Word: gotti
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Before he was locked up in New York City's Metropolitan Correctional Center last May to await trial on racketeering charges, reputed Mafia Boss John $ Gotti, 45, was known for his expensive Italian suits and impeccable grooming...
Justifiably indignant, Piecyk filed charges and told a grand jury what had happened. The jury indicted the arrested pair, John Gotti and Frank Colletta, for assault and robbery. Soon, however, Piecyk was wishing he had just forgotten about the whole episode...
...found the brakes on his van had been tampered with. That was scary enough, but the chiller came last December when Piecyk read about the Manhattan sidewalk slaying of Paul Castellano, head of the Gambino crime family, one of the nation's most powerful Mafia groups. Newspapers identified Gotti, 45, who has served six years for attempted manslaughter and other crimes, as the probable successor to Castellano; some reports suggested that he might have been involved in the killing. Piecyk also read that after Gotti's son Frank, 12, was killed in 1979 when struck by a car driven...
Piecyk, understandably, got scared. He wrote to Queens District Attorney John J. Santucci that after he read that Gotti was not merely one of the "punks in the Mob" but "was next in line for Godfather, naturally, my idea of pursuing this matter dropped. I can't and will not live the rest of my life in fear." When Piecyk was finally put on the witness stand, he lost his memory. He could not recall having been robbed by anyone. Wearing dark glasses, he pointedly avoided looking at Gotti, who lounged at the defense table, nattily dressed in a dark...
Next day the charges were dropped and Gotti, who could have received a 15-year sentence if convicted, walked out of the court joking and laughing. Gotti is scheduled to go back on trial next week as one of the main defendants in a racketeering and conspiracy case against members of the Gambino crime family. While he can hardly consider that a welcome prospect, he may find it more seemly to stand trial as a would-be Godfather than as a common street mugger...