Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
At the end of 1985, Paul Castellano, head of one of the most powerful Mafia families in the country, was murdered in downtown New York City. The newspapers raced to cover the event, offering various reasons for eliminating him.
But they all agreed on one thing – John Gotti was the new boss of the family
No one would have guessed at the time that Gotti’s name would no longer just appear from time to time in the reports of crime journalists,
but would occupy the front lages of the leading american publicantions .John Gotti’s face would be on the pages of newspapers and television screens more often than the face of the president for nearly 10 year
Because of him ,journalist made a name for themselves.
tv channels had hid high ratings
and government officials, that try to put him away made their careers ,
so if you interrested in hearing the story of a gangster who can easily compete with Al capone in terms of popularity them please welcome John Gotti o n the other side of the law.
john gotti was born on october 27 1940 into a family of john and fannie gotti .
his father was not a role model family man , providing for his wife and 13 children.
gotti senior was able to hold down jobb for a long time. and wasted most of his money on gambling making the family extremely poor in poerty as we know is rarely a reason for family well-being there was constant shouting and svearing in the gaudy house. household both among the parents and between the children .
so it was no suprise that little john preferred to spend most of his time not in his room but on the noisy street of his neighborhood. where the realm of costa nostra flourished.
all these guys in expensive suits and cool cars have the kind of life young gotti could only dream of.basically it was the only example for him of how to get out of poverty that he had hated since childhood.
and at the age of 12.john began to work fot the maffia. he was part of asmall group of boys wh oran small errands for the local gangster of course this was not a full-fledged invilvement. in criminal activiti.but rather a kind of messenger’s job.
gotti’s illegal activities at the timewere no way connected with the maffia for the most part. they were petty thefts to make a few dollars for exemple
the first evidence of john’s violantion of the law refers to the unsuccessful theft of a construction mixer in 1954
gradually with this kind of earning gotti began to grow in scope and by the times he was 16 when he finally dropped out of school
john was already of the local teenage gang called th fulton rockaway boys who were engaged in shoplifting and and car thefts in this gang, gotti became closed friend with several guys who later join him in the so-called bergen team of the gambino mafia family
among the most important are angelo ruggro and willie johnson nicknamed willy boy. it was willy whom gotti would commit the beating of a man at the request of a local mobster
which would be a factor in his transition in 1957 from being an indenpending gangster to be a partner of cosa nostra after that from 1957 to 1961 he was arrested five times for petty crimes but each crime he managed to escape punishment, the law could not catch up with him until 1968.
2 years befor that ,john had started robbing trucks carrying goods from the airport and the employees of the local airport lived in the same neighborhood where gotti’s crew led by captaine gambino carmine fatico was based and since many of them what not blameless and often owed monwt to local mobster either after gambling losses or money lones.
they often tip off trucks carrying valuable cargo.making it a very profitable buisness and after one of the such tip- off .gotti and and his associates were caught by law enforcemet.
one of the employees helpeunford them get into the airport cargo area where they stuffed their car with women’s dresses.
unfortunately for them on that day there was a routine inspection at the airport by FBI agents who vitnessed what was going on and gotti ended up behind bars.
John would stay in prison until 1972 and when he got out he would become a confidante of carmine fatico who because of the charge could not conduct business directly, he would be fatico’s eyes and ears on the streets.
around this time gotti also met neil dellacroce.who had become a kind of mentor to him at cosa nostra, dellacroce was the second man in the family after carlo gambino and his influence on the streets even led the FBI to consider him the boss of the family for sometime
and in 1971 the U.S senate permanent subcommittee on investigations named neil as the most powerful cosa nostra boss of his time. the fact that such a man was interested in cooperation with gotti after seeing himn helping with the fatico’s business could potentially mean ambitious career prospects and john would never have to think about poverty again.
now however ,because of the suspension of recruting new members.gotti wasn’t even accepted into the family and he needed to keep proving his worth in order to join a cosa nostra. when he was summoned by his boss and ordered to eliminate the murderer of his nephew carlo gambino gotti did not hesitate to take the case because if he was successful it meant almost 100 percent entry into the mafia brotherhood.
the case was very important because the muder ofthe boss’s relative had not occurred during some some conflict of any kind. it happened as a result of a kidnappning and after a ransom of one hundred thousand dollar had been paid it was a spit in the face of the entire mafia family and delacrose swor to carlo gambino to find and kill the kidnappers
and in may 9, 1973 when it was possible to figure out who was behind the case delacrose with gambino’s approval commissioned john gotti to do the hit.
this man turned out to be a leader of a small irish gang named James mcbratney, gotti and two accomplices found him in a bar and posing as a police officers. tried to take mcbratney outside
but he resisted . a figth ensued and the irish gangster was shot dead right in the middle of the bar.because of the abundance of witnesses in the bar and the fact that a man close to gotti named willie johnson was an FBI informant,the police put john gotti and angelo ruggiero on the wanted list for the murder of james mcbratney
to months later .john manage to elude the authorities for a little over a year but another tip from willie johnson through the FBI. helped the police caputre gotti in may 1974 while he was meeting a friend in a bar.
