John Gotti became the head of New York’s Gambino crime family after orchestrating the 1985 killing of Paul Castellano. How he died and his fortune explored.
It has been over two decades since John Gotti “The Teflon Don”, who is the former head of the Gambino crime family, died.
His story and crimes have been revisited once again in a new Netflix documentary titled Get Gotti. The documentary is available for streaming on October 24.
Prior to that, his grandson, John Gotti III, made headlines following his boxing match with Floy Mayweather which gained traction online.
Amid the release of the fascinating new Netflix documentary series Get Gotti, how mob boss John Gotti died, and what his net worth was has been explored in detail.
Who was John Gotti?
John Gotti (real name: John Joseph Gotti Jr.) was an American gangster and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City.
He was born on October 27, 1940, in The Bronx, New York, United States.
The Gambino mob family was founded in the 1900s and was known as one of the “Five Families” that dominated organized crime activities in New York City.
Over the years, multiple family members have passed away but their stories have been revisited in several documentaries and movies.
The family was first formed under the leadership of Salvatore D’Aquila in the 1900s but following his murder in 1928, control was left and taken by multiple people.
John Gotti notoriously took over control of the Gambino family in 1985 following the murder of Paul Castellano, with Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano as his second-in-command.
Over the years, John was able to avoid criminal charges and was found not guilty at three different trials, which led to his nickname, “The Teflon Don.”
Despite his success, his Underbook later turned on him which led to him being sentenced to life in prison in 1992.
John later died on June 10, 2002.
What was John Gotti’s net worth?
Before the American mobster and crime boss died at age 62, he was a multimillionaire and made an insane salary per year.
According to a Wikipedia report, he made an annual income of no less than $5 million during his years as boss of the family and was more likely between $10 million and $12 million.
Per Celebrity Net Worth, John Gotti had a net worth of $30 million at the peak of his criminal empire. His hefty fortune ranked him ninth among the top 20 wealthiest criminals in the world.
How much is the Gotti family worth? The Gotti family were reportedly worth a whopping $500 million a year. John Gotti Senior became one of the family’s biggest earners in history.
His Grandson John Gotti III reportedly inherited $25 million of his family’s wealth.
How did John Gotti die?
Former head of the Gambino crime family in New York City, John Gotti died on June 10, 2002, in the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, Springfield, Missouri, United States.
He was 62 years old when he passed away.
He reported died from throat cancer.
Gotti was serving time at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. In 1998, he was diagnosed with throat cancer and sent to the medical center to have a tumor removed.
Although the surgery was a success, the cancer returned two years later, and he was sent back to the hospital where he spent his final days before his death in 2002.
As per his obituary: “Gotti raised a mobster’s life to celebrity level, with his movements chronicled by the New York tabloids, which dubbed him ‘Dapper Don’ because of his wardrobe.
“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 two years later for murder and racketeering.
“Gotti, the father of five, was considered America’s most powerful gangster when he was arrested in 1990 and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole two years later when a federal jury convicted him of murder, extortion and obstruction of justice.”
Much like the three-part docu-series, the obituary describes how Gotti’s confidence and enjoyment of the limelight may have led to both his and his son and Gambino successor John “Junior” Gotti’s downfalls.
Quotes from Jerry Capeci, co-author of three books on the Mafia, read: “His legacy will be that he showed mob leaders of the future how not to run a crime family if you want to stay out of jail.
“You don’t run a crime family on Main Street or on Mulberry Street in Little Italy and have all your mobsters coming to pay homage once a week so that they can be photographed and investigated by the FBI.
“You’ve got to conduct it like a secret society. He began to believe he really was the ‘Teflon Don’ when in the first trial he bought a juror, in the second a key witness was too terrified to testify, and in the third he had good lawyering.”
Following an extensive investigation from various authorities, including New York’s Organized Crime Task Force and the FBI, as well as testimony from Gambino underboss Sammy Gravano, Gotti was eventually captured and locked up.