Word: gotti
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Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise, therefore, that many of the city’s tabloids and journalists, in their coverage of his death, chose not to portray the real John Gotti. Few were willing to acknowledge that, yes, the man had been a murderous criminal. A New York Post columnist argued that while “Gotti sure as hell may have whacked some goodfellas-badfellas in the pursuit of business…his crew didn’t come near mine or your wallets, like the Enron sissies did.” This same...
...late boss to New York Newsday as “[a] most remarkable human being who was a champion in my book.” Defense attorney Ronald Kuby, who handled some of Gotti’s post-conviction legal matters, stressed to Newsday that “John Gotti had the same skills as the CEO of any large, successful corporation. He had that sort of touch where he remembered names and faces. He was gracious. Had his life gone differently, he would probably be running a large corporation and doing it well, better than Enron...
...canonization of John Gotti is truly unfortunate, particularly at a time when Americans, and especially New Yorkers, have been forced to regain a sense of moral clarity about the world in which they live. The much-maligned concept of “good and evil” returned in full force after Sept. 11, we are repeatedly told; but differentiating between good and evil requires us to recognize even subtle, craftily-disguised forms of evil. The bottom line is this: John Gotti was a vicious thug who either murdered or ordered the murders of many, many people, including...
...certain sense, it was understandable that John Gotti’s death would receive lots of media coverage; after all, the Don had been an immense public figure in New York City. What was baffling, though, was how the recently deceased Gotti suddenly emerged as a paragon of virtue, character and righteous perseverance. He may have been a good father to his children and a loving husband to his wife—none of us are entitled to dispute those claims from his family. To that end, our prayers should be with his relatives, as they struggle through this trying...
That being said, we must never forget exactly who John Gotti was. His Alger-esque rise to fame and fortune shouldn’t blind us to the reality that the Dapper Don was a really just a depraved gangster. He may have been New York’s favorite criminal, but he is definitely not a New York hero...