John Gotti's Last Stand

John Gotti -- the Teflon Don John Gotti, whose reputation for evading long prison sentences notwithstanding his mob-related crimes (including implication in the murders of a number of people), was finally convicted of thirteen crimes on April 2, 1992. His story is a fascinating one as he ascended from a lowly street criminal to the head of the Gambino crime family; this paper provides some biographical details of Gotti but in the main this paper focuses on the evidence and witness testimony that finally put Gotti away for good.

A Brief look at Gotti's Life Gotti was born on October 27, 1940, the fifth of thirteen children that were born to an Italian immigrant father and mother -- according to FBI files. Gotti was a street gang participant at the age of 12 and was known to be missing toes. The cause of his missing toes? He reportedly was attempting to steal a cement mixer from a construction site and the mixer fell on his foot, causing him to lose a pair of toes (FBI files).

Gotti continued his petty street crime activities but was married in 1962; he and his wife had five children. He was drafted by the U.S. Army in 1963 but failed to report for induction. The FBI searched for him for two years and eventually caught up with him in November, 1965, as he appeared for a hearing before the Kings County authorities regarding a grand larceny crime. He did eventually report to the draft board but was disqualified for military service due to his criminal record.

He also worked as a truck driver and as a presser in a coat factory and was arrested in 1965 and 1966 for truck hijackings and served time but was paroled in 1972. He later was arrested for murder and served two years for "attempted manslaughter" (released in 1977); he went on trial for racketeering and was acquitted albeit later the FBI learned that the jury foreman had been bribed (FBI). The "Teflon Don" was implicated in several murders before and during his service as boss of the Gambino crime family.

His fate was sealed when his "underboss," Sammy "the bull" Gravano became the star witness for the prosecution and other evidence was admitted that put Gotti away until he died of throat cancer in June, 2002. Gotti's criminal record leading up to his conviction Cindi Ernst of the University of Missouri at Kansas City provides a time line of actions that lead up to his last gasp as a man who seemed to squirm out of long prison sentences.

He was convicted of murder in 1973 and served two years; he was part of the murder of the Gambino family boss Paul Castellano which led to Gotti becoming the Godfather of the Gambino mob. In 1986 Gotti was charged with racketeering but somehow evaded prosecution and at that time Gotti became a "media hound," parading around New York City in "expensive suits and always ready to be photographed by the media" (Ernst, 1993).

Part of the reason Gotti and associates were arrested in 1990 is the fact that the FBI bugged Gotti's hangout spot, the Ravenite Social Club. The FBI has a "mother lode" of tape-recorded evidence Author Jerry Capeci reported before the 1992 trial of Gotti that the FBI had obtained "mountains of evidence" against Gotti, including taped conversations linking Gotti to the murder in 1985 of Paul Castellano, according to the New York Daily News (Capeci, 44).

So clearly Gotti and his lawyer and his associates knew they were up against some very dramatic and likely wholly incriminating tapes. The sources that informed the Daily News of the FBI's incriminating tapes were not revealed, but the Daily News clearly trusted those sources, and it turned out that the Daily News had it right.

The Daily News (quoted by author Capeci) had reported that after Gotti and Cutler beat the federal racketeering case on March 13, 1987, the FBI "Organized Crime Strike Force" in Brooklyn "…immediately began another racketeering investigation of Gotti" (Capeci). Once Gotti was acquitted in the 1987 case, Jules Bonavolonta (the FBI's supervisor of the strike force) told reporters, "He knows we haven't brought a case against him, and he also knows that when we do, he's finished" (Capeci).

In tapes that were seen by the Daily News, Gotti reportedly told one of his attorneys (not Cutler) to "shut up or suffer the consequences -- such as a trip down an elevator shaft," the FBI's tapes revealed (Capeci).

