All language subtitles for Very Scary People s04e12 John Gotti 2.eng

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Welcome to "Very Scary People."
I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

He was one of the most notorious
Mafia dons in American history.

Born in the Bronx,
raised in Brooklyn,

John Gotti clawed his way
to the top of the organization

by any means necessary.

Case in point ...
the 1985 murder of Mafia boss

Paul Castellano
so that Gotti could take over

the powerful Gambino
crime family.

Law enforcement and even
other goodfellas

considered Gotti dangerous
and unpredictable.

And for many years,
he seemed unstoppable,

until a secret FBI operation
finally ended Gotti's reign.

This is part 2 of "John Gotti."

??

Louis DiBono was an associate
of the crime family.

Papa:
DiBono was in construction.

Helped build
the World Trade Center.

All of a sudden, he disappeared.

Papa: He was missing
for a few days.

Nobody could find him.

Gabriel: We had actually gotten
informant information

that indicated ... they said,
"Hey, Louie DiBono's dead.

He was left
in a very public place.

You should be able
to find the body."

Papa: The irony
of Louis DiBono's death was,

here he was in construction,
built the world trade center,

and his body was found
in the parking lot

of the World Trade Center.

Gabriel: DiBono was laying dead
in his car

for two days
in the parking lot.

Somebody that thought
this guy was asleep

knocked on the window
and realized he was dead.

He'd been just sitting there
for two days.

Nobody had noticed.

Papa: Gotti used DiBono,
actually, as an example.

He would teach lessons,
and if anybody was disloyal

or anybody wasn't listening
to John Gotti,

there were fatal
consequences.

Gotti, at one point,
wanted to talk with him.

DiBono wouldn't meet with him or
wouldn't answer his telephones.

DiBono didn't want to do what
Gotti was telling him to do.

And for that reason,
for not coming

when Gotti wanted him to come,
Gotti decided that he had to go.

DiBono was going to his car,

and an assassination team
followed him,

cased it out...

shot him dead in the car,
and got out of there.

Was John Gotti an evil
or vicious person?

Absolutely, he was.

??

Schumacher:
In 1985, John Gotti was a capo in the Gambino crime family.

Capos, or captains,
are really like crew chiefs.

They're responsible for either
different areas of geography

or of different types of crimes
that they're focused on.

And these capos have under
them soldiers and associates.

The Gambino crime family
was the largest crime family

in the greater New York area.

They were extremely powerful
and were involved

in just a vast array
of criminal enterprises,

everything from bookmaking
and loan-sharking,

up to their control of unions,

involvement with
the construction industry.

The Gambinos were one of the
five Mafia families in New York,

and this was the structure
of organized crime.

In 1985, Paul Castellano
was the boss

of the Gambino crime family.

Gotti didn't think
highly of him at all.

He thought, frankly,
that Castellano

should never have been put
in the position he was put in.

Gotti decides
that Castellano has to go.

DeStefano:
And that's what happened.

He went after Castellano
and set up the infamous

December 1985 assassination
of Castellano

in front
of Sparks Steak House.

Schumacher:
After Castellano's death,

Gotti makes a bid
to become the boss,

and he ultimately
does become the boss.

??

Once John Gotti becomes the head
of the Gambino crime family,

what emerges is
a very unprecedented

and very public head
of a mob family.

Elevation to stardom
in the Mafia

was a sea change for John Gotti.

Before he became boss,

he was known as sort
of a casual dresser,

often seen walking around
in jackets,

one of which was
for the Oakland Raiders.

And, suddenly, overnight,
his whole attire changed.

He started wearing
hand-painted ties,

believe it or not,
monogrammed socks.

He would show up in these,
you know, $1,000 Armani suits.

He would be dapper John.

He got his hair done every day,
got a shave.

He switched his whole lifestyle
from being a Queens hood

to being this sort of
boss-of-bosses-type character.

Morrill:
John Gotti was truly a wolf in sheep's clothing.

The John Gotti that I knew
was a common criminal,

and crime took no holiday
when it was in John's hands.

Cardinale: His presence
was such that if he were annoyed

or if he was mad,
you couldn't miss it.

