John A. Gotti

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John Angelo Gotti (born February 14, 1964) is an alleged mobster in New York City. He is better known as Junior Gotti.

Career

Gotti was born in 1964 on Valentine's Day to Victoria DiGiorgio and John J. Gotti. His father was Italian American and it was alleged by muckraking journalist Jack Newfield, in a 2002 New York Magazine article, that his mother was half Italian and half Jewish.^[1] He had two brothers, Frankie and Peter. He also has two sisters, Victoria Gotti and Angela. He is normally called Junior Gotti since he has his father's first name, even though they have different middle initials. He attended New York Military Academy in Cornwall,New York. John Gotti Jr. graduated in 1982 and allegedly started hanging out with his father's Mafia connections in the Gambino crime family. He was promoted to Capo in 1990. He also married Kim Albanese in 1990. He has allegedly been the acting boss at various times between 1992 and 1999, but he does not have the ruthlessness his father had to run the family the way they wanted it run. He has claimed in court to have retired from the Mafia in 1999, in furtherance of a statute of limitations defense. In 1999, he was sentenced to 6 years for racketeering. In 2004, he claimed that when he was released, he wanted out of the so called Mafia business for good and wanted to take his family to Canada. He has bitter feelings for his uncle Peter Gotti, whom he claims turned his back on him and his father while they were in prison. He has considerable bitterness toward Carmine Agnello for cheating on his sister Victoria too. On September 20, 2005, another racketeering trial against Gotti was declared a mistrial after the jury announced it was hopelessly deadlocked, with the exception of one charge of stock manipulation, on which Gotti was acquitted[1]. The charges in the case included an allegation of a plot to kidnap Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels crime-fighting group. Gotti faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the multiple racketeering charges. The trial continued on February 13, 2006. On March 10, 2006 a mistrial was declared after the jury announced it was hopelessly deadlocked on the charges. Gotti refused a plea deal in April that would have seen him serve five years. The deal was turned down because Junior believed that the Federal Government would use the time he was incarcerated to bring further racketeering charges against him. After the two mistrials, Gotti's third trial on the same charges started in August 2006 and ended exactly as the two others did. On September 27, 2006, a third mistrial was declared after the jury informed the court that they were hopelessly deadlocked. At that time, he vowed to leave the state of New York permanently if cleared of the charges[2]. For the second time, a judge on September 13, 2006 tossed out new racketeering charges filed against John "Junior" Gotti, finding the evidence introduced at his trial insufficient to support a conviction. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin decided the government had not proven its claims that money invested in several of Gotti's properties stemmed from alleged loansharking or construction industry extortion. In October 2006, prosecutors decided to drop all criminal charges against Jr. Gotti. [3]During the trial years it was Gotti seeking counsel from Evan G. Lerman whom at this time the Government was attempting to put all the blame from Lerman's father-in-law John Marzullo misdeeds on Lerman. Gotti, although desperately needed the comraderie with the Lerman refused to add to his troubles. In the 2007 murder and racketeering trial of Gambino captain/soldier Dominick "Skinny Dom" Pizzonia, Gotti Jr.'s name came up in regard to his alleged involvement in ordering the slayings of the "Bonnie and Clyde" thieves who had been robbing mob social clubs. Gotti Jr. notified both sides of the trial that he would invoke his 5th Amendment rights if called to testify. Further, Pizzonia's attorney, played a jailhouse recorded conversation, in which Gotti Jr. stated that Anthony Spero, former Bonanno family consigliere, ordered the killings, and was not ordered by associate Salvatore DeGrazia, as reported. The television show Law & Order has used his cases twice;First in the season 9 episode Ambitious,and then in Season 15 episode with a different character, Cry Wolf He currently resides in Oyster Bay, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. He used to live in Massapequa, New York on the South Shore of Long Island.

References

^ http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/trends/columns/cityside/6160/

Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti by Gene Mustain & Jerry Capeci in 2002, ISBN 0-02-864416-6.
Gotti: The Rise & Fall by Jerry Capeci in 1996, ISBN 0-451-40681-8.