The Downfall of Mafia Boss John Gotti: Goodbye to the Teflon Don

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The Downfall of Mafia Boss John Gotti: Goodbye to the Teflon Don

John Gotti was arguably the most famous gangster since Al Capone ruled Chicago in the roarin’ twenties. Born into a poor Italian American family in New York City in 1940, John Gotti was a troubled child who took to crime at an early age. Hanging out on street corners with other young neighborhood toughs, young Gotti robbed, stole, fought, and drank. School never held much allure for “Johnnie Boy,” and he dropped out officially at age sixteen. It wasn’t long before he caught the eye of local mobsters in his Brooklyn neighborhood and soon started running errands for them and being tutored in all things crime. The rest, as they say, is history! Gotti eventually became a full-fledged member of one of New York’s largest and most powerful organized crime families, the Gambino family, and eventually worked his way up to become the boss of the family. But Gotti’s reign as boss was anything but smooth, and he was eventually brought to his knees by Uncle Sam, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. What follows is a brief account of Gotti’s troubled last days as boss and his ultimate life conviction.

 December 11, 1990 – Final Arrest

Executing an arrest warrant for John Gotti, Gotti’s underboss, Sammy “the bull” Gravano, and Gotti’s consigliere, Frank Locascio, a joint FBI/NYPD task force stormed Gotti’s Ravenite Social Club in Manhattan, New York , and arrested all three high-ranking Gambino crime family members. John Gotti, along with his two criminal cohorts, were booked and remanded into custody at the Manhattan Correctional

The Cirelli Apartment Tapes

The basis for John Gotti’s arrest and subsequent trial were a series of highly-damaging and incriminating tapes made by the FBI of Gotti in a small apartment above Gotti’s Ravenite Social Club. Tipped off by an informant close to Gotti, the FBI learned of Gotti’s habit of retreating to the small upstairs apartment to hold high-level Mafia meetings. The apartment, a small tenement apartment on the second floor above the Ravenite owned by the widow of a deceased Gambino family member, was penetrated by FBI technicians during the Thanksgiving holiday of 1989,a time when Mrs. Cirelli was out of town and the apartment was vacant, and a series of small eavesdropping devices, or bugs, were installed in the dining room  area, an area that informants relayed was Gotti’s favored location to hold Mafia talks.

Incriminating Conversations

Much to the delight of the listening FBI agents and federal prosecutors, John Gotti ventured into the Cirelli apartment a total of five times over the course of several weeks in late 1989 and early 1990 and basically convicted himself with his incriminating admissions, discussions, and verbal tirades. Among an assortment of Mafia associates and underlings, Gotti admitted to ordering a series of murders against Mafia members who fell into his disfavor. One of which, Louie DiBono, was apparently murdered because he failed to answer a Gotti summons to report in with the boss. There were talks of union corruption, illegal gambling operations, and extortion – all of which Gotti appeared to be either directing, profiting from, or overseeing. The tapes were loud, clear, and concise; there was no defense against the damaging nature of the tapes, and Gotti’s fate was all but sealed!

Betrayal of Sammy “The Bull” Gravano

The so-called Gotti or “Cirelli” tapes had an impact on John Gotti’s right-hand man, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano. On more than one occasion during his ventures to the Cirelli apartment, John Gotti was recorded berating and chastising Gravano, questioning his motives, mocking his business acumen, and alluding to his greediness and lack of judgement. Later, during standard pre-trial motions, taped excerpts of the Gotti tapes were played for the judge, prosecution, and defense teams, along with both John Gotti and Sammy Gravano, who were hearing the audio of the evidence against them for the first time. Gotti appeared to squirm in his seat as excerpts of his bad mouthing of Gravano were played; Gravano, taken by surprise at the abruptness of Gotti’s tape-recorded harangues, turned red and appeared to fume. After stewing for several weeks and pondering his no-longer allegiance to his boss, Gotti, Sammy Gravano decided he wanted to switch governments, from Team Gambino to Team America. Sammy Gravano defected and turned state’s evidence against John Gotti and the entire Gambino crime family, agreeing to spill his guts and tell all in exchange for a reduced sentence, a sentence not to exceed 20-years.

John Gotti’s Lost Cause

After being notified of Sammy Gravano’s deal with the U.S government, John Gotti had to realize that his chances of escaping with a not guilty verdict in his upcoming trial were extremely slim. He had beaten three previous trials against him over a span of  five years(two state and one federal) which earned him the nickname the Teflon Don, for the inability of criminal charges to stick to him. However, the Teflon Don had to realize that his protective coating was wearing extremely thin. Not only did the government have the highly damaging and irrefutable Cirelli apartment tapes in their prosecutorial arsenal, they also had Gotti’s high-ranking underboss, his second-in-command of the crime family, Sammy Gravano, ratting him out. All John Gotti could hope for would be for some sympathetic juror to turn in a not guilty verdict on his behalf.

Conviction

The Trial of the Century, the United States vs. John Gotti et al, was a mere formality. All twelve jurors, after hearing the mountain of evidence that the government had pointing to John Gotti’s guilt as a murderer, racketeer, and overall criminal sociopath, turned in guilty  verdicts and the Teflon Don was no more. As James Fox, one of the U.S prosecutors, put it so eloquently: “The Teflon is gone; The Don is now covered with velcro and all the charges stuck!”

John Gotti was sentenced on June 23, 1992 to five consecutive life terms in prison. One day after receiving his sentence, John Gotti was roused from his temporary holding cell in the Manhattan Correctional Center(MCC) and flown by private jet to the maximum security federal prison in Marion, Illinois. Gotti would spend the next ten years confined to a small 8′x10′ jail cell, a cell that he would spend up to 23-hours a day confined in. After being diagnosed with head and neck cancer in 1998, Gotti would frequently be moved to the federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri, for treatment and then be returned to his cell in Marion. After his health deteriorated rapidly, John Gotti died at the Springfield federal prison hospital on June 10, 2002, not quite ten years after the imposition of his sentence.

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Ronnie Brewer hasn’t done anything, since signing with Chicago. He is one the worst basketball players I ever seen. I don’t hear any crap about how he’s plays good defense, either. That’s a bunch of B.S. We should of kept Kirk Hinrich. The Bulls sure can use him right now. He was a decent defender, a good shooter, a nice passer, and a smart player. If you think Ronnie Brewer is better than Hinrich, you really don’t know basketball.

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