It would be like
a storm brewing.

You could see it in his eyes.

His eyes, in my view,
would literally change color

and become really, really dark
when he was really infuriated.

He was somebody who had
no issues at all

about brow-beating people
within his organization.

He sent out a warning
to the capos

and everybody else
in the family

that if they were picked up
on any kind of recording or bug,

they would be met with death.

Gabriel: These guys
are dangerous people.

Killing is in their fabric.

They're able to turn
on people on a dime.

If they feel threatened in any
way, their reaction to it is,

"That guy's got to go,"
period, and he goes.

And it's your friend
who's doing it.

So there's a different level
of ruthlessness behind that.

And John Gotti was
the epitome of that.

If you crossed John Gotti,

you were probably going to be
dead within 24 hours.

It was part of his whole
homicidal character.

He didn't care what
the consequences were.

??

??

There comes a time
when John Gotti allegedly

has a dispute with
a refrigerator repairman

named Romual Piecyk.

Raab:
Gotti went to a bar in Queens,

and he double-parked.

And Gotti saw this guy honking,
whose car he had blocked,

and he walked over and told him
to go [bleep] himself.

And this repairman
talked back to him.

So, in typical Gotti fashion,

they started beating
up this guy.

Cardinale:
Gotti was a street guy.

He was not a kind of person
you'd want to get mad.

Raab: They took his money
and then drove off.

Gotti didn't expect any problem.

Cardinale: The guy then goes
to the police,

claims that he was attacked
for no reason,

and John gets arrested.

Gabriel: It's not until
a year or two later,

that matter now comes to trial.

Raab: And, suddenly,
Gotti, instead of being

this almost nobody in Queens,
now is a big figure.

He's the head
of the Gambino family.

The refrigerator repairman,

suddenly realizing who he got
into a scuffle with,

got this case of amnesia.

Papa: He realized
who he was dealing with

and he didn't want to deal
with the consequences.

He testified that he didn't know
who that man was.

He didn't know
who John Gotti was.

He didn't remember anything
that happened to him.

And so that whole case
just went up in smoke.

Raab: Of course, Gotti walked.

To him, it was an example
of how invincible he was.

??

Man: John Gotti was in Brooklyn
federal court on Monday.

Gotti and six co-defendants
were charged under the Rico Act,

which stands for racketeer
influenced corrupt organization.

Gabriel: He's indicted
in the early '80s.

It's street-level
criminal activity.

It's a loan-sharking case.

It's gambling.
It's some hijackings.

It's been lingering for a while,
so in '86,

when that case
finally comes to trial,

this is a another shot
to take him off the street.

Man: John Gotti had been free on
$1 million bail, pending trial.

Officials say they confiscated
several cigars

and locked Gotti up.

The alleged godfather is a man
with considerable charisma.

But prosecutors hope to put
that charisma behind bars

for the next 40 years.

The prosecutors were not
particularly experienced,

but they were optimistic
that they could

somehow pull this off.

This case went on and on.

It went on for months.

We would ask him,
"How's it going in the trial?"

And he would say,
"Oh, we're going to

win this case no problem."

Man: None of the people on trial
looked nervous,

even though they could
have faced 40 years

in prison if convicted.

Ultimately, the jury in march of
1987, declared Gotti not guilty.

Papa: He was acquitted
in that case, as well.

Raab: The truth is,
it was a fixed trial.

Gotti had no way of losing.

DeStefano: His underlings
had learned about

the identity of a juror

and approached the juror
with an offer ...

$60,000, give or take.

And the juror was essentially
agreeing to hang the jury.

Schumacher: In Gotti's world,
Sammy Gravano was his underboss.

He was his right-hand man
on all the important endeavors.

Sammy Gravano
was actually the guy

that delivered the money
to pay this juror off.

Gravano:
I worked out a deal with him for $60,000 to find him not guilty.

DeStefano: It wasn't a case
of good defense

in that case for Gotti.

Simply a classic
corruption case.

??

Announcer:
Welcome to "Larry King Live."

Tonight, will they finally
get the godfather?

King: Reputed to be the boss
of the nation's

most powerful Mafia
crime family,

Gotti is charged
with ordering the shooting

of a union official.

