Mafia boss John Gotti, serving a life sentence for murder and racketeering, was beaten up in a federal prison in Illinois last month by a fellow prisoner, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday.
The newspaper quoted unidentified federal law enforcement officials as saying the fistfight at the high-security prison in Marion was a racial dispute with a black prisoner.
Gotti reportedly told doctors he “fell down,” the newspaper said.
“It was a racial thing — John mouthed off to a big black guy,” the Daily News quoted one official as saying. “The next day, the black clocked him. He beat him up pretty bad, his face was all bloody. He needed some kind of medical help.”
The extent of Gotti’s injuries was not known but the Mafia boss was taken to the prison infirmary for treatment after the incident in the facility’s indoor recreation area.
Gotti’s lawyer Bruce Cutler denied that his client, once known as the “Dapper Don” for his flamboyant sartorial style, had been beaten in jail, and a spokesman at the Marion prison declined to comment, the newspaper said.
