My Husband Is A Mafia Boss Book 2 Pdf
Maryalice Cutcher
Gotti and his brothers grew up in poverty and turned to a life of crime at an early age. Gotti quickly became one of the Gambino family's biggest earners and a protg of Aniello Dellacroce, the family's underboss, operating out of Ozone Park, Queens. Following the FBI's indictment of members of Gotti's crew for selling narcotics, Gotti began to fear that he and his brother Gene would be killed by Castellano for dealing drugs. As this fear continued to grow, and amidst growing dissent over the leadership of the family, Gotti organized the murder of Castellano.
At his peak, Gotti was one of the most powerful and dangerous crime bosses in the United States. While his peers generally avoided attracting attention, especially from the media, Gotti became known as "The Dapper Don" for his expensive clothes and outspoken personality in front of news cameras. He was later given the nickname "The Teflon Don" after three high-profile trials in the 1980s resulted in acquittals, though it was later revealed that the trials had been tainted by jury tampering, juror misconduct and witness intimidation. Law enforcement continued gathering evidence against Gotti, who reportedly earned between $5 million and $20 million per year as Gambino boss.[4]
Gotti's underboss, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, aided the FBI in convicting Gotti; in 1991, Gravano agreed to turn state's evidence and testified against Gotti after hearing the boss make disparaging remarks about him on a wiretap that implicated them both in several murders. In 1992, Gotti was convicted of five murders, conspiracy to commit murder, racketeering, obstruction of justice, tax evasion, illegal gambling, extortion and loansharking. He received life in prison without parole and was transferred to United States Penitentiary, Marion.
Gotti died of throat cancer on June 10, 2002, at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. According to Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, the former underboss of the Lucchese crime family, "what John Gotti did was the beginning of the end of Cosa Nostra."[5]
John Gotti was born in the Bronx borough of New York City, on October 27, 1940. He was the fifth of the thirteen children (two had died at birth) of John Joseph Gotti Sr. and Philomena "Fannie" DeCarlo.[6][1][7] Gotti's parents were born in New York City, but it is presumed that his grandparents were from San Giuseppe Vesuviano, in the Italian province of Naples, because his parents were married and lived there for some time.[6][8] Gotti was one of five brothers who became made men in the Gambino crime family:[9] Eugene "Gene" Gotti was initiated before John due to the latter's incarceration,[10] Peter Gotti was initiated under John's leadership in 1988,[11] and Richard V. Gotti was identified as a caporegime (captain, or head of a "crew") by 2002.[9] The fifth, Vincent, was initiated in 2002.[12]
By the time he reached the age of 12, Gotti's family settled in East New York, Brooklyn, where he grew up in poverty alongside his brothers.[13] His father worked irregularly as a day laborer.[6] As an adult, Gotti came to resent his father for being unable to provide for his family.[1] In school, he had a history of truancy and bullying other students, and ultimately dropped out of Franklin K. Lane High School at the age of 16.[14][15]
Gotti was involved in street gangs associated with New York City mafiosi from the age of 12.[14] When he was aged 14, he was attempting to steal a cement mixer from a construction site when it fell, crushing his toes; this injury left him with a permanent limp.[14] After leaving school, he devoted himself to working with the Mafia-associated Fulton-Rockaway Boys gang, where he met and befriended fellow future Gambino mobsters Angelo Ruggiero and Wilfred "Willie Boy" Johnson.[14][16]
Gotti met his future wife, Victoria DiGiorgio, who was of half-Italian and half-Russian descent, at a bar in 1958.[17] The couple were married on March 6, 1962.[18] According to FBI documents, DiGiorgio was married previously and had one child by the previous marriage.[19] They had five children: Angela, Victoria, John Jr., Frank (d. 1980) and Peter. Gotti attempted to work legitimately in 1962 as a presser in a coat factory and as an assistant truck driver. However, he could not stay crime-free and, by 1966, had been jailed twice.[20]
As early as his teens, Gotti was running errands for Carmine Fatico, a capo in the Gambino family, then known as the Anastasia family under the leadership of boss Albert Anastasia.[21] Gotti carried out truck hijackings at Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) together with his brother Gene and friend Ruggiero.[22] During this time, Gotti befriended fellow mob hijacker and future Bonanno family boss Joseph Massino, and he was given the nicknames "Black John" and "Crazy Horse".[22][23] It was around this time that Gotti met his mentor, Gambino underboss Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce.[24]