carlo gambino in gratitude for gotti’s work hired for him and reguero one of new yorks best lawers named roy cohen who fought for them in court for a year and managed to change the charge for murder to manslaughter. which meant only two years in prison and was even less than what john received after steeling women’s dresses.
however despite the short sentence gotti while in prison missed an event that would have long lasting consequences in his life
at the end of 1976 carlo gambino passed away.
and shortly before his death he nominated paul castellano as his successor,effectively spitting the family into two factions .
one supported paul heo became the new boss . the second sided with delacroce who remained the junior boss, the first vadtion consisted of the so -called white- collar workers.who for the most part made their money fron non -violent crimes the second was dominated by blue collar workers who did the lion’s share of the dirty work.
the first group made more money then the second and hardly got their hands dirty and castellano was a prime example of this attitude .
which led to the growth of te gap between groups year to year.
also a rise of paul’s power was a dash of hope for gotti who thought that if delacroce would become then john himself as the man closest to him would gain more power.
the only silver lining from carlo gambino’s death for gotti was that castellano reopened the books and after his release from prison 1977,john was officially weclomed into the family . otherwise there were no advantages for blue collar gangster like gotti whose way s of earning money may not be grasped by the new boss and john could practically forgett about the rapid advancement of his career.
however john still had the patronage of delacroce who had a very strong influance on paul and gotti and paul could have worked quietly waiting for his time if only things hadn’t suddenly changed.people close to gotti would soon make a series of mistakes that would take the relationship between the two factions from a state of misunderstanding to a state of cold war and even open conflicts.
gotti got out of prison ,1977 and became a member of the mafia and a captain of the bergen team infact he was just a temporary acting captain filling this position for a 70 year old carmine fatico who was once again fighting with the athorities for his freedom although gotti did not like the prefix temporary acting to his captain status it did not prevent him from feeling like a full-fledged boss in the territory he got, gottis’ chief assistant on bergen’s team
was his longtime partner Angelo Ruggiero , his closest circle subordinates, including his brothergene gotti john carneglia, anthony rampino and willie johnson brothers peter and richard gotti were given less important roles , all of these men as well as dozens of other gangsters who wanted to work in bergen’s crew territory paid gotti apercentage of their buisnesses.
which allowed john to forget his personal involvement in robberies and hijackings forever. the captain’s status took gotti from petty criminal to the position of still a petty but a recketeer.
he now received a percentage of the profits of local gambling establishments and bookmakers offices and invested some of his money in underground usury for the IRS however, gotti was a employee of a plumbing and heating firm .but these earnings were clearly not enough for john gotti hwo had followed his father’s footsteps and who according to his contemporaries was obsessed with betting.
losing tens of thousands dollars a month and for a long time no one could understand where gotti was getting the money to cover his constantly groeing debts and provide for his wife and his children.
the answer to this question was very suprising.john who’s constantly saying out loud that he fully supported paul castellano’s probition of the drug trade. did not preent his cronies from doing such a buisness and was happy to to take a percentage of their earnings almost everyone in his innercircle of of subordinates in bergen whom i have listed earlier
were involved in either heroin or cocaine trafficking and knowing that family officiallyforbade this kind of earining . it was only matter of time before john would get into trouble with the giher ups .
the trouble started when in 1983 serveralp people were arrested on charges of heroin trafficking including Gene Gotti , john carneglia andAngelo Ruggiero
the reason for this was a wiretap recording of Ruggiero’s conversation in which he spoke almost openly about his drug dealings .the arrested were the key people in the team of gotti who was fully supported by delacroce,that’s why castellano who was concerned about an open confrontation with neil was slow to decide on the matter which by the laws of Costs Nostra should have turned into a death sentence for john’s men .
in addition all the suspects comletely denied their involvement in the heroin trade ,claiming that the tapes showed angelo talking about how to deal with the finances of his recently deceased brrother salvatore wh oid sale drugs but was not connected with the maffia in no way.
which removed the question of punishment.and for a short time this explanation was enough for castellano who under pressure from delacroce agreed to postpone his decision until the tapes were given to Ruggiero’s lawyers and paul personally reviewed them.
du to legal delays the tapes did not come into angelo’s hands until 1984, but he immediately came up with a new reason not to hand them over.citing the fact the tapes allegedely captured conversation on personal even intimate topics.
once again delacroce managed to convince paul not to give an ultimatum on the matter besides at the same time castellano was being charged under the RICO Act and it was more important for him to avoid jail time.
for gotti however. the persecution of paul by the authorities made life much easier. the strategiy by which they tried to stall for time in order to figure out how to spare Ruggiero and the others from the death penalty was a lifeline.just a few things had come together,
first , the authorities should put castellano behind bars .and second delacroce who had one foot in the brave because of his advance cander had to live lnger than paul was free to continue convincing his boss not to take drastic measures in the drug case.
