The man they called
the Dapper Don and later the Teflon Don died 61 and in a Missouri jail,
where he spent most of the last decade. To some he was the kid from Queens
who made it all the way to the top of the Gambino family and in some ways
was seen as the modern day Robinhood. He was what he was as he put and
everybody knew him but nobody would cross him. This was a guy who started
as a hijacker in the Kennedy Airport area of Queens until he was associated
with the Gambino family. The Gambino family was considered the number one
of the five New York Cosa Nostra families. With New York and its metropolis
been the centre of mob activities, the boss of the Gambino was effectively
boss of bosses.
In life the flashy
Gotti was everything that his predecessors were not and by all accounts
was more of a modern day Al Capone but with more of the excesses. For him
image and been seen on the cover of the Time magazine and the glitzy nightclubs
of New York was everything. With thousand dollar suits and big diamond
stone rings he knew what it took to have the celebrity status, enjoyed,
reveled and cultivated the myth.
But Gotti could not
have been further from it when he started. He was one of thirteen kids
born to a humble Italian family in the Bronx who then moved to Queens along
with many first and second generation Italians. It was here that he started
to idolise gangsters and along with life time friends, Angelo Ruggiero
and Wilfred 'Willie Boy' Johnson, would form the Fulton-Rockaway boys.
These early street gang days would be followed by hijacking trucks to and
from Kennedy Airport until he was introduced to the underboss of the Gambino
family.
Gotti had a reputation
as a ruthless gangster and loan shark and it was not long before the Gambino
family gave him the assignment that would be pivotal in his life. In this
he would undertake the public assassination of James McBratney to avenge
for the kidnapping of the nephew of Carlo Gambino, the then boss of the
family and also the family's namesake. He served time but got the respect
of the family members and also got to be a made member. It is not clear
as to whether or not McBratney was directly involved in this particular
incident but nevertheless it did not harm Gotti's image. It also sent the
message to the gangs involved and in particular the Italian gangster who
originally conceived the idea.
Having served a year
and half for manslaughter, which is less than the time he served for hijacking,
Gotti would come back to Paul Castellona's reign as the boss of the family.
It was no secret that he and some members felt it should have been Neil
Dellacroce's turn. Big Paul, as they called him, was more into white collar
business and as such many of the associates and captains did not see him
as a street guy. Indeed he made his money through poultry and other businesses
and not as a street gangster.
In due course of the
uneasy situation within the Gambino family Gotti's crew would be taped
by the FBI talking openly about dealing in drugs and also implicating the
boss, Big Paul. Gotti would be left with the hardest of the decisions.
He would either have to obey Paul's orders on deal and die or be loyal
to his crew including his lifetime friend and brother who were at the centre
of it all. It was not easier and all that was possible was to delay the
tapes from getting to Paul as he was concerned with the RICO case the FBI
was building against him. The situation created two divisions within the
Gambino family but this was held in balance until Neil Dellacroce died.
Young Gotti,
an underling and Angelo Ruggiero
The death of his mentor
meant that Gotti had no longer the protection and felt that Paul may have
him killed.
Therefore
he organised the prominent family captains in what would later be known
as the Fist of Five and assassinate Big Paul in a December 1985 night in
downtown Manhattan. Public assassination of bosses of American mafia families
is very rare as this was exactly the reason Lucky Luciano organised the
five families and set up the commission which would be required to sanction
any such actions. Up to that point many knew him as the captain of the
Gambino family who openly defied the government by throwing the free 4th
of July street parties in his neighbourhood in Queens.
After the assassination
he was made the boss of the Gambino family and gave the FBI a dimension
they have never seen in previous heads of mafia families. He was articulate,
knew how to use the media to his advantage, witty and always seen to be
generous and giving to people in his neighbourhood. Yet Gotti was not just
that as charges brought by New York district attorneys and the FBI never
stuck. Including the famous incident when he assaulted a truck driver who
after knowing it was John Gotti in court and the intimidations to the build-up
of the court case would retract his testimony. New York papers run the
'I forgotti' headline. There was also the disappearance of his neigbour
who accidentally run over his son, Frank Gotti. The government also brought
a case against Gotti on the orders to have John O'Connor, a vice president
of the carpenter's union, killed. There was also the Giacalone indictment
which uncovered Willie Boy Johnson as the informer. Again Willie Boy would
refuse to testify against his life time friend in return for Gotti pledging
to give him a pass.
1
of 2 Forward11