Gotti: Our Father, the Godfather

(CBS News)  For the first time ever, John Gotti's children, Angel, Victoria and Peter, speak openly about a life shrouded in secrecy and reveal what they knew about the mafia in an exclusive interview with "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Troy Roberts.

I loved the man… but I loathed the life, his lifestyle," said Victoria Gotti. "Prosecutors say my father was the biggest crime boss in the nation... If you really want to know what John Gotti was like, you need to talk to my family. We lived this life…

"I think I realized early on that my family wasn't like other families…
Growing up, my parents tried to hide a lot of things from me…from all of us…

"I think you grow up scared, anxious all the time…" she said.

"I used to get up as a young boy and I used to get excited when I would go and see that my father was alive," said Peter Gotti. "When I would hear him snore, I'd know he made it home."

"We didn't talk back to my father. We didn't ask him, 'Did you kill anyone?'" said Angel Gotti.

"I didn't know his life…I didn't know his lifestyle," said Peter. "Honestly, I was just a kid that wanted to love his father."

The Gottis Revealed: Photos, Video and Interviews

"The public saw my father right out of central casting. He looked the part, acted the part… he was the part! The real life Godfather," said Victoria. "People treat him like he was the second coming of Christ!

"It was very difficult for me to look into these crimes that he was accused of committing… I was angry at everybody for lying to me," she said.

"Do I believe now that my father was this big boss? Yes, I do now," Angel concedes.

"Should I lie and say I don't love him? We loved him. And that's really all we should have been held accountable for. We just wanna move on," said Victoria.

Now, their brother, John "Junior" Gotti, is on trial again. If convicted, he could face life behind bars.

"My brother John's life is on the line…like my father. John was a player in that world… but John is not in that courtroom," said Victoria. "I believe that it's the last name Gotti. It's definitely Dad."

"It does not mean that a child has to answer for his father's sins," said Peter.

Hear more from Victoria Gotti

"Now it's time to set the record straight," said Victoria. "No one knows John Gotti better than his family does. Nobody. And we're ready to talk about it. We're ready to talk about him… finally.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• Next Page »

[iowa0319]

Victoria seemed to still be in denial about her father and some of the things he had done or participated in. There are lots and lots of men (and women) out there who are leading secret lives that their spouses know nothing about. I do however, believe the wife knew to a certain extent, she just turned her head and looked the other way. If she didn't see it, then it didn't exist.

[Wildwood1966]

what happened to Mrs Gotti - is she still alive? No one could have lived tht life and not have a clue what is going on - he has not paid the piper - I mean he killed peeps for no reason - the children were born into that household - as far as I can tell from this Peter may be the only one that is clean - but I also believe lots of holes and lies in this story - PLUS Victoria get your haircut - pretty lady but out of date hairdo!!

[elexcesemilton]

Its funny how we judge others. We all know that when it comes to the MOB nothing matters. Even if his kids did know what was going on it was probably better not to pretend they didnt. H e may have loved his kids but the other bosses wouldnt have had a problem with killing them. In the MOB a mans family is his weakness and they are almost always targeted. Dont judge until you have been in their shoes.

[Brevitor]

Looks like I am a lone crusader on this subject... There is no way to clean dirty money. These families are taking orders from HELL. Satan's followers are large in numbers. Doing business with Hell is no way to make a living...

[jincstress]

Trash. The lot of them. Criminals. What is with America's fascination with gangsters? We just love any organization that will skewer us out of our money.

[True_that]

You're implying that the judge on this case will be swayed by public opinion?

[True_that]

You forgot to mention sweat shops with little kids working day and night and migrant farmers who make 10 cents an hour. That's all the Gottis fault too, right? You say you don't believe Victoria Gotti's "hands are clean". Do you honestly believe that she hasn't been investigated and cleared of ANY impropriety? Do you honestly think she'd put herself out there like this if she had anything to hide? You will believe what you want to believe based on personal prejudice against her simply because her last name is Gotti. It is attitudes like yours that made it necessary for her to write a book about her family. Anyway, you see there's a little problem with your theory. All of that money actually does have to be accounted for. And if you trace it back to the beginning, do you really think that someone being investigated can deposit $500 million or even $500 thousand into the original account and not show where that money came from? ... You know what, you guys are making the family's point for them so just keep talking.

