John Gottis height of power. Just how influential?

During Johns peak years, just how powerful was he? Did he have enough influence that if any organized crime group who was not approved to do business in his territory would try to do so, he would have made sure they ended up with a death sentence? Im talking about everyone from the United States, Mexico, Russia or South America as examples.

Gambino family was arguably the biggest influence on commission, and then Gotti instantly began to deteriorate that when he became boss

He didn't even have influence over the commission for it to be a guaranteed death sentence for another NY family to do business on his territory or even trying to kill Gotti himself, so it damn sure wasn't one for Mexico, Russia, or South America

I never understand the Sicilian faction never rebelled against Gotti, although that would be a bloodbath.

in 1959 Carlo Gambino took over the Commission until his death from a heart attack on October 15, 1976. The family was on par with the Genoveses as 'boss of bosses' Carlo had the final say.

What boss in the modern 20th century had that power in your opinion?

John Gotti didn't control a borough, no less a city, and that goes for most "godfathers". Maybe Brooklyn at a point in time, but unless you control wholesale drugs with a tax or if not, the gangs distributing with a tax: you control nothing. Also, John Gotti didn't control the Latin Bolita rackets still in place in Manhattan, Bronx and Brooklyn.

LOL this is the same guy that whacked the Boss of the Gambino crime family to get what he wanted.

If someone invaded his territory and pissed him off, no matter who the fuck they were, they would have been a dead man. That is guaranteed.

Gotti was the most powerful boss in the country for the 5 years he was boss. His guys also loved him and thats a fact.

Gotti inherited an already extremely powerful LCN family. He didn't make
The Gambino Family any stronger than what they were.Love or hate Big Paul
He understood that in order for LCN to continue it had to be operated like
A Fortune 500 company in many ways.

Here's a hypothetical
Let's say Gotti was put in charge of a family on life support like St.Louis or Cleveland in 1985
How well would he have done as boss?
Not too good. Gotti all he knew was how to break heads and gamble till no end
He had no idea how to cultivate a family.
All this horse manure about Gotti being old school and traditional
Yet he broke the number 1 rule or principle about LCN
It's a secret society

Gotti brought unwanted attention and was a easy target for
Surveillance etc etc

You do realize every single mob boss of that era got life in prison? Chin Gigante didnt bring attention walking ariund in a bath robe?
How about Casso and Amuso? How about the Colombo’s ? They all got life and brought attention in their own way.
Gotti may have inherited a strong family but so did Castellano, so did Gigante, so did casso and amuso.

To be fair, Gigante lasted decades before he was finally brought down. And he didn't even get life, he got a mere 12 years If he wasn't already so old, he wouldn't have died in prison. Amuso and Casso caused their own problems, they basically handed themselves to the government, just like Gotti. Gigante's downfall was brought about by a single rat, Peter Savino. If Savino had died sooner, they wouldn't have gotten him when they did.

Gotti was made a public figure by the feds and media, he did not bring it on himself. He never had that much power compared to other bosses, Castellano had more until his last few years.

He wasn’t the most powerful but he certainly was the most high profile. Most of it was his own doing

Gotti was old school Neapolitan, if there wasn't RICO he would have been boss much longer. He ordered the death of many people, but all those guys did that.

It was the media chasing him, not the other way ariound. It was also the FBI, prosecutors, and the police leaking things about him on a daily basis. That was not Gotti's own doing. Maybe you think he was supposed to hide in his home all day and night with the shades drawn.

That's the price of being king of mountain sometimes.
Which is staying in the shadows and ruling things from afar
Buts Gottis ego would never let him do that.
Gotti wanted adulation and acceptance. He enjoyed
His legion of fans. From Anthony Quinn to Anthony the
Cab Driver.
Look at all your great mob bosses in history
Many of them DID NOT WANT TO BE IN THE PUBLIC EYE
They understood the meaning of Omerta

Gotti was influential enough with the Commission to get the Bonannos seated at the table after decades of exile. But, he didn't make the Gambinos any stronger than they were under Big Paul. He was tough and cunning about his own survival and advancement, but he lacked the disclpline and restraint to keep a low profile and focus on building the borgata's wealth and influence in the safer white collar areas. Unlike Castellano, Gotti was a street guy and had the common touch that most of his men liked. But, he wasn't as savvy a businessman as Castellano. As Gravano bragged in "Underboss," "Paul was a racketeer--me and John were gangsters."

