On April 2, 1992, a federal jury in Brooklyn found John Gotti guilty on all 13 counts of an indictment that charged him with running the Gambino crime family as a racketeering enterprise. The counts included racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, murder, conspiracy to murder, illegal gambling, loan-sharking and obstruction of justice. The murders found by the jury as racketeering acts included that of Paul Castellano, his predecessor as head of the family, and of Thomas Bilotti, who was killed with Castellano in Manhattan on December 16, 1985. On June 23, 1992, Judge I. Leo Glasser sentenced him to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. He died in Missouri on June 10, 2002.
The verdict ended a run of failed prosecutions. Gotti had been charged in New York State and federal courts at least three times between 1985 and 1990 and had left each of those cases without a conviction. The case that finally succeeded was built on recorded conversations and on the testimony of Salvatore Gravano, a co-defendant who pleaded guilty and became a cooperating witness for the government.
John Gotti was born on October 27, 1940, in New York City, one of 13 children of Italian immigrant parents. He left high school at 16. As a teenager he led a local gang in East New York, Brooklyn, and became involved with the Gambino crime family. By his mid-twenties he had been arrested repeatedly, mostly for petty offenses. He served one year for unlawful entry in 1966 and, from 1967, a federal term for truck hijacking.
The Gambino family was then led by Carlo Gambino, and after Gambino died in 1976 his brother-in-law, Paul Castellano, took over as its head. Gotti was paroled in 1977 and rose under Aniello Dellacroce, a senior figure in the family. By 1985 he was a captain with his own crew.
James McBratney died on Staten Island on May 22, 1973. Gotti was arrested over that death on June 3, 1974. On August 8, 1975, under a plea arrangement, he pleaded guilty to attempted manslaughter. He was sentenced to four years in prison and served two.
On December 16, 1985, Paul Castellano, then about 70, and Thomas Bilotti were killed in Manhattan. Castellano was the head of the Gambino family. Gotti became head of the family after the killings. The 1990 indictment accused him of ordering the murder of Castellano, and the counts on which he was tried in 1992 included the murders of Castellano and Bilotti.
Before the Castellano case reached a courtroom, Gotti was arrested on other charges. On September 11, 1984, he was arrested in Queens on assault and robbery charges arising from an argument over a parking space. The charges were dropped on March 25, 1986, after the complainant could not identify him in court.
On March 28, 1985, a federal indictment against ten reputed Gambino family members named Gotti as the captain of his own crew. The trial that followed charged him with leading a racketeering enterprise over 18 years. During that trial his $1 million bail was revoked after the judge called him dangerous, and he was jailed to guard against possible jury tampering. On March 13, 1987, a jury acquitted him and his six co-defendants of the racketeering and murder charges.
On February 9, 1990, a Manhattan state court jury acquitted him of assault and conspiracy charges that involved a union official. Prosecutors had relied on secretly recorded conversations in that trial, which they conceded were sometimes difficult to understand.
Federal authorities arrested Gotti on December 11, 1990. A federal racketeering indictment accused him of ordering the 1985 murder of his predecessor, Paul Castellano, and he was held without bail. The government's case drew on recorded conversations made in 1990, in which Gotti, Frank Locascio and Gravano were the principal speakers.
A thirteen-count superseding indictment was returned on July 18, 1991, in the Eastern District of New York. It named Gotti, Locascio, Gravano and a fourth defendant whose trial was severed. Counts One and Two charged substantive and conspiracy violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 18 U.S.C. 1962(c) and (d), with the Gambino family as the charged enterprise and predicate acts that included murders and conspiracies to murder, obstruction of justice, illegal gambling businesses and a conspiracy to make extortionate extensions of credit. Separate counts charged conspiracy to obstruct grand jury investigations, bribery of a public servant and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Gravano had been named in the indictment as the family's consigliere. On November 8, 1991, he dismissed his lawyer and became a witness for the government. He pleaded guilty and testified against Gotti and Locascio. By January 21, 1992, Gravano had chosen to cooperate with the prosecution.
Two pretrial rulings shaped the trial. On January 21, 1992, Judge Glasser granted the government's motion to disqualify one of the defense lawyers, finding a real conflict of interest, and denied the defendants' cross-motion to disqualify the lead prosecutor, John Gleeson, calling the claims baseless. Bruce Cutler, who had represented Gotti in earlier trials, was also disqualified; a federal court in New York later described the evidence as having justified that ruling. The jury was anonymous and sequestered, identified to the parties only by number.
The trial was held in the federal courthouse in Brooklyn before Judge Glasser. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Gleeson and Andrew J. Maloney. Albert J. Krieger defended Gotti.