with this outcome gotti who was already beginning to perceived as neil’s successor was practically getting the red carpet to the position of family boss ,however ,things did not go according to plan.
in the late of summer of 1985 the tape of Ruggiero’s wiretaps were made public ata preliminary hearing in his case and since by this time some of them had also been admitted to the case against castellano.paul’s lawyers got a hold of thefull recordings and the truth was revealed.
the only thing separating bergen’s team from the wrath of the family boss was the support of delacroce who was getting worse by the day.
and gotti realizing the precariousness of his position decided to retaliate and try to hit before they him .
sammy gravano, robert de bernado and franckie DeCicco. were thefirst people he brought to his side and the conspiracy against castellano
supsequently captain joe armani joins the conspirators while consiglieri joe gallo promises to stay out of the way, prettening to know nothing .
also in the preparatory phase of the conspiracy, gotti pobe the mafia clans on the matter and three of the other four new york families did not openly object to paul’s removal and only the genovese might have a problem sintc its boss vincent gigante was on good terms with pal and at several joints venture with him .
all this reconnaissance and fromation of the main core of the conspirators took several months after the group proceeded to directly plan the assassinatonatempt.
at first they wanted to lure castellano’s driver tommy belotto tell paul that he was sick and replaced him with frankie DeCicco who who would eliminated pial but. that plan was rejected. because of the fear that paul would not get in the car with frankie . several other ideas were also rejcejted vecause of other concerns
one of which was to kill castellano right in his house.the reason speed up and finally decide on the the assassination plan was in fact that in early december 1985, nel delcorce died.
and castellano began making steps towards eliminating gotti just a coulpe ofday later. first te planned to disband bergen’s team and demote john to a solider and after a while to find a reason to to eliminate him
this. being the case the assassination attepmpt had to be carried out in the shorters possible time and fortunately for the conspirators paul himself told wher and when he could be killed.
on the 16 1985 castellano would summon frankie to chico to a meeting at sparks restruant which was in a extrermely bust downtown manhatta location from this oment they knew at exact and place where the condemned boss would end up and all that eas to tihnk good about what to do next
there were 11 me in the assassintaion team four of them were cirectly at the place where paul was comming . and they were the first to pull the trigger while the others arranged rg so that if that fore fiaied castellano would be surrounde and retrating to eithe side would wouls certainly bump into one of of the assasssins and practrice however no supported was needed as soon paul drove up to the resurant and got out of the car .
the four fireman did their job instantly killing him and the driver .tommy bellato and then fleeing fleeing the scene before anyone had a chance to realize anything .once castellano was eliminated gotti could no longer worry about Ruggiero heroin’s business adn all he had to was seize the vacant boss position to do this .
he first asked consiglieri joe gallo to call a meeting of all the cambino’s captains. at which it was made clear to all alll that the investigation into paul’s irder had alredy begun.
and there would soon be anoher meeting where everyone coudl put heir candidacy for the new boss to a wote. john’s second move which followed immediatelly after meeting.
was to ask joan armani privately inform every caprtian that gotti going to take the boss’s chair from himself and that if anyone decided to opsed it the family might be plunged into a long and bloddy war.
but no one dared to chalenge him and at the next meetingheld just a couple a of days after the first gotti was unanimously elected as the new boss ,franckie de chico became his deputy and joe gallo remained as consiglier that’s how just in few weeks gotti got rid of the problems that plauged him for several years.
climbing to the top of th mafia hierarchy at the same time ,however he will not be able to to reap the fruits of his labor s in peace.
for long inside costra nostra a new enemy was alredy preparing to attack him and from the outside the main apponent in the ligth of john gotti called law mobilized its forces.
the murder of paul castellano not only allowed gotti to solve his problems and make him self the boss of the gambino family but was also the starting point after the lion’s share the new york media focused on his persona.
the sparks incident as the newspaper called it had aroused great public interest and draged john gotti with it.
the newly minted maffia boss was in trouble with the law even before castellano was shot.
prosecutor diane jackalone was bulidng a RICO case him and there also charging against john for being beating a man it so happened that the case began to be considered in court in early 1986 after the sensational incident whicha attrachted the dosen journalist to this meetings because they were interested seeing the new boss. and the mafia boss didn’t disapoint ,from his first public appareance in the courtroom in january 1986,gotti literaly grabbed the attention of the press.
journalist are uset to gangsters who lcoset their hands and want to esacape the limelight as quickly as possible
but on this day,they saw a well.dresssed stately man who loocked as if he had stepped off the pages of godfather and who happily answered their questions like a real politician.
gottti made his first impression on the media vente wchich they liked so much and more and more reporters came to the court with each new session and john plunged into these rays of fame only fuled the interest with his sharp remarks and flamboyant behavior as he himself would later say it’s my audience ,let them watch.
but he had another audience which looked a tim much more closely and wich was not satisfied with onyl beautiful speeches, they wanted to understand the actions that they expect frm the new boss.and gotti was very well of this.
