To: DaiTN who wrote (77642 ) 6/10/2002 10:44:16 PM From: Edscharp Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 122087 OT John Gotti dies in prison. Crime doesn't pay!story.news.yahoo.com Cancer Kills 'Dapper Don' Gotti in Prison Mon Jun 10, 5:33 PM ET By Grant McCool NEW YORK (Reuters) - John Gotti, the swaggering, sartorially elegant and talkative boss of the Gambino crime family who was jailed for life in 1992 for murder after years of evading the law, died in a prison hospital on Monday. He was 61. New York law enforcement sources and people close to Gotti's family said the man nicknamed the "Dapper Don" died from complications of neck and throat cancer at a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri. "He was the charismatic, Machiavellian boss of the family and he was ruthless and dangerous," said one former FBI ( news - web sites) agent who investigated Gotti. "He held the command and respect of a lot of criminals." A statement from the prison hospital said Gotti died "after a lengthy illness" at 11:45 a.m. CDT (12:45 p.m. EDT). "The cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy," the statement said. "Mr. Gotti's family has been notified." One of Gotti's lawyers from his many trials, Joseph Corozzo, said the mobster had been bedridden since January "and steadily going down." Gotti was serving a life term in a maximum security federal prison in Marion, Illinois, when he was diagnosed with cancer in September 1998. During his years as a gangster, Gotti became something of a celebrity, with his movements chronicled by the New York tabloids. The newspapers dubbed him "Dapper Don" for his expensive Italian designer suits and the "Teflon Don" because he was acquitted in three trials brought by the government before his eventual conviction in 1992. Hours of FBI tape recordings and the turncoat testimony of hitman Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano led to Gotti's arrest in 1990 and his trial and conviction for murder and racketeering. VISIBLE GANGSTER Gotti was America's most visible mob boss when he was arrested. He had ordered and watched the 1985 assassination of Gambino boss Paul Castellano on a midtown Manhattan street in a grab for control of a string of lucrative illegal businesses. Unlike Mafia bosses of old, however, Gotti invited publicity and attention with displays of wealth and bravado that ultimately contributed to his downfall. "Gotti put himself in a position where he was going to get caught," said former U.S. prosecutor James Orenstein. Gotti was famous for his remarks in court and to the media. After one acquittal on federal racketeering charges in 1987, he said, "They'll be ready to frame me again in two weeks." Gotti was married to the former Victoria DiGiorgio and they had five children. One daughter, Victoria Gotti, is an author and writes a column for the Sunday edition of the New York Post newspaper. Gotti told reporters before a 1985 court appearance: "I'm the boss of my family -- my wife and kids at home." After his death on Monday, relatives and friends gathered at the modest house in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens where he had lived. For decades, neighbors described the street as the safest in New York. "A most remarkable and special man is gone and I will miss him," Gotti's lawyer, Bruce Cutler, said in a glowing statement. "You will never see the likes of John Gotti again. He is a champion in my book." Gotti died a week after U.S. prosecutors in New York indicted his brother, Peter Gotti, and more than a dozen other alleged mobsters on extortion and corruption charges related to waterfront operations. Peter Gotti allegedly became head of the Gambino family after his nephew and the John Gotti's son, John "Junior" Gotti, was sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison in a 1999 plea bargain for racketeering and other crimes