[True_that]

And before this comes up, I do not mean that it's not possible to make the original deposit without saying where it came from at the time. Sure that happens. But once someone is investigated and it all gets traced back, there is accountability for where it came from.

[tmittelstaed]

I do not for a second believe that Victoria's hands are clean. This interview is a huge snow job, it's the Gotti children coming together and trying to get public pressure put on the judge to issue a lenient sentence to John Jr. As for the investigation into her home being paid for by clean money, it's simple enough to launder money. With the money the Gotti family put away, I'm sure plenty of it went to Swiss bank accounts and was used by shell companies to invest in Victoria's enterprises.

If you want instructions for laundering money, here is an easy way. You take your 500 million you got from drug sales, this is the dirty money, and you put it in one account. You then have a friend go to a bank and take out a loan for a business, this is clean money. The loan is then used to start a business selling something with a high markup, let's say jewelry, that your friend profits from. You then take your dirty money and buy jewelry from your friend, then sell the jewelry cheap, then use the proceeds to buy more jewelry, then sell it, then repeat this until all of the dirty money is gone. Meanwhile your friend has made large profits from his sales, all which were legitimate - he pays the bank back and because he never got money from you, and he has total control over his money, it's clean. Then your friend hires you and pays you a rediculous amount of money as a consultant, that's clean money. Now you have your clean money - yes it's less than your 500 mil you started with - but who cares, since you got your 500 mil. from stealing or drug sales, it was essentially free to you - all you had to do to get it was point a gun at someone. You can always get as much more of that dirty money as you want. And you can do all this without ever letting your friend know a thing about what you really do to get your money. And, people with 500 mil have LOTS of friends who don't wanna know where they get their money from.

This is why the Mafia survives. There's a huge amount of subsidiary businesses that are clean, that make money off the Mafia. When a nightclub charges $500 a night per meal, every night for a year, to the Mafia don that comes in, it can be clean as a baby's bottom from a legal perspective - but ultimately it's still dirty money.

It's no different than the diamond business. Companies claim they don't deal in blood diamonds but diamonds are passed through so many hands that it's impossible to keep blood diamonds segregated from the rest of the diamonds on the market. The entire diamond industry makes money off blood diamonds no matter what they tell you.

[IHG1224]

I really enjoyed this story about the Gotti family! Thank You!

[pissedoff71]

Name of the show is 48 Hours Mystery....right?? So where's the mystery in this story and why on earth would you select this crap as your season premier episode- you should be ashamed!! This was a propaganda piece to sell books. Hmm wonder who owns Simon & Schuster the publisher of Victoria's new book...well that would be Viacom who- you guessed it, also owns CBS. At the very least you could have had the interview be fair and pointed- what a joke. Do the research people!!! Where did she get the money for that house? Oh no not from my father or my ex husband- I earned it all. Who is she kidding- give me a break. Where is the investing- how could a reporter or a produced not find out where the money came from to purchase that 5 million dollar + home. I'm so pissed off with this show. All the lives that were affected by her family and we sit there and listen to all of her lies and delusions- and you let her get away with it all! Did anyone consider that this prime-time valentine to the Gotti family could contaminate the perspective jury pool for John Jr?? This show was DISGRACEFUL!!!!!! Troy Roberts you were awful- I couldn't tell if you were interviewing the Gotti family or you were looking to be adopted by them.

[True_that]

Actually it's a little thing called ratings that would make them put this on as the season premiere. And if you do the research you will find out that there was in fact an investigation into how her home was paid for and guess what, it's all legit. And for your information, her brother's trial is already under way and the jury was seated well before this show aired. If they are watching it, he gets a mistrial.

[True_that]

In all fairness, regarding the reference to CBS airing this show with the Gottis because of her publisher being part of Viacom: Victoria Gotti did appear on another network's nationwide news show this morning. That network has no affiliation with Viacom.