John Gotti and Jessica Hahn?
AGC Queen
More than a decade after supermarket tabloids linked her and John Gotti
romantically, Jessica Hahn is still just a little concerned that the
Godfather's widow, Victoria, may be out to get her.
"When the papers said we were sleeping together, which was untrue, she
threatened to put me in cement shoes and throw me in the Hudson," Hahn tells
The News.
Although Hahn, the former Long Island church secretary whose revelations of
televangelist Jim Bakker's mega-sinning helped topple his empire, isn't looking
over her shoulder all the time, she says she hopes Gotti had "20,000 affairs
since then and I'm off his wife's mind — or that he told someone to protect
me, to look out for the little girl."
"Ten years or so have passed, and I guess it sounds kind of funny, but it was
freaky then because I didn't even know this woman."
Hahn says she met Gotti a number of times at block parties and other social
affairs "when we were famous and everyone was taking our pictures," but insists
she never even talked to him for more than "three or four minutes at a time."
"He seemed like a gentle, decent man," said Hahn, who posed for Playboy several
times and does cameo TV roles now and then. "It's a shame. If he wasn't a
killer, he'd have been a decent person."
P.S.: Hahn isn't the only one who felt for the don.
Robert Iler, who plays mob heir Anthony Jr. on "The Sopranos," tells us: "No
matter how many people John Gotti killed, I can't help feeling bad for someone
who dies in pain of cancer in prison."
Still, the 17-year-old actor, who pleaded guilty in May to mugging two teens
last summer, adds: "I bet there are quite a few of his victims' families who
are rejoicing at his death right now."
* * *
CHURCH GIVES BLESSING TO SACRED TOMB SITE
NY POST/By AL GUART
-------------------------------------
Brooklyn Bishop Thomas Daily will allow the Dapper Don to be entombed in the
storied Queens cemetery that turned away the Gambino boss he whacked and
replaced, The Post has learned. Brooklyn Diocese officials argued bitterly
behind closed doors yesterday over Gotti's final request that he be laid to
rest next to his late son, Frank, in a crypt at St. John's Cemetery in Middle
Village, sources said.
One exasperated monsignor, who opposed the request, finally conceded, noting a
number of pedophile priests were interred there.
"I can't believe he approved it," a source close to the talks said. "How can
they let the killer in when his victim was turned down?"
In December 1985, Gotti led a Gambino crew that fatally gunned down boss Paul
"Big Paul" Castellano in front of Sparks Steak House in Midtown. Gotti was
convicted of Castellano's murder in 1992.
In 1985, John Cardinal O'Connor turned down Castellano's family when they asked
for a public Catholic funeral Mass and a Catholic grave site.
O'Connor claimed Castellano's "notoriety" as a mob boss might cause some to
believe the church supported organized crime.
Because of his murder, Castellano did not have a chance to confess his sins and
do penance, church sources said.
Castellano, 70, was buried instead at the Protestant Moravian Cemetery in West
Brighton, Staten Island. A Catholic priest presided at the grave side.
O'Connor also allowed Castellano's family to conduct a funeral Mass at a
Catholic church without the slain mobster's body present.
Due to his long illness, Gotti may have confessed and received last rites,
making him eligible for burial at a Catholic cemetery, sources said.
A spokesman for the Brooklyn Diocese said no final decision had been made.
"We're discussing it in terms of what might be permissible or what might be
best for all concerned," said Father Steven Aguggia.
Part of the debate centers on whether allowing Gotti, the killer, and not
Castellano, the victim, into St. John's might cause a public furor, church
sources said.
The decision rests in Bishop Daily's hands - and such refusals are rare,
sources said.
* * *
GUNS ARE DRAWN OVER GOTTI BODY
NY POST/By MURRAY WEISS
-------------------------
Federal prison guards drew their guns on John Gotti's son at a Missouri funeral
home last night in a furious argument about when the Dapper Don will head to
his final resting place in New York, family sources told The Post. Peter Gotti
and Lewis Kasman - a family friend known as John Gotti's "adopted son" - went
to the Springfield, Mo., funeral home where the cancer-stricken mob boss' body
was being prepared.
The pair asked that the feds release the body to them so Gotti could be flown
home, the sources said.
No, said federal Bureau of Prisons officials - the body needed to be embalmed.
"Do what you have to do. I just want to take him," said Peter Gotti.
After the embalming was completed, officials insisted that they had to dress
Gotti's body.
"I want my dad," an exasperated Peter Gotti replied. "You don't have to prep
him. We have a funeral home in New York. They'll dress him."
When Gotti and Kasman pressed the issue, family sources said, an officer said:
"He's still in federal custody."
Then, at gunpoint, correction officers ordered Gotti and Kasman - who were
unarmed - to leave the funeral home, the sources said.
Bureau of Prisons officials could not be reached last night.
Gotti's family has hired a lawyer, and doesn't expect the body to be released
until late today, at the earliest.
Gotti's body was autopsied yesterday over his family's objections - and last
night's incident further angered his heartbroken relatives.
