In contrast to the amiable personality Mr. Gravano, said that he had acquired his gift for guile and ruthlessness by reading Machiavelli's ''Prince.'' Gotti boasted that his role model was Albert Anastasia, the founder of Murder Incorporated, a group of killers used by the Mafia in the 1930's and 40's to carry out gangland executions. Gotti more than $1 million a year from shakedowns in the construction industry. Gravano testified that he personally gave Mr. Gotti received $10 million to $12 million in cash every year as his share of the proceeds from the Gambino family's criminal activities. Mob turncoats and investigators asserted that Mr. He claimed his income derived from a $100,000-a-year salary as a plumbing supply salesman and a job with a garment accessories firm. Gotti's penchant for public contradiction - the image of the hard-working family man who nonetheless seemed to lead the life of a Hollywood celebrity - was famously transparent. Outside the courtroom he responded to questions about being a mob kingpin by replying with a grin, ''I'm the boss of my family, my wife and kids.'' Gotti never acknowledged that he was a Mafia leader. ''He never tried to hide the fact that he was a superboss.''īut when he was put on trial, Mr. agent who supervised the unit that uncovered the evidence that ultimately convicted Mr. Gravano, known as Sammy the Bull, once asked him if he disliked people staring at him. Gotti viewed himself as Robin Hood, admired and respected by the world. Gotti as the underboss of the Gambino crime family before he defected to become a government witness and helped bring down his boss, said Mr. Salvatore Gravano, the right-hand man to Mr. At the peak of his power, his silvery hair was styled in a swept-back coiffure, and he favored $2,000 Brioni double-breasted suits accessorized by $400 handpainted floral silk ties. In tabloid argot, he was the Teflon Don, evading successful prosecution, or the Dapper Don, for his smart appearance. Gotti's swagger and seeming immunity from punishment earned him mythic gangster status. Gotti engineered the assassination of his predecessor, Paul Castellano, to 1992, when he was sent to a federal prison for life, Mr. He cut a colorful figure in New York City, wining and dining in elegant restaurants and nightspots surrounded by a coterie of bodyguards.įrom late 1985, when Mr. Gotti, who reveled in media attention as the boss of the nation's largest and most influential organized crime group. Traditional Mafia leaders led publicity-shy lives. He had been re-admitted to the hospital several times since then for treatment. Gotti was operated on for neck and head cancer. Gotti, who seized control of the Gambino crime family in a murderous coup, flaunted his power during a flamboyant reign as a Mafia boss, and then spent the last years of his life locked away in a maximum security penitentiary, his gang in shambles, died yesterday at the federal prison hospital at Springfield, Mo.
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