambino Crime Family after John was put in prison. Peter is an alleged associate of the Gambino Family. To this day, Victoria (nГ©e DiGiorgio) Gotti is unrepentant about her criminal family, the role she played in enabling it and the rewards she received.

In 2004, a new television show called Growing Up Gotti was aired on the A&E television network, which features Gotti's daughter Victoria and her three sons. Soon afterwards, The Smoking Gun website posted the videos made of Gotti and his family during a prison visit several years ago. Prison officials routinely videotaped all of Gotti's visits. The video, which was presented in five parts, was called Blowing Up Gotti.

Sources

• Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti by Gene Mustain & Jerry Capeci in 2002, ISBN 0028644166.
• Gotti: The Rise & Fall by Jerry Capeci in 1996, ISBN 0451406818.
• Mafia Dynasty: The Rise & Fall of the Gambino Crime Family by John H. Davis in 1994, ISBN 0061091847.

External Links

• http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/gottidead1.htmlde:John Gotti

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