The ther day I watched the HBO movie Gotti. I unfortunately have not read any of the books on Gotti's life and just know some general knowledge about the "Dapper Don". So I was wondering. In the movie Gotti's son Frankie gets hit by a car, in the movie the guy that hits him is one of Frankie's peewee football teamates dad. Well Sammy whacks that guy, not on John's orders according to the movie he said not to worry about it it was just an accident.
So is this all true, did Sammy really kill the guy.....

Another thing why wasn't John Jr. protrayed in this movie...

On a sidenote one of my former AAU basketball coaches works at Marion Prison as a guard and was around Gotti. He said Johnny Boy was one of the friendliest and personable guys you'll ever meet...

Most Mosters are nice people,just don't get on their wrong side

Sammy Gravano did not kill John Favara. That was just written into the movie to make the story a bit more interesting, that's all. But according to Sammy Gravano, after turning state witness, it was Gotti associate John Carneglia and a few others from the crew who were responsible for killing Favara.


And I assure you that in real life, John Gotti was not as forgiving about his son being killed as shown in the movie. Gotti was once quoted as saying, when questioned by detectives about Favara's dissapearance, "I'm not sorry the guy's missing. I wouldn't be sorry if the guy turned up dead."

In real life Favara received telephone death threats. The word murderer was spray painted on his car. Gotti's wife was alledged to have attacked him with a metal baseball bat. And on the day he dissapeared it just so happened that John Gotti and his wife were vacationing in Florida.


The movie "Gotti" is a very well made and enteratining movie. I happen to like it very much and loved Assante's portrayal of Gotti in the movie. But it is not as factual as it should have been. But still a very good movie.

BTW, Tom Sizemore is a very close second in his portrayal of Gotti in "Witness to The Mob." (right TB? )


Don Cardi

I agree with you Don Cardi "Gotti" is a very good movie and Assante did a great job. I have no doubt that Gotti wasn't as forgiving in real life as in the movie. Thanks for the info Don Cardi!

Still I wonder why John Jr. wasn't in the movie?

It was my pleasure. You're very welcomed!

Here is a bio that I posted about Gotti about a year ago :

John Gotti was born in the bronx on October 27, 1940. His family moved into a tough neighborhood in Brooklyn when he was 12. John began to love the streets and dropped out of school in 8th grade. After spending years performing small crimes and gaining respect in the underworld, he became affiliated with the Gambino family in 1966.

In the family, John made a lot of money hijacking freight trucks at Kennedy airport. The Gambino underboss Aneillo Delacroce became good friends with him and took him under his wing like a son. Despite a minor setback of 3 years in prison from a hijacking, John moved up in the family quickly.

In 1973 John Gotti was given a contract to kill James McBratney, who was accused of murdering a nephew of Carlo Gambino. After a botched job with two witnesses, Gotti was put in prison for 2 years on second degree manslaughter charges. Gotti served the time and got out to find big changes in the family.

Carlo Gambino, the boss of the family, died and appointed Paul Castellano as his successor. Gotti was very angry about his friend Delacroce getting passed over, but would wait a bit before taking things into his own hands.

Out of prison, Gotti continued working, even dabbling in the narcotics trade, which was forbidden in the family. However, he was struck by tragedy when his son was killed while riding a bike in 1980. His son was struck by a vehicle, driven by Gotti's own neighbor. The neighbor received a number of death threats by phone and Gotti's wife assaulted him with a baseball bat. The neighbor decided to move, but suddenly disappeared into a van filled with Gotti's men, never to be seen again. Since Gotti and his wife were in Florida at the time, there was no evidence to indict him.

Castellano found out about Gotti dealing in narcotics in the 80s, but Dellacroce protected John from the organization by defending him to the other underbosses. In spite of the narcotics, John was promoted to capo. Everything remained stable until 1985, when Castellano was indicted for taped recordings in his mansion and Gotti's crew was indicted for narcotics trade.

Dellacroce prevented Gotti and Castellano from killing each other until his death, after which there was no barrier keeping the peace. Gotti agreed with some other capos in the Gambino family that Castellano needed to be whacked so he met with the other NY families and received support from 3 of the 4. On December 16, 1985 Castellano and Tommy Bilotti, his underboss, were gunned down by a hit team as they were entering Spasks Stake House in Manhattan.