In Capeci's book, he points out that Gotti and associates figured out they were being bugged at the Ravenite Social Club, so they moved "…high-level discussions to a hallway behind the Ravenite and an apartment above the club." However, the bugs in the hallway and the apartment "…picked up virtually every incriminating word by Gotti," by Locascio, and by Sammy Bull Gravano (Capeci). It seems incredible that as street-smart as Gotti was, that he wouldn't take his murderous planning discussions completely away from the Ravenite Social Club.

But on those tapes (from discussions in the hallway) "…the three men are heard discussing killings and ways to beat the judicial system in such clear fashion that a relatively liberal judge" branded the three as "dangers to the community who are likely to obstruct justice if out on the streets" (Capeci). Jerry Capeci, by the way, was a New York Daily News reporter, and his book is a follow-up to everything he knew and found out through his investigative skills.

Capeci was "…Blunt, tough and plain-spoken…the city's most respected mob reporter" (Getlin, 1992). In one of the Gotti wire-tapped conservations that were made available to the media, Gotti said, "Why don't you punch him (Capeci) in the (expletive) mouth? Make an appointment, I'll punch him in the (expletive) mouth for you, that rat (expletive)" (Getlin, p. 1). Capeci was known to "rub shoulders with underworld crooks" to get his stories rather than wait for law enforcement to issue a press release (Getlin, p. 1).

When Getlin was attacked by members of the major media for quoting mobsters and printing their side of the story, he responded by saying: "You have to track these guys down like anyone else. John Gotti may be guilty of terrible crimes…but he has a right to get his point-of-view in the papers like anyone else, to complain about unfair treatment and to have it printed. As a reporter, you have to be fair to everybody" (Getlin, p. 1).

In fact Getlin was the first journalist to "…present the theory -- now accepted by prosecutors as gospel -- that Gotti arranged the hit [on Castellano] to head off an embarrassing probe by Castellano of drug dealing among Gotti's associates. It was a matter of kill or be killed" (Getlin, p. 2). In the section of this research a conversation between Gotti and Gravano reveals the background to the reason for murdering Castellano.

Clips from the FBI bugging of the Ravenite Social Club In his book The Gotti Tapes Ralph Blumenthal provides evidence of the corruption of Gotti and his underboss Sammy Gravano that was part of the ongoing FBI investigations that the government hoped would finally put Gotti away for good. A conversation that Gotti had with Gravano (in an apartment above the Ravenite Social Club at 247 Mulberry Street in Little Italy, Manhattan) over the possession of FBI tapes was recorded by the FBI.

Neil Dellacroce was an underboss to Godfather Paul Castellano, and Castellano had demanded that Dellacroce get heavy with Gotti to get certain tapes (which were in the hands of an attorney representing Gotti's associate Angelo Ruggiero) that would be incriminating to Castellano. The relationships represented in this phone dialogue are those that were in existence prior to Gotti's group's killing of Castellano. Gotti and his underboss Gravano are on the phone, fearing that Neil Dellacroce was to be sent by Castellano to kill Gotti and Gravano.

Gotti: "He couldn't succeed but… He felt he hadda hit me first… Let's kill all the cocksuckers that (inaudible), in the whole 'family.' Every fuckin Gambino. Every fucking Castellano…Get rid of the cocksucker!" Gravano: "I think he [Dellacroce] was stark raving fuckin' (tap sound) nuts…" Gotti: "Ah, he was a jerkoff!" "Using hindsight now, ourselves -- he deserved to have his tongue cut out.

If nothing else, his fucking tongue cut out…" Gravano: "And it's part of life." Gotti: [advising Gravano how to act in court] "Talk with certain parameters, and we'll win, we'll win. We'll win, Sammy. We'll win these fuckin' cases. And we'll be out a year from not, somewhere, a year and a half from now, somewhere, laughing a little bit. Probably have new developments but we will be laughing at the… (inaudible). Believe me. Jimmy La Rossa, I already thought about that.

