Gangsters Archives - The Lads Room The Lads Room A Website for the Lads Menu All the information on some of the worlds most notorious gangsters and much more. Posted on John Gotti – “The Teflon Don” John Joseph Gotti, Jr. (October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was an American mobster who became the boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. Gotti and his brothers grew up in poverty and turned to a life of crime at an early age. Operating out of the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, Gotti quickly rose to prominence, becoming one of the crime family’s biggest earners and a protégé of Gambino family underboss Aniello Dellacroce. After the FBI indicted members of Gotti’s crew for selling narcotics, Gotti took advantage of growing dissent over the leadership of the crime family. Fearing he would be killed along with his brother and best friend by Gambino crime family boss Paul Castellano for selling drugs, Gotti organized the murder of Castellano in December 1985 and took over the family shortly thereafter.

This left Gotti as the boss of one of the most powerful crime families in America, one that made hundreds of millions of dollars a year from construction, hijacking, loan sharking, gambling, extortion and other criminal activities. Gotti was one of the most powerful crime bosses during his era and became widely known for his outspoken personality and flamboyant style, which gained him favor with much of the general public. While his peers avoided attracting attention, especially from the media, Gotti became known as “The Dapper Don” for his expensive clothes and personality in front of news cameras. He was later given the nickname “The Teflon Don” after three high-profile trials in the 1980s resulted in his acquittal, though it was later revealed that the trials had been tainted by jury tampering, juror misconduct and witness intimidation. Law enforcement authorities continued gathering evidence against Gotti that helped lead to his downfall. Gotti’s underboss Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano is credited with the FBI’s success in finally convicting Gotti.

In 1991, Gravano agreed to turn state’s evidence and testify for the prosecution against Gotti after hearing Gotti on wiretap making several disparaging remarks about Gravano that implicated them both in several murders. In 1992, Gotti was convicted of five murders, conspiracy to commit murder, racketeering, obstruction of justice, illegal gambling,extortion, tax evasion, and loansharking. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole and was transferred to United States Penitentiary, Marion. Gotti died of throat cancer on June 10, 2002, at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. According to former Lucchese crime family boss Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso, “What John Gotti did was the beginning of the end of ‘Cosa Nostra'”. Contents 6 Portrayal in popular media Early Life John Gotti was born in an Italian American enclave in the Bronx on October 27, 1940. His ancestors came from San Giuseppe Vesuviano, in the province of Naples. He was the fifth of the thirteen children of John Joseph Gotti, Sr.

and John Sr.’s wife Philomena (referred to as Fannie), and one of five brothers who would become made men in the Gambino Family: Eugene “Gene” Gotti was initiated before John due to the latter’s incarceration, Peter Gotti was initiated under John’s leadership in 1988, and Richard V. Gotti was identified as a capo by 2002. The fifth, Vincent, was initiated in 2002. Gotti grew up in poverty. His father worked irregularly as a day laborer and indulged in gambling. As an adult, John Gotti came to resent his father for being unable to provide for his family. In school, Gotti had a history of truancy and bullying other students, and ultimately dropped out of Franklin K. Lane High School, at the age of 16. Gotti was involved in street gangs associated with New York City mafiosi from the age of 12. When he was 14, he was attempting to steal a cement mixer from a construction site when it fell, crushing his toes; this injury left him with a permanent limp.

After leaving school he devoted himself to working with the Mafia-associated Fulton-Rockaway Boys gang, where he met and befriended fellow futureGambino mobsters Angelo Ruggiero and Wilfred “Willie Boy” Johnson. Gotti met his future wife, Victoria DiGiorgio, in 1958. The couple had their first child, a daughter named Angel, in April 1961 and were married on March 6, 1962. They would have four more children: another daughter (Victoria) and three sons (John, Frank (b. 18 October 1967 k. 18 March 1980), and Peter). Gotti attempted to work legitimately in 1962 as a presser in a coat factory and as an assistant truck driver. However, he could not stay crime free and by 1966 had been jailed twice.[citation needed] Gambino crime family Associate As early as his teens, Gotti was running errands for Carmine Fatico, a capo in the Anastasia crime family, which became the Gambino family following the murder of boss Albert Anastasia.

Together with his brother Gene and friend Ruggiero, Gotti carried out truck hijackings at Idlewild Airport (subsequently renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport). During this time, Gotti befriended fellow mob hijacker and future Bonanno family boss Joseph Massino, and was given the nicknames “Black John” and “Crazy Horse”. It was also around this time that Gotti met Gambino underboss Aniello “Neil” Dellacroce. In February 1968, United Airlines employees identified Gotti as the man who had signed for stolen merchandise; the FBI arrested him for the United hijacking soon after. Two months later, while out on bail, Gotti was arrested a third time for hijacking—this time for stealing a load of cigarettes worth $50,000, on the New Jersey Turnpike. Later that year, Gotti plead guilty to the Northwest Airlineshijacking and was sentenced to three years at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. Prosecutors dropped the charges for the cigarette hijacking. Gotti also pleaded guilty to the United hijacking and spent less than three years at Lewisburg.

