Together with his brother Gene and Ruggiero, Gotti carried out truck hijackings at Idlewild Airport ( subsequently renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport ).

In 1973, after Carlo Gambino's nephew Emanuel Gambino was kidnapped and murdered, John Gotti was assigned to the hit team alongside Ruggiero and Ralph Galione for the main suspect, Irish-American gangster James McBratney.

In August 1983, Ruggiero and Gene Gotti were arrested for dealing heroin, based primarily on recordings from a bug in Ruggiero's house.

Castellano, who had banned made men from his family from dealing drugs under threat of death, demanded transcripts of the tapes, and when Ruggiero refused he threatened to demote Gotti.

From jail, Gotti ordered the murder of Robert DiBernardo by Sammy Gravano ; both DiBernardo and Ruggiero had been vying to succeed Frank DeCicco until Ruggiero accused DiBernardo of challenging Gotti's leadership.

When Ruggiero, also under indictment, had his bail revoked for his abrasive behavior in preliminary hearings, a frustrated Gotti instead promoted Joseph Armone to underboss.

The heroin trial of Gotti's former fellow Bergin crewmembers Ruggiero and Gene Gotti also commenced in June of that year.

When the terminally ill Ruggiero was severed and released in 1989, Gotti refused to contact him, blaming him for the Gambino's misfortunes.

According to Gravano, Gotti also considered murdering Ruggiero and when he finally died " I literally had to drag him to the funeral.

Gravano played a key role in planning and executing Castellano's murder ; other conspirators included John Gotti, Angelo Ruggiero, Frank DeCicco, and Joseph Armone.

During this time, the FBI had intensified its efforts against the Gambino family, and in August 1983, three members of Gotti's crew – Angelo Ruggiero, John Carneglia, and Gene Gotti – were indicted for heroin trafficking.

Castellano planned to kill Gene Gotti and Ruggiero if he believed they were drug traffickers.

To save Gene Gotti and Ruggiero, Dellacroce stalled the demand.

Both Dellacroce and Gotti tried to convince Ruggiero to comply if Castellano explained beforehand how he intended to use the tapes, but Ruggiero refused, fearing he would endanger good friends.

DiBernardo informed him that Gotti and Ruggiero wanted to meet with him in Queens.

Ruggiero informed Gravano that he and Gotti were planning to murder Castellano and asked for Gravano's support.

Gotti and Ruggiero then sought and obtained the approval of the Colombo and Bonanno families, while DeCicco secured the backing of the Luccheses.

Gotti chose to fill the vacancy by naming Angelo Ruggiero and Gravano co-underbosses.

Ruggiero claimed to have met again with Gotti and told Gravano that the boss wanted DiBernardo killed right away.

Gravano later learned that Ruggiero was $ 250, 000 in debt to DiBernardo and realized Ruggiero may have fabricated the orders from Gotti or simply lied to Gotti about what DiBernardo was accused of saying in order to erase the debt and improve his own standing in the family.

Law enforcement authorities were not impressed with his style or reputation, however, and they continued gathering evidence against Gotti that helped lead to his downfall.

Under Gotti, the Bergin crew were the biggest earners of Dellacroce's crews.

While the Gottis were on vacation in Florida at the time, John Gotti is still presumed to have ordered the killing, an allegation considered probable by John, Jr., while denied by his daughter Victoria.

Despite Cutler's defense and critiques about the prosecution's performance, according to mob writers Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain, when the jury's deliberations began a majority were in favor of convicting Gotti.

While Gotti himself had escaped conviction, his associates were not so lucky.

Based on tapes from FBI bugs played at pretrial hearings the Gambino administration was denied bail and attorneys Bruce Cutler and Gerald Shargel were both disqualified from defending Gotti after determining they had worked as " in-house counsel " for the Gambino organization.

Gotti and Locascio were tried in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York before United States District Judge I. Leo Glasser.

DeCicco and Gravano, however, also made a secret pact to kill Gotti and take over the family as boss and underboss, respectively, if they were unhappy with Gotti's leadership after one year.