john decided to begin his reing by addressing a long -standing rift in the family that hadbefan 1976.after the death of carlo gambino.first in january and february 1986.
gotti invited all the captains in turns in order to explain to each otf them personnaly that they were now one family and and there should be no disegriments.
and then until may ,he himself began to visit their social clubs to get acquainted with the local teams and it first glance this as paying off that missunderstanding among people about what was to come which had formed after castellano’s death was beginning to dissepate and it seemed that the family was indeed close to unity.
but the feeling was fals and only dulled the attention of gotti who failed to notice the plot underway. after the shooting near sparks, no one directly blamed john for what happened.
but most understood that he was behind what happened. and other times castellano’s murder would cerainly have led to a thorough investigation by the commission.
but at the time bosses were busy fighthing the authorities who was led by prosecutor rudolf giuliani wanted shut down simlutaneously the heads of all five new york familis having bringing charges under the RICO back in 1985
the only representative of the commission who did not make it to the trial was vincent giganti. the insaine boss of the Genovese family who was also on good terms with the late castellano. he was the one who initiated the plot against gotti , planned to kill two birds with one stone by eliminating him to avenge his his dead friend and aput at the head of the gambino people. who would listen to his requests.
which giganti gpt gambino’s captain james fila on his side he promised him support if after gottis murder he would run for family boss
and make another man who had joined the conspiracy named daniel marino his captain .Giganti too all the dirty work for himself.
another man who sided with the genovese family boss was a high -ranking member of the lucchesi mafia family named anthony caso ,
he was the one who was responsible for the plan to blow up gotti and chico as they were leaving a meeting with philaat his socail club
however john for whatever reason- however john for ever reason did not show up for the meeting and the bomb only struck his younger boss .did chico died on the way to the hospital and gotti was utterly confused about who wanted him dead.
but that wasn’t the only problem the maffia boss had to deal with with.
with two charges were stoll pending against him and the trial was in full swing.
the first case which gotto dealt with rather easily concerned an assult committed costellanos murder ,john and another gangster had an argument with a guy on the street and beat him up a little the same man promptly informed the police and gotti and his accomplice apperhended right on the scene.the man had originally planned to testify
but the uproar over the shooting outside sparks resturant
and the article called gotti the new boss of the gambino family made him think twice about but whethe to do so .
and sudden loss of the brakes on his truck as well as the tough guys following him all the time finally changed the mood of the guy ended up in court not recognizing gotti as his assilant.
which got john acquitted of all charges and the next day’s newspapaer.with sarvastic headline i forgotten again made a fuss about the gambin ofamily .
the second charge wchich was more serious than the beaten could have cost john almost the rest of his life in prison.
proscutor named diana ficoloni built the RICO case against gotti and a few other guys RICO in case anyone doesn’t know is a type of prosecution where a person is judged not so much for a specific crime but for their involvement with a acriminal group.
it is possible to convict a defendant under RICO if one can prove the violation of two or more federal laws that were committed for the benefit of a criminal organization.
whether that person was the boss who gave the order or theexecutor who carried it out was not so important and the penalties under RICO were much harsher than the sentencing of an individual for each particular crime
and the most serious thing.which gotti feared.was that the prosecutor could make up a case out of a person’s pre-existing convictions that were treated as individuals crimes. in that case the prosecutor had only prove that the defendant had not committed them privately but as a result of a criminal organization.
that is exactly what diane gicoloni plannedto do .she already had charges against gotti for the items from the airport as well as for the manslaughter of mcbratney both of which were federal crimes.
and all she had to do to prove that they had commiited for the benefit of an organization called the gambino family organization family.
to make matters worse one of the accused Neil delacroce ‘son .Armand. had pleaded guilty and confirmed in that plea the exsistence of both Gambino family and the Bergen Crew of which Gotti had previously been a member.
It was after this incident when john would make it a rule in the family not to confirm the existence of the family under any circumstances in his confession as this could hit the boss at any time.
This begins the case.It was clear that it was almost impossible to win the trial by legal means and gotti decided to choose a tactic he had been familiar with since the beating case.
he ordered his men to start intimidating a witness who was supposed to testify on one of the charges. but john’s boys clearly overdid it. and instead of solving the problem.they only got an aggravation .
this man reported to the police about the peresecution which coupled with the case when in the past suddenly forgot what he’s abuser looked like allowed gicaloni to demand the cancellation of this very bale hearing in view of the high probability of continuned intimidation of witnesses and the judge found her demands reasonable and sent john to jail.
pending the outcome of a trial that could potentially end in a 40- year prison sentence for him. once behind bars
gotti appointed joe armani to the position of underboss who replaced the recently murdered frankie DeCicco he ws tobe assisted by consiglieri joe Gallo as well as two captains sammy gravano and angelo ruggiro.however all of them except gravano were soon in serious trouble with the law. and sammy was
sammy was in charge of the family during john’imprisonment .gravano received instructions from gotti through his brother Gene who saw him in prison and then conveyed to them the people on the streets
specifically sammy and another man named Frank LoCascio who would later also hold a high position in Gotti’s administration toward all the Gambino family teams and made it clear how the organization would now be run and how john was going to beat the charges.
