Like Father Like Son
John A. "Junior" Gotti, after proclaiming himself "a man's man," stood calmly as he received nearly 6 1/2 years in prison Friday for mob crimes committed since replacing his notorious father atop the Gambino crime family.
Gotti, 35, received less than the maximum sentence of a little more than 7 years from U.S. District Court Judge Barrington Parker. He was very calm, and dressed in a dark suit and glasses for the 70-minute hearing.
Gotti spoke briefly before sentencing, telling the judge, "I'm a man's man. I'm here to take my medicine." Parker, after handing down the 77-month sentence, gave Gotti until Oct. 18 to surrender and begin his federal term.
Authorities said he took over control of the once-mighty Gambinos after his father, "Dapper Don" John J. Gotti, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1992.
Parker, pointing out that the elder Gotti had spent time in jail while his son was growing up, seemed perplexed by the son's decision to repeat his father's mistakes.
"You know the toll that kind of behavior took on the family and children," Parker told him. "Yet the pattern, for reasons I'm unable to fathom, is duplicated."
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| John J. Gotti is serving life in prison. |
Gotti and his wife have four children, and she is pregnant with their fifth child.
"Junior" Gotti pleaded guilty in April to charges of bribery, extortion, gambling and fraud. He also pleaded guilty to tax and loansharking charges that were looming in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors claimed he had inherited a leadership position in the Gambino crime family when his father was jailed for life on a 1992 racketeering conviction that included five murders.
If convicted at his trial, the younger Gotti faced up to 15 years and millions of dollars in fines.
Instead, the night before the start of his April trial, he accepted a plea offer. The government asked that Gotti receive the maximum sentence.
"Gotti's pattern of criminal activity is sprawling and reflects a willingness on his part to corrupt all aspects of life," prosecutors wrote in a pre-sentencing letter to Parker.
They added they would have proven that "the racketeering enterprise of which Gotti was a high-ranking member for almost a decade was the Gambino Family of La Cosa Nostra."
Attached to the letter were excerpts of comments made by John J. Gotti when he learned, in prison, of his son's indictment. Infuriated by the carelessness that allowed agents to find piles of cash and a roster of ganglanmembers, Gotti said his son and codefendants "should never be sent to jail. They should all be sent to the insane asylum. ... I wanna know what part of this was intelligent."
The elder Gotti was known as the Teflon Don for avoiding conviction in three trials until he was finally convicted in 1992. The racketeering case alleged five murders, including that of his predecessor, Paul Castellano, and relied on the testimony of the Mafia's highest-ranking turncoat, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano.
By contrast, the younger Gotti earned a reputation as a mediocre mob leader; one tabloid dubbed him "Dumbfella." He also drew attention for stunts such as visiting a Toys R Us in Queens after hours to buy the store's stock of hard-to-find Tickle Me Elmo dolls.
The defendant was indicted more than a year ago with 39 other men on mob-related charges, many of them stemming from an alleged extortion scheme at the Manhattan topless club Scores.
He spent eight months at the Westchester County jail before he was released in September to house arrest, which included a guard at his door, a tap on his phone and an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet.