Basking in the glow of his fourth racketeering-and-murder mistrial, "Deadlock Don" John Gotti Jr. gave a few interviews while enjoying freedom in his Long Island home. He admitted to 1010WINS' Juliet Papa, "I'm a little off. For 16 months I was in a bed by myself and for 13 or 16 months I was in solitary confinement so I had quiet."
It wasn't bumbling prosecutors, arguing jurors, or untrustworthy mob informants that kept mob scion John Gotti Jr. from being found guilty in his racketeering and murder trial. The former Gambino boss told reporters after his fourth mistrial yesterday that his deceased father was watching out for him — and sending him messages on the radio through songs like "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" and Sting's "Fields of Gold," according to the Times.
Federal prosecutors aiming to convict mob scion John Gotti Jr. came up short for the fourth time in five years when a deadlocked jury failed to reach a verdict. After more than a year behind bars, Gotti Jr. was released on $2 million bail yesterday and visited his mother in Howard Beach, Queens, before returning to his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island, the Post reports. "This is unbelievable, I can't put it into words. It's been a long fight," he said. When his mother joked that they should celebrate by going to Disney World, Gotti said he couldn't because he legally isn't allowed to leave the New York area: "I can't, it's out of my district."
During the feds' fourth trial against John Gotti Jr., they played tapes of Junior and his dad, the late Teflon Don John Gotti. They discussed how, once Gotti's son-in-law Carmine Agnello had immunity in a 1989 trial, Agnello admitted he bribed a juror. Junior said, "All the lawyers involved [thought it was a] very ingenious move" but Gotti thought differently, "I woulda never in a million years suggested him to say that. I woulda tell them to go f--- themselves. If there was a church robbed and I had the steeple stickin' out of my ass, I wouldn't tell them I did it." That apparently moved Junior's sister Angel to tears.
Carmine Agnello Jr., son of Victoria Gotti and grandson of the late Teflon Don John Gotti Sr., spoke out about the foreclosure proceedings on his family's mansion in Old Westbury. Agnello told the Post, "My dad"—and his namesake, Carmine Sr.—"did this to us. He decided once he got out of jail he was going to get another life, and he left us behind with the burden. He did his kids wrong, and he did his wife wrong... To be honest with you, we don't consider him our father." (Still, last year, little Carmine told Grub Street he hung out with his dad.) Victoria Gotti claims that her ex-husband took out a $850,000 mortgage on the home without her knowledge; Agnello Sr. now lives in Cleveland and is remarried to the daughter of a "former leader in Armenian terrorism." As for Carmine Jr., he revealed that he and brothers John and Frank are going to be in a new reality show set in LA.
Victoria Gotti, daughter of the late Teflon Don John Gotti, is "bitter" about the foreclosure of her Old Westbury mansion. A panel of judges allowed Chase to start foreclosure proceedings; Gotti says that her ex, Carmine Agnello, took out a $700,000 mortgage behind her back (Chase says she never paid all the $25,000 monthly payments that were owed). Her mother told the Post that her daughter was "not in the mood to talk to anybody" and offered her own thoughts on her former son-in-law, calling him a creep. But Victoria Gotti did tell Newsday, "The house, all the marital assets, are part of a divorce package (settlement) I have never seen yet." The white brick, five-bedroom, and five-and-a-half bath home was seen on the A&E reality series Growing Up Gotti—in the past few years, Gotti has listed the home on the market for $4.8 million, $3.995 million, $3.899 million and most recently, between $3.2 million and $3.5 million.
Yesterday, a former Gambino associate told the court that the late John Gotti Sr. was unhappy his daughter's boyfriend beat her up. "We were instructed to go slaughter Carmine [Agnello]. Find him and slaughter him. Don't kill him," Peter Zuccaro, a self-proclaimed "career criminal," said. Agnello eventually married Victoria Gotti, in spite of being shot in the buttocks and beaten with ax handles by Zuccaro, accused mob hitman Charles Carneglia and Carneglia's brother. Zuccaro was testifying against Carneglia, who is on trial for five murders, including that of a court officer, and Newsday said Zuccaro's stories "seemed like a soap opera about Howard Beach." Zuccaro also drew the line somewhere, explaining why he didn't want to kill a man who lived across from St. Helen church, "Killing in front of a church was a despicable act. Many families went to that church in the neighborhood."
