John Gotti ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambino boss Paul Castellano in December 1985 and took over the family shortly thereafter, becoming boss of what was described as America's most powerful crime syndicate.
56 Facts About John Gotti
2.
John Gotti quickly became one of the crime family's biggest earners and a protege of Aniello Dellacroce, the Gambino family underboss, operating out of the neighborhood of Ozone Park in Queens.
3.
At his peak, John Gotti was one of the most powerful and dangerous crime bosses in the United States.
4.
John Gotti was later given the nickname "The Teflon Don" after three high-profile trials in the 1980s resulted in his acquittal, though it was later revealed that the trials had been tainted by jury tampering, juror misconduct and witness intimidation.
5.
In 1992, John Gotti was convicted of five murders, conspiracy to commit murder, racketeering, obstruction of justice, tax evasion, illegal gambling, extortion, and loansharking.
6.
John Gotti received life in prison without parole and was transferred to United States Penitentiary, Marion.
7.
John Gotti died of throat cancer on June 10,2002, at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri.
8.
John Gotti was born in the Bronx borough of New York City, on October 27,1940.
9.
John Gotti was the fifth of the 13 children of John Joseph Gotti Sr.
10.
John Gotti's parents were born in New York City, but it is presumed that his grandparents were from San Giuseppe Vesuviano, in the province of Naples, Italy, because his parents were married and lived there for some time.
11.
John Gotti was involved in street gangs associated with New York City mafiosi from the age of 12.
12.
John Gotti met his future wife, Victoria DiGiorgio, who was of half-Italian and half-Russian descent, at a bar in 1958.
13.
John Gotti attempted to work legitimately in 1962 as a presser in a coat factory and as an assistant truck driver.
14.
John Gotti was arrested a third time for hijacking while out on bail two months later, this time for stealing a load of cigarettes worth $50,000 on the New Jersey Turnpike.
15.
Later that year, John Gotti pleaded guilty to the Northwest Airlines hijacking and was sentenced to three years at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary.
16.
John Gotti was transferred to management of the Bergin crew's illegal gambling, where he proved himself to be an effective enforcer.
17.
John Gotti was not yet a made man in the Mafia due to the membership books' having been closed since 1957 due to the Apalachin meeting, but Fatico named him acting capo of the Bergin crew soon after he was paroled.
18.
John Gotti was identified by eyewitnesses and by a police insider, and was arrested for the killing in June 1974.
19.
John Gotti was able to strike a plea bargain with the help of attorney Roy Cohn, and was sentenced to four years in prison for attempted manslaughter for his part in the hit.
20.
John Gotti was released in July 1977, after two years' imprisonment; he was initiated as a made man into the Gambino family, now under the command of Castellano, and immediately promoted to replace Fatico as capo of the Bergin crew.
21.
Besides his cut of his subordinates' earnings, John Gotti ran his own loansharking operation and held a no-show job as a plumbing supply salesman.
22.
Unconfirmed allegations by FBI informants in the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club claimed that John Gotti financed drug deals.
23.
Gotti tried to keep most of his personal family uninvolved with his life of crime, with the exception of his son John Angelo Gotti, who was a mob associate by 1982.
24.
In December 1978, John Gotti assisted in the largest unrecovered cash robbery in history, the infamous Lufthansa Heist at Kennedy Airport.
25.
John Gotti had made arrangements for the getaway van to be crushed and baled at a scrapyard in Brooklyn.
26.
John Gotti is widely assumed to have ordered the murder despite him and his family leaving on vacation for Florida three days before the murder.
27.
John Gotti was indicted on two occasions in his last two years as the Bergin capo, with both cases coming to trial after his ascension to boss of the Gambinos.
28.
In September 1984, John Gotti had an altercation with refrigerator mechanic Romual Piecyk, and was charged with assault and robbery.
29.
John Gotti rapidly became dissatisfied with Castellano's leadership, regarding the new boss as being too isolated and greedy.
30.
John Gotti had an economic interest: he had a running dispute with Castellano on the split John Gotti took from hijackings at Kennedy Airport.
31.
John Gotti was rumored to be expanding into drug dealing, a lucrative trade Castellano had banned.
32.
John Gotti, meanwhile, began conspiring with fellow disgruntled capos Frank DeCicco and Joseph "Joe Piney" Armone and soldiers Sammy Gravano and Robert "DiB" DiBernardo to overthrow Castellano, insisting, despite the boss' inaction, that Castellano would eventually try to kill him.
33.
Indeed, John Gotti's planned hit would have been the first unsanctioned hit on a boss since Frank Costello was nearly killed in 1957.
34.
John Gotti knew that it would be too risky to solicit support from the other four bosses, since they had longstanding ties to Castellano.
35.
John Gotti did not consider approaching the Genovese family; Castellano's ties with Genovese boss Vincent "Chin" Gigante were so close that any overture to a Genovese soldier would have been a tipoff.
36.
However, Gotti could count on the complicity of Gambino consigliere Joseph N Gallo.
37.
Several days after the murder, John Gotti was named to a three-man committee to temporarily run the family pending the election of a new boss, along with Gallo and DeCicco.
38.
However, it was an open secret that John Gotti was acting boss in all but name, and nearly all of the family's capos knew he had been the one behind the hit.
39.
John Gotti was formally acclaimed as the new boss of the Gambino family at a meeting of 20 capos held on January 15,1986.
40.
John Gotti appointed DeCicco as the new underboss while retaining Gallo as consigliere.
41.
John Gotti often smiled and waved at television cameras at his trials, which gained him favor with some of the general public.
42.
From jail, John Gotti ordered the murder of Robert DiBernardo by Gravano; both DiBernardo and Ruggiero had been vying to succeed DeCicco until Ruggiero accused DiBernardo of challenging John Gotti's leadership.
43.
When Ruggiero, under indictment, had his bail revoked for his abrasive behavior in preliminary hearings, a frustrated John Gotti instead promoted Armone to underboss.
44.
However, due to Pape's misconduct, John Gotti knew from the beginning of the trial that he could do no worse than a hung jury.
45.
John Gotti was able to influence the New Jersey-based DeCavalcante crime family in 1988.
46.
John Gotti had his occupation listed as a salesman for a plumbing contracting company.
47.
John Gotti announced his intention to kill soldier Louis DiBono, who had ignored a summons to meet with Gotti to discuss his mismanagement of a drywall business he held with Gotti and Gravano.
48.
John Gotti subsequently hired Albert Krieger, a Miami attorney who had worked with Joseph Bonanno, to replace Cutler.
49.
John Gotti was the highest-ranking member of a New York crime family to turn informer, until Joseph Massino in 2003.
50.
John Gotti himself became increasingly hostile during the trial, and at one point, Glasser threatened to remove him from the courtroom.
51.
John Gotti was incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois.
52.
John Gotti spent the majority of his sentence in effective solitary confinement, allowed out of his cell for only one hour a day.
53.
John Gotti maintains he has since left the Gambino family.
54.
Peter John Gotti subsequently became acting boss and is believed to have formally succeeded his brother shortly before John Gotti's death.
55.
In 1998, John Gotti was diagnosed with throat cancer and sent to the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, for surgery.
56.
John Gotti's body was interred in a crypt next to his son, Frank.