But I'm gonna send him a feeler ahead of time. And I ask him -- if he says 'no,' I'll kill him…My pride…" (Blumenthal). On January 21, 1992, Gotti and his associate Frank Locascio went on trial charged with being the head of the Gambino crime family. They were charged with "labor racketeering and tax evasion…and were accused of several murders, including the shooting deaths of former Gambino boss Paul Castellano and Tommy Bilotti, his bodyguard" (Blumenthal).

In that arrest Gravano was also charged with many of the same crimes as Locascio and Gotti were charged with. But Gravano did not like the idea of serving a long jail term so he became a star witness for the prosecution, basically turning his back on Gotti. The 1992 criminal trial -- background Prior to testimony, federal prosecutors managed to bar Gotti's lawyer Bruce Cutler from the trial.

Cutler was a close associate of Gotti's, and FBI taped phone conversations showed that "Cutler and two other attorneys had acted as 'house counsels' for the Gambino crime organization" and so he was disqualified (Smith). This was an important strategy leading up to the actual trial because Cutler had managed to weasel Gotti out of previous legal jams so this time the prosecution took control based on secretly obtained evidence.

In fact, according to John Needham in the Los Angeles Times, Cutler looked like Gotti, and Cutler had gotten Gotti acquitted "all three times Cutler had defended him" before the 1992 trial (Needham, 1992). The judge, as Smith pointed out, had seen a conflict of interest looming if he had allowed Cutler to defend Gotti in 1992; Cutler first represented Gotti in a 1985 arraignment (Needham, p. 2).

On the subject of Cutler, an article in the American Bar Association Journal, the author, Andrea Sachs, noted that Cutler was so closely identified with Gotti that he "…began to dress, talk, and swagger like his famous client" (Sachs, 1992). When interviewed by a reporter from the magazine Vanity Fair, Cutler was asked if he would allow his own 15-year-old son to spend time with Gotti. Cutler's response: "It would be great for the kid. Because the kid would learn principles, values.

He'd learn respect, he's learn how to care about himself and other people" (Sachs, p. 1). That quote represents the amazing ability of Cutler to present falsehoods as meaningful responses. The attorney had guts, charm, and moxie, but in the 1992 trial, he was tossed out, and that was just another event that happened because evidence presented through phone taps.

Part of that evidence leading up to the disqualification of attorney Cutler, was a quote on one FBI tape from Gotti: "Gambino crime family? This is the Shargel [an attorney associated with Cutler), Cutler and who-do-you-call-it crime family" (Sachs, p. 1). Because or rumors that there had been tampering with the jury, the judge in the 1992 trial insisted that the jurors be sequestered. The lawyer that defended Gotti (Albert J.

Kreiger) immediately stated that "…his client's only crime was the lack of a formal education," (Smith with the American Law Library) points out. As any smart lawyer would do, Kreiger attacked Gravano as being the "rightful object of the prosecution's attention" (Smith). The secretly recorded phone conversations came into play as part of the strategy of the prosecution. "This is not a complex case," prosecutor Maloney told the jury.

"These defendants will tell you in their own words what it's about," and with that the prosecution played "hours of secretly taped conversations in which Gotti spoke of murders and other crimes" (Smith). It would be hard to imagine evidence introduced to a jury that is more dramatic than tape-recorded conversations of the men on trial. In one tape, Gotti is heard saying to Locascio, "Anytime you got a partner who don't agree with us, we kill him" (Smith).

The testimony by Gravano against his old crime partners included Gravano's admission of "19 murders, including 10 authorized by Gotti." He testified how he and Gotti sat in a car within sight of where Gotti's henchmen murdered Castellano and Bilotti; after the shootings, Gotti and Gravano drove by the "bloody scene" just to be certain that the Godfather and his right hand man were dead (they were) (Smith).

As if the murder and racketeering charges were not enough, just to be sure the jury saw what a slime bag Gotti really was, the prosecution showed evidence that Gotti had "…bribed a police detective for information and had failed to file income tax returns for six years during which Gotti claimed to work as a plumbing company salesman" (Smith).

