John Gotti, the swaggering New York crime boss who became America’s most famous Mafia figure, died Monday at a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Mo., from complications of throat cancer.
Mr. Gotti, who rose from the streets of the Bronx to run the Gambino crime family, was 61. At the time of his death, he was serving a life sentence for racketeering charges that included murder, loan-sharking and extortion.
The U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield said Mr. Gotti, who had lapsed into a coma over the weekend, died at 11:45 a.m. Prison officials will conduct an autopsy to determine the exact cause of his death, according to a statement issued by a prison spokeswoman.
Unlike many organized crime figures who shun the spotlight, Mr. Gotti became a national celebrity during his underworld career. He alternately was known as the “Teflon Don,” for his ability to escape a series of federal prosecutions, and the “Dapper Don” for his habit of wearing $2,000 Brioni suits and dining in New York’s fanciest restaurants.
The subject of books, numerous magazine profiles and an HBO movie, Mr. Gotti was a modern version of the tough-talking, brawling mob leader who captured America’s imagination for much of the 20th Century. But even as he basked in media attention, the clout of the Mafia was ebbing nationwide.
Federal prosecutors used the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to jail a multitude of crime bosses by the mid-1990s. They depleted the leadership of America’s organized crime families. Mr. Gotti, convicted in 1992, was the last major kingpin to fall.
Since his incarceration, federal officials have jailed surviving leaders of the Gambino crime family. The mobster’s older brother, Peter, who had taken over as the family crime boss, was arrested last week along with two other family members. They were charged with racketeering and money-laundering schemes involving the city’s waterfront. Gotti’s younger brother, Gene, is serving a 50-year sentence for heroin trafficking; his son, John Jr., is serving a six-year sentence for racketeering and gambling.
At the height of his powers, in the 1980s, Mr. Gotti presided over an empire that raked in an estimated $500 million annually from prostitution, narcotics, pornography, gambling, labor racketeering, stolen cars and business fraud. Yet it was his reputation as a ruthless killer that prompted federal prosecutors to target him as he climbed the organized crime ladder.
After three failed prosecutions, Mr. Gotti was convicted 10 years ago of orchestrating the 1985 gangland execution of Paul Castellano, the Gambino family chief, outside Sparks Restaurant in Manhattan. The sensational crime catapulted Mr. Gotti to national attention, but it also proved to be his undoing. Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, the underboss to Mr. Gotti in the gang’s hierarchy who was linked to 19 murders, cut a deal with prosecutors and testified that his boss had planned the sidewalk murder so he could take Castellano’s job.
At the trial, Mr. Gotti’s lawyers denied that he had any links to organized crime, arguing that he was a $60,000-a-year plumbing contractor. Bruce Cutler, one of his attorneys, suggested that Mr. Gotti was a hard-working family man who inspired strong loyalty among his neighbors in Howard Beach, Queens. The Gottis hosted an annual 4th of July barbecue for them, and Cutler suggested that in some communities Mr. Gotti was an inspirational figure.
When Gotti finally was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn, James Fox, the FBI agent in charge in New York, declared: “The Teflon is gone. The don is covered with Velcro.”
The fifth of 13 children, Mr. Gotti was born to a poor family in the South Bronx. A fierce but unknown foot soldier, he became a household name in New York after he took over the Gambino family in 1985 following Castellano’s death. His celebrity soared when he was acquitted of racketeering charges in 1987 and 1990. Brimming with confidence, Gotti inspired fear among those who crossed him, even if it was inadvertently.
In 1980, a neighbor accidentally ran over and killed Gotti’s 12-year-old son, Frank. The man, John Favara, began receiving threatening phone calls after the incident and was planning to move out of the neighborhood. Witnesses said he was beaten in front of his home by several men who then stuffed him into a car. His body has never been found.
After his 1992 conviction, Mr. Gotti spent his prison years largely in solitary confinement. Meanwhile, the criminal empire he had built began to disintegrate.
Even the fabled Ravenite social club, where Mr. Gotti operated in Manhattan’s Little Italy and was bugged by federal agents to collect much of the evidence that helped convict him, has disappeared. U.S. marshals seized the site in 1997, evicted the tenants and sold the building. It is now a hair salon and boutique.
Doctors removed a cancerous tumor from Mr. Gotti’s throat in 1998 and initially expected him to fully recover. But his prognosis worsened, and family members began making preparations for his death months ago.
Mr. Gotti is survived by his wife, Victoria, and three children: John Jr., Angela and Victoria, a novelist and columnist for the New York Post.