though perhaps the phrase going to get rid of is not so appropriate in this case fo his contribution to the planning of what would eventually enable Gotti to escape punishment was about the same as the flapping of a butterfly’s wings that causes a tornado.
on the other side of the globe , you could tell that freedom had come to him by itself.and the name of the man who allowed john to escape punishment was George Pape.George had been selected as one of the jurors in gotti’s case but he had no intention of working for jucstice from the beginning when he was approved,but only wanted to line his own pockets.
pape was acquainted with the leader of the irish westies gang who in turn had common business with gambino family. george contacted his acquaintances and asked if the mafiosi wanted to decide the outcome of the trial in advance , naturally when this information reach gotti, he immediately gave the go-ahead and sixty thousand dollars fell into the disreputatble juror’s pocket which he worked off in full .
in march 1987.john gotti was acquitted by a jury on both counts and those six months of trial were nothing but a farce only to deceive the public.
eachtime he walked into the courtroom with his head held high showing that he did not doubt his innocence for a second or as it will becom clear after a while he does not doubt for a second the final result of the porcess.
Gotti’s behavior and the way the trial was held,during which the defense no longer denied john’s guilt but tried to discredit prosecutor diana giacoloni.in various vays .drew dozens of journalists to the courtroom, who then turned the court battles into global events with their articles.
and Gotti who spoke to his press through his lawyer bruce cutler only added fuel to the fire each time portraying himself as a martyr who has fallen under the system while trying in every way to make his name associated not with a thug but with a image of a man who had once been wronged and who is now very different.
this whole media circus went so far during the time the the discussion of gotti’s trial was comparable to the way the events of world war II were discussed nearly every newspaper and television channel in U.S as well as dozen of newspapers and channels from abroad and correspondence assigned to attend every session .
Time magazine even commission mentioned a portrait of Gotti from the famous artist andy warhol and placed it on thecover of of its issues .Gotti was a real star.like some famous actor politician or sportsman
and when he walked out of the court room in march 1987 to a standing ovation,it was like honoring a boxer who had just won the world title but he did not yet no, that the next title challenger would be much stronger than the previous oneafter hours of training would knock him out.
when gotti left the courtroom in 1987, he had everything he could ever dream of .he was the boss of the most powerful mafia familis in the country and he no longer even thought about poverty,the money he received from his subordinates was enough for everything.
to provide for his family, to bet endlessly and to live the luxurious life of the most popular gangster of his generation.
his typcial day was a hedonist’s paradise.john would get up in the afternoon, drive to the social club . talk with his subordinates there .
and at the evening he would go to a nice resturant for dinner.after that he would take his mistress with him and go to one of the nightclubs in New York where he spent the night in such places gotti was a real star .
and famous actors , singers and athletes where happy to meet him.his friendship was such popular personalities as mickey rourke, anthony Quinn and John Voight is widely known. and ordinary people approached his table just to shake his hand and tell him they were very happy to meet him.
all this indicated that the manipulation of puiblic opinion that had taken place during the first RICO case had gone not just as gotti he had intended. but even beyond his expections ,the media portrayed him as robin hood as a man of the people who could defeat the hated system and gotti loved this attention to his person,loved being in the spotlight
as his deputy sammy gravano later recalled , john once told them in a resturant that the people at the next table watching them all night were his audience, every appearance on the screen or in the pages of the newspapers brought gotti into rapture. he even hung a magazin cover with his image on it in te social club.
however this behavior of the boss caused some missunderstanding among his subordinates most ofwhom thought that costra Nostra should be in the shadow.
john on the other hand answered that the publicity in his opinion is the key to winning more easily in courts because a positive public opinion can have a beneficial effect on jury’s decision
and then he decided to maintain his image by staging mass festivities with fireworks in his neighborhood to celebrate independence day.
and it must be said that gotti really succeeded in blowing dust in most people’s eyes. to make an image for the public that was diametrically opposed to reality. in newspapers john was a drug fighting educated and intelligent citizen even though he was involved in some illegal activity covered his fruits with other mythical acts in reality gotti was a drug dealer and violent thug who had the blood of more than one person on his hands.
and this true identity of john which most people overlooked was seen by a small minority of people.some of whom wanted to put him away and especially arden advocates of universal justice wanted to kill him.
john was undoubtedly popular and like a star he attracted strangers to him, some of them came up to him and shook his hand and some of them were sick psyckos who wanted to kill him. just as famous singers who have crazy groupies hwo follow them on their heels. Gotti had his lunatics who became obsessed with him.
the first such fanatic was a man named Jeffrey William Ciccone a month and a half after john won his court case ,Ciccone amubushed gotti outside a social club in bergen and tried to shoot him.john however managed to escape the bullets by running inside the building and the shooter was caught by other mobsters.
when the gangsters began torturing him to find out the name of the customer the Ciccone began toc claim that he had been sent to this earth by god. that he had spoken to jesus who had told him to kill john gotti who was the devil incarnate in human form.