Saying no to John Gotti proved deadly for one man, as federal prosecutors claimed that a hit was ordered because he "ignor[ed] Gotti's invitation to his social club." The feds say that Gambino soldier Charles Carneglia shot the man four times in the head at the World Trade Center parking lot in 1990. Carneglia is also accused of four other murders, but the crime he is most notoriously associated with (but not charged with) is the 1980 murder of Gotti's neighbor John Favara. Favara fatally struck Gotti's bike-riding son with his car; Carneglia allegedly dumped Favara's body in a vat of acid. Now feds say Carneglia "did not choose an appropriate type of acid," which upset his boss Anthony Ruggiero because getting rid of Favara's body was taking too long. Apparently Carneglia's second try worked out better and he threw one of Favara's finger bones in Ruggiero's soup to prove he got the job done.
The NY Post must have a quota of Gotti front pages it must fill each year, because today's big news--according to the Post--is that the Gotti family is fighting over money that may or may not exist.
The Smoking Gun, via a Freedom of Information Act request, received the last photograph taken of John Gotti, the former Gambino crime family head also known as the Dapper Don or Teflon Don.
Ha! Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa wants to take John Gotti Jr. on his offer. Gotti Jr., who was unsucccessfully tried three times for allegedly shooting and kidnapping Sliwa, told reporters on Tuesday that he'd take a polygraph test "on national TV" if the FBI agent who spread rumors that Gotti was becoming a government informant was charged. Last night, Sliwa said on NY1's Inside City Hall - holding a bunch of cash, "John Gotti,...
John Gotti Jr. interrupted his lawyer and spoke with reporters after appearing at Federal Court in White Plains yesterday. Gotti, reacting to a 2006 story in the NY Post which claimed he was becoming a government informant, became angry and said that his family was scared of a possible mob hit:My family lives in fear as a result of this. What happens next? Tell me, what happens next? Does it make it all better if...
The feds must believe if you try, try, try and fail, fail, fail, you must try again, because it seems they are going to charge John Gotti Jr. with a new set of murder charges. The Post reports "Junior will likely be charged with at least five murders," including a Queens man who Gotti Jr. "allegedly disemboweled" in 1983, using a boxcutter or linoleum knife. And that's not all: Junior allegedly got help from "more...
Former FBI agent Roy Lindley DeVecchio has been on trial for four counts of murder, as prosecutors have accused him of being a mob informant. And the trial is being described as a "blockbuster" because it's "one of the worst law enforcement corruption cases in U.S. history." But DeVecchio wasn't centerstage yesterday - news about former Mayor - and former U.S. Attorney - Rudy Giuliani riveted the court.
It's the umpteenth story about an engagement gone sour and hardly the first one that has the would-be groom demanding the pricey engagement ring back. But it's the first that we can recall where the ex-fiancee is the granddaughter of a Gambino crime family head!
What's eBay good for if not finding a place to buy and sell things like...John Gotti's cufflinks?
With The Sopranos gone, those wishing for a slice of gangster life and a free John Gotti poster can watch out for Mob Candy magazine. Back in May, Radar explained how the magazine came to be during a conversation between editor in chief Tyrone Christopher and publisher Frank DiMatteo and that the first issue would feature "articles on Don Carlo Gambino's legacy, 50 years of rats, FBI vs. Italian Americans, along with current mobster news, hot girls, hitmen, and contracts."
We briefly mentioned the wild melee between some Staten Island residents and the cops on July 4th, after the police investigated a call about illegal fireworks. Nineteen people had been arrested, while 10 others received summons, and residents are now complaining that the police were too aggressive. Cops, many of whom were injured, say they were doing their job.
John Gotti Jr., son of Gambino mob boss John Gotti and long suspected of still being in the mob (even though his last trial ended in a mistrial) tells the Post he's moving out of New York because he's a bit cash-strapped. The Post touts his "don-sizing" of his Oyster Bay mansion - we wonder if any mob lore fans will want to buy Gotti's 1.96 acre home. Gotti Jr. said, "We're going to move out east at first [within Long Island so his son can finish high school], and then, in a year, to Florida or South Carolina, where it's cheaper." Watch out, Dirty South!
