I saw a video of Piecyk with his arm in a sling showing up to court shortly after his altercation with Gotti. Whether that was real or just for show to elicit sympathy who knows. But all the accounts I read of the incident say it was only Gotti and Frank Colletta involved with Piecyk, that Piecyk started fighting with Colletta, and then Gotti erupted out of the bar and joined in the fracas. But that was in '84, when John wasn't a boss yet, so he could still get his hands a little dirty!
I looked at some old microfilm of stories in days after Gotti and Piecyk story came out. Concencus is that Piecyk attacked Colleta, and Gotti came out, and beat up Piecyk. Descriptions of Colletta paint him as small and recovering from heart attack. Piecyk went to police, and said he was attacked and robbed. After hearing from police who he was having arrested, he had second thoughts. Piecyk also seems to have been bit of a thug and bully in life, with his own criminal record, mostly for fighting.
It seems like the police mishandled this, they should have waited till Piecyk talked to district attorneys office, instaed of telling him who Gotti was as soon as they arrested Gotti. It sounds as if they were so happy to have made a Mafia arrest, they were bragging gout loud who they arrested, Piecyk heard, got cold feet.
I'd get cold feet as well. But I guess Johnny Boy was pretty handy with his fists. I think John was more of a blue collar don, at least in the beginning. I could never picture a Carlo Gambino or a Paul Castellano getting in a fistfight over a parking spot. Those two guys would probably get beaten up by most average guys on the street. But I probably would be scared of Gotti, even if I didn't know who he was. He seemed to carry a certain menacing quality about him.
Yeah Gotti was a tough man. A mans man. He definately could have made a career being an enforcer.
