The Life and Times of John Gotti

Locals Pay Respect

The once spotlight-hungry John Gotti now lies out of public view in a wood-paneled corridor on the third floor of a huge stone mausoleum in St. John's Cemetery in Middle Village.

Gotti Laid to Rest

John Gotti was laid to rest yesterday after a pass around the old neighborhood in an ornate funeral procession fitting the mob boss' larger-than-life style.

Last Ride in Ozone Park

When John Gotti's funeral procession arrived in Ozone Park en route to St. John Cemetery, about 200 residents that had gathered along 101st Avenue as if for a parade - many of them holding candles in foam cups - erupted in applause.

Limo Driver Leads With Roses

After driving for Harrington Limousine of Iselin, N.J., for several years, Herb Weiss knows that the call for a funeral job can come at any time.

End of Road

Mob boss John Gotti's last ride is to begin and end in prayer as his body is carried along the streets of Queens to his final resting place beside the son who died near his Howard Beach home more than 20 years ago.

Less Fanfare on 2nd Day

On a day darkened by a steady rain and black umbrellas, a stream of mourners filed through a Maspeth funeral home for a second day Friday to pay their respects to mob boss John Gotti.

Going Out in Style

It was a mob scene in Maspeth yesterday, where John Gotti was given a send-off befitting an organized-crime chieftain as scores of mourners packed a funeral chapel to say goodbye.

DEATH OF A DON

Mob Kingpin Was a Hit in Maspeth

The "Dapper Don" was waked near the spot where, in 1984, he was accused of assaulting a refrigerator repairman who complained that his car was blocked in outside the Cozy Corner Bar.

DEATH OF A DON

Eye on the Mourners

In the post-Sept. 11 world, al-Qaida has taken La Cosa Nostra's spot as public enemy No. 1 when it comes to organized crime in New York.

DEATH OF A DON

No Funeral Mass

Mob boss John Gotti will not be given a Roman Catholic funeral Mass but may be interred at St. John Cemetery in Middle Village, church officials said yesterday.

Mixed Emotions By The Graveyard

St. John Cemetery in Middle Village is taking a hit these days.

Grief For Gotti

They still speak with awe of the yearly July 4 festival John Gotti threw for residents of Ozone Park and the feeling of safety that came with the Dapper Don's presence.

Gotti Dies in Prison

John Gotti, the "Dapper Don" whose mouthy style as America's most visible crime boss led to the demise of the modern mob, died yesterday in a prison hospital, where throat cancer had left him without a voice.

DEATH OF A DON

The Rise and Fall of 'Dapper Don'

Stylish, silver-haired John Gotti was credited with breaking tradition and creating a new-look mob when he was dubbed the "Dapper Don," a nod to the elegant, $2,000 Brioni suits he made his flamboyant trademark.

COMMENTARY

Jimmy Breslin: His Grandeur Was a Delusion

"Do you know what this is?" one of the other hoodlums in the car said.

DEATH OF A DON

Gotti Legacy: Once-Powerful Mob in Tatters

"This is gonna be a Cosa Nostra till I die," John Gotti said - poor grammar and all - in a conversation caught on a surveillance tape in 1990.

DEATH OF A DON

Tale of the Tapes: Gotti's Rise and Fall

When Bruce Mouw was named to head the FBI's then-fledgling "Gambino Squad" in 1980 his team had very little to work with; the man who would become his nemesis, John Gotti, wasn't even well known.

DEATH OF A DON

Gotti's Era Ended Long Before Death

The John Gotti story ended quietly yesterday in the heartland. But on the noisy streets of New York, it was clear the end came long before Gotti died of cancer in a Missouri prison.

DEATH OF A DON

Gotti's Final Resting Place Uncertain

The families of several of John Gotti's victims may have an idea of where they'd like the former Dapper Don to spend the afterlife. But everyone was mum yesterday on where he should be launched from.

DEATH OF A DON

Gotti Garb Defined Goodfella Glitz

If there can be a legacy in the glint of a diamond pinkie ring, then John Gotti has left his mark on popular culture.

Missourians Show Support For John Gotti With Gifts

Baskets of cookies and containers of pasta sauce are some of the offerings folks in Springfield, Mo., are sending to cancer-stricken mob boss John Gotti in a local hospital, a family friend said yesterday.

Prayers For Gotti

Terminally ill with cancer, jailed mob boss John Gotti is getting some help of a spiritual kind.