In February 1968, United Airlines employees identified Gotti as the man who had signed for stolen merchandise; the FBI arrested him for that hijacking soon after. 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. Later that year, Gotti pleaded guilty to a Northwest Airlines hijacking and was sentenced to three years at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary.[22]
After Emanuel Gambino, nephew to boss Carlo Gambino, was kidnapped and murdered in 1973, Gotti was assigned to the hit team alongside Ruggiero and Ralph Galione to search for the main suspect, gangster James McBratney.[18] The team botched their attempt to abduct McBratney at a Staten Island bar when they attempted to arrest him while posing as detectives,[28] and Galione shot McBratney dead when his accomplices managed to restrain him. Gotti was identified by eyewitnesses and by a police insider, and was arrested for the killing in June 1974.[29] He was able to strike a plea bargain, however, with the help of attorney Roy Cohn, and was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for attempted manslaughter for his part in the hit.[10] Following Gotti's death, he was also identified by Massino as the killer of Vito Borelli, a Gambino associate murdered in 1975.[30]
Remo Franceschini, a member of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) from 1957 to 1991 who specialized in organized crime;[31][32] when asked in 1993 why he knew at an early stage that Gotti would become a major figure in the Mafia, said: "He was charismatic and a leader. He wasn't a womanizer. He spent all his time with his men. He also had a very sharp mind and total recall. And he exuded toughness. There were few men who would go against him".[33]
On October 15, 1976, Carlo Gambino died at his home of natural causes.[34] Against expectations, he had appointed Paul Castellano to succeed him over his underboss Dellacroce. Gambino appeared to believe that his crime family would benefit from Castellano's focus on white-collar businesses.[35] Dellacroce, at the time, was imprisoned for tax evasion and was unable to contest Castellano's succession.[36] Castellano's succession was confirmed at a meeting on November 24, with Dellacroce present. Castellano arranged for Dellacroce to remain as underboss while directly running the family's affairs.[37] While Dellacroce accepted Castellano's succession, the deal effectively split the Gambino family into two rival factions.[37]
In 1976, the Gambino family's membership books were reportedly reopened.[38] Gotti was released in July 1977, after two years' imprisonment; he was subsequently initiated into the crime family, now under the command of Castellano, and immediately promoted to replace Fatico as capo of the Bergin crew.[10] Gotti's crew reported directly to Dellacroce as part of the concessions given by Castellano to keep Dellacroce as underboss,[39] and Gotti was regarded as Dellacroce's protg.[40] Under Gotti, the crew were Dellacroce's biggest earners.[10] Besides his cut of his subordinates' earnings, Gotti ran his own loansharking operation and held a no-show job as a plumbing supply salesman.[41] Unconfirmed allegations by FBI informants claimed that Gotti also financed drug deals.[40][42]
In December 1978, Gotti assisted in the largest unrecovered cash robbery in history, the infamous Lufthansa Heist at Kennedy Airport. Gotti had made arrangements for the getaway van to be crushed and baled at a scrapyard in Brooklyn. However, the driver of the van, Parnell "Stacks" Edwards, failed to follow orders; rather than driving the vehicle to the scrapyard, he parked it near a fire hydrant and went to sleep at his girlfriend's apartment.[43]
Gotti mostly tried to distance his personal family from his life of crime, with the exception of his son John Jr., who was a mob associate by 1982.[2] However, on March 18, 1980, Gotti's youngest son, 12-year-old Frank, was run over and killed on a family friend's minibike by a neighbor named John Favara.[44] Frank's death was ruled an accident, but Favara subsequently received death threats and was attacked by Gotti's wife with a baseball bat when he visited their home to apologize.[45][46] Four months later, Favara was abducted and disappeared, presumed murdered.[44] Gotti is widely assumed to have ordered the murder despite him and his family leaving on vacation for Florida three days prior.[47]
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 Gambino family. In September 1984 he had an altercation with a refrigerator mechanic named Romual Piecyk and was subsequently charged with assault and robbery.[48][49] In 1985, he was indicted alongside Dellacroce and several Bergin crew members in a racketeering case by Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane Giacalone.[15][50] The indictment revealed that Gotti's friend and co-defendant, Wilfred "Willie Boy" Johnson, had been an FBI informant.[50]
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