Gotti and Ruggiero were paroled in 1972 and returned to their old crew at the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club, still working under caporegime Carmine Fatico. Gotti was transferred to management of the Bergin crew’s illegal gambling, where he proved himself to be an effective enforcer. Fatico was indicted on loansharking charges in 1972. As a condition of his release, he could not associate with known felons. Although Gotti was not yet a made man in the Mafia due to the membership books’ having been closed since 1957, Fatico named Gotti the acting capo of the Bergin Crew soon after Gotti was paroled. In this new role, Gotti frequently traveled to Dellacroce’s headquarters at the Ravenite Social Club to brief the underboss on the crew’s activities. Dellacroce had already taken a liking to Gotti, and the two became even closer during this time. The two were very similar—both had strong violent streaks, cursed a lot, and were heavy gamblers.

In 1973, after Carlo Gambino’s nephew Emanuel Gambino was kidnapped and murdered, John Gotti was assigned to the hit team alongside Ruggiero and Ralph Galione for the main suspect, Irish-American gangster James McBratney. The team botched their attempt to abduct McBratney at a Staten Island bar, and Galione shot McBratney dead when his accomplices managed to restrain him. Identified by eyewitnesses as a police Bergin insider, Gotti was arrested for the killing in June 1974. With the help of attorney Roy Cohn, however, he was able to strike a plea bargain and received a four-year sentence for attempted manslaughter for his part in the hit. After Gotti’s death, he was also identified by Joseph Massino as the killer of Vito Borelli, a Gambino associate killed in 1975 for insulting Paul Castellano Captain Gotti was released in July 1977 after two years imprisonment. He was subsequently initiated into the Gambino family, now under the command of Paul Castellano, and immediately promoted to replace Fatico as capo of the Bergin crew.

He and his crew reported directly to Dellacroce as part of the concessions given by Castellano to keep Dellacroce as underboss, and Gotti was regarded as Dellacroce’s protégé. Under Gotti, the Bergin crew were the biggest earners of Dellacroce’s crews. Besides his cut of his subordinates’ earnings, Gotti ran his own loan sharking operation and held a no-show job as aplumbing supply salesman. Unconfirmed allegations by FBI informants in the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club claimed Gotti also financed drug deals. Gotti would try to keep most of his family uninvolved with his life of crime, with the exception of his son John Angelo Gotti, commonly known as John Gotti Jr., who by 1982 was a mob associate. In December of 1978, Gotti assisted in the largest unrecovered cash robbery in history, the infamous Lufthansa Heist at Kennedy Airport. Gotti had made arrangements for the getaway van to be crushed and bailed at a scrap metal yard in Brooklyn, New York.

The driver of the van, failed to follow orders, and rather than driving the vehicle to the scrap yard he parked it near a fire hydrant and went to sleep at his girlfriend’s apartment. The NYPD recovered the getaway van and lifted the fingerprints of several perpetrators who partook in the robbery, giving rise to the unraveling of the Lufthansa caper. On March 18, 1980, Gotti’s youngest son, 12-year-old Frank Gotti, was run over and killed on a family friend’s minibike by John Favara, a neighbor. While Frank’s death was ruled an accident, Favara subsequently received death threats and, when he visited the Gottis to apologize, was attacked by Victoria Gotti with a baseball bat. On July 28, 1980, he was abducted and disappeared, presumed murdered. While the Gottis were on vacation in Florida at the time, John Gotti is still presumed to have ordered the killing, an allegation considered probable by John, Jr., while denied by his daughter Victoria. In his last two years as the Bergin Capo, Gotti was indicted on two occasions, with both cases coming to trial after his ascension to Gambino Boss.

In September 1984 Gotti was in an altercation with refrigerator mechanic Romual Piecyk, and was subsequently charged with assault and robbery. In 1985 he was indicted alongside Dellacroce and several Bergin crew members in a racketeering case by Assistant US Attorney Diane Giacalone. The indictment also revealed that Gotti’s friend “Willie Boy” Johnson, one of his co-defendants, had been an FBI informant. Taking over the Gambino family Gotti rapidly became dissatisfied with Paul Castellano’s leadership, considering the new boss too isolated and greedy. Like other members of the family, Gotti also personally disliked Castellano. Castellano lacked street credibility, and those who had paid their dues running street level jobs did not respect him. Gotti also had an economic interest; he had a running beef with Castellano on the split Gotti took from hijackings at JFK Airport. Gotti was also rumored to be expanding into drug dealing, a lucrative trade Castellano had banned. In August 1983, Ruggiero and Gene Gotti were arrested for dealing heroin, based primarily on recordings from a bug in Ruggiero’s house.

