Fred Brunning

In the absence of worthy heroes, Americans often idolize criminals. So argues Fred Brunning, a widely published freelance writer and staff writer for Newsday. In the following selection Brunning discusses the hero status in America of convicted felon and Mafia leader John Gotti. He observes that while Americans publicly scorn organized crime, criminals such as Gotti appeal to Americans because they present an image of a romantic lifestyle that is unobtainable to most people-one filled with passion, danger, and easy money.

AT ABOUT THE TIME BLACKS IN SOUTH AFRICA were celebrating African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela's release from prison, dozens of bystanders outside a Manhattan courtroom cheered John Gotti, who federal investigators say is boss of the largest Mafia family in the United States. Mandela, a prisoner of conscience for 27 years, was greeted as a hero upon returning to Soweto. Gotti, charged...