When Joseph N. Gallo and Armone were convicted on racketeering charges in 1987, Gotti turned to Gravano to help fill the void, promoting him to official consigliere and making Frank Locascio acting underboss.

Gene Gotti, John Carneglia, Louie Valario and Arnold Squitieri were present at the meeting, as was Gravano.

After being acquitted of the shooting of union official John O ' Connor, Gotti received word from a mole that indictments were coming down for Gotti, Gravano, LoCascio, and captain Thomas Gambino.

On the night of the meeting, Gotti, Gravano, and LoCascio were arrested by the FBI.

On 21 September 2010, Italian police declared that Gotti Tedeschi and another IOR manager were under investigation for money laundering charges.

On April 2, 1992, largely on the strength of Gravano's testimony, Gotti and consigliere Frank " Frankie Loc " LoCascio were convicted and received a sentence of life without parole.

When Gotti Sr died in prison in 2002, his brother Peter took over as boss, allegedly alongside D ' Amico, but the family's fortunes have dwindled to a remarkable extent given their power a few short decades ago, when they were considered the most powerful criminal organization on earth.

As former rivals of John Gotti took completely over the Gambino family, mostly because the rest of Gotti's loyalists were either jailed or under indictments, and because Gotti, Sr died in prison in 2002, then-current head of white collar crimes and caporegime, Michael " Mikey Scars " DiLeonardo turned state's evidence, due to increased law enforcement and credible evidence to be presented in his racketeering trial, and chose to testify against mobsters from all of the Five Families.

The character of Frank Machuchi and the Machuchi crime family were based on John Gotti and the Gambino crime family.

John Gotti's crew expected $ 250, 000 from the proceeds of the robbery and Paolo LiCastri, a soldier under John Gotti in the Gambino Family, became the sixth gunman to ensure the Gambinos ' interests were looked after.

Although Gotti was not yet a made man in the Mafia due to the membership books having been closed since 1957, Fatico named Gotti the acting capo of the Bergin Crew soon after Gotti was paroled.

While the tumor was removed, the cancer was discovered to have returned two years later and Gotti was transferred back to Springfield, where he would spend the remainder of his life.

The bombing was carried out by Lucchese capos Victor Amuso and Anthony Casso, under orders of bosses Anthony Corallo and Vincent Gigante, to avenge Castellano and Bilotti by killing their successors ; Gotti also planned to visit Failla that day but canceled, and the bomb was detonated after a soldier who rode with DeCicco was mistaken for the boss.

Prior to their convictions, Gotti allowed Gallo to retire and promoted Sammy Gravano in his place while slating Frank Locascio to serve as acting underboss in the event of Armone's imprisonment.

The trial commenced with the prosecution's opening statements on February 12 ; prosecutors Andrew Maloney and John Gleeson began their case by playing tapes showing Gotti discussing Gambino family business, including murders he approved, and confirming the animosity between Gotti and Castellano to establish the former's motive to kill his boss.

The Fun Lovin ' Criminals song " King Of New York " from their album Come Find Yourself references Gotti.

Gotti and Gravano arrived at the restaurant shortly before 5 o ' clock and, after circling the block, parked their car across the intersection and within view of the entrance.

Gotti and his men conducted their drug trade in secret.

Besides the Vario crew, the well-known Gambino family crew ( led by Carmine Fatico and later John Gotti ), also exploited the airport for their own criminal gain.

In a 1997 search of the basement of a property owned by Gotti, the FBI found a typed list of the names of the " made " members of his organization, as well as $ 348, 700 in cash, a list of the guests who attended his wedding, along with the dollar amount of their wedding gifts ( totaling more than $ 350, 000 ), and two handguns.

* New York Daily News article dated Tuesday, June 5, 2007 on Page 7 by Dave Goldiner titled: " Try the notoriety at this eatery: It's their special " mentioning John ( Junior ) Gotti and Imette St. Guillen.

* In an episode of The Sopranos, Tony Soprano, being joshed by non-Mafia individuals, asked if he ever met John Gotti, replies that he did meet Gotti once at an auction when Bungalow Bar declared bankrputcy and was auctioning off their trucks.