The second lunatic who took on the role of never found again Ciccone, was michal mcrae he did not try to shoot gooti instead of that, he planted a bomb near the entrance to the social club unfortunately for the fanatic. the device never went off so he decided in his sick brain that the stakes needed to be raised.mcRae wrote a letter to catholic archbishop of new york in which he claimed responsibility for the assassination attempt and demanded a meeting with gotti.
the archbishop of course sent this letter to the police.who found mcRea at the scene of potential meeting in the Tennessee woods where he was sitting in a car reading a bible surrounded by an arsenal of weapons , under questioning he claimed just like Ciccone,that gotti was evil and ridding the world of him was mcrae’s supreme goal.
less fanatic but no less determined to rid society of john gotti where the law enforcement agencies themselves.the popularity of the Gambino family boss gained by winning the last trial was a resounding slap in the face to the state ,plus john’s celebrity status virtually guaranteed a successful career for however could put him away.
therefore the continued prosecution of gotti was no longer just another gangster’s case but a personal vendetta by the authorities against a gangster who had decided to put himself above the state.
the law enforcement agencies like runners competed to see who would be the first to cross the finish line,putting the mob boss away . the FBI, the police, a united states organized crime strike force and two new york district attorneys,
all wanted to put gotti behind bars.
the only thing they didn’t agree on was the format of their race,some saw the investigation as a sprint where they wanted john back in the dock as soon as possible, others was going to to run a marathon, so that by the race there would be so much evidence that there would be no way gotti could get away with it.
it was somewhat reminiscent of the competition between the hare and the tortoiseand as in the parable in life
the hare will be punished for his self-confidence and the tortoise will reach the finish line first.
the hare in our case is the head of a special organized crime unite named ronald Goldstock , his group recorded gotti’s conversations at his social club in bergen in 1985 and 1986 and in this recordings john babbled about his involvement in the assassination attempt on a union leader named O’ connor.
when Goldstock brought these tapes to the eastern district attorney named andrew maloney asking him to prosecute he was denied due to insufficient evidence.
but Goldstock didn’t think so and renewed his efforts to obtain a trial in 1988. when the same information was confirmed by an Irish gangster named james mcelroy who was a member of the gang to directly carrying out the assassination attempt on o’ connor.
this time he went not to maloney but to manhattan district attorney robert morgenthau who’ was more optimistic and filed the criminal complaint
and in january 1989, john gotti was taken into custody for the third time in four years. this time he was allowed out on one hundred thousand dollars bail. so he remained free for the following year while the pre- trial proceedings were in progress.
the trial itself took place from january to february 1990. and resulted in an acquittal maloney was right ,the tapes that had been recorded at bergen and the testimony of mcelroy who had not participated in the atempt but it only heard that his gang had done so at gotti’s request were insufficient .
the defense attorneys were able to discredit both , finally winning over the prosecutors by subpoena O ‘ connor himself who survived the assassination attempt and testified in court that he did not know who wanted to kill him and doubted it could have been gotti.
the sprint tactics of the day had been crushingly defeated
but the marathoners, meaning the FBI agents who had been monitoring and bugging jonh’s social club called ravenite for months were already close to presenting prosecutors with evidence that would be almost impossible to deny.
this problem however was still hidden from gotti.but the conflict with vincent giaganti which had already claimed the life ofFrank DeCicco was on the contrary becoming clear to gotti.
after that explosion he still couldn’t figure out who was behind it. it not until FBI agents came to his house in 1987 . warning him that an attempt on his life was being prepared.
the bureau at the time wiretapped genovese´s family gatherings and on one of those tapes. mobsters led by their consiglieri were discussing a plan to eliminate Gene and john gotti.
the rules required the agents to alert the gambino family boss which which they did.
after this , gotti in consultation with gravano arranged a meeting with gigante where the latter promised to take care of it and guarantee that there would be no assassination attempt .
john on the other hand who could not unleash a war where the occasion was the words of FBI agents was forced to settle for mere promises which gigante had no intention of keeping.
the Genovese family boss took no action for several years and then killed two guys close to gotti named Eddie lino and bobby boriello.Gigante who had faild to take out john directly now wanted to weaken gotti by killing people close to him. and then hit the gambino family boss himself.
both assassination attempts were carried out in such a way that nothing led to gigante and had he continued his tactics further it is likely that john might have lost this war. but gigante was overtaken and it was not for him to defeat gotti but for the authorities who were very well prepared for the fight this time.
john , soon after coming boss moved his headquarters from the bergen social club to the same place called Ravenite where the late neil delacroce used be based ,gotti showed up their almost every day and demanded the same regularity from all of his captains
which was like a christmas present for the FBI agents conducting surveillance.
