October 27, 1940
June 10, 2002
AKA: The Teflon Don
Mobster
The Mafia is a secret organization of criminals who may control gambling, drug sales, and other illegal activities in a city or area. The Italian Mafia in the United States is dominated by “families” of criminals who are loyal to one another. Each family is organized like a business, with each person assigned a certain job and one boss, or don, making the decisions and issuing orders. John Gotti rose to the top of the Mafia’s Gambino family at a young age. For years he served as a Mafia boss, earning the nickname the Teflon Don because of his ability to make sure that police charges against him did not stick. Arrested several times, he managed to stay out of jail. (See original entry on Gotti in Outlaws, Mobsters, & Crooks, Volume 1.)
But in 1992 Gotti’s high-level hit man (killer for the Mafia), Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, volunteered to testify against his boss and other members of the Mafia. This time the charges against Gotti stuck. Convicted of murder and racketeering (threatening a business for profit), Gotti was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole (early release). In 1998, just a few years into his life sentence, the former don developed throat cancer from which he eventually died from on June 10, 2002.
When Gotti was fifty-seven years old and had served five years in the federal prison in Marion, Illinois, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He soon underwent chemotherapy (chemical treatment to fight or control disease) and surgery to remove a tumor from his neck. Many thought that the Mafia don had conquered the cancer. But during a routine checkup in September 2000, doctors discovered that the cancer had returned. This time Gotti was diagnosed with cancer of the neck, head, and throat. The outlook was poor since experts believe that a second series of chemotherapy is generally less successful than the first.
Gotti’s health worsened after he was transferred to a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri. Chemotherapy had caused him to lose so much weight that doctors decided to discontinue treatment. It was reported that the once-robust mobster withered to only 100 pounds (45 kilograms). “This is just another battle in his life, and he’s fighting,” Gotti lawyer Joseph Corozzo told the press. Hospital officials required Gotti to use a wheelchair—against his will. “He’s forced to be in a wheelchair,” Corozzo told the press. But Gotti “insists on getting about on his own without assistance. John is defiant to the end.”
Family and friends complained about the treatment Gotti received in the hospital. The former don was reportedly held in a small room behind three sets of doors. They also claimed that doctors and nurses did not visit him often enough. “I’m distressed by the isolation,” Corozzo told the press. “His family, his attorneys are all distressed by the isolation. It seems inherently unjust for a terminally ill patient [a patient with no hope of recovery] to be isolated from assistance and human contact.”
Corozzo also claimed that the hospital warden, Bill Hedrick—who had been warden at the Marion penitentiary during Gotti’s stay there—had singled out the Teflon Don to receive harsh treatment. The ailing mobster was refused contact with his grandchildren, placed in a Plexiglas enclosure to prevent physical contact with his family, and denied commissary privileges (the freedom to purchase food and other supplies from the prison hospital’s store). Only one other inmate—Terry Nichols, convicted in the Oklahoma City bombing—has been denied commissary privileges.
By June 2001 doctors reported that Gotti’s cancer had worsened and he had only weeks to live. But by August 2001 he had recovered enough to be transferred back to prison. His health situation again declined and Gotti was re-hospitalized for his illness. He died on June 10, 2002 at a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri.
The Saga of Sammy the Bull
In 1998 mobster Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano provided testimony, or evidence, that led to the conviction of John Gotti and thirty-six other fellow mobsters. A Mafia hit man who confessed to nineteen murders, Gravano cooperated with officials in exchange for leniency—he disclosed the crimes of his colleagues so that his own punishment would not be as severe. He was sentenced to just five years in prison for his crimes.
Released in 1995, Gravano went into the federal witness protection program. Plastic surgery changed his appearance and he was given a phony birth certificate, marriage license, and social security number. Transplanted to Phoenix, Arizona, he posed as Jimmy Moran, a contractor from South Dakota.
Gravano realized that his former mob colleagues probably knew where he was. “In the mob,” he told the press, “anytime anybody flips [reveals Mafia information to law enforcement] there’s an open contract on him [to kill him]. I’m not running from the Mafia. I could go to Montana and live twenty years in a cabin and be scared to death. Or I can live here, where I’m happy, for five years.”
In Phoenix, the former hit man made little effort to hide his true identity. Eventually, he left the witness protection program. He openly revealed who he was and was happy to give his autograph to those who asked. His book, titled Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano’s Story of Life in the Mafia, included a post-surgery picture of him on the cover. He even appeared on television with ABC news correspondent Diane Sawyer to promote his book.
Gravano enjoyed the lifestyle of the rich and famous. He and his wife Debra freely spent their money at restaurants and shops. They even paid cash for their cars; each family member drove a high-priced Lexus sedan. “He seemed to own half a Lexus dealership,” a neighbor told the New York Times.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) soon became suspicious of Gravano’s lifestyle. His pool construction company had only two jobs on record, which could not have supported his many expenses. Yet the company registered regular payments. Eventually, law enforcement agents were able to charge Gravano as the head of a drug-dealing ring in Arizona and New Mexico. Extradited (surrendered to another legal authority) from New Mexico, he was charged in New York for possession of forty thousand tablets of the drug known as Ecstasy. Gravano now faces a long prison term.
“Gotti Reportedly Gravely Ill With Cancer.” Washington Post (June 13, 2001): p. A16.
“Gravano’s Bail Set at $5 Million.” United Press International (February 28, 2000).
Jerry Capeci’s Gang Land. http://www.ganglandnews.com/gotti.htm (accessed August 2, 2002).
“John Gotti.” Maclean’s (October 5, 1998): p. 11.
“John Gotti Jr.” U. S. News & World Report (February 2, 1998): p. 5.
Smith, Greg B.”Gotti Is Near Death, as Doctors Stop Chemotherapy.” Knight-Ridder/TribuneNews Service (June 13, 2001): p. K5621.
Smith, Greg B.”Prison Doctors Give Crime Boss John Gotti Only Two Months to Live.” Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service (April 18, 2001): p. K7622.
“Strip Club’s Owner Admits Racketeering; Kaplan, 4 Others Make Deal During Trial.” Washington Post (August 3, 2001): p. A03.
“Who’s Da Boss?” U.S. News & World Report (August 28, 2000): p. 8.
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