December 2, 2008
The Jury Blows the Whistle on 'Dapper Don'
They finally did it. After a 10-week trial in Brooklyn federal court, U.S. Attorney Andrew Maloney and Assistant U.S. Attorney John Gleeson managed to nail John Gotti - a criminal whose flamboyant style and earlier acquittals brought him celebrity status, who plainly relished the media casting him as "the Dapper Don" and "the Teflon Don."
Maloney's office has destroyed that image and more. Through eyewitness testimony and damning tape recordings, the Dapper Don came across as little more than a swaggering, murderous thug. In a society saturated with glib glamorizations of violence, this was a healthy shot of realism. It took the jury just 13 hours to convict Gotti and co-defendant Frank Locascio on charges murder, murder conspiracy, bribery of a public official, obstruction of justice and loansharking (among other things). It was a nice piece of work.
Not only did Gotti's image take a big hit yesterday, so did Gotti incorporated - which is good news for every honest New Yorker. Remember the mob tax Gotti boasted about on tapes played in court? He was overheard saying that he would collect $3 per cubic yard for concrete made in New Jersey - a profit of $1.5 million a year. The victims aren't just the people squeezed for that sum. The victims are all of us. Unless it's stopped, the tax can help strangle our economy. Companies that don't want to play the game will take their jobs elsewhere at the first opportunity.
The Gotti conviction yesterday and other less-celebrated cases (such as the February guilty pleas by Joseph and Thomas Gambino in Manhattan) convey a crucial message: The mob may be dangerous but it's not invincible. We need not accept its presence.
Paul Castellano - whose murder Gotti was convicted of ordering - observed once in a conversation secretly recorded by the feds: "If you can get through life like this - and get away with it - hey, that's great. But it's very, very unpredictable."
Thanks to cases like the one John Gotti lost yesterday, the hazards are getting more certain. We're all better off for it.
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