In my opinion, Gotti's legacy will always be that he was somewhat of a hero for regular, blue collar type people. He didn't come from much, wasn't some high IQ type of guy, but he worked his way up the structure and when he saw an opportunity he took full advantage of it. I suppose you could make this case for most mobsters, but there was something different about John that I really can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps how available he was and how he wasn't operating in the shadows, but rather out on the street where he was seen.

When you think of people who beat the government in court not once, but 3 times, you generally don't think of guys like John Gotti, who was doing it while rubbing the governments nose in it. He had a contagious swagger about him, and was charismatic as hell.
When you see old videos of him from when he was on the street, its apparent that people were incredibly drawn to him and saw him as one of them. Obviously, his ego and a few other variables caught up to him and were his down fall, but he achieved the American dream, even if only for a short time.