Shortly after Gotti was pronounced dead Monday, his body was sent under heavy
guard to St. John's Regional Health Center morgue in downtown Springfield, Mo.,
for the autopsy.
Such autopsies are not uncommon, a Bureau of Prisons spokesman said. The
autopsy results were not disclosed.
Afterward, the body was taken under armed guard to the one-story brick funeral
home.
Meanwhile, Gotti's son, John A. "Junior" Gotti, who's serving a five-year
sentence for racketeering, has requested he be let out of prison for the
funeral. He could come to New York under armed guard or with a weekend pass for
a private moment with his dad's body.
Gotti, 61, died after a nearly four-year battle with head and neck cancer.
Additional reporting by Jeane MacIntosh in Springfield, Mo., and Al Guart and
Kati Cornell Smith in New York
* * *
GODFATHER WAS MADE FOR TV
NY POST/By ADAM BUCKMAN
------------------------------------
Actors have played John Gotti in five movies, but it was the real-life don who
came across like a character out of a gangster picture. "John Gotti represents
the fourth and final chapter of the ‘Godfather' movies," says veteran TV
executive Henry Schleiff, now chairman of Court TV. "He was our first
television godfather."
Indeed, TV cameras loved the Dapper Don.
"He was a moth to a flame," says John Miller, co-anchor of ABC's "20/20" who
covered the many Gotti trials as a reporter for WNBC/Channel 4.
"Gotti resembled in real life the gangsters that we have been trained to expect
from the movies," Miller says. "He was a burly guy with perfectly coiffed hair,
wearing $2,000 pinstripe suits, silk handkerchiefs, hand-painted ties and
immaculately polished shoes.
"He had a bright smile and a twinkle in his eye with a touch of malice that
made him more telegenic than probably any gangster in modern times."
With a style that seemed more Hollywood than Howard Beach, it was inevitable
that Gotti's story would be told in movies - first in 1994 in "Getting Gotti,"
a movie made for CBS starring Anthony Denison as Gotti; and then "Gotti," made
for HBO in 1996 and starring Armand Assante in the title role. (In addition,
Gotti was a supporting character in three other mob movies.)
But even more than the movies, it was the dozens of documentaries on the mob
that were shown on TV throughout the 1990s that made John Gotti a TV staple for
nearly a decade.
That was particularly true of cable channels such as A&E, which not only
produced editions of "Biography" on both Gotti and "Sammy Bull" Gravano, but
also presented what seemed like dozens of different shows on mob history.
Whether or not they dealt directly with the story of John Gotti, nearly all of
them incorporated footage of Gotti.
In the last few years, interest in John Gotti had begun to fade.
But now that he's gone, his legend will inevitably grow. And that means a new
spate of movies and TV shows cannot be far behind.
* * *
WIDOW'S ART-IFACT
NY POST/By MURRAY WEISS
-------------------------------------
John Gotti's widow wants to auction off a portrait she painted of her "Johnny"
and donate the proceeds to one of her favorite charities.
Victoria Gotti, an accomplished acrylic and oil painter, has a one-of-a-kind
personal portrait of her husband: his dashing, salt-and-pepper hair and good
looks profiled against the city's skyline.
Mrs. Gotti, who was secluded with her family yesterday, painted the youthful
image of her husband several years ago. Just days before Gotti died from
cancer, Mrs. Gotti told The Post she was willing to part with the painting,
with the cash going to a charity tied to cancer treatment or research.
Mrs. Gotti recently said she was painfully aware how people would try to
prosper from her husband's legacy. She was resigned to the fact that scores of
people would come forward claiming to have special relations with her husband -
and she decided to make her own modest contribution in his memory.
"If people think the painting has value, then I would be happy to part with it
to help a charity," she said, underplaying the obvious uniqueness of her work.
Since Gotti's death, collectors and fans with Gotti memorabilia have flooded
eBay, the Internet auction site, with nearly 100 items. They range from
T-shirts "that were never worn," to mug shots or photos purported to be
autographed by the Dapper Don himself, to copies of magazine and newspapers
featuring glaring headlines about his infamous life.
The prices range from a couple of dollars for the newspapers to $76 for a "John
Gotti Mafia Warhol Time Magazine 1986," to a $41 "Free John Gotti" T-shirt.
But by far, his wife's painting would top any list of valuable Gotti
memorabilia - particularly since Mrs. Gotti has painted only one other portrait
of her Dapper Don, and that one hangs in the office of Sue Carswell, a family
friend.
"Mrs. Gotti gave the painting to me a couple of years ago," said Carswell, a
senior story editor at ABC's "Good Morning America" and former book editor for
Gotti's author daughter, Victoria.
"I told her I would keep it always, but she insisted that if I ever decided to
sell it I would give the money to a cancer hospital for children."
In addition to the portrait, Mrs. Gotti has also painted landscapes, nudes and
Japanese figures, one of which hangs in Danny's, one of her favorite
Chinese-Japanese restaurants in Queens.