Castellano, who had banned made men from his family from dealing drugs under threat of death, demanded transcripts of the tapes, and when Ruggiero refused he threatened to demote Gotti. In 1984, Castellano was arrested and indicted in a RICO case for the crimes of Gambino hitman Roy DeMeo’s crew. The following year he received a second indictment for his role in the American Mafia’s Commission. Facing life imprisonment for either case, Castellano arranged for John Gotti to serve as an acting boss alongside Thomas Bilotti, Castellano’s favorite capo, and Thomas Gambinoin his absence. Gotti, meanwhile, began conspiring with fellow disgruntled capos Frank DeCicco and Joseph “Joe Piney” Armone and soldiers Sammy Gravano and Robert “DiB” DiBernardo(collectively dubbed “the Fist” by themselves) to overthrow Castellano, insisting despite the boss’ inaction that Castellano would eventually try to kill him. Armone’s support was critical; as a member of the family for more than half a century, he would lend needed credibility to the conspirators’ cause.

It has long been a hard and fast rule in the American Mafia that killing a boss is forbidden without the support of a majority of the Commission. Indeed, Gotti’s planned hit would have been the first off-the-record hit on a boss since Frank Costello was nearly killed in 1957. Gotti knew that it would be too risky to solicit support from the other four bosses, since they had longstanding ties to Castellano. To get around this, he got the support of several important figures of his generation in the Lucchese, Colombo and Bonanno families. He did not even consider approaching the Genoveses; Castellano had especially close ties with Genovese boss Vincent “Chin” Gigante, and approaching any major Genovese figure could have been a tipoff. Gotti could thus claim he had the support of “off-the-record contacts” from three out of five families. He could also count on the complicity of Gambino consigliere Joseph N. Gallo.

After Dellacroce died of cancer on December 2, 1985, Castellano revised his succession plan: appointing Bilotti as underboss to Thomas Gambino as the sole acting boss, while making plans to break up Gotti’s crew. Infuriated by this, and Castellano’s refusal to attend Dellacroce’s wake, Gotti resolved to kill his boss. DeCicco tipped Gotti off that he would be having a meeting with Castellano and several other Gambino mobsters at Sparks Steak House on December 16, 1985, and Gotti chose to take the opportunity. The evening of the meeting, when the boss and underboss arrived, they were ambushed and shot dead by assassins under Gotti’s command. Gotti watched the hit from his car with Gravano. Several days after the murder, Gotti was named to a three-man committee to temporarily run the family pending the election of a new boss, along with Gallo and DeCicco. It was also announced that an internal investigation into Castellano’s murder was well underway.

However, it was an open secret that Gotti was acting boss in all but name, and nearly all of the family’s capos knew he’d been the one behind the hit. He was formally acclaimed as the new boss of the Gambino family at a meeting of 20 capos held on January 15, 1986. He appointed his co-conspirator DeCicco as the new underboss while retaining Gallo as consigliere. Crime boss Identified as both Paul Castellano’s likely murderer and his successor, John Gotti rose to fame throughout 1986. At the time of Gotti’s takeover the Gambino family was regarded as the most powerful American mafia family, with an annual income of $500 million. In the book Underboss, Gravano estimated that Gotti himself had an annual income of not less than $5 million during his years as boss, and more likely between $10 and $12 million. To protect himself legally, Gotti banned members of the Gambino family from accepting plea bargains that acknowledged the existence of the organization. Gotti maintained a genial public image in an attempt to play down press releases that depicted him as a ruthless mobster.

He reportedly would offer coffee to FBI agents assigned to tail him. John Gotti, reputed boss of the Gambino crime family, laughs during a moment in his trial. The jury heard secretly recorded tapes which show Gotti was concerned that another gang had deliberately disrespected him by wrecking a restaurant run byone of his associates. “The Teflon Don” Gotti’s newfound fame had at least one positive effect; upon the revelation of his attacker’s occupation, and amid reports of intimidation by the Gambinos, Romual Piecyk decided not to testify against Gotti, and when the trial commenced in March 1986 he testified he was unable to remember who attacked him. The case was promptly dismissed, with the New York Post summarizing the proceedings with the headline “I Forgotti!” It was later revealed that Gambino thugs had severed Piecyk’s brake lines, made threatening phone calls and stalked him before the trial. On April 13, 1986, DiCicco was killed when his car was bombed following a visit to Castellano loyalist James Failla.