Omertà means not being a rat or speaking of the mob. Gotti met both of those criteria. He was chased around by reporters, but never gave an interview. He tried to stay in the shadows most of the time, The FBI or DA's would tip off the media where to find him.

. True

You can't possibly really believe this....

Are you kidding. The media chased him, and they had info from the feds. If you are too ignorant to be aware of it, then do research on it. Start with the time an NBC reporter named John Miller ambushed Gotti and Gravano coming out of what they thought was a secret meeting. Miller had several camera crews outside, every way Gotti and Gravano turned to walk away they had a camera in their faces. There were many other instances. If you can show me a single time Gotti did a newspaper, magazine, or tv interview, show it. Gotti would make one brief remark and keep walling anytime he was approached.

Gotti brought himself down, not RICO. He would've ended up in prison for life even if RICO didn't exist, that's just how lousy of a mobster he was. The current leaders of the Gambino and Genovese Families are going on decades now without being brought down, Crea actually sat in the Lucchese administration for many years before they finally got him, lots of bosses/administration members who came after Gotti outlasted Gotti. Even Massino lasted almost a decade and a half, yet Gotti with his little puny ass 5-year reign somehow remains the most notorious.

. Can’t argue with that

Exactly JCrusher, when it comes to mob bosses, tenure on the streets is what counts with me.

No SILLY

LA EME controlled the boroughs
We all know this.

Gotti- Made ALOT of mistakes.

However, the Feds spent more money on “ GETTING GOTTI” than probably all the other families combined.

Every other boss from that era got life in prison or died in prison.
Every other family fared worse offf than the Gambino’s except for the Westside.

1) Bonanno’s when their time came Massino and their whole admin caved and that was that.
2) Colombo’s snake should have given up the reins that family is a shell of what it was, and barely has any wealth among their made member’s.
3) Luke’s -CASO and Amuso reduced that family to next to nothing, they destroyed themselves from within. Their internal back stabbing seems to be still a thing, as of recently from within they drove a made member to flip for no good reason, now there is more known about that family than any other family. Except for now Ferrara flipping and telling the feds about the Colombo’s.


The only family that has not been decimated is the west side.

Out of the 5 they are the most successful.
I put the Gambino’s as #2

Can’t really even rank the rest.
Mancuso is going to destroy what’s left of the Bonanno’s if they let him.

But it took them 4 or 5 trials he was the Teflon Don.

He broke a cardinal rule
He spoke about killing someone after it was done.

Mind you it was done in an apartment that was probably used as a safe place to hold important meetings for many decades.

So he had a false sense of security.
Never the less it was his mistake.

Talk about influence:

1) He took over the colombo Borgata by way of Vic Amuso and Joey Scopo being his puppets.

2) He had Massino in his pocket he owned the Bonanno’s.

3) He took over the DeCalvcante family.

4) He took over what remained of the Trafficante family.

5) He had major influence over the Patricia family.

6) I am pretty sure he backed the Philly Borgata after Scarfo.

No family or families directly came after him
Chin and Casso were so fierce thy together they not dare take him head on, so the picked off his guys behind their back.

Oh I fortgot the Gambino family as well.

I think he was the most influential of his time as a matter of fact no one even came close.

Manna wanted to kill him because he was taking over their rackets in NJ.
Even Manna never took a shot at him.

It could almost seem like they were afraid to take him on directly.
Otherwise why wouldn’t they.

The Genovese went right after the Philly Borgata when they took out a boss without permission, why didn’t the Westside instead of pulling a “JAP” move, just make a move against him?

Well said. Also if you think about it he could've walked into any cities social club in his prime years as boss around mobsters and they would all would've kissed his ring. He was the real Godfather.

They didn't kill him because he was on camera 24-7, but really showed that they meant business with the DeCicco bombing. And are we really going to compare some drug street gangs and Latin Bolita operators to the Mafia? The mob never has nor will it ever control everything, but neither do the other groups you're comparing them to, which aren't anywhere near as sophisticated. The mob has bigger fish to fry than to worry about every little drug deal or gambling operation going on.

Also, Gotti was only on the streets for 5 years. Had he lasted longer, they would've gotten him eventually. Either that or there would've been some kind of big meeting agreeing to let it go.

