What proof do we have Gotti was a tough guy? He and Ruggiero were probably on the verge of being killed by McBratney before Galione shot him. Piecyk would've probably kicked his ass only for being outnumbered and stationary in his vehicle; he didn't seem scared of him until he found out who he was.
Just curious. There doesn't seem to be any proof he was anything other than a middle aged street thug who used his mob clout and always being surrounded by people to project a tough guy image.
And when he mouthed off to an athletic, younger guy, without any of his friends to back him up, he got bitch slapped.
And let's not act like Gotti is above Walter Johnson. He stole 325 dollars from Piecyk, essentially robbing a 9 to 5 guy. If he knew where Tony Caponigro's corpse was, he'd probably drive there and take the dollars that were wedged up his ass.
He was tough but his toughness was grossly exaggerated. For example Junior told some fairytales in the documentary. First he said that 17 year old Gotti tracked down a much older Willie Boy Johnson who was hunting Gotti and gotti threatened him with gun and willie boy surrendered to gotti. That story reeks of horseshit. Then like you mentioned the McBratney murder Junior claims his father acted all cool and let Angel and Ralpie Galione try to act like cops and when that didnt work gotti shot mcbratney and told the bar maid to put the phone down. When i heard that i literally fell off my couch laughing. Like you said in reality gotti and Ângelo were the ones trying to act like cops and mcbratney told them to fuck off and proceeded to toss them around like rag dolls until galione shot him. I mean the only reason gotti got only 2 ,years was because he wasnt the shooter. So yes he was tough but he and his family definetly made up a lot of myths
