I know somebody who was locked up with Gotti in Marion Prison from 1993 until his release in 1998. He said their cell block housed 20 inmates (10 upstairs and 10 downstairs) and they lived in one man cells. His discription of Gotti was that he was a pretty friendly guy. But that he never wanted people asking him questions about his organized crime past. He said one time he had no money on his books and Gotti bought him two bags of coffee off his canteen, which came once a week. They were on 23 hour a day lock down and the only time he saw Gotti is when he came out for his 1 hour of free time. They saw and talked to eachother through a square of thick plastic that was directly in the middle of their cell doors.

I did ask him once about the fight between the black inmate and Gotti. He told me that it was all over a tv. There was a tv that was placed on the cell blocks wall for inmates to watch during the day while they were in their cells. Gotti basically controlled the tv and housing area. There was a new trustee that the prison staff placed in their cell block. A trustee is a worker from general population that is trusted by prison staff. The new trustee was sweeping the cell block floor one day and Gotti asked him to change the channell on the tv. But the trustee didn't do it. So Gotti called him a fuckin ni**er and said if he ever came in contact with him he would kick his ass. Two weeks later Gotti went out for his free time and the trustee was just leaving the housing area after cleaning and Gotti called him a ni**er again. After that they both got into eachothers face. My friend could not see everything 'cause he lived on the second floor and Gotti lived on the first. But said he saw Gotti the next day and he looked pretty banged up. Gotti also had cancer and was really sick during that time. If he was a lot younger and more fit I'm sure the black guy would've been beaten up. The prison staff moved the trustee to another prison for his safety just one month later. I heard that Gotti paid the Aryan Brotherhood to murder the inmate, but the hit never happened.