Why didn't the Gambinos whack Gotti?

Did no one notice that Gotti and his crew's big traps had caused a lot of problems? I mean, from the moment he became Boss he was pretty much on trial every year, with one of those trials having as evidence his own mouth ("I'm gonna, I'm gonna bust him up). Then you had the Angelo Ruggiero tapes which pretty much buried Paul, Neil and guys in other Families.

Did no one in The Gambinos in 1985-1990 stop to think, "This guy is causing us a hell of a lot of trouble with his gaudy suits, his courting the media and his big mouth"? Did no one see his behavior as risky to all of them?

Well the Lucchese and Genovese family did try to kill Gotti at least once in 1986. They planted a car bomb under his Underboss' car but only the Underboss was killed. Gotti was supposed to be in the car with him but he cancelled his plans at the last minute. Keep in mind that because of all the media and law enforcement attention Gotti received it was extremely difficult to attempt to kill him.

Also all of Gotti's publicity didn't necessarily hurt Gotti at the time. When Gotti first became boss he was on trial for assaulting a repairman in a traffic dispute. When the witness realized who he was about to testify against, all of a sudden he refused to testify in court, so the case was dismissed ("I forgotti" newspaper headline).

Plus I am certain that some of the members were totally O.K with Gotti flaunting in the spotlight. Let him get all the law enforcement attention, the other guy can stay in the shadows. See what I'm saying? Of course when Sammy Gravano testified in 1992 it bit everyone in the ass but that's not the point.

I've often wondered what the Gambinos would have done if say, Gotti's conviction was overturned and was sent back home (and he never died of cancer). I would imagine they would just shelve him. Despite all his flaws, he never ratted, something they could appreciate. I'm sure if he tried to muscle his way back in though, they probably would have found a way to kill him. Just a thought.

Basically the only reasons gotti survived was luck AND the fact that there was so much media attention of him. It made him too much of a hard target. Like Billy mentioned Gotti was lucky he didn't go to that meeting that killed Frank decicco in 1986.

Cause he had to many hitters and people loyal to him.

I'm more surprised that word of his planned hit on Big Paul didn't leak out. Look at Joe Colombo - He ran to Carlo Gambino and told him about the plans to take him out and Colombo was rewarded and made a boss.

Wonder why someone like DeCiccio or even Joe Piney didnt realize that Paul was a better boss and told him about the hit before it happened. DeCicco or Piney could've been rewarded with a higher position, Piney maybe even as underboss instead of Belloti.

Also, if Jimmy Brown, Tommy Gambino, or Danny Marino were named underboss instead of Billoti, would Gotti had changed his mind about the hit? I bet one of those three wouldve been more respected as UB.

Castellano was on his way to meet with Tommy G at Sparks. It would be ironic if he was going there to name Tommy as the acting boss while Paul was on trial. Remember that Paul was Carlo's acting boss as far back as like '67. Not that Tommy would've been a good boss, but couldn't have been worse than Gotti.

No doubt that any scenario would have been better , it made the Feds jump years ahead and his flamboyant and jerk off attitude allowed for the Government to funnel money into getting him then others !!

Then there was the son that came after and then of course the uncle dumb and dumber .

Here's a question I've always wondered about.

Let's say Gotti was there with DeCicco and was killed by the car bomb.

Who then makes up the administration of the family?

I'd guess that it would be the same situation as when Castellano and Bilotti were killed. Joe N. Gallo sort of becomes acting boss and then they vote on a new boss.


As far as why the Gambinos didn't kill Gotti, I'd say he just wasn't on the street long enough. According to Casso, Danny Marino was in on the attempted hit that accidentally killed DeCicco. If that's true, I assume there was a faction that wanted him taken out. But the combination of being in jail, being a celebrity, being followed by law enforcement and having a loyal following made it difficult to pull off. I'm sure that if he was around longer even more people would get sick of it.

Gotti had a big crew in Queens..and don't forget His Brothers..Big foot print in the Gambino Family. If they did whack him, it would probably cause a Internal Family mob war..

casso was telling people dan marino was in on the bomb so gotti and them would kill him. Casso probaly hated him after his nephew shot him. Dan marino was a capo under gotti who was at the ravenite daily it seems. He was on the old lady apartment tapes.

Why would they kill him if they were earning money? What's more important, killing or getting money? And when could they kill him, there were a lot of cops and a lot of reporters watching him.

Because BOTH Piney & Frankie Decicco knew Paul would never share with them!!

They saw that he would have continued lining his own pocket and even if he went jail, his puppet Bilotti plus nephew Blinky Tommy would be put into powerful positions. To ensure Paul still had a monopoly of the family rackets

As for whacking Gotti, as others pointed out plus like Sammy said," I'd have to kill10, 12 guys, the thought of killing his son sickened me. His brother Gene I really liked...."

Even Sammy realised he would never get away with killing Gotti. Even when he wasn't on the streets and guys wanted to kill John jr, they couldn't pull it off cos he had a lot of loyalists left over. Not to mention he paid lil Nicky to watch over his son

Whoever The Chin approved of.

According to Sammy him and Frankie decicco made a pact that they would give gotti a year to prove himselnf otherwise they would take over. Gotti is lucky Decicco got blown up otherwise I'm sure they would have executed their backup plan.