The bombing was carried out by Victor Amuso and Anthony Casso of the Lucchese family, under orders of Gigante and Lucchese boss Anthony Corallo, to avenge Castellano and Bilotti by killing their successors; Gotti also planned to visit Failla that day, but canceled, and the bomb was detonated after a soldier who rode with DeCicco was mistaken for the boss. Bombs had long been banned by the American Mafia out of concern that it would put innocent people in harm’s way, leading the Gambinos to initially suspect that Zips (Sicilian mafiosi working in the United States) were behind it; Zips were well known for using bombs. Following the bombing, Judge Eugene Nickerson, presiding over Gotti’s racketeering trial, rescheduled to avoid a jury tainted by the resulting publicity while Giacalone had Gotti’s bail revoked due to evidence of intimidation in the Piecyk case. From jail, Gotti ordered the murder of Robert DiBernardo by Sammy Gravano; both DiBernardo and Ruggiero had been vying to succeed Frank DeCiccountil Ruggiero accused DiBernardo of challenging Gotti’s leadership.

When Ruggiero, also under indictment, had his bail revoked for his abrasive behavior in preliminary hearings, a frustrated Gotti instead promoted Joseph Armone to underboss. Jury selection for the racketeering case began again in August 1986, with John Gotti standing trial alongside Gene Gotti, “Willie Boy” Johnson (who, despite being exposed as an informant, refused to turn state’s evidence), Leonard DiMaria, Tony Rampino, Nicholas Corozzo and John Carneglia. At this point, the Gambinos were able to compromise the case when George Pape hid his friendship with Westies boss Bosko Radonjich and was empaneled as juror #11. Through Radonjich, Pape contacted Gravano and agreed to sell his vote on the jury for $60,000. In the trial’s opening statements on September 25, Gotti’s defense attorney Bruce Cutler denied the existence of the Gambino Crime Family and framed the government’s entire effort as a personal vendetta. His main defense strategy during the prosecution was to attack the credibility of Giacalone’s witnesses by discussing their crimes committed before their turning states’.

In Gotti’s defense Cutler called bank robber Matthew Traynor, a would-be prosecution witness dropped for unreliability, who testified that Giacalone offered him drugs and her panties as a masturbation aid in exchange for his testimony; Traynor’s allegations would be dismissed by Judge Nickerson as “wholly unbelievable” after the trial, and he was subsequently convicted of perjury. Despite Cutler’s defense and critiques about the prosecution’s performance, according to mob writers Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain, when the jury’s deliberations began a majority were in favor of convicting Gotti. However, due to Pape’s misconduct, Gotti knew from the beginning of the trial that he could do no worse than a hung jury. During deliberations, Pape held out for acquittal until the rest of the jury began to fear their own safety would be compromised. On March 13, 1987, they acquitted Gotti and his codefendants of all charges. Five years later Pape was convicted of obstruction of justice for his part in the fix and sentenced to three years in prison.

In the face of previous Mafia convictions, particularly the success of the Commission trial, Gotti’s acquittal was a major upset that further added to his reputation. The American media dubbed Gotti “The Teflon Don” in reference to the failure of any charges to “stick.” Reorganization While Gotti himself had escaped conviction, his associates were not so lucky. The other two men in the Gambino administration, underboss Armone and consigliere Gallo, had been indicted on racketeering charges in 1986 and were both convicted in December 1987. The heroin trial of Gotti’s former fellow Bergin crewmembers Ruggiero and Gene Gotti also commenced in June of that year. Prior to their convictions, Gotti allowed Gallo to retire and promoted Sammy Gravano in his place while slating Frank Locascio to serve as acting underboss in the event of Armone’s imprisonment. The Gambinos also worked to compromise the heroin trial’s jury, resulting in two mistrials.When the terminally ill Ruggiero was severed and released in 1989, Gotti refused to contact him, blaming him for the Gambino’s misfortunes.

According to Gravano, Gotti also considered murdering Ruggiero and when he finally died “I literally had to drag him to the funeral.” Beginning in January 1988 Gotti, against Gravano’s advice, required his capos to meet with him at the Ravenite Social Club once a week.Regarded by Gene Gotti as an unnecessary vanity-inspired risk, and by FBI Gambino squad leader Bruce Mouw as antithematic to the “secret society”, this move allowed FBI surveillance to record and identify much of the Gambino hierarchy. It also provided strong circumstantial evidence that Gotti was a boss; long-standing protocol in the Mafia requires public demonstrations of loyalty to the boss. The FBI also bugged the Ravenite, but failed to produce any high-quality incriminating recordings. 1988 also saw Gotti, Gigante and new Lucchese boss Victor Amuso attending the first Commission meeting since the Commission trial. In 1986, future Lucchese underboss Anthony Casso had been injured in an unauthorized hit by Gambino capo Mickey Paradiso.