FOR PHOTO: http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/50166.htm
* * *
NY POST/CINDY ADAMS...
Prospective Gotti bios already arriving on publishers' desks . . .
* * *
By ROBERT INGRASSIA
NY Daily News Staff Writer
A 12-year-old boy on a mini-bike darts from behind a garbage bin. A neighbor,
driving home from work with the sun in his eyes, can't stop in time. The boy is
killed.
It was a tragic incident in Howard Beach, Queens, on March 18, 1980.
The police called the death an accident and didn't charge driver John Favara,
51, a furniture company manager.
But Favara paid for the death.
That's because the boy's father was John Gotti.
Investigators never proved that Gotti got revenge for his son, but mob
informants over the years have spilled the details of one of the most chilling
episodes in his bloody career.
Favara had been a pal of Gotti and his wife, Victoria. The Gottis lived around
the corner at 160-11 85th St. Not long after the accident, Favara walked over
and tried to express his sorrow about young Frank Gotti's death. Gotti's wife
drove him from the yard with a baseball bat. The friendship was over.
Threats started coming. Someone called the Ozone Park police station to warn
that Favara would be eliminated. Favara brushed off the warnings, saying, "that
kind of stuff only happens in the movies."
But anonymous letters were placed in his mailbox. Favara's station wagon was
stolen and later found with a spray-painted word: "Murderer."
That was enough for Favara and his wife. They picked out a house in another
neighborhood, hoping to leave the accident and the threats behind.
On July 28, 1980, days from closing on his new home, Favara disappeared. He was
last seen leaving the Castro Convertible in New Hyde Park, L.I., where he'd
been a service manager for 13 years. A witness at a diner next door told cops
he'd seen a tall man beating Favara with a board. Others heard the squealing of
tires.
That was the end of Favara. He was never seen again.
Investigators later pieced together what they believe happened to him.
According to an account by Ganglandnews.com writer Jerry Capeci, based on
official documents and law-enforcement sources, the hit unfolded this way:
Gotti put together a crew of eight men, including his brother Gene, to handle
the job. They used a van and two cars, staking out Favara at the furniture
plant. He spotted them and ran, only to be mowed down with .22-caliber handgun
outfitted with a silencer.
They finished him off with a 2-by-4 board and loaded him into the van. Then
they stuffed his body in a drum, filled it with concrete and dumped it in the
Atlantic Ocean off Brooklyn. At a junkyard operated by one of the mobsters,
they crushed Favara's car into a one-foot pancake.
Cops naturally asked Gotti questions about Favara's disappearance.
He and his wife told investigators they didn't mourn Favara but denied they had
anything to do with whatever happened to him.
On the day their neighbor vanished, the Gottis said they were 1,500 miles away
in Fort Lauderdale — and had a hotel receipt and witnesses to prove it.
The case went nowhere.
Eventually, a court declared Favara dead. His widow moved away.
But the Gottis' grief for Frank went on. They kept a shrine in their home with
a photo of their son, flowers and candles. And they placed memorial ads to
their "Dearest Frankie Boy" in the newspaper.
Gotti had tasted revenge. And, five years before he would orchestrate a violent
coup to take over the Gambino family, he'd let the underworld know, once again,
that he had the cold-blooded nerve to be king of crime.
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PStaw57550
and Victoria did....
SteaHoover
Howard Stern's show and she annoys me then. Yes...cement shoes will look great
on her!
Ambrose Meineke
weird story about private video tapes that had been stolen and was offered
up to the then insane Larry Flint to use against Hef when Larry was
sototally paranoid that his empire was being run by his ex-hooker, ex-
stripper, drug addited wife Althea Leasure, now deceased. I never saw the
vid's but I knew a party girl who claimed to have seen the video's, but for
the life of me I don't remember if she told me details, except that it was
filled with weird stuff, and some super strange sex mechanism called a Blue
Mick, or a Blue Mac or something.
Does anyone over 40 who was in LA in the early 80's recall those
stories? Were there more details?
Ambrose
dan.
maybe still does) do lotsa video taping of his sexual activities. Makes me
wonder if any of the rooms in the LA mansion were fitted with secret cams
for recording activities of guests. In the '60's & '70's the mansion was
the hot place for A list stars. If he did tape others, can you imagine what
he's got on tape out there?
just wonderin' & good luck on finding more info,
dan
"Ambrose Meineke" <Ambrose...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:nJ_N8.21542$T05.1...@e3500-atl2.usenetserver.com...
Lemonbleu
Ambrose, I don't recall that, however, I've read years ago that Hef did (and
maybe still does) do lotsa video taping of his sexual activities. >>
being raised in LA but not over 40...I have been to a party ..ok 3 at the
mansion..strangely 2 of them benefits..not actual Hef ones...and I went into a
restroom prior to a party getting started ...and found a man there working in a
cabinet...as soon as i walked in he closed and locked it...and suggested i use
the restroom upstairs. i swear I have always thought since that there are
cameras...everywhere...friends have said and that incident helped my
belief...needless to say when i went there after...i held it.
LB