The Gotti Follies

The name Gotti brings to mind the image of John Gotti as boss of the Gambino crime family, dressed in a two thousand dollar suit.  The public doesn’t understand the lasting negative effect John Gotti Sr. had on the Gambinos.  The truth is, John Gotti Sr. helped the feds weaken the crime family through his actions.

The Gambino family had a lot of crews in multiple states.  John Sr. started making all his capos check in every week at the Ravenite club in Little Italy. This made it easy for the law to keep tabs on who was doing what.  He held meetings inside an apartment above the club that the Feds had wired up.  He bragged, and they caught him on tape.  Sammy Gravano, the family underboss, flipped to team USA.

John Sr. went away for life and he left his son John Jr. as the acting boss.  Junior would later talk to the Feds when he had a proffer session.   He gave up guys for crimes.

Then his daughter Victoria had a reality show, “Growing up Gotti.” Today, they are shooting a movie about John Gotti.  I wonder if they will include anything about Gotti’s neighbor, John Favara, a hard-working man who “disappeared” after accidentally hitting and killing Gotti’s son Frank, who at the time he was hit was driving an illegal mini bike and not obeying basic traffic rules.

There is Gotti news in 2016.  John’s brother Gene, who did many years for dealing heroin, will be up for release soon.  

John Gotti Sr.’s grandson, John Gotti, the son of Peter Gotti, was arrested on June 30th for possessing 205 Oxycodone pills, Testosterone, Xanax, Marijuana and 18 methadone pills. He also had over $7k in cash on him along with the drugs, and was arrested while driving with a suspended license.  

On August 4th the NYPD concluded Operation Beach Party with the raiding of the former Queens home of John Gotti Sr., where his grandson John Gotti lived with his father Peter. The NYPD found a safe with $40k and over 500 Oxycodone pills inside.  They also raided the Rebel Ink Tattoo parlor and arrested seven other people involved in the drug crew.  The NYPD seized $200k from one of the players, who was said to be holding it for John Gotti.

Grandson John Gotti is now in a Rikers Island drug rehab where he awaits trial. A judge denied his bid to be freed on a $2 million bond because he is facing 25 years if convicted.

That is not all of the recent news in the Gotti saga. Victoria Gotti had her Long Island mansion raided by the IRS on September 14th. They also raided an Auto Parts store in Queens owned by her ex-husband Carmine Agnello, a made member of the Gambino family who is awaiting trial in Cleveland, Ohio where he ran some scrap yards.  The store is currently being run by Victoria and her three sons, who were all reality stars in her show.

Agnello, now divorced from Victoria, is facing charges for his part in a stolen car ring.

The Gottis are not keeping a low profile, although that seems like the best thing to be doing in their situation. Last year a tape was played in the trial of Vincent Asaro, a Bonanno family capo.  Asaro was inside the auto parts store when one of the Gottis said hello to him.

To continue the life of crime with the Gotti name seems crazy.

Gene Gotti & Gambino Family

Gene Gotti, the younger brother of John Gotti,  will be released on September 19, 2018 at the age of 72. Gene was given 50 years on July 8, 1989.  At the time he went away his older brother John was the boss of the Gambino family.  John then went away for life in 1992 and later his son John Junior took over for him.  Junior would later break all the rules by talking to the FBI and giving up Danny Marino and Joe Watts. The Garbage Man Peter Gotti, another brother of John Gotti, was even worse for the family.  

The new Gambino family is run by the Sicilian faction, but maybe Gene will fit in with them.  Gene has maintained a steady stream of visitors who speak to him on many family topics including his brothers and nephews.  Many of these men were heroin dealers like Gene, and some continue to push their poison to the masses.  Gene Gotti, Angelo Ruggiero, John Carneglia and Sal Ruggiero ran a multimillion dollar heroin empire and it was running smooth until Sal was indicted and had to go on the run.  

Sal worked with many people including mob criminal attorney Michael Coiro and criminals including Joseph Guagliano, Anthony Moscatiello, Oscar Ansourian, Edward Lino, Mark Reiter, William Robert Cestaro, Salvatore Greco, Joseph Lo Presti, Vincent Lore, Anthony Gurino and Caesar Gurino.  He would also deal with a lot of those that would go away for the Pizza Connection.   The drug cash was flowing into John Gotti's Bergin crew and Sal was an unofficial member because of the ban on drugs in the Gambino Family.  The ban is funny because Carlo Gambino profited off drugs, the Zips, the Cherry Hill Gambinos all paid him.  The new boss, Big Paul Castellano, had made a pact with Genovese Boss Chin Gigante “deal and die”  they were to not discuss it, just kill those that had anything to do with drugs.  They rightly figured that if guys were caught dealing they would be facing so much time that they would flip.  

On May 6, 1982 Sal Ruggiero and his wife boarded a Learjet in New Jersey bound for Florida where Sal was going to look at a McDonalds franchise that was for sale. The day was perfect and the sky a clear blue and over the Atlantic the jet requested permission to descend.  It descended but went into a dive straight into the ocean where it killed everyone aboard.

Angelo lost his brother (who had been a fugitive running his drug empire while on the run) and also his partner.   Angelo and Gene had to move fast because the Feds identified Sal’s body and they would be looking for his hideouts.  Sal had died when they had just gotten a large load of heroin.  Angelo started cleaning out Sal’s hideouts but according to the lawyer, turned crew member Michael Coiro Gen found the heroin.  This would all come out because the FBI had been watching Angelo because of his connection to the Gotti’s.  They had wiretaps and bugs in his home and they were listening when all this was going down.

Angelo was able to get a copy of an affidavit in support of a warrant to bug his home.  It came via a Genovese soldier and Angelo knew that he and Gene Gotti would soon be indicted for running Sal’s heroin business. It all came crashing down on August 8, 1983 when the FBI arrested Angelo, Gene Gotti and others for drug dealing.  It was soon learned that the tapes had provided the evidence the FBI needed to bug Gambino Boss Big Paulie’s home on Staten Island.

Paulie ordered his ailing underboss Neil Dellacroce to have have Angelo turn over the tapes so he could hear them.  The Gotti brothers Gene and John knew that the tapes would mean certain death for all of them.  They held off by making up excuses and when Dellacroce died and Big Paulie did not attend his funeral they used that to fuel the fire.  They started planning to murder Big Paulie.   On December 16, 1985 John Gotti struck, killing Big Paulie and his underboss Tommy Bilotti in Midtown Manhattan.  John Gotti was now the Gambino boss and he upped his brother Gene to Capo of his Bergin crew.  Gene would be found guilty of drug dealing in 1989, almost 7 years after his arrest. He went through 3 trials where jurors were threatened and bribed until he was given 50 years.  The Gambino family as it is stands today is no long Gene’s family.