Feldman: During the late '80s,
John O'Connor

was a union leader
in New York City.

And he ended up having
a confrontation

with the Gambino crime family.

And in retribution, John Gotti
and the Gambino family allegedly

went after John O'Connor.

And O'Connor was shot
multiple times,

although he did
survive the shooting.

A lot of people who observed
the trial at the time

thought the evidence
was pretty strong.

There were tapes where he said,
"I'm going to bust them up.

Man: But O'Connor, the man
with the white hair,

was subpoenaed by Gotti
to testify for the defense.

He dealt the government
a major blow.

Raab: He testified, in effect,

that he never heard
anything from John Gotti.

He didn't know who shot him.

Man: The Gotti case will go
to the jury early next week.

If he is found not guilty,

it would be the third time
in a row

that the government would have
failed to convict Gotti,

and that, said one
longtime courtroom observer,

would make the government look
"pretty stupid."

Man: We find him not guilty.

He was acquitted in that case

and he walked out
of there scot-free.

What was unknown until later,
that this jury

also might have been fixed.

Gravano: He knew that,
at bare minimum,

he had a hung jury.

He wasn't going to get
found guilty.

I got it.

Woman: A shake and a kiss
from his lawyer, and with that,

he was off and running,
Gotti looking more like Rocky,

pumped up with the victory
of his latest legal bought.

[People cheering]

When he left the courthouse
that day,

there were thousands
of people

waiting outside,
cheering for him.

Man: It was his third acquittal

in three separate cases
since 1986.

DeStefano: That gave him the
reputation as the Teflon Don,

when no charges could stick,
it seemed.

Man: Legal experts
say the bumbling of state

and federal prosecutors
in the past four years

has given Gotti
an aura of invincibility.

Here, we have this guy that
just keeps thumbing his nose

at law enforcement,
keeps winning

these criminal cases
in the public's eye,

and we got to find a way
to put him in jail.

The feds were getting
pretty frustrated

and really wanted
to take this guy down.

Subsequent to that, the FBI
made Gotti a priority.

Woman: The way things
have been going, though,

no one's betting on
who gets the last laugh.

??

What did you think when you
would read your father's name

and the word "gangster"?

What did you feel, think?

Well, it was never about that.

It was always
about the exposure.

It was always about dealing
with the publicity.

It was overwhelming.

It's something that you really
have to get used to,

and I think you really
never fully do.

Mob bosses normally
like to be as low-key

as they possibly can be

so as not to attract the
attention of law enforcement.

Gotti was a different
kind of guy.

He was not low-key.

Schumacher: He was not afraid
of public attention.

He was a little bit like
Al Capone

in that he really reveled
in becoming a celebrity.

And the New York tabloids
in particular just loved him.

John took on this persona.
"I'm John Gotti, world.

Come see me and know me."

Raab: He decided
that he was so important

that nobody could touch him.

He commanded large
print headlines

in all the local tabloids.

He wanted the attention.
He loved the attention.

How do you feel,
Mr. Gotti?

Pretty good.

A real collaborator
of John Gotti

and his image was the media.

Feldman:
John Gotti and the press had this interesting relationship,

because both parties
benefited.

John Gotti felt, I think,

that the press coverage
enhanced his bona fides

for the mob family
that he was in control off.

The press, in turn,
knew he made good headlines,

he made good footage
for the evening news.

And Gotti was very good
at manipulating the press.

He occasionally would flip cash
to homeless people

who might have been
camped out in front

of some of the courthouses.

And, of course, he was savvy
enough to know that,

what footage made
the news that night?

It was John Gotti giving money
to the homeless.

He's going to give you
some money.

Here's some money.

Man: The head
of the Gambino crime family,

a real-life godfather.

There's a two-edged sword
kind of here, though,

because the press liked him,
didn't they?

Wasn't John Gotti a figure
they liked to cover?

Well, he was very likable,
just his personality.

He responded to them, he talked
to them when he walked, right?

Yeah. I think that without
having to respond, he responded.

It was just that kind
of a seduction.

The press romanticized him,
glorified him, glamorized him.