The prosecution's evidence consisted mainly of secretly recorded conversations in which Gotti discussed crimes and the running of the family, and of Gravano's testimony. Gravano testified for nine days. Prosecutors also presented evidence that Gotti had bribed a police detective for information, and that for six years he had filed no income tax returns while describing himself as a plumbing company salesman. An FBI agent testified as an expert witness on the structure, operation and vocabulary of organized crime families.
Krieger told the jury that the government had built its case on Gravano's lies, and the defense argued that Gravano was a witness seeking a lighter sentence. In closing, Gleeson said the defendants were troubled by Gravano because he was their greatest threat. The only defense witness was a tax lawyer; Judge Glasser ruled that five other proposed defense witnesses could not testify. Gleeson called murder "the heart and soul of this enterprise."
On April 2, 1992, after about 13 hours of deliberation, the jury returned its verdict. Gotti was found guilty on every count. The verdict covered racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, five murders as racketeering acts, conspiracy to murder, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, bribery of a public servant, obstruction of justice and tax-related conspiracy counts. The murders of Castellano and Bilotti were among those charged, and the murder of Louis DiBono was charged against both Gotti and Locascio.
Locascio was found guilty on all counts except one gambling count, and on one murder.
Judge Glasser sentenced both men on June 23, 1992. Gotti received life imprisonment on the racketeering and murder counts, without possibility of parole, with the maximum terms allowed by statute on the remaining counts, all to run concurrently. He was also given five years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and the mandatory special assessments.
Months after sentencing, the government disclosed previously unknown reports bearing on Gravano's credibility. Gotti and Locascio moved for a new trial under Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, relying on Brady v. Maryland, and the district court denied the motion and a renewed motion.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the judgments and the denial of a new trial in United States v. Locascio, 6 F.3d 924, decided on October 8, 1993. The central question on appeal was the testimony of the FBI agent on the structure and terminology of organized crime families. The court held that the testimony was properly admitted: the agent's seventeen years in the FBI, including work on its Organized Crime Program, gave him the specialized knowledge required by Rule 702, and an expert may rely on inadmissible material of a kind reasonably relied on in the field. The court also held that the availability of an accomplice witness did not bar expert testimony on the same subjects. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal on May 2, 1994.
Gotti died on June 10, 2002, in Missouri, aged 61. He was serving the life sentence imposed in 1992.
The charges against Gotti were brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Counts One and Two charged substantive and conspiracy violations of 18 U.S.C. 1962(c) and (d). In the Gotti indictment the Gambino family was the charged enterprise, and the predicate acts were murders and conspiracies to murder, obstruction of justice, illegal gambling businesses and a conspiracy to make extortionate extensions of credit. The structure allowed the government to try killings, gambling and loan-sharking together, in a single trial of the family's alleged leader.
The Second Circuit's 1993 opinion also settled a point on evidence. The court approved the admission of testimony by an FBI agent on the structure, operation and terminology of organized crime families, because the agent's experience qualified him under Rule 702. Judge Glasser's January 1992 ruling on defense counsel rested on the government's showing that one lawyer was answerable to Gotti, which bore on whether the Gambino family was a racketeering enterprise, and on the finding that the lawyer ought to be a witness.
At trial the defense called Gravano a liar who was seeking a lighter sentence. The jury rejected that argument, and the Second Circuit upheld the verdict and the denial of a new trial based on the later disclosure of reports bearing on Gravano's credibility.
The 1973 case ended in a plea to attempted manslaughter, not a finding of murder. The acquittals of March 13, 1987 and February 9, 1990, and the dismissal of the 1984 Queens case on March 25, 1986, were not findings of guilt on any count.
October 27, 1940: John Gotti born in New York City.
1973: death of James McBratney; Gotti arrested June 3, 1974.
August 8, 1975: pleads guilty to attempted manslaughter; sentenced to four years, serves two.
1976: Carlo Gambino dies; Paul Castellano becomes head of the Gambino family.
1977: Gotti paroled.
September 11, 1984: arrested in Queens on assault and robbery charges; charges dropped March 25, 1986.
March 28, 1985: named as a crew captain in a federal indictment of ten reputed Gambino family members.
December 16, 1985: Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti killed in Manhattan; Gotti becomes head of the family.
March 13, 1987: acquitted with co-defendants in a federal racketeering and murder case.
February 9, 1990: acquitted of assault and conspiracy charges in a Manhattan state court.
December 11, 1990: arrested on a federal racketeering and murder indictment; held without bail.
July 18, 1991: thirteen-count superseding indictment returned in Brooklyn.
November 8, 1991: Gravano becomes a witness for the government.
January 21, 1992: Judge Glasser rules on the disqualification motions.
April 2, 1992: jury returns guilty verdicts on all counts.
June 23, 1992: sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.
October 8, 1993: Second Circuit affirms in United States v. Locascio, 6 F.3d 924.
May 2, 1994: Supreme Court refuses to hear the appeal.
June 10, 2002: dies in Missouri, aged 61.