Following the death of Castellano, John Gotti became the new boss of the Gambino family. Gotti ran the family from the Ravenite Social Club, unafraid of the public eye. Gotti was known for $2000 suits and flashiness, never hesitating to press the flesh with reporters. Despite a number of trials involving him, he emerged innocent, earning him the name "Teflon Don".

Apparently even the "Teflon Don" would experience some friction. The FBI succeeded in wiretapping the Ravenite Social Club, getting tape recordings of orders for hits and strong evidence against the entire family. After several years of gathering evidence, Gotti was indicted.

The final blow to John Gotti was dealt by his one-time good friend Sammy Gravano. One of the recorded conversations featured John speaking badly of Gravano and Sammy decided to flip, becoming the star witness of the John Gotti trial and a witness under the FBI witness protection program.

On April 2, 1992, Gotti was convicted of 5 murder charges, among other things, and sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole. The sentence was a hard one, putting him in a lonely 23 hour lockdown. However, John only lived to see 10 years of his final prison sentence, dying of cancer on June 10, 2002. The funeral was attended by over 100 members of the Gambino family and his personal family.





Don Cardi

You will find a definitive account of Favara's murder at

http://www.ganglandnews.com

Just use their "search" function. As DC said, Gravano had nothing to do with Favara's murder.
The movie "Gotti" took even more liberties with the McBratney murder: The cokehead Ralphie (Wigs) Galione was not forced on Gotti by Paul Castellano--Gotti chose him, with Angelo Ruggiero, to be with him. Galione was not too quick on the draw: McBratney, who was very strong, was resisting Gotti and Ruggiero, and had pulled them several feet; Galione's shots may have saved their lives. And Gotti's crew did not whack Galione: he was killed more than a year later in an apparent dispute over a loan shark debt.

As DC knows only too well: In my view, Assante gave a forceful performance as Gotti, but I thought he was too forceful, too energetic, too intelligent, to be convincing as the real Gotti: he was Armand Assante playing Armand Assante. Tom Sizemore, IMO, did a more convincing job in a much smaller role in the otherwise dismal film, "Witness to the Mob."

Cool Stuff, thanks! Hey what's your recommendation for the best Gotti book to read?

I recommend "Mob Star - The Story of John Gotti," by Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci, who also produce the ganglandnews.com website.

Thanks for the recommendayion Turnbull! I love ganglandnews.com, Capeci also wrote Gotti:Rise and Fall correct?

Yes, and to add to what Turnbull has correctly pointed out, in the Gotti movie we see Angelo telling Gotti " They should have given us Gravano ..blah blah blah for that job."

Well if memory serves me correctly, in real life, at the time of the McBratney hit, Gotti and Gravano really didn't even know each other that well, if at all. Gravano was probably making the jump from the Columbo family to the Gambino family around that time.

Don Cardi

So Im guessing HBO is responisble for all the fabrication and not Capeci's books

Yes. HBO made up that stuff, no doubt to embellish Gotti's relationship with Da Bull, and to add drama. And yes, Capeci did write "Gotti: Rise and Fall," inm '96. The latest edition of "Mob Star" (the one I recommended) was published in 2002. Despite Gotti's publicity-hound ways, a lot about him isn't known for sure, and Capeci and Mustain don't speculate where they don't have facts.

The gotti movie from 1996 is very fictional. Assante does a good job but they portray John as a tragic figure which anybody who has done good research on gotti know that was a lie. he was a sociopathic egotstical jerk most of the time. regarding the Favara/Frank Gotti incident it is very different from the movie. I mean Victoria Gotti made it seem like Favara did it on purpose and he was a monsters which was total crap so it would take the heat of her father. I mean i have driven in blinding sun before and once a kid jumped in front of my car and i stopped in time. This was the same type of incident however the kid came from behind a dumpster and the guy had no time to react.

I liked both Gotti and Witness to the Mob. As you can imagine the former is pro-Gotti and the latter is pro-Gravano.

