In prison tapes, (son of John) Gotti mourns manly mob

AP on Yahoo ^ | 9/16/06 | David B. Caruso - ap

[NormsRevenge]

NEW YORK - As he languished in a federal prison in 2003, John "Junior" Gotti had plenty to worry about.

The jail, he told visitors, was crawling with informants. He had money problems. Old friends were getting indicted. Other members of the Gotti clan were stealing his money.

But at the root of his troubles was this: The modern mob, he lamented, was losing its manliness.

"Now are we men? Or are we punks or rats or weasels? You tell me," he angrily asked one friend while serving a racketeering sentence.

Gotti's conversations were routinely recorded before his release from prison last year, and the tapes have played a central role in his current racketeering trial in Manhattan. A jury was to begin deliberating the case Monday.

Among other things, the son of the legendary mafia boss "Dapper Don" John Gotti is accused of ordering an attack on Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, who was shot twice by would-be kidnappers in 1992.

Prosecutors contend that "Junior" Gotti was involved in mob affairs even after he was imprisoned in 1999.

The defense says the recordings, made at the federal prison at Ray Brook, N.Y., show that Gotti had developed a distaste for mob life and retired.

In any case, the tapes provide an inside look at the gangster's code, particularly its obsession with "being a man" at all costs.

Lesson No. 1: Men fight.

"If a guy wants to get all fancy and prancy, if he picks his hands up to you, you pick your hands up back. You're not a punk," Gotti explained in one recorded discussion.

"No hiding behind fences," he said during another conversation. "Take our coats off like gentlemen. Now, let's see. Let's see who the tough guy is. No knives. No guns. Like gentleman. ... Let's see who the real man really is."

Lesson No. 2: Men tolerate no assault on their character.

Gotti is firm on this point when he discusses two uncles who diminished his leadership role in the gang by badmouthing him to his father in 2001, a year before the elder Gotti's death from cancer in prison.

"If any of them ever come here, I'm telling you, I swear it to you, on my dead brother and my dead father, I swear to you, I will meet them by that (prison) door, with two padlocks in my hands and I will crack their skulls, I promise you that. I promise you that. This I take as a solemn oath as a man."

Lesson No. 3: Manliness is in the blood.

"You're a real man," he told longtime friend John Ruggiero. "You wanna know why, John? Not only for who you are. But for who your father was. You got his genes, you're a man."

A person who isn't a man, he added, can't simply become one by acting tough.

"These ain't men you're dealing with, you're dealing with frauds," he said. "It's like a kid who gets (unintelligible) all his life ... and he gets his milk money taken. What does he grow up to be? A cop. He's got a gun and a badge. That's, that's his equalizer. Got a gun and a badge, now he's a man. Well, that's how all these guys are, John, they're no different."

Lesson No. 4: A man spends time with family.

"Listen, I love my brother," Gotti said. "But my brother's a bum. That's all he is. No more, no less. He doesn't spend a moment with his own children. I have a hard time respecting any man who doesn't spend any time with his wife and kids."

Lesson No. 5: Men can do prison time.

"Some guys are made for this. Some guys just aren't," Gotti said of his life behind bars.

"Gravano was an example," he said, speaking of Gambino crime family turncoat Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano. "I mean he was a legendary soldier in the street. Brooklyn, he was a legend in Brooklyn. He got to jail, he fell to pieces."

Lesson No. 6: Real men don't snitch, but if they do, they don't make stuff up.

"Bottom line is, if you're gonna become a rat, become a rat: Tell the f------ truth. Don't go out of your way to hurt people," he said.

This is Gotti's third trial on the latest racketeering charges. The first two ended when jurors deadlocked on the charges, in part because of the defense argument that he became disenchanted with the mafia and retired long enough ago that the legal deadline for prosecuting him for old crimes had expired.

Which brings us to Gotti's Lesson No. 7: Mafia life stinks.

"So much treachery ... My father couldn't have loved me, to push me into this life," he lamented to friend Steve Kaplan.

"Oh ... I'd rather be a Latin King than be what I am," he said, referring to the Hispanic street gang. "I swear to you, Steve, and I, I mean it on my father's grave. I'm so ashamed. I am so ashamed."

[NormsRevenge]

In this April 4, 2000 photo released by the United States Attorneys Office, John Gotti Jr., second left, is shown with a group of unidentified inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution in Ray Brook, N.Y. Secretly taped prison conversations of Gotti lamenting about the lack of honor and principles that were prevalent in modern organized crime and the fact the modern mob was losing its masculinitywere entered into evidence and have played a central role in his ongoing racketeering trial in New York. (AP Photo/US Attorneys Office)

[SWAMPSNIPER]

"Now are we men? Or are we punks or rats or weasels"?

---

I sympathize with you, John, the damned metrosexuals are taking over everything, including politics!

[sgtbono2002]

Too bad some of our Republican Senators dont have some of Gotti's traits. It would be nice if some of them showed some balls.

[dighton]

Lesson No. 8: Someone might be listening.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

"Now are we men? Or are we punks or rats or weasels? You tell me,"

Answer, you never have been "men". You're a bunch of ruthless cowards.

[Clintonfatigued]

Unfortunately, they difine being a man as being a bully.

[stm]

"But at the root of his troubles was this: The modern mob, he lamented, was losing its manliness."

How much manliness does it take to take someone out of the city and shoot them in the back of the head with a pistol or garrote them? If you want sympathy from me, look between s*** and syphilis in the dictionary.

[CaptainK]

The Gottis' are the scum of the earth. Why do people pay attention to them?

[llevrok]

"Are we not men? No! We are Devo!"

[kenth]

You rang?

[stm]

That one pegs the gay-o-meter.

[Viking2002]

Damn, damn, damn. You beat me to it. LOL

[MrEdd]

Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot.

Crime does not pay!

Well, it paid a little.

[BallyBill]

Are these the guys that kiss each other a lot?

[SALChamps03]

Gotti is a criminal. I hardly want republicans emulating him.

[SALChamps03]

The mob is a shadow of its former self. Ever since Joe Pistone gutted them from inside, they have never recovered.

[freedomfiter2]

are we punks or rats or weasels?

Yes, on good days.

[The Red Zone]

yeah be a real man like your daddy, push your kiddies into a life of treachery

[sgtbono2002]

LOL-- Many politicians are criminals too. they just havent been caught yet. I wasnt saying the politicians should be criminals , only that they should grow some balls.

[Clemenza]

I've heard of the "Gay Mafia", but this is ridiculous.

Truth is, the "Lavender Mafia" have more clout in contemporary society than a bunch of paunchy has been half-simians who call themselves "La Cosa Nostra."