Here I am digging through Gotti: Rise and Fall, trying to find where it is mentioned, but it's actually at the start of Murder Machine.

"Poking into Gotti's past, we found a transcript of a conversation secretly recorded by FBI agents in which Gotti's brother Gene said he and violent John were afraid to take on Roy DeMeo because Roy had 'an army' of killers."

That intrigued Capeci and Mustain enough to start writing Murder Machine.


I don't think Gotti personally feared DeMeo, Burke or Chin for that matter like they were boogeymen, but he recognized that they were professional killers and it would be unwise to tangle with them.