Woman: Gotti oozes mobster
mystique from his silver hair

to his supposedly
monogrammed socks.

"Dressed to kill" is how
the tabloids describe him.

He was a celebrity,
plain and simple.

Raab: Gotti was not only popular
with the press in New York,

he was popular
in his neighborhood.

Woman:
Hundreds of people gathered for an all-day block party

with free hot dogs
and hamburgers,

all apparently courtesy
of the man

they call the "Dapper Don,"

reputed New York
crime boss John Gotti.

John Gotti seemed to be
the Robin Hood

in his neighborhood.

He would have a fourth
of July party

and he would fund the party
and the fireworks.

I know him as a lovely person
who always says hello.

People really regarded him,
in a way, as a folk hero

and as somebody who brought
joy to their neighborhood.

They looked at him as a leader,

as someone
who was protecting them.

There's always been this aura
in this country with the Mafia.

DeStefano:
It was part of the myth at that mafiosi or the Mafia

was really
a benevolent association.

What they didn't appreciate,
of course,

is what that was hiding,

and what was hiding was somebody
who was a ruthless killer.

Schumacher: We know for sure
that John Gotti was involved,

in one way or another,
with five murders,

but being the boss
of the Gambino crime family

and being a capo before that,

it's almost certain
that the number is higher.

There was never really
a lot of coverage

about what a murderous
criminal he was.

This is not some Robin Hood.

This is a person
who is a plain hood.

??

??

Welcome back to
"Very Scary People."

In public, John Gotti was known
for his swagger, coiffed hair

and brash personality.

Many in his neighborhood
of Howard Beach

considered him generous,
a modern-day Robin Hood.

But behind the scenes,
gangster Gotti was running

the violent Gambino
crime family.

Time and time again, he proved

he would let no one
stand in his way.

??

DeStefano: Gotti was a guy
who wanted to be a gangster,

and in his mind,
to be a gangster,

you had to be tough.

You had to want to kill.

The Robert DiBernardo case
was key in point.

DiBernardo was a very well-known

and respected member
of the Gambino family.

Papa: DiBernardo was sort
of an independent operator

but made a lot of money
in the porn business.

Gabriel: Word gets sent to John
that Robert DiBernardo

was talking behind John's back,
he's being disloyal.

So John says, "Alright,
if that's true, kill him.

He's got to go."

John is that quick
to turn on him.

DeStefano: Gravano said he tried
to talk him out of it.

"That's no real reason
to kill him.

For insults?"

Gravano: When he ordered a hit,

he wanted it done yesterday.

He would send me to supervise
or control it

or make sure the job got done.

And I obviously did.

DeStefano: So, they had
DiBernardo come

to a meeting in Brooklyn to ...

I think it was
Sammy's office.

And while they were making
coffee and DiBernardo

was distracted
by talking to Gravano,

an old man, "Old Man Paruta,"

I think was the name,
came up behind DiBernardo

and shot him in the head
and killed him right there.

Papa: Robert DiBernardo
was never seen

or heard from again,
and they never found his body.

??

Feldman:
John Gotti was the number-one target for the government,

partly because he was
rubbing it in their faces,

and government officials
at the time

were very open
about saying that.

He was somebody
they could not permit

to have that kind of power,
if you will.

The feds were going to have
to make a better case.

How do you do that?

They needed quality evidence.

??

Papa: John Gotti inherited
the Ravenite Social Club

in Mulberry Street
in little Italy.

And this is where he had
his meetings with his colleagues

and with his crew members.

The feds actually rented
a location

about a block or two north.

And they started
video surveillance

of Gotti along that street.

They would see his habits

and they would see
who was showing up.

But that wasn't quite enough,

and so what they needed
to do is,

they needed to have recordings

of John Gotti
having conversations.

He would come out and do
what we dubbed "walk talks."

So they would walk
down the street ...

sometimes, it's whispering ...

so they can have a good
criminal conversation,

where it's very tough to bug.

So I started experimenting
with parabolic mics.

I'm putting them
in roof racks of vehicles,

trying to cover as much
of the street as I can.

But it didn't lead
to very much evidence.

We eventually put a bug
in the Ravenite.

And those bugs go on
for several, several months.

