The future head of the Gambino crime family, John Joseph Gotti Jr., was born in the Bronx on this date in 1940.
Gotti, the grandson of Italian immigrants, was raised in a poor, 13-member family and later became known as the “the Dapper Don” for his polished appearance.
As a kid, he ran errands for mobsters in his East New York neighborhood. He joined a neighborhood street gang at 16, quit school and soon started what would become a lengthy criminal career.
He steadily rose through the ranks of the crime family, and by 1985 he was on trial for federal racketeering charges. He was acquitted in 1986, although the jury’s foreman was later convicted of accepting a bribe to vote for Gotti’s acquittal.
Finally, in 1992, Gotti was convicted on 13 counts, including murder and racketeering. He was kept in an Illinois federal prison on lockdown 23 hours a day until his death, at age 61, from throat cancer.