john’s whim made everything much easier fot the bureau which could concentrate all itd forces on ravenite.where there was a maximum concentration of both gambino family members and the discussion of their illegal affairs .
the agents only needed to drop a wire in right places and then be patient and listen. initially when the FBI first began their surveillance they set up an outdoor survellance on gotti which consisted of five cars.
if john was going somewhere the car following him was constantly changing.if the agents had to follow him when he stopped they used tricks such a permanent disguise or a special device that could imitate a broken headlight so gotti would notice the surveillance.
the bureau followed john for about a month and during that time they understood that it was literally possible to compare watches with gotti , he was so committed to his habits to be in the same places at the same time and therefore there was no particular reason to continue to follow him everywhere, instead they decided to concentrate all their forces near the Revinate.
since at the same time one of the informents told them about the orde because of which the captauns had to come to the social club almost every day.
Ravenite was located in a busy neighborhood called little italy whos residents since the days of delacroce hadn’t been too fond of the authorities and report local mobsters.if they spotted anyone suspicious this was a problem for the FBI.since outside surveillance would have been immediately uncovered.
so they decided to conduct surveillance remotely with a high-powered video camera the agent rented an apartment two and a half blocks from the club in this way they were able to sufficiently diarance themseleves from gotti’s loyal locals. who could inform him of unusal photographers.
but at the same time, thanks to powerful optics see everyone who comes and goes. after installing video surveillance the bureau decided it would be a good idea to drop a wire as well well,initially a listening device was installed in ravenite itself and then when one of dozens of freshly recruited informants informed that john was having all the important converstions in the apartment above the club. the bug was installed there as well.
so gotti was surrounded from all sides and all the FBI had to do was to wait for him to say too much and they did not have to wait long .the first overheard conversations in the apartment
made it clear that john liked to talk not only to journalists and his big mouth, which made him robin hood in public.says a lot of wrong words in private, so nobody is going to remember the ovation at his ascent.
in the apartment above ravenite which john used for sensitive convesations lived the window of a former member of the Gambino family whenever gotti he needed to talk there she was simply sent out for a walk at other times, her presence there was a guarantee that no bugs could be planted , so john felt that ease in the apartment and without fear of anything he talked about anything.
meanwhile the FBI found a way to get inand wiretap the place .for the first time in long time the authorities were once step ahead of gotti and exploited his mistakes.
john with his inflated ego decided that a few court victories allowed him to consider himself invincible and begin openly rounding up the family on a regular basis .
agents immediately use video surveillance to identify most of ravenite’s visitors. saving themselves years of operational work. gotti thought that he outsmarted the bureau by having importan convesations in the apartment of an inconspicuous old lady. but the FBI managed to beat him here too.everything he said would be used against him.
gotti would never stop talking whenever he entered his secret hideout a typical example of john’s behavior in his conversation with the deputy frankie LoCascio who had seated joe armani not only it’s notable for reveailing gotti’s true identity but it also has several of john’s misfires.
one of which not so obvious at first glance and not helping the FBI in any way then will end up costing him his freedom.
as soon they entered the apartment and all the way out .gotti was practically the only one talking.john from the very first words ,provided the agents with facts,expanding the evidence against him, naming LoCascio ashis deputy, himself as boss and gravano ,the consiglieri in the convesation and after a few more minutes mentioning their common involvement in the cosa Nostra.
afterwards discussing how difficult it was for him to make difficult decisions in his family and that not everyone was really happy with the state of affairs . he almost confessed to killing castellano ,rhetorically asking who can challenge me? who will be able to shoot me, like i did the other guy? then he would suddenly go to the subject of never saying or doing anything behind people’s backs.
and then ,he would start discussing gravano.complaining that sammy made too much money comparing him to late castellano hwo had sold his family for a construction company
LoCascio on the other hand offered to bring gravano and discuss the matter with him personally to which gotti merely said he would do it another trime. and instead of talking to sammy he continued the same story but from a differen angle.
Now john began to say that any moment he could become a billionaire but unlike gravano he did not seek to make all the money in the world or become a construction magnate .
After finishing his tirade about greed ,gotti complain for another dozen minutes about hard it was on him now the whole world was turning on him and now the authorities who had then indicted him in the O’ connor case would stop at nothing to put him away . then his mood would change abruptly and he would sing his praises that he could beat off any attacks and would never end up in prison
the bureau agent had to listen to gotti’s diametrically opposed speeches about the fate of gotti for quite some time and only at the end he gave them more than enough information they needed. john let it slip about who brings him money and how much and also how he is trying yo avoid a lawsuit from the tax service.
This conversation alone was enough to bring a new case against gotti, but the FBI wanted maximum evidence so they kept listening and their decision turned out to be 100 % correct.
later , john would have several more convesation about his involvement in the Cosa Nostra would discuss taking new members into the family and most importantly for the authorities he would openly confess the three murders and his involvement in illegal hambling.
as the cherry on the cake. gottis recordings reveal his contacts with the police as well as his longtime lawyer’s involvement with the Gambino family.which would later lead to his removal from the case.
