Here's the thing that makes me wonder. He killed Castellano which in my view was wrong,
Not so sure about that. Gotti did what he had to do to survive. If he was wrong for having to murder Castellano, then that stems from him being wrong for joining the mafia in the first place which put him in a position to have to kill to survive.
although I do understand the view he was more of a business man than a mob boss.
Gotti more of a businessman than a mob boss? I'm not sure he was a perfect model of either. To tell the truth, he wasn't even that good of a soldier. Couldn't earn like the rest of the kleptos. Probably should have been an honest construction worker making legitimate income than trying to be a gangster/earner/boss/whatever.
But the real thing was the heat he brought onto the mob, La Costra Nostra is a secret society and John Gotti flaunted it around the whole of New York and was really careless.
He probably didn't have much choice. Someone on this forum said that when Gotti made himself Boss, he didn't even know who all the capos were, nor who the soldiers were who answered to them. Therefore everyone probably was made to come down to the Ravenite to kiss him just so he could see who the hell was in his family. On top of that, his was a violent coup. So that necessitated him testing each capo to make them bow and show obeisance....to discover who was his enemy of course. So that's another reason everyone was made to come down to the Ravenite and bow down.
A Boss' power is his ability to summon capos and soldiers and compel them to appear at his whim, under circumstances of his choosing, not theirs. That is the only thing that strikes fear in the troops. That is the only thing protecting a Boss from his family. So Gotti exercised that constantly out of paranoia.
Despite the money he made and the way he made sure the soldiers got there piece of the action, I believe he was the one who actually ruined the mob and made it something it was never supposed to be.
RICO did him in. Wiretapping did him in. He stepped into Paul Castellano's shoes and got indicted exactly like his predecessor. Do we say that Paul Castellano "set this thing of Ours back 100 years"? No we don't. But he was going to be indicted and imprisoned for 100 years wasn't he.
Casso tried to kill him a few times but was unsuccessful in doing so because of the camera's and heat he had on him. So would Casso of managed to kill him if he ran it normal? And did he infact ruin organised crime?
Either Casso tried to kill him or he didn't. Saying the cameras were there and that's why you couldn't make an attempt is not an effort. Otherwise we should have seen Gotti ducking from bombs and bullets while being hounded by paparazzi.
Would Casso have gotten him eventually? Maybe. Or maybe the Chin. Maybe Sammy and/or DeCicco. If Gotti had not gone to jail, he would have probably been whacked.
He was never really the legitimate Boss of the Gambinos in the first place.