So his $2,000 dollar suits, daily haircuts, never making even the slightest attempt to avoid publicity, huge smiles everytime cameras were on him, responding with a smart remark to as many questions from reporters as he could, was all THEIR doing and not Gotti clearly drawing attention to himself, welcoming them at his home, the Ravenite, the grocery store and whenever else and fueling them to keep the cameras on him? Ok.

Funny how cameras never chased Paul Castellano everywhere he went...or Tony Corallo...or Funzi Tieri.....or Carmine Persico....shall I keep going?

La di da di, free John Gotti
La di da di, la di
La di da di, free John Gotti
The King of New York
The King of New York
La di da di, free John Gotti
La di da di, la di
La di da di, free John Gotti
The King of New York
Man the King of New York - Fun Lovin Criminals

They went crazy with Gotti. They had cases that stuck against Corello and Tieri, ad by the way, they had them all on tapes too. So Gotti was not the only one recorded. He got daily haircuts? So what? He did try to avoid publicity's s I said he tried to avoid them but the reporters were tipped off to where he would be.


As for you saying this:

"..responding with a smart remark to as many questions from reporters as he could,"

you are wrong again. He might give a comment, but he would keep walking to avoid them . Look at every video of him , he never stopped for reporters. If you have one of him giving an interview, show it.


What is this:

"...welcoming them at his home.."

Huh??? Are you mixed up? He never welcomed them into his home, A video him and his family once took was put out by the feds, but not him. You have everything wrong.

The guy was a Gangster period. How he chose to go about it was his choice and he never wavered, never cried, never ratted. He lived the life to the day he died. Whether anyone approves or not doesn't matter. He did it the way he wanted and those who disagreed with his style didn't have the balls to do anything about. The exception (and i believe this) is Bobby Manna. I have no doubt had he not gotten picked up on the wire planning the job he would have ensured an attempt was made on Gotti's life. If he failed, he would've tried again in my opinion until he was successful or an all out war between the two families erupted. No telling how that would've ended.

I said at his home, not in his home. I have nothing wrong, in fact I was able to get private access to perhaps the biggest archive of network news footage of mobsters available on the internet. I usually only browse the footage pertaining to mobsters I'm doing biographies on, yet whenever I'm watching a news program discussing a mobster from the 80s/90s, no matter who, there goes a clip of Gotti's smug smiling face popping up showing him loving attention or blabbering to someone. It's alarming.

Before acting like you have seen all the footage of Gotti being an egotistical attention whore, I can assure you that haven't seen even 1/10th of all the footage of him welcoming the cameras, engaging the news crews and speaking to reporters like the bumbling blabbering narcissist he was.

Iceviens, you now crossed over to being full of it. Plus saying I was "an egotistical attention whore," was uncalled for.

This sounds like BS:

"I was able to get private access to perhaps the biggest archive of network news footage of mobsters available on the internet."

If you looked through more footage than anyone, as you claim, and saw nothing but Gotti's face---well, there is my point. They focused on him, not the other way around.

Dude, I called Gotti the egotistical attention whore. You don't have to believe what I have access to but you defending him by continuing to say they "focused on him" is rather absurd, they only focused on him because HE MADE THEM focus on him. He drew the attention to himself, nobody becomes a media darling unless they intentionally draw the spotlight to themselves and give the media something to be interested in.

They made him a celebrity/posterboy the Mafia sells in particular in those crazy days. Now much less ofcourse only online on socials maybe but not for NY Post or NYDN.

He made himself the poster boy. Before Gotti, the only boss who garnered anywhere near the media attention that he did was Albert Anastasia and the fact that Anastasia also seemed to welcome the attention instead of avoiding it was one of several reasons that lead to his demise.

I've never seen any news footage of any other mob boss outside of courts or arrests and never seen a boss speak to reporters. If you put a little effort to avoid news coverage, you can, but Gotti made no such effort.

Clearly this behavior was one of his mistakes.
With that said I don’t buy into they didn’t kill him because of the camera’s.
There weren’t many camera’s back then.

Why didn’t they kill Sammy then, why didn’t they kill Jr. then he was open game when he was involved in the life.

As for the guys they killed they were sneak attacks.
Casso knew very well the Gambino’s Gotti’s best friend tried to kill him, why didn’t Casso go after Angelo and atleast take a shot at him.

The only answer is they were afraid to go after the Gambino family head on, even the two families together.

