John Gotti

Gotti got married to Victoria DiGiorgio in 1962, after the birth of their first daughter ‘Angel’. They had four more children together: Victoria, John, Frank and Peter. Frank died in an accident when he was only 12.

He died in 2002 at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, Springfield, Missouri, of throat cancer. His funeral took place in a non-church facility and he was buried alongside his son Frank’s grave.

John Gotti was born in the South Bronx, New York, to Fannie and J. Joseph Gotti. He was the fifth out of the 13 children in the family and his father used to support such a big family with his meager salary from his day labor’s job.

Gotti, at the age of 12, was working as a chore boy in an underground club which was run by the head of the local largest organized crime family, Gambino, Carmine Fatico. He met with Aniello Dellacroce there, who became his mentor later.

With the influence of the Gambino family, Gotti became the captain of the ‘Fulton-Rockaway’ gang. He used to get involved in robberies and car-jackings. Gotti went to Franklin K. Lane High School but he dropped out of school at 16.

By the time he was 18, Gotti associated with the Fatico gang. Although, he tried to stay crime free and worked as a presser in the coat factory and as an assistant truck driver for some time but he soon got back to crime.

Gotti became involved in a full-fledged criminal career right after he was linked with Carmine Fatico. He and with his two brothers, Gene and Ruggiero, started carrying out truck hijackings at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

In 1968, he was arrested by the FBI for the ‘United hijacking’. Even when he was out on bail, he was again arrested for hijacking on the New Jersey Turnpike. In the same year, he spent around 3 years at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary.

He and his brother Ruggiero started working at the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club, under Fatico. Gotti started managing Bergin’s illicit gambling. He was soon made the acting capo of the Bergin Crew in 1972.

In 1973, Gotti was arrested for killing the Irish-American gangster James McBratney along with a team assigned to him by Carlo Gambino, for killing his nephew Emanuel Gambino. He received a 4 year sentence.

After his release, Gotti was made the capo of the Bergin Crew and was initiated in the Gambino family in 1977. He was considered to be Dellacroce’s prot�g�. Alongside, Gotti also practiced loan sharking and financed drug deals.

Many motion pictures have been made on Gotti and his life. Some of these are: ‘Getting Gotti’, ‘Gotti’, ‘Witness to the Mob’, ‘Boss of Bosses’, ‘Gotti: in the shadow of my father’, ‘Mafia’s Greatest Hits’, ‘Sinatra Club’, etc.

The American press constantly depicted him as a ruthless mobster and therefore this mafia don used to try and keep a normal public image to play down press and also used to offer coffee to FBI agents sent to handle his case.

He used to earn an annual income of approximately 5 million US dollars when he was the head of the Gambino family and the family was estimated to earn around 500 million US dollars under his command.