John Gotti

Glamorous old-style Mafia boss

Wednesday 12 June 2002 00:00 BST
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JOHN GOTTI was a throwback, a brash, glamorous, loud, celebrity gangster straight from central casting. He modelled himself, and his tailoring, on the populist Hollywood image of what the gangster should be, revelling in publicity, and always with a smart word for the adoring media.

Gotti was born in 1940, the fifth of 13 children, in a tenement in the Bronx, New York. His paternal grandparents had emigrated from Naples, and his father Joseph's gambling and inability to hold down a job dominated Gotti's childhood. Despite inheriting his father's addiction, John Gotti grew up despising Joseph. "He was a rolling stone; he never provided for the family. He never did nothing. He never earned nothing. And we never had nothing."

Predictably John Gotti did much of his growing up on the streets, and early on struck up alliances with older boys from Italian Harlem. By the time the family moved to Brooklyn, Gotti had embraced street culture, seeking money and excitement from a predatory environment dominated by what was to become the Gambino crime family.

As the leader of a typical New York youth gang, Gotti became interested in more than merely protecting his turf, and frequent brushes with the law inevitably enhanced his reputation as a reckless money-maker picking up crumbs from the Gambino table.

Lorry hijacking and murder were the activities at which Gotti eventually excelled. As part of the successful Gambino-connected crews who plundered Kennedy Airport during the 1960s, Gotti was making enough money to support both a new family and his old gambling habit. After many close calls, Gotti spent nearly three years on two hijacking charges and by the age of 31 was a tried and trusted member of Carmine ("Charley Wagons") Fatico's Ozone Park crew, based in the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club.

When Fatico was imprisoned, Gotti found himself temporarily in charge of the Bergin crew, and reporting directly to the Gambino underboss, Neil Dellacroce. In turn, when Dellacroce was imprisoned in 1973, Gotti found himself reporting directly to Carlo Gambino. Apart from giving him a taste of power, this direct contact with Don Carlo led to Gotti and two associates murdering Jimmy McBratney, who had kidnapped, received the ransom for, and then shot to death Manny Gambino, a nephew of Don Carlo.

The McBratney killing was carried out in public and Gotti's stock was high. However, an FBI informant was working within the Bergin crew and Gotti was eventually arrested in 1974. Mainly as a result of the grateful Gambino's employing the notorious Roy Cohn as his lawyer, Gotti served just two years for manslaughter.

By the time Gotti emerged from prison, Gambino had died of natural causes, but not before he had appointed his brother-in-law Paul Castellano as his successor. Gotti was mortified – Dellacroce, the man that he regarded as his mentor, had been passed over in favour of a meatpacking millionaire with a low-profile style that favoured enterprise crime over the more visceral pursuits of the denizens of the Bergin. Castellano made a conciliatory gesture by appointing Dellacroce underboss, but the rift within the Gambino family grew as the new "safety first" policy led to the family losing ground to ambitious rivals.

In 1977 Gotti was formally "made" as a member of the Mafia and began his campaign against Castellano. After taking over as captain of the Bergin crew, Gotti was entitled to a rake-off from all his soldiers' activities and he began to favour immaculate suits and an expensive bouffant hairstyle as he strolled the streets of Queens like an old-style gangster warlord.

Gotti resented paying his dues to the reclusive Castellano and, in December 1985, along with Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, organised the spectacular killing of the Gambino boss outside the Sparks steak house in Manhattan. John Gotti was the new boss of the Gambino family.

He attracted media and police attention, but violence was always a breath away. Threats, beatings and murder dealt with personal slights, traffic disputes and the accidental death of his 12-year-old son. Further, as his gambling debts mounted, Gotti could never earn enough money. He cajoled and threatened his crew to earn more, and despite the traditionalists' official ban on drug dealing, members of the Bergin crew were very active in the heroin business. Violence and a hearty disrespect for Mafia propriety marked Gotti's reign. "You got to go in there with your suits, your jewellery," he said. "Put it in their face. When people go to the circus, they don't want to see clowns. They want to see lions and tigers, and that's what we are."

Gotti struck up new alliances, in particular with Nicky Scarfo in Philadelphia, and made significant moves into New Jersey against operations run by the rival Genovese family. This latter development resulted, in 1987, with a decision by Genovese boss Vincent "the Chin" Gigante to kill Gotti and his brother Gene. However, the FBI were listening to the Genovese family, for they had bugged the lavatory at the Cassellas restaurant in Hoboken where the plot was hatched. The FBI warned Gotti of the plot, and the Gambino boss replied with the killing of Gigante's underboss.

However, the New York Organised Crime Task Force had tapes of Gotti arranging the murder of a labour organiser, John O'Connor. O'Connor survived, but the Task Force was now armed not only with the tapes, but also with the evidence of two members of a violent Irish gang, the Westies, who had been hired by Gotti for the assassination of O'Connor.

Gotti was arrested and charged with conspiracy early in 1989. His style and manner appealed not only to the gossip-hungry tabloid public, but also a number of film stars who regularly attended the hearings. Gotti's flamboyant and verbally aggressive lawyer Bruce Cutler dominated proceedings and Gotti's acquittal made him a folk hero. He became known as "The Teflon Don".

The FBI and the Task Force renewed their efforts, and began cutting off prime slices from the body of the Gambino organisation. Long-time Gambino members such as 76-year-old Joe Gallo and the ancient "Joe Piney" Armone were arrested. Next, Gotti's heroin operation was dealt a deadly blow and both Gene Gotti and John Carneglia were sentenced to 50 years in prison. Gotti's close friend Joe Gambino, Carlo's cousin, was then arrested for trafficking, Capo Joseph Corrao was sentenced to two years in prison and Carlo Gambino's son Thomas was summoned to appear before a Grand Jury.

Eventually Gotti was arrested and confronted with evidence that included extensive FBI tapes from Gotti's Ravenite club and material from Sammy Gravano, the multiple murderer and Gotti's underboss, who had turned informant. Crucially, the belligerent Cutler was made an ineligible choice of lawyer when he was named as a possible witness.

In April 1992, John Gotti was sentenced to life imprisonment for, amongst other things, the murder of Paul Castellano, yet his status as a latter-day Robin Hood and keeper of Mafia myths remained for some undiminished.

Gotti embraced family values, but had multiple mistresses; the traditional mob codes were sacrosanct to him, yet he prospered from drug dealing and killed a boss. He was above all a violent predator, a media-friendly murderer, whose temperament and appetites rendered him unable to adapt to the corporate conceits and commercial sensibilities of contemporary organised crime.

Dick Hobbs

John Gotti, gangster: born New York 27 October 1940; married (two sons, two daughters, and one son deceased); died Springfield, Missouri 10 June 2002.

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