John Gotti Biography

Businessman, mobster. John Angelo Gotti was born February 14, 1964, to John J. Gotti and Victoria DiGiorgio. His father was Italian-American. He was nicknamed "Junior" Gotti since he shared his father's first name.

Junior Gotti allegedly served as a capo in the Gambino family and was the acting boss when his father was in prison. The elder Gotti was convicted of murder and racketeering in 1992. He died in prison ten years later at the age of 61.

Prosecutors believe Gotti ran the Gambino crime family that operated in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania beginning in 1983. They said the enterprise involved murder, kidnapping, witness tampering and money laundering.

In 1999, John "Junior" Gotti pleaded guilty to racketeering crimes including bribery, extortion, gambling and fraud. He was sentenced to 77 months in prison and was released in 2005.

Three attempts to convict Gotti for an attack on the founder of the Guardian Angels, Curtis Sliwa, all ended in mistrials in 2005 and 2006 and the charges were dropped. At the time, Gotti said he had long since retired from a life of crime.

In 1990, Gotti married Kimberly Albanese, daughter of Gambino crime family mobster Phillip Albanese.

On August 5, 2008, Junior Gotti and five other men were indicted in connection with the murders of three men in the late 1980s and early 90s. Gotti was taken into custody by a dozen agents in a swoop on his Oyster Bay, New York, home on Long Island. The charges against Gotti and five other men related to a drug ring operated in New York, New Jersey and Florida. The murder victims identified in the case include Louis DiBono, a Gambino soldier and construction contractor. He was found shot seven times slumped in a Cadillac sedan in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in 1990. The other two victims were George Grosso (1988) and Bruce J. Gotterrup (1991).

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