John "Junior" Gotti, who has renounced the mafia life of his famous late father, will be headed to Florida to fight the most serious criminal case he's ever faced -- a sweeping indictment linking him to three mob-related hits and a host of other felonies.
The FBI arrested Gotti, 44, on the morning of Aug. 5 at his Oyster Bay, Long Island home on murder conspiracy, cocaine trafficking and other charges stemming from a drug investigation in Florida.
If convicted, Gotti could spend the rest of his life in prison on charges that his defense attorney strenuously denied at a Manhattan federal court hearing in which the mafia scion was denied bail.
"For the last 25 years, Gotti and other members of the Gambino organized crime family allegedly engaged in an array of criminal conduct including murder, robbery, bribery, kidnapping, extortion, gambling, illegal drug trafficking, loan sharking, collecting unlawful debts, jury tampering, victim and witness tampering, burglary, home invasions, aggravated assaults and batteries and money laundering," said Tampa U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill.
However, Gotti defense attorney Charles Carnesi scoffed at the charges, saying they are the lies of criminals desperate to cut deals with the government.
"I can guarantee you that this case will be based on people who have been convicted of various crimes, who do not want to go to jail," Carnesi said outside of court.
The federal indictment returned by a Tampa grand jury links Gotti to the slayings of three New York men in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Manhattan federal prosecutor Elie Honig said two of these killings were drug-related -- the 1988 retribution slaying of George Grosso in Queens for trying to kill one of Gotti's drug dealers and the 1991 murder of Bruce John Gotterup in Queens for challenging Gotti's control of a drug spot. Honig said Gotti also "oversaw" the 1990 killing of Louis DiBono, slain for failing to answer a summons from the mercurial head of the Gambinos, the late John Gotti Sr. DiBono's body was found inside a parking garage at the World Trade Center.
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"This indictment captures a lifetime of criminality by John Gotti," said prosecutor Honig.
Defense attorney Carnesi said that these new charges against Gotti had never before been mentioned by famous turncoats who had testified for the government, including Sammy "The Bull" Gravano.
"Why if these people don't know anything about the allegations, why would some nobody drug dealer in Florida, why would he be possessed of this information ? " asked Carnesi.
The Tampa grand jury also returned a second indictment charging five alleged Gotti associates with various crimes.
Federal authorities have been investigating John "Junior" Gotti for years, undeterred by three failed attempts starting in 2005 to convict him for allegedly ordering a 1992 attack that injured Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa.
After those mistrials, federal authorities focused on the mob scion's finances in what his attorney called a "fishing expedition."
It was after a court hearing on his finances that Gotti launched a public tirade last November against federal authorities, accusing them of endangering his life with a mafia hit by falsely portraying him as a turncoat. "My family lives in fear as a result of this," said Gotti on the steps of the White Plains courthouse. "What happens next? Does it make it all better if I get one in my head? Does it make it all better if I'm found in the street?"
John "Junior" Gotti inherited his place in the mafia from his flamboyant father, one of America's most famous mobsters. Dubbed the "Dapper Don" for his custom-made suits and the "Teflon Don" for avoiding racketeering and assault convictions in the 1980s, John Gotti Sr. ran the Gambinos with an iron fist. He clawed his way to power with a daring hit on rivals outside a Midtown steakhouse in 1985. However federal wiretaps and the testimony of turncoat Gravano in 1992 finally sent Gotti Sr. away for life and he died in federal prison of throat cancer in 2002 .
Junior Gotti also served time in federal prison from 1999 until 2005 for shaking down the Scores strip club. He revealed a troubled relationship with his father in a recorded conversation, decrying the mafia life he allegedly grew to detest. "I know my father loved me, but I got to question how much, to put me with all these wolves. This is the world you put your kid in? So much treachery. My father couldn't have love me, to push me into this life."
Junior asked to be allowed out of the mafia life and used his alleged retirement as a defense during the Sliwa trials.
