John Gotti -The Last Mafia Icon

The Next Generation: John Jr.
By Marilyn Bardsley

John A. Gotti, known as "Junior," went on trial August 8, 2005, for the alleged 1992 kidnapping of talk show host Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, to stop him from criticizing the Gotti family. The Guardian Angels was a crime-fighting group that made citizen arrests.

Junior's attornies have claimed that Junior had left the world of organized crime out of a concern for his children.

Federal prosecutors said that Junior "ordered his thugs" to kidnap Sliwa because he was enraged at Sliwa's criticism of organized crime. According to CNN, Sliwa was attacked by bat-wielding young men, leaving him with a broken hand and an injured scalp." Two months later, Sliwa was abducted and shot twice while in a cab, and was hospitalized for internal injuries and leg wounds. He "saved himself only by leaping out an open window," the AP reported.

The cab was intended to be a hearse," U.S. Attorney David Kelley told reporters at a news conference.

The feds intended to prove that Junior Gotti is also involved in traditional mob crimes such as loansharking and extortion.

John Gotti Jr

Forty-year-old John Gotti Jr., who was about to be released from prison in September, 2004, for racketeering, faced a federal indictment along with three other members of the Gambino crime family.

The indictment, unsealed on July 22, 2004, involved a number of major crimes, including kidnapping, murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, illegal gambling and fraud.

The problem was there in a year's time, there were three mistrials. The feds do not plan to try John "Junior" Gotti a fourth time. Curtis Sliwa intends to file a civil suit.

Gotti says that he plans to leave New York and relocate in the Midwest. Is this the end of the Gotti crime epic? Don't count on it.