The following year, the FBI warned Gotti they had recorded Genovese consigliere Louis Manna discussing another hit on John and Gene Gotti. To avoid a war, the leaders of the three families met, denied knowledge of their violence against one another, and agreed to “communicate better.” The bosses also agreed to allow Colombo acting boss Victor Orena to join the Commission, but Gigante, wary of giving Gotti a majority by admitting another ally, blocked the reentry of the Bonannos’ and Joseph Massino. Gotti was nevertheless able to take control of the New Jersey DeCavalcante crime family in 1988. According to the DeCavalcante capo-turned-informant Anthony Rotondo, Gotti attended his father’s wake with numerous other Gambino mobsters in a “show of force” and forced boss John Riggi to agree to run his family on the Gambino’s behalf. The DeCavalcantes remained in the Gambino’s sphere of influence until John Gotti’s imprisonment. Gotti’s son John Gotti Jr. was initiated into the Gambino family on Christmas Eve 1988.

According to fellow mobster Michael DiLeonardo, initiated in the same night, Gravano held the ceremony to keep Gotti from being accused of nepotism. John Jr. was promptly promoted to capo. Assault acquittal On the evening of January 23, 1989, John Gotti was arrested outside the Ravenite and charged with ordering the 1986 assault of union official John O’Connor. O’Connor, a leader in the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America Local 608 who was later convicted of racketeering himself, was believed to have ordered an attack on a Gambino-associated restaurant that had snubbed the union and was subsequently shot and wounded by the Westies. To link Gotti to the case, state prosecutors had a recording of Gotti discussing O’Connor and announcing his intention to “Bust him up,” and the testimony of Westies gangster James McElroy. Gotti was released on $100,000 bail, and was later acquitted at trial.

It later emerged, however, that FBI bugs had apparently caught Gotti discussing plans to fix the jury as he had in the 1986-87 racketeering case. However, to the outrage of Morgenthau and state organized crime task force chief Ronald Goldstock, the FBI and federal prosecutors chose not to reveal this information to them. Morgenthau later said that had he known about these bugged conversations, he would have asked for a mistrial. 1992 conviction On December 11, 1990, FBI agents and New York City detectives raided the Ravenite Social Club, arresting Gotti, Gravano and Frank Locascio. In the back of the police car, Gotti remarked ‘I bet ya 3 to 1 I beat this’. Gotti was charged, in this new racketeering case, with five murders (Castellano and Bilotti, Robert DiBernardo, Liborio Milito and Louis Dibono), conspiracy to murder Gaetano “Corky” Vastola, loansharking, illegal gambling, obstruction of justice, bribery and tax evasion. Based on tapes from FBI bugs played at pretrial hearings the Gambino administration was denied bail.

At the same time, attorneys Bruce Cutler and Gerald Shargel were disqualified from defending Gotti and Gravano after prosecutors successfully contended they were “part of the evidence” and thus liable to be called as witnesses. Prosecutors argued that Cutler and Shargel not only knew about potential criminal activity, but had worked as “in-house counsel” for the Gambino organization.Gotti subsequently hired Albert Krieger, a Miami attorney who had worked with Joseph Bonanno, to replace Cutler. The tapes also created a rift between Gotti and Gravano, showing the Gambino boss describing his newly appointed underboss as too greedy and attempting to frame Gravano as the main force behind the murders of DiBernardo, Milito and Dibono. Gotti’s attempt at reconciliation failed, leaving Gravano disillusioned with the mob and doubtful on his chances of winning the newest case without Shargel, his former attorney. Gravano ultimately opted to turn state’s evidence, formally agreeing to testify on November 13, 1991. Gotti and Locascio were tried in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York before United States District Judge I. Leo Glasser.

Jury selection began in January 1992, with ananonymous jury and, for the first time in a Brooklyn Federal case, fully sequestered during the trial due to Gotti’s reputation for jury tampering. The trial commenced with the prosecution’sopening statements on February 12; prosecutors Andrew Maloney and John Gleeson began their case by playing tapes showing Gotti discussing Gambino family business, including murders he approved, and confirming the animosity between Gotti and Castellano to establish the former’s motive to kill his boss. After calling an eyewitness of the Sparks hit who identified Gotti associate John Carneglia as one of the men who shot Bilotti they then brought Gravano to testify on March 2. On the stand Gravano confirmed Gotti’s place in the structure of the Gambino family and described in detail the conspiracy to assassinate Castellano and gave a full description of the hit and its aftermath. Krieger, and Locasio’s attorney Anthony Cardinale, proved unable to shake Gravano during cross-examination. After additional testimony and tapes the government rested its case on March 24.