Is it just Gothamist or does anyone else wish they were selected for jury duty at the United State District Court in Manhattan after reading the NY Times story about dodgeball movie dreams and theft. Judge Shira Scheindlin, the same judge who presided over the most recent John Gotti Jr. trial, ruled that a lawsuit from David Price, a national amateur dodgeball champion, and his writing partner Ashoka Thomas against the makers of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story could go forward.
Before you start wondering where you can get this expensive and potent pot, it turns out that the drug ring that offered it has been busted by the NYPD and feds. The Post reports that Purple Haze sold for $560 an ounce and got its name from buds with a purple stain; it also "contains highly elevated levels of THC." That must be some crazy toke. Orlando Torres, who operated the ring in upper Manhattan, was arrested.
In recent weeks, detectives with the Manhattan North Narcotics Major Case Unit and federal authorities in Miami have busted 29 people, including diamond-studded, bling-wearing Orlando Torres, the alleged New York-based ringleader.Continue reading "Purple Haze, NYC's "Most Expensive and Potent Marijuana" EVER"
Should John Gotti Jr.'s nickname be "Teflon Jr."? Because, for the third time in a year, a mistrial has been declared in the federal government's racketeering case against the infamous mob family figure. The jury sent Judge Shira Sheindlin a note saying, "We have been unable to come to a unanimous decision on all counts." From the NY Times:
The hung jury represents a significant loss for the government, which had been intent on convicting Mr. Gotti, not just for his crimes — but because of his notoriety — which has increased after he avoided conviction in the first two trials, which ended in September 2005 and March 2006. The first jury to hear the Gotti case deliberated for eight days and the second for one and a half days.Continue reading "Gotti Gets Off Again"
-- Speaking of colleges, according to the NYU paper, NYU has achieved "psuedo-ivy" status. Fresh, because we've been telling people we "pseudo-got-into" Harvard for years.
If you have ever thought that the language in The Sopranos or The Godfather or any mob movie was made up, we urge you to read about the secret prison tape of John Gotti Jr. ranting and raving about, oh, wanting to kill his uncles. While Gangland News had these tapes where Gotti complains about uncles Peter and Ricahrd exclusive back in 2004, the NY Times had a short and sweet excerpt:
“I’ve made a pact,” Mr. Gotti told John Ruggiero, a member of the Gambino family, during a September 2003 conversation secretly recorded by the F.B.I. at the federal prison in Ray Brook, N.Y. “I made a pact with myself one night in my bed, on my father’s and brother’s grave. I will beat them down like a two-dollar French hooker.Continue reading "You Don't Want Junior Gotti Mad at You"
The much ballyhooed trial of Mafia cops Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa ended in guilty verdicts and life sentences a few weeks ago. But Eppolito decided to stick around the courthouse a little longer, by claiming his defense from John Gotti's lawyer, Bruce Cutler, was not up to snuff. Therefore, Eppolito must be granted a new trial - hello, buyer's remorse! Eppolito got a contended that Cutler prevented him from testifying in the trial, and actually took the stand in the competency hearing. Unfortunately, Eppolito testified that he'd lie when necesary - and then admitted he would wash his hand after "shaking a black man's hands." Now, Cutler did free associate quite a bit and mock gangsters for turning informants, but a Brooklyn judge found him "not incompetent" (that's a ringing endorsement!) yesterday, noting that Cutler probably did the right thing in not letting Eppolito testify.
- And tomorrow is Mayor Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Menino's "National Summit on Illegal Guns" at Gracie Mansion; mayors from Dallas, Philadelphia, Seattle, Trenton, Jersey City and DC are among the attendees
- Acela trains
The first day of the trial of retired NYPD detectives turned possible mob hit men was full of screaming as the prosecution presented its first witnesses and the defense went to town. The one witness in the case against Louis Eppolito and Steven Caracappa, who the feds say would kill people for the mob at $65,000 a pop (plus they got a $4,000 monthly retainer), was the mother of a Brooklyn's Nicholas Guido who was killed in his driveway in a case of mistaken identity - Eppolito and Caracappa gave Luchese family hit men the wrong address for a hit on Christmas Day, and the Post used the photograph for its cover. Eppolito's lawyer, Bruce Cutler, went after a former mobster turned government witnesses, and criticized them, saying, "They called each other tough guys, goodfellas - until the jail door shut. Then they wet their pants and called Mommy - the government."
- And some people do get to bear arms in the subway
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