John Gotti

Notorious mobster John Gotti was born October 27, 1940, in the Bronx, New York. He was the fifth of thirteen children born to John and Fannie Gotti. Gotti began his life of crime when he joined a kid gang in the fourth grade. Even though he was thought to have good intelligence, he was more involved in learning from the streets than he was from getting the proper kind of education. He was suspended from school when he was sixteen years old, and he never went back.

Gotti then began a life of petty crime. Influential mobsters of the Gambino family were impressed by Gotti. He married Victoria DiGiorgio in 1962 and they settled in Queens, New York. The Mafia invited Gotti into the fold as a hitman. He was tried for killing a man at a bar in Staten Island. Through the workings of the Mafia and his lawyer, he managed to serve only two years for the murder. He then served four years for two other crimes.

In 1980, Gotti's twelve year old son Frankie was accidentally run over by a neighbor, Frank Favara. Favara was blinded by the sun as little Frankie darted into the street with his minibike. Frank received death threats and later mysteriously disappeared.

Gotti moved up as boss of the Mafia, but his career was soon to take a turn into a dead end. Gotti's friend and close mob associate Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano testified against him in 1992 in order to get a lighter sentence for himself. Gotti was caught, sentenced to life in prison, and died of cancer in 2002.