LSA knows how much I have a penchant for dysfunctional, wealthy families who have endured tragedy. We have discussed the Kennedys ad nauseam and the Onassis clan as well. I thought it was time to introduce some new blood.
I’ve always been interested in Italian culture/the mafia but never enough to do a deep dive. I figured John Gotti was a good place to start. Some of my old heads prob know all there is to know but as for me I went in totally blind. I was not disappointed for a second. This will be a long post but I will try to make it concise.
THE BOSS
John Gotti was born in the Bronx, the 5th of 13 kids. He endured extreme poverty and an abusive father. His dad was a gambler and a drunk who refused to keep a job. Like the kids would be starving and he’s at the table eating steak, he was that kind of azzhole. His mother was a very hard worker who suffered a nervous breakdown eventually from stress. John spent some time in a boys home and he never liked to talk about his time there. Although he was eventually reunited w his family they were still very poor. Even as a teen he was known as a bully and due to truancy he dropped out of high school at 16 and began hanging w the wise guys.
FIRST LADY
Victoria DiGiorgio met John at a bar in ‘58 while waiting for an interview. Half Russian and half Italian she wasn’t raised by either parent. Her dad was a wealthy Italian man who wouldn’t marry her mom. Her mother was an independent party girl who gave her to a girls home as a kid. By the time she met John she was already married to an Irish man. He was a good man but she didn’t love him. He granted her a divorce and then she became Mrs. Gotti. She went on to have 5 children and became a housewife after working tirelessly for years. Infidelity was not an issue but poverty was. The family moved around a lot to escape eviction, Victoria Sr. hated Johns late hours and eventually his back to back jail stints began to cause depression within the family.
HEIRS TO THE THRONE
ANGEL GOTTI
VICTORIA GOTTI JR
JOHN A. GOTTI
FRANKIE GOTTI
PETER GOTTI JR
GAMBINO CRIME FAMILY
By the 60s, Gotti had already been jailed and was carrying out truck hijacking’s with other members of the GCF. He also at this time met his lifetime mentor and father figure Neil Dellecroce, a Gambino underboss.
Gotti would spend the end of the 60s in prison for multiple hijacking arrests. Victoria Jr commented that their mother tried to lie and say their dad was away on business at first. Unfortunately during a class presentation a student whispered in her class about John being in prison. VJr was so mortified she peed on herself in front of her class. The teacher did not reprimand them. Melancholy hung in the home while he was away and her mom became even more withdrawn and angry. After being paroled in the early 70s he rejoined his former crime buddies under Dellecroce moving now to illegal gambling, murder and other debauchery. After being identified in a manslaughter case Gotti was back in prison in the mid70s on a plea. Dellecroce was away too at this time for tax invasion, during this time mob leader Carlo Gambino died moving power to Paul Castenello who was very shrewd and greedy. Gotti didn’t like this change in leadership but had to accept it for the time being.
Gotti was released in the late 70s from prison as a made man in the mafia. He went on to participate in the Lufthansa Heist at JFK (was this portrayed in “Casino”?) making about $200K from the job. This would’ve gone down smooth if the getaway driver would’ve taken the car to the scrap yard and not his gfs house. FBI got prints which they would later use to indict Gotti.
SPOILER/graphic (to some) details of his sons death. Trying to be respectful
Life took a grim turn for the Gotti family on March 18, 1980 went Frankie Gotti (then 12 years old) was playing on a motorbike lent to him by a neighbor. Frankie zoomed out into the street and was hit by their next door neighbor John Favara. According to Victoria Jr the man was a known drunk and he was so lit he didn’t even realize he hit Frankie at first, he continued to drag the boys body about 200 yards. Neighbors had to jump on the car to get him to stop. Victoria always said her mother knew she would lose one of her children and when she told her mom about the accident (she was helping her baby brother Peter in the kitchen when she heard the crash) Victoria Sr just started booking it down the street.
According to VJr her mom made it through the crowd and got to her son who’s insides were torn, he was bleeding everywhere and very afraid. She was the only one allowed to accompany him to the hospital. Doctors tried to work on him but he was DOA. According to VJr this was when their lives were officially ruined. Frankie’s death left the family cold, bitter and angry. Favara was NOT apologetic at all, wouldn’t apologize and was still partying and carrying on next door (according to VJr) when her mom took to his car w a baseball bat. The little boys blood was still on it he didn’t even get it washed. I guess he figured he was cleared of charges so whatever smh. Either way the man had a death wish. He received many threats to move and refused. He was last seen outside of his job when supposedly some mob men beat him, shot him in the knee caps, took him to a disclosed location where Gotti chopped him up and had one of dem boyzzzz acid down that body. Now that’s the STREETS version which I believe. VJr said her daddy didn’t do it but everyone who was around said her mom esp forced him to get revenge. John Jr states he would hear his dad crying in his study every night after Frankie’s death. The family vacationed in FL for 3 days during this time and avoided questioning.
THE TEFLON DON
Long fed up w Castenello’s leadership and under the influence of Dellecroce, Gotti began to conspire against Castenello to other members of the mafia who were already disgruntled. After Dellecroce died of cancer, Castenello planned to appoint his limo driver as the new boss which infuriated Gotti. He along w others planned a hit of Castenello and his driver outside of a famous steak house. This made him the unofficial Godfather of the Gambino crime family and took him to new heights earning about 500 mill for the org and taking home 10-12 mill himself although he claimed to make less. His rule was no plea deals to keep the orgs anonymity.