Five of Krieger and Cardinale’s intended six witnesses were ruled irrelevant or extraneous, leaving only Gotti’s tax attorney Murray Appleman to testify on his behalf. The defense also attempted unsuccessfully to have a mistrial declared based on Maloney’s closing remarks. Gotti himself became increasingly hostile during the trial, and at one point Glasser threatened to remove him from the courtroom. Among other outbursts, Gotti called Gravano a junkie while his attorneys sought to discuss Gravano’s past steroid use, and he equated the dismissal of a juror to the fixing of the 1919 World Series. On April 2, 1992, after only 14 hours of deliberation, the jury found Gotti guilty on all charges of the indictment (Locasio was found guilty on all but one). James Fox, director of the New York City FBI, announced at a press conference, “The Teflon is gone. The don is covered with Velcro, and all the charges stuck.” On June 23, 1992, Glasser sentenced both defendants to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and a $250,000 fine.

Incarceration and death Gotti was incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois. He spent the majority of his sentence in effective solitary confinement, only allowed out of his cell for one hour a day. His final appeal was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1994. While in prison, Gotti was severely beaten up by Walter Johnson, a fellow inmate. Afterwards, Gotti offered at least $40,000 to the Aryan Brotherhood to kill Johnson. The Aryan Brotherhood accepted Gotti’s offer. The prison guards surmised that Johnson was in danger and transferred him to another prison.Despite this, It was said that the Aryan Brotherhood never intended to do the hit for Gotti. Gotti is also believed to have hired the Brotherhood for another aborted hit on Frank Locascio after learning the disgruntled acting consigliere sought to kill him. Despite his imprisonment, and pressure from the Commission to stand down, Gotti asserted his prerogative to retain his title as boss until his death or retirement, with his brother Peter and his son John A. Gotti Jr. relaying orders on his behalf.

By 1998, when he was indicted on racketeering, John Gotti Jr. was believed to be the acting boss of the family. Against his father’s wishes, John Jr. pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years and five months imprisonment in 1999. He maintains he has since left the Gambino family. Peter Gotti subsequently became acting boss, and is believed to have formally succeeded his brother as boss shortly before John Gotti’s death. John Jr.’s indictment brought further stress to John Gotti’s marriage. Victoria DiGiorgio Gotti, up to that point unaware of her son’s involvement in the mob, blamed her husband for ruining her son’s life and threatened to leave him unless he allowed John Jr. to leave the mob. In 1998 Gotti was diagnosed with throat cancer and sent to the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, for surgery. While the tumor was removed, the cancer was discovered to have returned two years later and Gotti was transferred back to Springfield, where he spent the rest of his life.

Gotti’s condition rapidly declined, and he died on June 10, 2002, at the age of 61. Per John Jr., “If you look on his death certificate he choked on his own vomit and blood. He paid for his sins”.The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn announced that Gotti’s family would not be permitted to have a Requiem Mass but allowed it after the burial. Gotti’s funeral was held in a nonchurch facility. After the funeral, an estimated 300 onlookers followed the procession, which passed Gotti’s Bergin Hunt and Fish Club, to the gravesite. John Gotti’s body was interred in a crypt next to his son Frank Gotti. Gotti’s brother Peter was unable to attend owing to his incarceration. In an apparent repudiation of Gotti’s leadership and legacy, the other New York City families sent no representatives to the funeral. By the turn of the century, due in large part to numerous prosecutions brought on as a result of Gotti’s tactics, half of the family’s active soldiers were in prison.

Portrayal in popular media As early as 1990 John Gotti was already such a prominent mobster as to be the inspiration for the character Joey Zasa, portrayed by Joe Mantegna, in The Godfather Part III. Following his conviction, Gotti himself has been portrayed in four TV movies and one theatrical film: Getting Gotti – 1994 CBS TV movie, portrayed by Anthony John Denison. Gotti – 1996 HBO TV movie adapted from Gotti: Rise and Fall, portrayed by Armand Assante. Witness to the Mob – 1998 NBC miniseries, portrayed by Tom Sizemore. Boss of Bosses – 2001 TNT TV movie adapted from the book of the same name, portrayed by Sonny Marinelli. Sinatra Club – 2010 theatrical film, portrayed by Danny Nucci. Another John Gotti biographical film, titled Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father, is in pre-production for a theatrical release, with John Travolta cast as Gotti. However, as of 2013, no other cast members have been confirmed.

Gotti also features in the fourth episode of UK history TV channel Yesterday’s documentary series Mafia’s Greatest Hits. Growing up Gotti, a reality show on the A&E Network featuring John Gotti’s daughter Victoria and her three sons, aired in 2004-2005. John Gotti has also been mentioned in various rap songs by artists such as The Notorious B.I.G, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, The Game, Nas, Big L, Spice 1, Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Kool G Rap, Kevin Gates, Ace Hoodand rappers such as Irv Gotti and Yo Gotti derived their stage names after John. The Fun Lovin’ Criminals song “King Of New York” from their album Come Find Yourself references Gotti. The Krays The Krays are probably the most well known of all British Gangsters, and to some are probably the only British Gangsters that they have heard of. The Krays are not only well known but are looked upon by many as good guys. Many people that were around at the time (and presumably had never got on the wrong side of them) would recall how the streets were much safer when the Krays were about.

