Did Gotti's good looks & persona help him....

move up within the mob?


Ok some of u will say "looks" has nothing to do with it ie Chicken man Testa/ his underboss were not the best looking fellas. fat Joey Massino was a whale.... Etc

But hear me out, we are all visual creatures. Gotti was just another street tough... Like many. He wasn't a huge earner in terms of construction rackets/ garment/ waste etc but made his money from drugs as a capo & loan sharking/ mostly blue collar crimes... Wasn't a big hitter himself. Yet every wiseguy who met him seemed to be mesmerised by his good looks/ personality all the way from when he was a soldier to capo to boss

And people wanted to be in his company. He was a very popular guy, similar to when your in high school everyone wants to be friends with the tough good looking guy in class who can fight/ and pick up chicks

Nobody wants to hang out with the ugly loser (generally)

And that made people listen to him. And as proven later on he was a terrible boss. Yet he had everyone fawning at his feet along the way (albeit some enemies)

Sammy was very impressed with Gotti when he met him & continued to be throughout their relationship...

Scarfo according to Leonetti also was very impressed with Gotti. It's no different to walking into my car dealership, the woman have to be pretty & guys well presented

The chief exec likes to put on a suit BETTER than everyone else that spells "authority".

Plays a very big part, that's why that ruggedly handsome hunk of a man called Skinny Joey Merlino is calling the shots over in Philly for years now..

Sheet, I forgot to type 'no homo' at the end of my comment..



Don't worry Bean, I'm only kidding

Lol! Good one Billy!

you need to look and be assertive with the clothes and looks gotti had it all in that dept.

Petey clearly got all the looks in that family



That Nose...lol

Fuckin guyz a mongrul.

And that's what it's all about. How you carry yourself, your appearance and how well you dress. I remember reading Dressing for Success when I was younger . It 's required reading at some Business Schools. I don't know if Gotti ever read it but he could have written it! He walked the walk and commanded respect, confidence, fear and leadership.

The persona certainly did. His confidence and charisma made a lot of guys, many who were more capable than he, follow him. As John Gleeson said, he wasn't boss of that family for nothing.

correct

gotti told gleason to cut his hair at trial

he thought they were taking him to the park for a walk...

It may have been his Rico trial but the Cutler,the defense,turned a prosecuting witness into one oftheir own.matthew Traynor,and the jury knows this.Then Cutler ask this witness for the prosecution what he thought of Gotti as a man.Traynor replied,"He is the finest man I ever met".I mean come on whats a jury gonna do.The way he carried himself got him thru many many doors

Remember Sammy said even bosses from other cities were reaching out to him

Psychology helped Gotti massively... He convinced people he was the real deal
& they all fell for it (like others have mentioned) even those more qualified than he was fell trap

At weddings even when he was a capo guys were lining up to be in his presence. People were praising him behind his back "have u met this guy?"

"Nice guy".... "He's gonna be somebody someday u watch"

LOL Peter "Scarecrow" Gotti. Jesus Christ...

You can argue about respect, but mobsters only started fearing him and kissing his ass after he killed Castellano.

Lets be honest what helped Gotti most was Neil. Neil dellacroce pretty much made gotti what he was(the good and the bad). Also he wasn't universally loved by other mobsters. Its common knowledge that Gigante and Tony Ducks Corallo hated his guts. Hell even his friends Joe massino and Angelo Ruggiero talked bad behind his back.

not so, gotti was very known and liked, his downfall with the old timers was killing paul..john was the prince in waiting.even with the drug nonsense hanging over his crew,everyone knew it was a political rule..not what was the truth in all the families

+1

Bronx, what do u mean by "prince in waiting"? Are u saying Gotti was Paul's heir apparent? Even though Paul was trying to whack him?

yes, before the issue with the tapes,

paul had no plot to kill gotti..thats as far as i know, who was in the plot?, not even a rumor..if you have proof i would love to see it.

It's conjecture

Was Gotti known for being some handsome guy? He looked like a chubby, middle-aged guy who dressed well and had a fancy coiffed hairdo.

But in terms of his success -- I think it had more to do with his connections (mainly his closeness to Neil and before that with the Fatico brothers). He lucked out by coming up with a group of guys who not only mentored him but, later on, used him for more supervisory types of roles. He was an acting capo before he was even made at one point. So, I think his connections (and how he played those connections) are what led to his fleeting success.