Now the FBI agents had enough evidence to go with to the prosecutor and ask him to make the case.
however ,it turned out to be a little more complicated than they thought ,the bureau brought the fruits of its labor to the eastern district attorney.
and at the same time the southern district attorney who is handling the murder of paul castellano had a high -ranking mobster named phil leonetti as a witness who could confirm that john told them about the planning of the assassination in a private convesation.
and since putting gotti in jail at the time was a huges boost to the reputation there was a real fight over the case.both sights argue that they should be the first to bring the case and no one wanted to see thatright .
the parties were so stubborn that a higher authority had to intervene . they decided to put forward a joint case under RICO law combining the evidence of boths sides.
(Photo by UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
and once the legal delays were eliminated. the FBI immediately received the go-ahead to arrest the Gambino family administration represented by gotti.gravano and lucasio. the agents decided to do it in ravernite when they all got together.
the only complication was that gravan odisappeared for a while briefly delaying the long-awaited apprehension ,the plan was for sammy to go on the run on gotti’s orders. but then planes changed. he returned to new york.
and on december 10, 1990.arrived at a meeting in ravenite where along with gotti and lucasio he was immediately detained by FBI agents they were charged and escorted to jail where the trio would remain until john’s fatal bail hearing.
on december 21,1990,in the courtroom tapes of gotti’s conversations in the apartment over ravenite will be heard where among other evidence ,his accusations against gravano in addtition to the complaints about greed that i described above.there were also accusations that sammy had literally forced gotti to give orders to eliminate people which was the first straw for gravano’ s further betrayal and his conversion to government witnesses
if you want to know more about what motivated sammy to switch to the other side of the barricades you should watch a video about him , which i also have here in short. gravano hearing the tapes, realized it could be used to pin the blame on him and gotti who in the minds of the masses was a kind of robin hood,could get away with making sammy look like a bloddy psychopath ungovernable and pin the murders on him .
this thought which had crept into garvano’s mind at the bale hearing had been germinating in his mind fo al ittle less than year and more fruit on ocber 24, 9191 by that day he had clearly decided that he was not going to do time because his boss had talked to much .
and he offered his services to FBI as a witness himself.
for gotti this meant that the only way to win the case was another manipulation of the public mind and this time the media circus was played out with a special scope where even the most insignificant benefactors immediately flew into the pages of the news papers
as always , there were speaches from people speaking on john’s behalf about the unfaimess of persecution and about the state’s obsession with john gotti , for no apparent reason and any good goddess deed was immediately reoprted to the press.
a dog was stolen from a terminally ill child , john found out about it and ordered a new one to be given to him .
the story is immediately in print a very valuable urn for religious services was stolen from a chuch.gotti’s people immediately found contacts on television and told that john has already told his boys to to do the search.
also celebrities he knew were invited to court sessions to support gotti, celebrities suporters included ,heavyweight boxer Ronalo snipes.
civil rights leader roy Innis
singer jay black.
actress john amos.
al lewis.
mickey rourke
and anthony Quinn
and around the court in addition to the dozens of journalists who came from every corner of the globe.
where hundreds of ordinary people who stood with placards, shouted words of support for john gotti.
there were negative rumors about the main witness gravano. the image of a gay drug addict with an uncontrollable craving for violence could stick to him as soon as sammy began to testify it became clear that gotti was no longer immune from prison.Gravano told of all john’s illegal activities, all the murders he had ordered. and how he had come to power by eliminating paul castellano .
this testimony as well as the records obtained from ravenite was enough to convince the jury of its verdict of guilty on all counts.
but even when it seemed that john had lost ,that he would never see fredom again having received the life sentence today , gotti still gave a performance that no one before or after him had ever repeated .
a crowd of about thousand people gathered outside the court for the final hearing.most of them were from the area where gotti did his business and came in rented busses.
as soon the word got out that john received the life sentence the crowd incited by a few people with loudspeakers began chanting free john gotti.
and after that started hitting police cars and what e eventually escalated into a clash with authorities.and a kind of local riot .
even when nothing could be fixed anymore ,gotti still continued to play to the public and this spntaneous riot was like the last flash of john gotti’s star.like a perfect reflection of his personality and his whole story which could actuall fit into one sentence.he was willing to destroy everything around him ,just to be in the spotlight
he went to prison in 1992 and was locked in solitary confinement,deprived much needed attention ,he was left only with visits from relatives and hundreds of letters that came to him from all over the world.from people who at one time were fascinated by him.
allthough john tried to keep himself in shape by doing physical execises and reading books
he still gradually began to fade in such conditions,
and in 1998, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. which made him unable to speak at the end of his life . this is symbolic because it was the love of talking that first raised him to the tip and thendropped him from there.
john gotti died ina prison hopsital in june 2002.
this was the story of john gotti , a story that is the clrearest example of what happens when a thug suddenly decides to shine under the spotlight.