Going Out in Style

Mourners flock to wake of mobster John Gotti

By Pete Bowles and Anthony M. DeStefano | STAFF WRITERS; Staff writer Andrew Johnson contributed to this story.

June 14, 2002

Victoria Gotti, wife of John, leaves funeral home.

John Gotti's wife Victoria exits the Papavero Funeral Home after attending a wake for her husband. (AP Photo / June 14, 2002)

It was a mob scene in Maspeth yesterday, where John Gotti was given a send-off befitting an organized-crime chieftain as scores of mourners packed a funeral chapel to say goodbye.

Gotti, onetime boss of the Gambino family, died of cancer Monday in a federal prison hospital at age 61, but visitors standing among dozens of giant wreaths yesterday were told he was not really dead.

"Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there, I do not sleep," said prayer cards given to those attending a private wake at Papavero Funeral Home. "Do not stand at my grave and cry, I am not there, I did not die."

Gotti, wearing a solid-blue suit and matching tie he had not worn since going to prison for life in 1992, was laid out in a closed gold coffin flanked by a pair of candles flickering behind red glass. Mourners filled rows of chairs as others filed through the chapel.

On a table near the coffin stood a collection of family pictures. On a glass coffee table was a framed photograph of a tanned, smiling Gotti.

"He went out like a star and king like he was in real life," said Lewis Kasman, a family friend who refers to himself as Gotti's adopted son.

After the first visiting hours, a Gotti brother, Richard V. Gotti, 59, a reputed crime captain, left the funeral home with a group of men in dark suits and strolled to a nearby sports bar, Matchmaker's, for a drink. When approached by photographers, he said, "You already got enough pictures of me."

Gotti's widow and daughter, both named Victoria, did not leave the funeral home between afternoon and evening visiting hours. Before the 7 p.m. session, pizza was brought in.

Inside were numerous tributes.

"To the chief," read a card on a wreath of red and white carnations. Another bore the name of Gotti's old hangout in Ozone Park, the Bergin Hunt & Fish Club. "John, we love you," another card read. "You will always stay in our hearts."

The wake is to continue today at the funeral home on Grand Avenue, a small brick and stucco building just opposite the Garlinger Triangle. Entombment is Saturday morning.

Although the wake was open to the public, reporters were barred and had to watch from behind police barricades.

The Diocese of Brooklyn has ruled that Gotti cannot be given a Roman Catholic funeral Mass but may be entombed at St. John Cemetery in Middle Village. A memorial Mass will be held afterward.

Gotti is to be entombed in the family mausoleum with his son Frank Gotti, who was killed when he was hit by a neighbor's car in 1980. The neighbor later disappeared and was likely killed by Gotti's underlings, authorities have said.

Richard Rehbock, an attorney who has often represented Gotti family members, said Gotti's son John A. Gotti will not be attending the services. The son is serving a 6-year federal prison sentence for bribery and extortion and did not seek leave.

"He is asking for no favors from the government at all," Rehbock said. "He will grieve in his own way."

Also missing the proceedings are two Gotti brothers, Gene, who is serving a 50-year prison term for heroin dealing, and Peter, who is held without bail on federal racketeering charges.

Among those paying respects yesterday was Chuck Zito, the former Hells Angel who spent 6 years in prison before turning actor. The star of the HBO prison show "Oz" was later joined by Gotti's longtime attorney, Bruce Cutler. When the wake ended, Cutler told reporters he was sorry that John Gotti could not have come out and personally addressed the crowd. "He is doing that through me," Cutler said. "He said, 'Hello.'"

Also attending was Liz Roby, 25, who moved to Manhattan last week from Nashville, where she was a first-grade teacher. Since coming here, she said, she has attended an opera in Central Park, participated in a 5-kilometer walk along the Hudson River and toured the United Nations. She decided to attend the wake because she likes "random life experiences."

Staff writer Andrew Johnson contributed to this story.