John Gotti and prison gangs

LINK

Roach said another inmate slipped him one bullet by pushing it under the door of a prison library. The inmate, also a brotherhood member, told him that alleged gang leader Barry "The Baron" Mills would soon contact him and tell him about a planned hit on Walter Johnson, an inmate who had punched Gotti in the eye.

Roach didn't specify how much Gotti offered to pay, but in previous testimony another former gang member said Gotti had offered $500,000.

From the documentaries I have watched on TV in the past about John Gotti, he was serious in his personal life and he was serious in his "professional" life as a convicted mobster. Even incarcerated, it sounds as if he still wielded some power if he was able to set up a "hit" on a fellow inmate and offer up to $500,000 for it.

The newspaper I linked to reiterates that there are a lot of informal politics still going on inside the U.S.'s prison system, pitting race against race at times.

I wonder if they will find out how the bullets were smuggled into the prison? If the answer involves a body cavity search, I would prefer not to read it.

Do you think that Gotti had all the power that he claimed that he did, or was he just puffing his image up?

JDub

The same way he had respect and fear outside was the same way inside. I wouldn't be surprised if that guy that hit gotti wasn't popped sometime later on in some unrelated incident. I doubt very much he would have had to pay anyone 500K to get revenge. He probably had people kissing his feet to do it just for Gottis respect. I wouldn't be surprised if some of his crew were at the same facility at the same time when he was serving time.



Pie

Man.......

It strikes me as being a seriously bad career move to punch someone with the reputation of Gotti in the eye. Whatever happened to picking on the skinny kid with no mates....

Originally posted by BlueTileSpook
Even incarcerated, it sounds as if he still wielded some power if he was able to set up a "hit" on a fellow inmate and offer up to $500,000 for it.

I think that the implication of that incident is that its the Brotherhood that runs things in the prisons, not the mafia. Gotti had to pay them to take care of someone assaulting him. On the outside, he was a ravenous beast who could kill at will, inside the prisons, just another victim, weak, having to approach others to settle personal vendettas.



[quoteDo you think that Gotti had all the power that he claimed that he did, or was he just puffing his image up?
He was the head of a mafia crime syndicate. His power was the ability to kill people and order his goons to kill people, and also the protections afforded by his lawyer.

thepieman
He probably had people kissing his feet to do it just for Gottis respect

The brotherhood runs the prisons, the mafioso's are a little too dark to get into the organization, and have to bow down to it. Rather, bend over to it.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of his crew were at the same facility at the same time when he was serving time.

There probably were some mafiosos, though they can usually keep those types seperated. Omerta does no good if there isn't an organization. Whereas the brotherhood can recruit from within the prison.

bad career move to punch someone with the reputation of Gotti in the eye

This infact might indicate that the prisoners recognize that gotti, though he is feared on the outside, has no power inside the prisons.

Nygdan -

You brought up a good point. I didn't read it the first time as "the Brotherhood" has the power and Gotti had to use them for protection. I read it more as that Gotti using the Brotherhood as a peer-to-peer protection system. You could very well be right.

That would have had to eat at Gotti during his stay there, not to have the kind of power that he was used to on the outside. Maybe that was worse than the confinement itself?

And maybe that was why he was so vitrolic with his daughter and family when they went to visit him in prison. I saw several security tapes on some TV program showing how badly he treated them during visiting times at the prison.

Anyway, thanks for the replies folks.

JDub

He might've treated them badly because he was a derranged and sick sociopath.

Gotti...

Not exactly your grandfather's gangster...

It used be be, guys in his position earned their respect, and they managed to do it without acting like mad dogs, IINM.

I've heard stories about Vegas in the good old days, when you could get a kicking from the mob just for insulting a waitress. Now it's the Don himself berating innocent women and throwing his money around like a fat, stupid tourist.

:shk:

Just goes to show you, decay is inevitable, no matter the organization, no matter the entity. EVERYTHING decays.

Half a million is an exhorbitant amount of money for a hit. Is inflation really that bad, or did he get gouged by the real power brokers in his new environment? I think it's the latter...

The families lost almost everything they once had, and they're not alone. Organized crime all over took a huge hit when the government got in the game. Unlimited resources makes it a foregone conclusion - the house always wins.

You can't win against criminals in office, when you're a criminal on the street.

The real organized crime power in America now has defacto control over the prisons, the labor market, the dollar's value, the laws, the courts, the schools, the doctors, the food, the water, and the electricity/fuel/lumber, the petro-chemical cartels, as well as international drug smuggling and human trafficking, not to mention booze and gambling and all the traditional vices save prostitution (which is only a matter of time).

How could the Italians or the Irish or the Jamaicans or anyone else compete against that sort of total domination? It's a lock; Game over. It's the rought equivalent of a tiny store that only sells toothpaste and tires at a sizable markup trying to compete with a business two doors down that sells everything under the sun (and owns the town, makes the laws, and arrests anyone patronizing or running your business).

All the old powers still exist, but they're facing an unprecedented challenge. They know it, and they're just trying to be quiet and still to avoid being conspicuous. It was bad enough when they were just facing pressure from overseas, Japan and Russia and so on - now all those guys are in a similar situation.

They're actually sealing their own doom by trying to hide and scurry away. The government's agenda has no sympathy for private interests at odds with the 'greater' vision. So any armed and organized group is a target for continued harrassment and sapping. The fact that they're criminals gives the government so much power, it's ridiculous; a little label is all it takes to swing the balance, even if all the other factors were equal.

When the government lies, cheats, steals, and murders, it does so with authority, legitimized secrecy, and ultimately, with impunity. :shk:

Sorry for the long, rambling post; this subject is of great interest to me.

[edit on 19-4-2006 by WyrdeOne]

That's fine, jump on in! The water's fine!

Sammy "the bull" died, didn't he?

JDub

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
It used be be, guys in his position earned their respect, and they managed to do it without acting like mad dogs, IINM.

Thats a romantic myth really. The mafia has always been a brutal and murderous group of gangsters, selling drugs and beating the snot out of people for money.