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Mob Boss John Gotti Dies at Age 61
Mon Jun 10, 2:27 PM ET
NEW YORK (AP) - John Gotti, who swaggered, schemed and murdered his way to the pinnacle of organized crime in America only to be toppled by secret FBI ( news - web sites) tapes and a turncoat mobster's testimony, died at a prison hospital Monday while serving a life sentence, a law enforcement source told The Associated Press. He was 61.
The former Mafia boss died in Springfield, Mo., the source said. He had suffered from throat cancer and had been moved to the prison hospital from the maximum-security federal prison in Marion, Ill.
Once known the "Dapper Don" for his fine double-breasted suits and the "Teflon Don" after a series of acquittals, Gotti was sentenced to life in 1992 for racketeering and six killings. His victims included "Big Paul" Castellano, whom he succeeded as boss of New York's Gambino crime family in 1985.
Gotti reigned for six years as the nation's most high-profile mobster, passing himself off as a plumbing supply salesman while strutting about in $2,000 Brioni suits and sneering at law enforcers who kept trying to put him behind bars. Some crime chroniclers called him the most important gangster since Al Capone, a comparison Gotti did not discourage.
Mon Jun 10, 2:27 PM ET
NEW YORK (AP) - John Gotti, who swaggered, schemed and murdered his way to the pinnacle of organized crime in America only to be toppled by secret FBI ( news - web sites) tapes and a turncoat mobster's testimony, died at a prison hospital Monday while serving a life sentence, a law enforcement source told The Associated Press. He was 61.
The former Mafia boss died in Springfield, Mo., the source said. He had suffered from throat cancer and had been moved to the prison hospital from the maximum-security federal prison in Marion, Ill.
Once known the "Dapper Don" for his fine double-breasted suits and the "Teflon Don" after a series of acquittals, Gotti was sentenced to life in 1992 for racketeering and six killings. His victims included "Big Paul" Castellano, whom he succeeded as boss of New York's Gambino crime family in 1985.
Gotti reigned for six years as the nation's most high-profile mobster, passing himself off as a plumbing supply salesman while strutting about in $2,000 Brioni suits and sneering at law enforcers who kept trying to put him behind bars. Some crime chroniclers called him the most important gangster since Al Capone, a comparison Gotti did not discourage.