We get snippets
of criminal conversation,

but the clubs are very noisy.

The conversations are broken up.

DeStefano: They realized,
at certain points,

that Gotti would be absent

from the conversations.

And they were watching
the club and they said,

"He never left the building.

Where did he go?"

Gabriel: I'm hearing
he's disappearing

for like 45 minutes or an hour.

And, again, I'm checking
my surveillance tapes,

and he's still
in the building.

He hasn't left.

Where is he?

Papa: Then they realized
that John Gotti

was using an apartment
over the Ravenite Social Club.

This belonged to an older woman.

And they would go up there,

and they would sit
in the living room,

having a conversation.

That was crucial.

Feldman: They needed to plant
listening devices

in the old lady's apartment.

But how do you do that?

Because she was almost
always there.

Gabriel: I put a device known as
a pen register on her phone ...

it monitors activity ... figuring
that would give me some clues

as to when she was around
or wasn't around.

I have a deal with my tech guys
that if I can assure them that

she's not in on any given night,
that they'd be ready to go.

So they waited and they waited.

There were one or two weekends

where I was
reasonably confident,

from the lack of any activity,

that she was probably
not around.

And I'd wait till about midnight

and I'd call
the number to confirm.

And I'd wind up waking her up.

She'd answer the phone,
and I'd feel terrible

and, you know,
get myself off the line.

But the third or fourth time,

I had like two days
of no activity on the phone.

[Telephone ringing]

She doesn't answer the phone.

So that night, those guys ...

I call them up and said,
"Hey, she's gone."

And they go in
and they put the bugs in.

The FBI broke
into her apartment,

put bugs in in the lamp,
got out and waited.

??

Papa:
On November 30th, the feds were finally able to get very clear,

damaging tapes of John Gotti's
own voice and in his own words.

When you heard him speak,
he was very gruff.

He was very street.

He had a real thick
New York accent.

I believe he never really
gave interviews

because he didn't want
to be heard like that.

Otherwise, he looked pretty
slick and sophisticated

and pretty put together
on the outside.

Feldman: John Gotti ...
he was very comfortable

talking in the confines
of that little apartment.

Conversations are turning
from different topics,

and it goes into
the Paul Castellano hit

and why they killed him.

They were also able
to capture him

talking about the murders
of members of his family.

Cardinale: Those were
the most important tapes

that they got against John.

Raab: It gave them a mountain
of evidence,

and that was the key
to finally indicting him.

??

John Gotti was arrested
on December 11, 1990.

Gabriel: I go barging
into the club,

and there's John and Sammy
sitting at their table.

And, you know, John looks at me.

He goes, "Oh, we were
expecting you.

I know why you're here."

I said, "Well, that's good.
That makes this easy."

And he said, "Well, you know,
can we at least

finish our coffee?"

I said, "Yeah, enjoy
your coffee.

We're not in a rush.

We'll be going home later.
You won't be."

There's a classic photo
of the table in the Ravenite

with three cups of espresso,

which was the last espresso
Gotti ever had,

I believe, as a free man.

Man: John Gotti wore his
customary look of nonchalance

as FBI agents led him away from
a federal processing center.

They've said they are determined
to put him in prison

for the rest of his life.

??

??

Man: Gotti and three associates
in the Gambino family

have been indicted
on federal charges

that include murder
and racketeering.

Raab: Shortly before Christmas,

the FBI and
the justice department

indicted him on
a whole bevy of charges

that could lead
to a life sentence.

And they also indicted
Sammy "The Bull" Gravano.

Man: One charge includes
the killing of former mob boss

Paul Castellano,
allegedly rubbed out

so Gotti could take over.

He's a murderer.
He's not a folk hero.

He's charged with four murders
in this indictment.

He's charged
with conspiring to murder

another member of organized
crime in the indictment.

He's a criminal,
in our judgement.

Feldman: Certainly, the press
at the time were at the point

where it was another
John Gotti bust.

Let's see how he gets
out of this one.

So, before the trial began,
various recordings were played,

and John Gotti
and his other defendants,

including
Sammy "The Bull" Gravano,

were present to hear that.