The one defense witness for Gotti was a tax lawyer who had apparently advised Gotti to use a "legitimate privilege of silence" vis-a-vis his tax returns because Gotti was under indictment at the time (Smith). Gotti didn't help his cause by bickering with the judge, who threatened to have Gotti tossed out of the room (not to go free but to be confined by court officers).

After the verdict of guilty on all counts (for both Gotti and Locascio) there were scenes created by Gotti supporters outside the Brooklyn courtroom; there was fighting and some protesters were involved in "overturning cars"; seven of the protesters were arrested for conducting a riot (Smith). Gleeson, the prosecutor (who will be discussed further in the next section), explained to the jury that there were two ways to get convictions against members of the mafia. "One, catch them talking about their crimes.

Figure out a way to find those secret meetings and record them." Then there is another way, Gleeson continued: "Get one of them to come in and tell you about the crimes. We did both" (Smith). The tapes that led to the arrest were based on RICO The arrest of Gotti was actually based on the law, Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO).

Yes, Gravano's testimony (revealed in the next section) was the main thrust of the prosecution's case, but RICO came into play after Gotti had avoided convictions three times following his ascension to boss of the Gambino crime family (Mark, 2012). More than one hundred hours of taped conversations were in the hands of the FBI, thanks to bugging Gotti's main place to hang out, the Ravenite Social Club.

One of the bus caught Gotti bragging that he "…was in jail when he whacked Robert DiBernardo"; these tapes provided justification for the arrest of Gotti under RICO (Mark, p. 1). Congress had passed RICO "expressly to counteract the growing influence of organized crime" -- albeit that wasn't the only reason this legislation was passed (Mark, p. 1). In order to make an arrest under RICO, the government had to first establish that a RICO enterprise actually was functioning.

And when two or more people are gathered discussing a potential crime, RICO kicks in; and clearly the tapes that the FBI used as evidence established that two or more people were plotting murders. Next, the U.S. government (under RICO) had to show that: a) "Gotti committed two or more predicate acts (in this case, four murders and an attempted murder) within a ten-year period"; b) the predicate acts were linked together; and c) the predicate acts "demonstrated criminal conduct of a continuing nature" (Mark, p. 1).

Gravano's testimony in the 1992 criminal trial against Gotti and Lacascio The testimony at the trial also gave the inside story on how a person becomes a member of the mob, in this case, the Gambino mafia family. The prosecutor in the trial was Gleeson, who asked if Gravano was the underboss. "Yes," Gravano replied. "Who was the rest of the administration," Gleeson asked.

"John was the boss, I was the underboss, and Frankie [Locascio] was acting consigliere." When Gravano was asked how he was formally initiated into the Gambino crime family (now Gotti's family), he explained that there was a formal ceremony with the top bosses. "One of the last questions they asked me was would I kill if he asked me. I told him yes. He told me what was my trigger finger. I pointed to my trigger finger. He pinched it and blood came out.

He put it on the saint [a piece of paper with a saint printed on it] and started to burn the saint and my hand. He said, honor the oath…that if I divulge any of the secrets of this organization that my soul should burn like the saint. "I kissed him on both cheeks. I went around the table and kissed everybody. I sat down. They got up. They locked hands. They unlocked hands.

They made me get in the middle of it…and told me, at that point, I was part of the brotherhood…and I belonged" (Blumenthal). Gravano was told by the leaders of the mob at that session that he if gave away any secretes his soul would burn -- in other words, he would be killed. Prosecutor Gleeson -- in a dramatic sequence during the trial -- queried Gravano on his crime history.

"During the period [1976 -- 1986] did you commit murders?" Gravano: "Yes." Gleeson: "Did you commit more than one?" Gravano: "Yes." Gleeson: "Did you commit those murders alone or with other people?" Gravano: "With others." Gleeson: "You already testified that you participated in the murder of Paul Castellano, correct?" Gravano: "Yes." Gleeson: "Did there come a point, Mr. Gravano, when you participated in.