Planning for the End

As imprisoned mob boss John Gotti battles terminal cancer, his loved ones are considering laying him to rest inside a Queens mausoleum, next to his beloved son who died in 1980, a source close to the family said.

Jimmy Breslin: Looks Like a Racket, John

A LETTER FROM OZONE PARK

Gottis on Tape

Federal prosecutors last night released excerpts of secretly recorded conversations that they say show how crime boss John Gotti barked out orders through his now-indicted son.

Life Grim on the Inside

Tony Papa says John Gotti was a hero to many of the inmates at Sing Sing prison, where Papa spent 12 years after being convicted on a drug charge. "One of the prisoners - we called him Tony Cheech - had a picture of Gotti hanging in his cell."

Crime Boss Says Gigante Knew Of Gotti Plot

Former Luchese crime family boss Alfonse D'Arco described two instances in 1990 and 1991 where he said reputed Genovese crime boss Vincent Gigante was involved in plots to kill other mobsters - including one to bomb John Gotti with a remote-controlled bomb.

Commentary

Gravano Left No Comrade Overlooked

John Gotti made Sammy Gravano his underboss in 1988; and in 1992, Sammy Gravano swore the oath that would make John Gotti a federal prisoner until they ship his body back to Queens.

Commentary

No Gotti, No Glamor for the Mob

If the itch to be loved is perilous even for reputable enterprisers, it is ruinous to disreputable ones.

Commentary

THE GOTTI VERDICT:Don's Learned Behavior

On or about the hour of 1:26 yesterday the court clerk was halfway through her litany of the acts of conspiracy imputed to John Gotti and Frank Locascio; and the responses of "Proved" as to act and "Guilty" as to crime were coming back from the anonymous Juror No. 1 in unbroken succession.

Mobster in a Box: Hard Time For The Don

JOHN GOTTI, the former Boss of Bosses, wakes up each morning at 7 a.m. on the east corridor of the Marion federal penitentiary, where "Days of Our Lives" is the television show of choice and homosexual rape is a way of life.

Still in Charge

John Gotti may be serving a life term in prison but prosecutors say the convicted head of the powerful Gambino crime family is still running the empire from his Illinois prison cell.

The Gambino's Family Business

Thomas Gambino, the soft-spoken and conservatively dressed son of late mobster Carlo Gambino, is considered by investigators to be one of the old-style capos of the Gambino crime family.

The Jury Blows the Whistle on 'Dapper Don'

They finally did it. After a 10-week trial in Brooklyn federal court, U.S. Attorney Andrew Maloney and Assistant U.S. Attorney John Gleeson managed to nail John Gotti - a criminal whose flamboyant style and earlier acquittals brought him celebrity status, who plainly relished the media casting him as "the Dapper Don" and "the Teflon Don."

Gotti's Guy Sings a Song of Murder

Reputed mob boss John Gotti ordered the slaying of Paul Castellano out of fear that he faced assassination himself, Gotti's onetime underboss said during his first day of testimony yesterday in a hushed and heavily guarded courtroom.

Tapes Called Gotti Murder Motive

When a close associate of John Gotti refused to turn over secretly recorded tapes about narcotics transactions to former Gambino crime family boss Paul Castellano, prosecutors say he gave Gotti a motive to kill.

Gotti Goes on Trial

The racketeering indictment accuses John Gotti of committing five murders, conspiring to murder a sixth person, gambling, loan-sharking, obstruction of justice and tax evasion. Co-defendant Frank Locascio is charged with murder, conspiracy to murder, gambling, loan-sharking, obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting Gotti's tax evasion. Both face life in prison if convicted.

`Emotional' Gotti Offers Boy a Pup

John Gotti might be the Teflon Don when it comes to deflecting criminal charges, but his heart apparently has no protective coating when he hears about a little boy with a lost puppy.

Gotti in Federal Custody

Reputed crime family boss John Gotti and three of his top associates were arrested last night on federal racketeering charges stemming from Gotti's alleged takeover of the Gambino crime family after the 1985 assassination of the previous mob boss, Paul Castellano.

Gotti Nose for Talent

"I know whose stomach is rotten," John Gotti once said. "I can smell it."

THE MOB ON TRIAL

Raising the Curtain on Organized Crime

It was a small home in a nondescript neighborhood, suitable for the purpose at hand. The owner, someone who knew someone, had been advised to leave for a few hours. Then, late in the afternoon on this day on Staten Island in May, 1984, the men began arriving. They came in four cars.