There was a sense that Gotti and
Gravano were in this together,

they were partners
in everything they were doing.

The apartment bug,
where Gotti was picked up,

ultimately had
another twist to it.

Gravano was not always present
for these conversations.

And on some of the tapes,
Gotti was not, to put it mildly,

charitable in his comments
about Gravano.

DeStefano: Gotti is heard
complaining about Gravano.

He ruminated about

Sammy "The Bull" Gravano's
earning power.

But, more importantly,
he implicates Sammy

in like three murders.

Papa: The tapes
were being played.

Gravano and Gotti
were sitting there.

And it isn't pretty.

You can only imagine
what's going on in their minds.

That was going to be a problem.

Gravano: When I heard this tape,
I was devastated.

He's betraying me
behind my back.

Cardinale:
Sammy started to see that he was in deep, deep trouble.

He saw the writing on the wall.

Raab: A major weakness in Gotti

was this misjudgment
of characters.

What he really didn't
understand about Sammy

is that, very simply,

Sammy had never served
any jail time.

Nobody knew what his character
would be if he got into trouble.

Sammy "The Bull" Gravano
notified the FBI

that he was willing to defect.

Cardinale: One day,
all of a sudden,

he is supposedly taken out
for medical reasons,

and he never comes back.

And it becomes clear to everyone
that the reason he's gone

is because he's decided
to become a government witness.

He is actually now
working with the FBI.

Feldman: That was a monumental
decision for him,

and it was a major win
for the government.

Cardinale: It was shocking.
There's no question about it.

No one ever expected
that to happen.

Gravano knew
where all the skeletons

were buried, literally.

John's a double-crosser.

I'm a master double-crosser.

We played chess, and he lost.

??

Man: No tickets are being sold,

but the January trial
of John Gotti

promises to be a bout
of major proportions.

Feldman: The trial, if you will,
of John Gotti started

on the 21st of January in 1992.

Papa:
The charges were sensational.

The murders were sensational.

And here's John Gotti.

Will he beat this rap?

That was really the question.

Miller: Entering the fourth
trial, it did appear

that the government
pulled out all stops.

Papa: This was almost
about reputations,

that the prosecutors
needed this conviction

because John Gotti was
getting away with murder.

Feldman: This case against
John Gotti was executed

in a very different way.

So, let's take the jury,
for example.

The jury was sequestered
throughout the entire trial,

and that was something that was
not the norm at all at the time.

There was a genuine concern,

because of the prior
jury-fixing incidents,

that, somehow, Gotti
or his henchmen

would try to reach out
to one or more

jury members
to fix the trial.

Unlike previous attempts,

this time,
the federal government

had two things going
for its case against John Gotti.

The first thing, of course,
is it had those recordings,

the recordings that were made
where you can hear

John Gotti discussing

all sorts of nefarious
operations of his family.

The tapes were very compelling.

Gabriel: What's he going to say?
"I didn't say that"?

The evidence was very strong.

Feldman: And the most important
thing they had

was Sammy "The Bull" Gravano.

Man: Sammy "The Bull" Gravano
took the witness stand

in Brooklyn Federal Court
Monday.

Feldman: The case
has been unfolding now

for a little more
than a month or so.

The moment that everybody
was now waiting for ...

the testimony in court
of Sammy "The Bull" Gravano.

That was a big deal,
because it had never happened

before in any Mafia case
anywhere in the world, really,

that you would have someone
that powerful come and testify

in court against
his former boss, John Gotti.

Gravano: I knew at that point
my life was over

as Salvatore
"Sammy The Bull" Gravano.

I would be called a rat,
a traitor, an informer.

I would be called
a million different names.

My family would have to live
through this horror,

but I was done.

Papa: Gravano came onto
that witness stand,

into the seat so quietly.

Everybody really held
their collective breath.

It was a very
dramatic experience.

Gotti had a kind
of smirk on his face.

Gotti might have been thinking,

"If I walk out of this one,
good luck, Mr. Gravano."

Man: Gravano admitted that
he was the underboss,

the second-in-command,

of the nation's
most powerful Mafia family,

the Gambinos, at the time
he and Gotti were arrested.

