Word: gotti
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Gotti was born in the Bronx, the son of a construction worker who was equally at home on a building site and in a street brawl. When he was twelve the family moved to Brownsville, near East New York, the grim neighborhood whose mean streets gave birth to Murder, Inc. The young Gotti got involved with local gangs and, though he was a clever student, was suspended from school in the eighth grade. He never went back. The streets became his sole education...
...soon became a foot soldier under Carmine and Danny Fatico, reputed old- guard members of the Gambino family. Arrested several times, Gotti served a year in jail starting in 1965 for attempted burglary and three years, beginning in 1969, for a hijacking from an airport warehouse. He was not around much for the early years of his five children by his wife Victoria, the daughter of an Italian builder and a Russian-Jewish mother...
...Gotti was considered a highflyer and was working for the Gambino ^ family underboss, Aniello Dellacroce, a Mafia traditionalist whom Gotti emulated. He endeared himself to the Gambino family when, in 1973, he took part in the killing of a 6-ft. 4-in. Irishman who had supposedly kidnaped and murdered a nephew of Carlo Gambino's. Gotti pleaded guilty to attempted manslaughter and served two years in Green Haven prison...
...Gotti became frustrated and angry in 1976 when Paul Castellano, rather than Dellacroce, succeeded Carlo Gambino as the family boss. Gotti reportedly thought Castellano, who was Gambino's brother-in-law and had little in common with hard-core mobsters like Gotti, was unworthy of the high position; the prudent Castellano was wary of the hot-tempered young capo. When Dellacroce died last year, Gotti was in line to become the new underboss. Castellano, however, had other ideas and seemed ready to elevate his chauffeur-bodyguard, Thomas Bilotti. Last year Castellano and Bilotti were mowed down in a brazen late...
...parts of Ozone Park, Gotti is a folk hero. He lives in Howard Beach, a few miles away, in an unpretentious, tree-shaded house. On a corner of 101st Avenue, a few blocks down from the Bergen Hunt and Fish Club, Connie, a school crossing guard, has been escorting children across the same street for ten years. "People here look up to him," she says of Gotti. "As soon as you mention his name, he gets respect. As far as I'm concerned, they're crucifying him." A young mother in a powder blue jumpsuit, who is picking...