Capone, Anastasia, Gotti you can compare them, the press/media made them stars but they also put themselves in the limelight.

The press can't make a star that doesn't want to be one. There's a reason that out of the dozens of bosses there have been throughout the past century that the general public was only familiar with the 3 guys you've mentioned.

I would also include Joe Colombo among the most "flashy" bosses who weren't low-profile and sought attention (or at least acted like it).

Absolutely. He was arguably the worst due to how intent he was on being in the spotlight.

The reason Gotti wasn't killed was because for one he was always on camera and two he really wasn't on the streets for very long. The people who were after him also had other affairs to attend to within their own Families, killing Gotti wasn't top priority. But had he been on the streets for much longer my best bet was that he would've been killed, it was only a matter of time. The fact that Ruggiero and Gotti weren't killed comes down to sheer luck, not out of any fear they wielded.

I disagree. The media wasnt on him 24/7. He also didnt puruse the media, they went after him. Gotti could of been killed internally just as virtually every other boss was. Why wasnt he killed? He was feared and he was strong.
Gotti could of beem killed inside a restaurant, night club, you name it. If they were able to kill castellano, they could have killed gotti.
Gotti went to plenty of secret meetings the government jnew nothing about, he could of easily of been killed at one of those meetings.

Bobby Manna would have killed him he was the son of a mafioso going back to the early days of cosa nostra.

Manna could have but he was caught on a wire. There is also a possibility that Gotti got wind of it prior to the fbi telling him and gotti having Manna killed. We will never know.

Yes if they were both on the streets it could go either way. But Genovese vs Gambino that would be something lol.

Your notion that Gotti was somehow invincible or too feared to be killed is ridiculous. Killed at a meeting with bosses? Yeah right. First off the Bonanno and Colombo leaders were on his side so you could rule them out. 2nd of all no way would he have been killed at a meeting with bosses, all at the same place. Gotti was living on borrowed time. The feds got him before his enemies in the mob could, plain and simple.

Castellano was killed, why not Gotti.
Angelo Bruno was killed, why not Gotti.
The 3 capo’s were killed, why not Gotti.
Carmine Galante was killed, why not Gotti.
Albert Anastasia was killed, why not Gotti.

The reason why the Media paid so much attention to John was because he was marketable and likeable by the general public. He had that charisma about him that is portrayed in movies such as Goodfellas, which is popular for a reason. Simply put, he made a Mob boss cool to follow. He had good looks, dressed really well and just had that IT factor. Guys like the Chin were ugly as fuck and not marketable. Lets be honest, most mob bosses do not look like Hollywood movie stars but John did. That is why he was who he was.

Well perhaps but HE played on that....you can look like a Sicilian Brad Pitt but if you want to stay out of the spotlight and avoid the media as much as possible YOU CAN.

I'm a little shocked at how many people are trying to blame the media and not the attention loving narcissist himself who clearly sought the spotlight and loved the coverage.

Lenox, the reason they were killed and Gotti wasn't all comes down to circumstances and timing, not power and fear. Yes Gotti was feared and powerful to an extent but it has next to nothing to do with him not getting whacked.

Americans have been fascinated--obsessed--with outlaws going back to the 19th Century, and the media have played on that obsession by romanticizing outlaws as "Robin Hoods," "folk heroes," "on the side of the poor and downtrodden," etc. Their attention made heroes of Billy the Kid (a serial killer who murdered 20 men before his 21st birthday), Jesse James (a sadist, terrorist and torturer) and Butch Cassidy (a fraud).
Some gangsters are flattered by the attention paid to them by mass media--and have been undone by the publicity they got. John Dillinger and Al Capone flaunted their notoriety, and so, to an extent, did Gotti. They publicly thumbed their noses at The Law, which made The Law that much more determined to nail their asses. The successful mobsters always kept low profiles.

Again, I beg to differ. I do think fear was a factor. All the families saw how easily Gotti took out Castellano on a busy street during rush hour. They knew he had alot of willing, able, proficient killers to do it again if needed.

I grew up with the “son of a mafioso” and he was a ballet dancer. What does that have to do with it ?

LOL. I grew up with a few myself.... It was a split mix though, some were wanna be gangsters some were straight up pu$$ies.

I mean Bobby was probably schooled by his father in cosa nostra traditions, that you don't kill a boss unsanctioned.

