John Gotti
Early Life:
- John Gotti was born in the South Bronx on October 27th, 1940.
- Fifth of thirteen children (one of the five brothers who went on to become “Made Men” of the Gambino Crime Family).
- Family grew up in poverty. Father was a heavy gambler and John came to resent his father for this and not being able to provide for their family.
- In school, John had a history of truancy and bullying. He later dropped out of high school at the age of 16.
- John met his future wife, Victoria DiGiorgio, at the age of 18 (1958), had his first child, a daughter named Angel , at the age of 21 (1961), and married at age 22 (March 6, 1962).
- They went on to have four more children, another daughter and three sons.
- John attempted to find legitimate work, but could not stay crime free. He was jailed twice by 1966.
Criminal Life:
- Gotti got himself involved with street gangs associated with the mafia at the age of 12.
- In his early teens, Gotti began running errands for the capo of the Anastasia Crime Family (Which later became the Gambino Crime Family after the murder of mob boss Albert Anastasia.
- For the early years of his life, Gotti carried out the hijackings of trucks out of Idlewild Airport (later renamed JFK International) with two accomplices; one being his brother.
- Gotti was identified as one of the hijackers and was arrested. Gotti plead guilty to the crime and spent less than three years in prison.
- Gotti was paroled in 1972 and returned to his old crew.
- In 1973, Gotti was assigned to a hit squad to take revenge on the man who kidnapped and murdered the boss' nephew. Gotti was identified by an eyewitness and was arrested for the murder. He was able to strike a plea bargain with the help of his attorney and only received a four-year sentence for his part in the hit.
- Gotti was released in 1977, returned to the Family and was promoted to Capo.
- Patrick Marsico
Main Events:
- After being released from prison, Gotti found that the family was under new leadership by Paul Castellano.
- On March 18th, 1980, Gotti's youngest son, 12 year orld Frank, was run over and killed by a neighbor on a minibike, John Favara. Franks death was ruled an accident, but that didn't stop the Gotti's from taking revenge. The Gotti's were on vacation in Florida at the time of Favara's disappearance, but it is presumed that Gotti had ordered the hit.
- Eventually Gotti became upset with Paul Castellano's leadership of the family and considered him to be too greedy (taking a majority of the cuts on the airport truck hijackings). Paul also forbade Gotti from expanding into the drug trade, which made him even more upset.
- That didn't stop Gotti from moving into the drug trade to make himself and his men a little extra cash.
- Gotti began his plan to overthrow Castellano by conspiring with several disgruntled Capo's and also gained the support of several important figures in the other major families, as that is the 'protocol' in American Mafia.
- Castellano decided to hold a meeting to determine new leadership of the family with one of his most trusted men as the underboss, and Thomas Gambino as the sole acting boss, while also making plans to break up Gotti and his men.
- The evening of the meeting, when all the key players arrived, they were ambushed and shot dead by assassins uder Gotti's command. Gotti sat in his car and watched from across the street.
- Several days later, Gotti and two others were named to temporarily run the family pending the election of a new boss. He was formally announced as the new head of the Gambino family on January 15, 1986.
Conviction, Incarceration, and Death:
- In 1990, one of Gotti's most trusted men turned states against him and formally agreed to testify in 1991.
- On the stand, he confirmed Gotti's place at the head of the family and described in great detail the conspiracy to assassinate Castellano.
- On April 2, 1992, Gotti was found guilty of all charges and was sentenced to 'Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole' and a $250,000 fine.
- Gotti was incarcerated at the US Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois and spent a majority of his sentence in solitary confinement, only being allowed out of his cell for one hour a day.
- In 1998, Gotti was diagnosed with throat cancer and was sent to the US Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, for surgery.
- The tumor was removed, but the cancer returned two years later. Gotti spent the rest of his life in Springfield.
- Gotti finally died on June 10, 2002, at the age of 61.
- Patrick Marsico