But even his success was really short-lived and overblown. He spent more time in jail while he was boss than he did out on the streets. He ended up getting put away for life at the age of 50/51. He grabbed power by knocking off a boss without commission consent (how he was able to avoid assassination himself mystified me). And most of his 'tough guy' actions were not done by himself; he delegated them out to his underlings. Gotti built up this macho, tough-guy reputation, but in truth, what did he ever do himself? Even the McBratney hit, Gotti didn't pull the trigger; he was just one of the guy who grabbed McBratney. And with Castellano, Gotti never directly opposed Castellano and probably never said a coarse word to Paul. But Gotti assembled the hit team and ordered others to knock off Paul.

You can say that Gotti was treacherous and bold, but that's about it.

"Was Gotti known for being some handsome guy"

U serious? That's got to be a troll job

He was considered one of the most handsome and flamboyant mobsters in the history of LCN!!! Not just in the media but by other wiseguys too

They didn't call him "the good looking guy" for nothing in mob circles

Edit- within LCN all wiseguys have said that it doesn't matter if your the trigger man or not. Everyone who plays a part be it the driver, shooter, burial guy, it doesn't matter. You are all taking part so the fact Gotti did or did not pull the trigger doesn't matter (in the life)

But yes I agree he was very over-rated

i dont agree he was universally liked. Yes he was liked by a good amount but he wasnt a prince in waiting lol.....whatever the hell that means

I think he means Gotti was seen as Neil's heir apparent & seeing Paul was having legal troubles/ Gotti in theory would have taken over as underboss after Neil/ and possibly boss or acting boss whilst Paulie goes inside (obviously Paul would never let Gotti succeed him) considering they're the "other side" & would obviously pick one of his own top guys

But yes the tapes and fact Neil was no longer around changed all of that

Tony wasn't also Neil in those same legal troubles as Paul due to the Commission case?

true, he had legal problems

you are correct, nobody is liked by everyone, first he was a nappy and most of the captains were siggies, albert was the only non siggie..look what happened to him..gotti was touted to be boss in time, very strange because paul was only boss for about 4 .5 years when gottis name started to be named as a potential boss.

gottis name never popped up as a potential boss especially that early. However when paul was arrested they did talk about a ruling panel with tommy gambino billotti and gotti but i doubt it would have went through

J.C. most certainly did,his name was out there, he was put on the committee to pull the captains in on the no drug rule.that was if i remember from testimony 79 80..also being familiar with the street in that era it was around..bklyn and the bronx were new to that name.hanging with decicco and frankie loc among other younger up and comers made him known in the time frame.look who takes down paul..do you think that happened in 6 months that started in prisons..look at photos posted..gotti is in the middle looking like the guy. my opinion and what i know from late 70's early 80's bensonhurst and bronx.

he was captain of the bergin crew during that time. Neil dellacroce headed the blue collar faction of the family which included gotti angelo etc...

That is correct JC, blue collar term I'm not fond of, it is used for guys who do not own biz's .. and who do the killing for the family..

that term was really created by law enforcement. But lets be honest the gotti crew wasnt exactly intelligent. They did hits,hijacked trucks,loansharked,and dealt drugs. They had no idea how to do white collar crimes

you are right, drug addicts also..

To my knowledge Tony Roach was the only addict in that crew and ever since 1979 he supposedly dropped his drug habit..

Very much doubt Roach was the only addict around Gotti.

That Matthew Traynor was a degenerate fiend, forgot about him, though he was more of a fringe player..

hello Billy, nah he was still using H until he got pinched for the final time..gene, john c , charlie c. twitch all of them were weekend coke users. among others you may not think..

I think all these guys were degenerates, considering how they made their living. It's funny how a guy like Roach or Traynor are labeled by many as being degenerates, but the guys above them, who often direct and profit off of the degenerate activities of these degenerates, are somehow viewed as being more noble and less reprehensible. It's ok to direct other guys to do dirty deeds, and it's ok to profit off of those dirty deeds, but not actively getting one's hands dirty makes a guy an upstanding, ok guy!! The twisted logic of some mob aficionados.

Maybe it has to do with ultimate success. IF a guy gets rich enough or attains enough social clout, then he automatically becomes a more noble criminal, no matter how actively involved he is with degenerates and degenerate activities. LOL

I find the underworld fascinating and many of the casts of characters fascinating characters, which is why I am on this site, but I don't for one second lose sight of the fact that ALL of these guys were some form of low-life (some were much lower than others, but they were all in the gutter to some extent)!

I don't believe I said that all the other guys were noble or good for that matter, and I didn't say anything bad about Roach either..

This Traynor kid was a real low life, that I call him a degenerate has nothing to do with his drug use more of the violence he used on innocent people to feed his habit and greed, trust me on this or otherwise just read Capeci's book..