Gotti was known for his generosity as well as his temper. While he was ruling the mob world things at home were not good. His wife and kids were still in deep depression over their brothers death and John Jr had become a made man under his father which infuriated his mother. The threat of prison time was always around the corner even if the $ was better and the entire family were treated like celebs. Many had moved on now and started families of their own bringing VJrs husband Carmine into “the life” as well even tho she claims she had no idea where all the $ came from acting like Teresa Guidice.
After a botched murder trial in the late 80s the FEDS were even more determined to nail Gotti and finally got their chance after employing his right hand man Sam “The Bull” Grevano as a snitch. With the use of surveillance intelligence which even caught the initiation of his son into the mafia, on April 2nd 1992 they finally got Gotti on murder/racketeering and sentenced him to life in prison without parole. This of course destroyed the family and the reigns were then passed to John Jr who was labeled a bully, spoiled and an idiot. His position pissed the elders off as well but he wasn’t touched due to his dad.
THE AFTERMATH
Life in prison was not kind to Gotti. His family spent every other weekend taking a plane to see him which VJr said was very depressing and a repeat of her childhood. At one point her brother John Jr was in prison too which made things even harder. Gotti didn’t do well in prison even tho he spent most of his time in solitary. He was old fashioned and very racist. He was beat up in prison by a black guy for using the N word and then tried to have the Aryan nation kill the man but he was transferred to another prison. All appeals were of course denied and even though the mafia Commission continued to ask him to step down he refused preferring to communicate through his sons instead (Peter took the reigns while John Jr was locked up).
By this time (late 90s) the Gotti family was fractured, the Gambino crime family was losing power w so many members in prison or snitching and to make matters worse Gotti was diagnosed w throat cancer as well. It took this news to even get Victoria Sr to begin speaking to her husband again after many years of silence. She would write him hateful letters blaming him for the death of Frankie (bad karma) and her son John Jr being locked up she said felt like another death. The only reason he “allowed” Jr to take a plea deal to get out of prison/the mafia was because she threatened to divorce him. I don’t recall her being very happy in that marriage ever and there were rumors before his arrest of him seeing Lisa Gastineau which the mom denied but I believe it. She wanted Gotti to leave his wife and when he refused he had goons come strip her apt of anything he bought her including the jewelry she was wearing at the time.
Gotti died June 2002 from throat cancer after an awful battle in prison. He received chemo chained to his bed and spent many nights crying for help while lying in his sick. The 5 families did not send a customary representative because of the unofficial hit Gotti put out on Castenello. By the turn of the century practically 200 members were in prison and many blamed Gotti due to his big mouth, flash and taunting the FEDS. The funeral was of course massive but the main part that stuck out for me was a family friend told VJr that a close associate of her dads was a rat and stole all the $. It turned out to be true because before they thought John Jr spent it all. Nope. Gotti trusted way too many of the wrong ppl. I’m sure they all have some coins but not very much. John Jr told 50 minutes he’s heavily in debt and they all carry huge mortgages. Excellent interview btw:
*He also uses the N word in a prison visit w Victoria and her son. John hated the 90s because he claimed everybody was acting like Ns and rhymes with booms. He said it clear as day after his grandson expressed interest in wanting to be a professional athlete. Gotti claimed all athletes used steroids and anyone who lies/cheats/uses steroids is a GARBAGE PAIL!! The kid got nervous and said ok I’ll be a COOK, Gotti thought the boy said CROOK and just went off. His mom never defended him either. Gotti seemed like a major azzhole, insecure and a bully. He also had his kids brainwashed. Victoria claims she was always too proud to ask her dad for anything, if you ask me the women just weren’t thought of! They enjoy the ride for awhile and the minute their men get locked up they are on their own.
Italian women can’t talk about black women. Italian men are so brutish and keep their women extremely ignorant and dependent it’s almost abusive. They spend all their time cooking and minding the men and their every need. On TV it looks cute, reading about it had me exhausted and thankful I went to college. The men are not smart, not very athletic or even charming because everything results in a fist fight or beheading. Gotti didn’t even believe a woman should drive. VJr fell victim to this as well during her divorce when she learned her ex had taken out a second million dollar mortgage. These Italian women really don’t ask ?s like everything you see on RHONJ is the real deal in fact they prob play a lot down which is why they’ve brought “others” to the cast now.
I have read that the Gottis still have Gambino ties in Italy that help take care of them financially but who knows. All I know is “the life” is definitely not for me and I came away much less impressed w Italians and the mob than I was going in. While reading I felt a lot of pride towards my ppl who were truly leading w civil rights and education during that time. Maybe our lack of being ruthless was our downfall? Idk. But the Gotti family was fascinating and once you start w them it’s a deep dive into a new world.
I wish I could have included more but this is a good start:
This Family of Mine: What It Was Like Growing Up Gotti
Gangland - How FBI Broke the Mob (95) by Blum, Howard [Mass Market Paperback (2002)]
I also found some excellent podcasts as well, Angel Gotti has a YouTube channel and John Jr is on there all the time. They are trying to get an interview together w him and Sam the Bull (his dads snitch).
*excellent channel esp when she goes live it’s very exciting. I’m telling y’all it really is stepping into a new world
Sam “The Bull” is like Joe Pesci from “Goodfellas” and he has stories for days: https://youtube.com/channel/UC2qsQ8pUNhhANzMIy6kha2w
So who here is a New Yorker and Jersey girl familiar w “the life” as they call it?
Do y’all think Gotti brought down the mafia?
Who has been to Italy? Is it as racist as I imagine it to be?
Pls feel free to add as much as possible about all the mobsters, their women etc… This was Lucille Ball’s element for a MINUTE back in NY she loved a gangster! Thx for reading.