Gravano testified
that John Gotti helped plan

the 1985 rub-out
of godfather Paul Castellano.

In one of the most
significant mob defections

in U.S. history,
Gravano described,

in blood-curdling detail,

the plot to kill
Paul Castellano.

He testified, I think,
for nine days.

Thornburgh: He had intimate
knowledge that was corroborated

by the actual tapes that
were taken of conversations.

Papa: Sammy Gravano knew
what was going on.

He knew the people involved.

He knew the people
that were murdered.

Man:
Gravano also testified about how he was inducted into the Mafia,

how then-godfather
Paul Castellano told him that

if he should ever break
the Mafia's code of silence,

his soul would burn.

As Gravano testified to this,

John Gotti looked at him
and smiled.

Papa: Gravano was not
going to be unnerved,

and he wasn't.

He was an excellent witness.

Gravano really was
the cement for the case.

??

Man: The jury surprised
just about everyone

with the speed
of its deliberation ...

about a day and a half.

John Gotti has been found guilty

and will face life in prison.

Papa: He was found guilty
of everything, and it was over.

Feldman: This was the first time
in his career

as a Mafia boss that Gotti
had been found guilty.

Cardinale:
Five of those counts were murder and aid of racketeering

that carried mandatory
life-imprisonment sentences.

The Teflon is gone.

The don is covered with Velcro,

and every charge
in the indictment stuck.

Schumacher: Gotti was sent
to a maximum-security

federal penitentiary
in Marion, Illinois.

And not only that,
he was placed in, essentially ...

23 hours a day,
he was in solitary confinement.

Papa:
It was over for John Gotti.

He was in one of the most
punitive prisons in the country.

The "New York Daily News"
said, in August,

believes John Gotti is still
leading a crime family

from prison.

Under his conditions,
that's quite a feat.

Which is what?
He's in behind ...

He is in 23-1/2-hour
lockup in Marion,

which is a
super-maximum-security facility,

and there's no communication
other than

with an immediate family member
once or twice a month.

??

Feldman:
For a long period of time,

the name John Gotti actually
kind of disappeared

from the public's consciousness
because he was behind bars.

But it was known
that he was ill.

It was known that he was
suffering from throat cancer.

And then, ultimately,
on June 10, 2002,

he succumbed to the cancer.

Man:
Family, friends, and associates gathered to give John Gotti,

a man convicted of murder
and racketeering,

a hero's send-off.

The procession of vehicles,
led by limousines

bearing elaborate
flower arrangements,

stopped at Gotti's home,

where more people
gathered for a glimpse

and to pay respect.

??

Gabriel: For all the fanfare
with John Gotti,

he was the least-effective
boss that ever existed.

Raab: The truth about Gotti was,
he was an incompetent,

almost imbecilic mob leader.

He came in deciding that he was
going to remake the Mafia.

Instead, he became
a whirlwind for disaster.

Papa: The Gambino crime family
continued on

but, I would say,
in a more crippled state.

We took the unions away
because of his conviction,

which weakened
all the other families.

Feldman: And after John Gotti's
conviction

and after the turning
of Gravano,

more mob members
started turning

and became witnesses
in various cases

for the federal government.

Gabriel: John Gotti is the boss

that brought
the whole Mafia down.

He brought the attention to it,

thinking that he was
untouchable.

It's that kind of arrogance
that ruins empires.

John Gotti wasn't Robin Hood.

He was a murderer.

Raab: Perhaps what sums
him up best, in some respects,

he was talking to one
of his daughters, Victoria,

about his life and how wonderful
he was and how,

because of him, the Gambino
family would be so strong.

And he tells his daughter,

"You will never see
another guy like me

if you live to be
5,000 years old."

Can you believe this?

This is what he tells
his daughter,

while he's almost
rotting in prison.

??

John Gotti, inmate 182-053,

lived nearly a decade
in prison before passing away.

The Brooklyn Catholic
diocese denied him

the honor of a funeral mass,

but his family went forward
with a burial,

laying him to rest
in a gold casket.

He is entombed in a mausoleum
in Queens, New York,

directly beside
his beloved son, Frankie.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.
Thanks for watching.

Good night.

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