Obvioulsly he missed mob school on the day his dad taught that lesson. Manna was caught on a wire conspring to blow Gotti’s head off. Thats why Bobby “ the mob student” Manna is getting 3 hots and a cot for life.
He was old school .

Gotti just wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed either, so of course, he was surrounded with people even dumber than himself.
A main success factor of any organization is having the right guys doing the right jobs.
Angelo Ruggiero was a gossiping, backstabbing, backdoor dealing, low intelligent fuck-up.
And we can all see on the internet how retarded Gravano is in real-time.

A bunch of pitbulls that killed their owner, before their owner could realize they should be put down.

He didn't control a borough, no less a city. Include narcotics, and the Italians, with a few exceptions, are way down the food chain. Illegal lotteries are ethnic based and most controlled by the race consuming the service - Spanish Ray and Miguel Battle in Spanish Harlem. The "maaafia" is an FBI retirement plan. They don't know what to do with themselves and are now encroaching on DEA turf.

That’s a good point….
The Mexican Mafia of course controlled and controls everything.

On the blog here we are referring to the 2nd down the food chain all this is about whoever is directly below the Mexican mafia.

Great
Thanks

Right Place

Right Time

We all get an opportunity in our lifetime, seizing it makes the difference of how and what becomes of it.

I am assuming everyone on here knows I am being Sarcastic
About that Mexican Mafia Bill-Shit

It’s a JOKE

They control neighborhoods no LCN members want to visit let alone live in.

Only way he gets taken out is if Bobby Manna was successful, no other person had the onions to chance a war, or a family behind them to engage in one for that matter. Gotti's loyalists (and that includes the Columbo's and Bonnano's) would have wanted revenge. I kinda doubt even the Genovese would have wanted that battle even if the Luchese's threw in with them. It seems so many here refuse to acknowledge Gotti was able to get a lot of "gangsters" to be loyal to him. I'm not referring to the white collar guys, I'm talking about the street guys, the hitters. They all were loyal to him.

https://nypost.com/2023/05/27/john-gotti-iii-looks-to-take-out-boxing-legend-floyd-mayweather-jr/

John Gotti III looks to take out boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. in match

For what its worth, according to few old and serious Balkan (especially Serbian) gangsters from the 70's and 80's who operated in France, Germany, Italy and other states, allegedly knew Gotti or some of Gotti's people. Maybe our board member @Strax can give us more about this story, but it seems Gotti suspected that there was already another informant before Gravano and allegedly reached out to one of these guys (I think it was Mike Majkic or something like that) to find out his name...

Boško "The Yugo" Radonjic was the most famous boss affiliated with Gambinos and the Westies.

Though based in the Balkans, Radonjic frequently travelled abroad, especially to Caribbean and South American destinations. During one such trip in late December 1999 after almost a decade spent in the former Yugoslavia, Radonjic was arrested by U.S. custom officials in Miami, Florida. Actually, he was on a plane from Europe to Cuba where he was going for New Year's celebrations, but after learning that Radonjic was on the passenger list, the FBI got the plane re-routed to Miami where he was arrested in spectacular manner as the entire airport was shut down.
During spring 2003, following the assassination of the Serbian Prime Minister, Radonjic was arrested and questioned as part of Operation Sablja, a wide-sweeping police action initiated by the Serbian authorities under the state of emergency. After spending three days in prison, Radonjic was released.
He died in 2011.

+1

After Gotti the Serbians still kept ties to the Gambinos. (Mileta Miljanic)

https://www.occrp.org/en/group-amer...an-drug-lord-and-leader-of-group-america

Thats right and thanks for the remind H. Theres obviously something about the Serbian clans and the Gambinos lol

In addition, im not 100% sure (again @Strax is the main guy who can confirm if this is true or false) but according to one short convo with Mike Majkic who in turn said that after the unfortunate death of Gottis son, his wife became quite mentally unstable and that the feds used that situation and also followed/listened to her regarding info about Gottis hideouts and other personal stuff...or maybe even received some info from her personally...previously Majkic already said this statement publicly on one Balkan Youtube channel to an extent....and so back in the days I asked some legit NY researchers regarding this claim but I never received a straight answer from anyone. Im not saying that Majkic is telling the right story but still, I wondered if there's some truth to it.

Something I don't see mentioned, is that Gotti was a complete degenerate gambler. Majority of his $ probably went to big-time bookies.