Twin brothers Ronald “Ronnie” Kray (24 October 1933 – 17 March 1995) and Reginald “Reggie” Kray (24 October 1933 – 1 October 2000) were English gangsters who were foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London’s East End during the 1950s and ’60s. Ronald, commonly referred to as Ron or Ronnie, most likely suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. With their gang, “The Firm”, the Krays were involved in armed robberies, arson, protection rackets, assaults, and the murders of Jack “The Hat” McVitie and George Cornell. As West End nightclub owners, they mixed with prominent entertainers including Diana Dors, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and with politicians. The Krays were much feared within their milieu, and in the ’60s became celebrities in their own right, even being photographed by David Bailey and interviewed on television.

They were arrested on 9 May 1968 and convicted in 1969 by the efforts of a squad of detectives led by Detective Superintendent Leonard “Nipper” Read, and were both sentenced to life imprisonment. Ronnie remained in Broadmoor Hospital until his death on 17 March 1995, but Reggie was released from prison on compassionate grounds in August 2000, eight weeks before his death from cancer. Early life Ronnie and Reggie Kray were born on 24 October 1933 in Hoxton, East London, to Charles David “Charlie” Kray, Sr., (10 March 1907 – 8 March 1983), a scrap gold dealer, and Violet Lee (5 August 1909 – 7 August 1982). Reggie was born roughly 10 minutes before twin Ronnie. Charlie and Violet already had a six-year old son, Charlie Jr, (9 July 1926 – 4 April 2000).[6] A sister, Violet, born 1929, died in infancy.

When the twins were three years old, they were struck down with diphtheria and recovered. Ron almost died from a head injury suffered in a fight with his twin brother in 1942. In 1938, having previously lived in Stean Street, Hoxton, the Kray family moved to 178 Vallance Road, Bethnal Green. At the start of the Second World War, Charlie Kray Senior was called up into the army but went into hiding. The twins first attended Wood Close School in Brick Lane and then Daniel Street School. The influence of their grandfather, Jimmy “Cannonball” Lee,led both boys into amateur boxing, which was at that time a popular pursuit for working class boys in the East End. An element of rivalry between them spurred them on, and they achieved some success. They are said never to have lost a bout before turning professional at the age of 19. National Service The Kray twins became notorious locally for their gang and the mayhem they caused. They narrowly avoided prison several times, and in early 1952 they were called up for national service with the Royal Fusiliers . They deserted several times, each time being recaptured.

While absent without leave , the twins assaulted a police officer who had spotted them and was trying to arrest them. They were initially held at the Tower of London (they were among the very last prisoners ever kept there) before being sent to Shepton Mallet military prison in Somerset and jailed for a month awaiting court-martial . They ended up being jailed in the Home Counties Brigade Depot jail in Canterbury , Kent . Their behaviour there was so bad that in the end they were given dishonourable discharges from the service; for the last few weeks of their imprisonment, when their fate was a certainty anyway, they tried to dominate the exercise area immediately outside their one man cells. They threw tantrums , upended their latrine bucket over a sergeant , similarly dumped a dixie (a large camp kettle) full of hot tea on a guard, handcuffed another guard to the prison bars with a pair of stolen cuffs, and burned their bedding. Eventually they were discharged, but not before escaping from the guardhouse and being recaptured by the army one last time. The escape was executed when they were moved from a one man cell to a communal cell and they assaulted their guard with a china vase.

Still, once recaptured and while awaiting transfer to civilian authority for crimes committed during their most recent period at large, they spent their last night in Canterbury drinking cider, eating crisps, and smoking cigarillos courtesy of the young national servicemen who were acting as their guards. Nightclub owners Their criminal records and dishonourable discharges ended their boxing careers. As a result, the twins turned to crime. They bought a run down local snooker club in Bethnal Green, where they started several protection rackets. By the end of the 1950s, the Krays were involved in hijacking, armed robbery and arson, through which they acquired a few clubs and other properties. In 1960 Ronnie Kray was incarcerated for 18 months on charges of running a protection racket and related threats, and while he was in prison, Peter Rachman, the head of a violent landlord operation, gave Reggie a nightclub on the Knightsbridge end of Wilton Place beside Joans Kitchen a bistro, called Esmeralda’s Barn. The site is now where the Berkeley Hotel is, the club itself was on the corner opposite the church.

