October 27, 1940
June 10, 2002

AKA: The Teflon Don

Mobster

The Mafia is a secret organization of criminals who may control gambling, drug sales, and other illegal activities in a city or area. The Italian Mafia in the United States is dominated by “families” of criminals who are loyal to one another. Each family is organized like a business, with each person assigned a certain job and one boss, or don, making the decisions and issuing orders. John Gotti rose to the top of the Mafia’s Gambino family at a young age. For years he served as a Mafia boss, earning the nickname the Teflon Don because of his ability to make sure that police charges against him did not stick. Arrested several times, he managed to stay out of jail. (See original entry on Gotti in Outlaws, Mobsters, & Crooks, Volume 1.)

But in 1992 Gotti&rsquo...