Yes, Gotti had a lot more to do with Favara's disappearance than Gotti will admit. Witness to the Mob only mentions the death of Gotti's son briefly at the funeral for Nicky Scibetta.

Gotti and Witness to the Mob are cool movies. I think Witness to the Mob is funnier. I really don't think the actor does the real Gravano justice...

Gotti the HBO movie was very fictional. The real Gotti was a scumbag along with his brothers and most of the family. His wife is another nutjob. I feel bad she lost her son but it was a tragic accident and the guy was very sorry yet she was the the driving force behind his death.

I always thought it was Joe Watts and the Carnigs... They kept him alive until John got back so he could torture him personally

Possibly but the chainsaw story seemed like a fairy tale but maybe it did happen

I never believed that Gotti using the chainsaw story for a minute. The whole reason Gotti took that vacation was so he would be nowhere near it all when it happened.

The NY Post printed a couple chapters from Victoria Gotti's book in 2009 and this chapter was on Frankie Gotti's death. Mainly about the day he died and the following few days.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/item_bZieJ9iGg3h7UjmkCc0j0K

Pretty sad losing a kid, it must of been rough.

One kind of funny part is where Frankie got cut from the football team so Gotti paid the coach a visit and guess what? Frankie was back on the team. lol!

Victoria is teh definition of "babe in the woods routine" She makes Favara out to be a monster which is ridiculous

Exactly. I have always maintained that it is possible that gotti never actually committed a murder by his own hands he ordered many though that is for sure

Quack Ruggiero, Gene Gotti, Tony Roach, & Charles & John Carneglia were together on this. They killed Favara, dumped his body into one of Charles' steel drums full of acid. The body was dissolved and then the inside of a drum it was dumped into the bay. Sad for Favara.

Victoria Gotti claims she told her father to seek revenge for the death of her brother Frankie.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18559_162-5335305.html

On the disappearance on John Favara, the driver of the car that killed their brother, Frankie:

Victoria: I looked at [my father] and I said, "You're supposed to be a tough guy. How can you let somebody kill my brother?" And he just looked at me and he said, "It was an accident." And I said, "No, it wasn't." He looked at me and he said, "You're wrong." He said, "I know you loved your brother. He was my son. It's killing me…I'm telling you it was an accident. And you have to understand that."

For the first time I was so angry at my father that his life, what I had been hearing, what I had been told, I think for the first time…when I really needed it, when I really wanted it, I think if ever I could have him be this man that he said he was. It would have been the moment because…

Rest of the article is on the CBS website.

I doubt gotti was that understanding or rational where he would just see things as an accident. Accident or no accident he wanted him dead.

Victoria is not the most reliable source. Both John Jr and Angel Gotti both admitted that their father probably ordered favara's murder

I remember Gotti jr said that on his 60 minutes interview, that his father most likely had Favara killed.

I'd bet Victoria really believes the same too, but she'll just never admit it.

i agree. she wanted him dead

http://nypost.com/2009/09/28/gotti-the-day-our-boy-was-stolen-away/

Victoria's account of John Favara is a complete crock of shit isn't it? I'm just interested as to who this Ted Friedman is and why he would lie? Perhaps some kind of inducement?

Just goes to show the women in John's life were every bit as despicable and evil as he was.

The poor Favara family having that man killed in such a gruesome fashion, not getting any closure and seeing his name dragged through the mud while that rancid family parade their stupidity on reality TV.

It's shameful that Gotti had thousands of people rioting in his name when he was on trial and that so many people idolised him. Just completely and utterly shameful and says a lot about society's attitude as a whole.

"It had been a dreadful accident. It wasn’t his fault, as anyone
with half a brain knew"

Even Gravano in Underboss takes a shot at the Gotti's for their idiocy in not accepting what happened as an accident.

Just as an aside, myself and my dad were driving through a housing estate and a kid cycled right in front of us. He actually hit the car - he was fine of course but if my dad had been going as fast as some idiots drive through residential areas.... fuhgeddaboudit.

I know as well as anyone how these things can happen in the blink of an eye.

RIP John Favara.