Think of a time run by organized crime; a time when corruption was common and fear was running rampant. This time describes perfectly the time in which John Gotti reigned through his organized crime family, the Gambinos. John Gotti, from when he was a young boy to when he became the leader of a powerful organized crime syndicate, the Gambino’s, had a type of influence and persona around him earning him power and quite a few nicknames throughout his time. John Gotti and his family had a lasting effect on history through their actions, rise, and downfall. They had lasting impacts on the cities they touched and more. Through the leadership of John Gotti, the Gambinos saw a rise and then a downfall as his influence brought wealth, but his ego brought his and their destruction. Their influence will be remembered though through the impact John Gotti and his family had on New York City and the lives inside it, and through the lasting effect he had on the term Costa Nostra.
The Gambinos and John Gotti, like every organized crime syndicate and person, had their beginning and then downfall. John Gotti was born into a big family in the South Bronx, and then later his family moved to Brooklyn. While in Brooklyn as a teenager, he was involved in a notorious street gang, that gang. That gang was the Fulton-Rockaway Boys. While a part of the Fulton- Rockaways boys, he at some point rose in power and became the leader. As he grew older, he married the love of his life, Victoria DiGiorgio, and they had five children together; one of whom, John Angelo Gotti, would become the boss of the Gambino crime family. While married, he attempted to follow the straight path as a hard earning worker as a worker in a coat factory and also as a truck driver, but neither one stuck as his life was not meant for the straight path. John Gotti’s life of crime progressed as he was first part of a street gang with two of his brothers, and then he moved into hijacking as a part of the Gambino crime family. He did not really get much boost for himself until he was part of the group that went after Carlo Gambino’s nephew’s killer, and he helped kill the killer. For the killing, he did, however, get some years in prison, but that did not deter his progression in the Gambino family. Once out, his role in the killing of the nephew’s killer boosted him up high in the family rankings. Over the years, while John Gotti was in the Gambinos from underling to when he was boss, he developed several nicknames such as “Johnny Boy” when he was first starting out. His nickname then became “The Dapper Don” due to him always dressing nicely. Then, last but not least, another nickname he had was “The Teflon Don” referring to his knack for evading charges.
The Gambino’s or the Anastasia- Gambino family, derived from Albert Anastasia and Carlo Gambino, this is the crime family John Gotti would eventually lead. Albert Anastasia, the first leader, was a hard and brutal man who had developed a reputation for being such. He died in 1957. After his death, Carlo Gambino took over the family. He gained profit during World War II with ration stamps and then also gained profit with boot legging. He died in 1975. After Carlo Gambino’s death, Paul Castellano took over. When Paul Castellano died, Dellacroce took over. Once he died, John Gotti finally took over. The Gambinos, as one of the five families of New York, were big. They made money through fraud, fencing, racketeering, loansharking, money laundering, extortion, and more. While John Gotti was the leader, he brought in more money as part of loan sharking, drug trafficking, prostitution, extortion, gambling, racketeering and more. He was liked by the public for his personality, dress, and power, and was known for evading the several criminal charges made against him from time to time. John Gotti’s downfall as leader though was when his ego and mouth got in his way. It started when the F.B.I put surveillance around him and taped him talking about racketeering, murder, bribing, and more. So, on April 2, 1992, John Gotti was found guilty of 14 counts of murder and was sentenced to life in the big house. John Gotti, as leader took part in illicit activities such as drug trade. This had a positive effect on him and his family, “In Philadelphia, Harry “the Hump” Riccobene and others were heavily involved in the methamphetamine trade and John Gotti, boss of the Gambino crime family from 1985 to 1991, rose to prominence as a capo due in part to the drug-related earnings of his crew (Jenkins, 1992).” This shows that the spectrum of power and influence that John Gotti had during his high points. This power seemed never ending and it had several ties in different industries.
New York was the playground for many organized crime groups, but the five families were most prominment. One of the five families was the Gambino family, and like all the five families, they had their lasting effect on New York. The Gambinos family’s rise in New York and their powerful effect started up after the Castellammarese War and was brought into the mainstream by Albert Anastasia. Their influence increased with Murder Inc. and also at the same time affected the New York police force. With Murder Inc., the piling up murders with the traveling murders were hard to solve, putting fear into various citizens of the great city. They also affected New York by helping gambling thrive along with other illicit acts. Also, they bribed corrupt leaders to get their way in New York City. This affected New York City as a whole as policies and laws were affected. Their power was shown even more as they were powerful enough to make the FBI end a mandate with them in December 1990, entering a new era of surveillance and police scrunity in New York City. John Gotti personally affected New York in one way as his power, style, and personality won over the people of New York City giving the Gambinos more power as the people were on their side. John Gotti also affected New York by how his snide comments about his underboss, Sammy the Bull, got his underboss to flip and make it so that the law enforcement agencies could put John Gotti away. This started the decline of the Gambino crime family which affected New York. Once Gotti was convicted in 1992, that was seen as one of the last great leaders of the Gambino crime family. This meant the decline of the Gambino crime family as they lost their hold on their power and New York. John Gotti’s cockiness about being caught affected New York as it pushed its police force and FBI to crack down on the ways to catch him and other organized crime members, affecting the role of the mafia in New York.
Continuing, Cosa Nostra is another term for the mafia which refers to the Italians or Sicilian-American organized crime syndicates. It has been referred to many times when talking about Italian or Sicilian-American organized crime. La Cosa Nostra, though, is viewed as an inaccurate term that can be influenced by players in the mafia game, such as John Gotti. La Cosa Nostra came into view during the McClellan Committee hgearings which ran from 1963- 1964. It was a term used to refer to the mafia as different families and not as a nationwide syndicate which had been previously wrongly concluded during the Kefauver Committee. It was decided in 1976, during the Task Force on Organized Crime, that “Organized Crime is not synonymous with the Mafia or La Cosa Nostra…La Cosa Nostra refers to the 25 ethnic Italian organized crime families in the U.S.” Mostly, La Cosa Nostra is a non-extravagant and wavered term regarding organized crime. John Gotti affected things through Cosa Nostra such as positions of powerful organizations like Teamsters Union. This is seen when “Sammy the Bull” gave information to the FBI that was damming to John Gotti. Additionally, “For the government's civil racketeering suit against the International Teamsters Union and its executive board, Angelo Lonardo, former underboss of the Cleveland crime family, provided an extraordinary deposition detailing Cosa Nostra's role in designating the president of the Teamsters Union and in controlling that union.” John Gotti’s trial confirmed that the position that Cosa Nostra, or the Mafia, was, in fact, a big player, “The government hoped to prove the existence of the enterprise through the conduct of the very lawyers who, if permitted, would be appearing before the jury to argue that the enterprise does not exist” John Gotti’s downfall was used by the government as a pat,h in hopes of proving Cosa Nostra or the underlying city of crime masked by the cities on the map. John Gotti’s trial, however, did have a lasting effect as it was a key domino that helped start the line of falling dominos in the downfall of Costa Nostra’s or Italians or Sicilian-American organized crime syndicates’ hold on the cities.
John Gotti and the Gambino family, during their reign, had influence and power. They affected the cities and lives around them. They had an effect on the City of New York that still holds today, and their downfall had an effect on Costa Nostra as it does not hold the power it had in the past. John Gotti and his family provided fear and distrust, and they kept law enforcement and politicians busy and somewhat under their control as corruption ran wild. They had a firm grasp on power through John Gotti’s influence until his actions helped bring their downfall. One is left to wonder, due to the grasp that one man and one family had and the imprint, they left, how else has the world been shaped due to the underworld of crime?