This increased the Krays’ influence in the West End of London, with celebrities and famous people rather than East End criminals. They were assisted by banker Alan Cooper who wanted protection from the Krays’ rivals, the Richardsons, who were based in South London. Please follow and like us: Posted on The 10 Most Successful Gangsters of All Time Who says crime doesn’t pay? If you are willing to take chances and know that you may live a fabulous but somewhat abbreviated existence, you too could be a gangster. As demonstrated by our list there are times crime definitely does pay. These larger than life gangsters lived fabulous lives although for many of them it lasted a relatively short time. They owned mansions, planes, yachts, jewels, furs, cars and even an island. They had designer clothes, designer drugs and an endless supply of entertainment. Unfortunately with the type of work they dealt in, they had to be extremely careful so certain precautions always had to be taken. Bodyguards, food tasters, armored vehicles, alternate identities and even drastic plastic surgery were also part of their lifestyle. These were just a few of the preventative measures that could be taken for their protection and to keep them on top of the game.

Individuals like these were always targeted by rival gangs; it was a dangerous existence albeit a fantastic one. Is this why we are so fascinated by gangsters? Our culture reflects the fascination through movies, TV shows and books. Prohibition seemed to spawn a new breed bringing players like Al Capone, and gambling allowing others like Meyer Lansky to rise to the top of the heap. Of course drug trafficking on a grand scale in the modern day ushered in South American drug lords and powerful cartels. No matter what though, at some point after all the fun, the law does catch up. Sometimes it takes years but it does happen. Most on this list faced charges of drug conspiracy and tax evasion, not to mention murder. Many spent years on the run avoiding the law, or worse yet, hired assassins. There is definitely a price to pay for this type of life. These gangsters usually came to violent ends or rotted away in jail cells until they died. Let’s take a look at the ten most successful criminals in terms of financial success and how they made their fortunes. 10.

Frank Lucas: $52 Million Born in 1930, in La Grange, North Carolina, Frank Lucas moved to Harlem in 1946. He aspired to be what he termed “Donald Trump rich” and so he calculated a plan after seeing the potential of the heroin business that was largely fed by the Vietnam War at that time. U.S Servicemen were exposed to all sorts of drugs overseas and many came back with raging addictions. Lucas knew the potential for a huge profit was there if he could obtain the heroin from the source and bypass the Italian mafia that was in control of Harlem at the time. After travelling to Vietnam and setting up contacts and connections there, he was able to ship in tons of heroin from South East Asia on a regular basis. He hired only family members and trusted friends and eventually he took control of the heroin trade in New York and New Jersey. Working with Khun Sa, a well-known opium lord, Lucas arranged to have the heroin hidden in coffins that were flown from Vietnam to the U.S.

During the height of his operation he was making approximately a million dollars a day and his net worth was estimated to have been in the neighborhood of $52 million making him number ten on our list of most successful gangsters. Ironically, after serving time, Lucas was said to be sorry for his part in the devastation of Harlem and for the damage he caused so many individuals and families. He spent time attempting to undo some of the damage by working with his daughter’s non-profit organization, Yellow Brick Roads, protecting children of incarcerated parents. In 2007, his life was depicted in the movie American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington. 9. Jose Figueroa Agosto: $100 Million Jose Figueroa Agosto was born June 28th, 1964 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is said to have risen in power within his crime family after he killed a driver that had stolen a shipment of cocaine. Even though he was caught and convicted for the murder he managed to escape, walking out of the prison with a fake release order and fleeing to the Dominican Republic.

He made his millions in drug trafficking at some point controlling over 90% of the drug traffic from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico. He successfully eluded the law by creating alternate identities and paying bribes to law enforcement personnel but his luck finally ran out. He was arrested in July of 2010 by DEA, FBI, U.S. Marshals, and the Puerto Rican Police. His fortune was estimated at approximately $100 million making him number nine on our list. Joseph Kennedy: $300 million Born on September 6th, 1888, in Boston, Massachusetts, Joseph P. Kennedy made his first million by age 30. Already in the liquor business legally he had to take extreme measures when Prohibition started or lose his business, so he contacted mobsters in New York and Chicago and became a successful bootlegger. Even after liquor was made legal again, Kennedy maintained those questionable ties and it’s said to have played a part in helping him control certain political elections. According to Fortune Magazine in his prime, Kennedy had a net worth of more than $300 million. As father to a U.S.

President, a District Attorney and a Senator, you might raise a brow seeing him on our list, but with his known associations with the likes of mobsters such as Frank Costello and Sam Giancana and allegations of influencing unions, fixing elections and his bootlegging stint, he seems right at home as number eight on the list. Joseph Kennedy died November 18th, 1969, outliving all of his sons except for Ted. 7. Meyer Lansky: $600 Million Meyer Lansky, originally Maier Suchowljansky, was born July 4th, 1902. Lansky was one of the most well-known gangsters of his time. Born a Polish Jew in Russia, he immigrated to the U.S. with his parents in 1911, moving to New York’s Lower East Side. Partnering with Bugsy Siegel he ran a floating crap game organizing a small gang and moving on to bigger and better things including auto theft, burglary, and liquor smuggling. He worked under the protection of the Masseria crime family, even moving on to putting together a group of professional assassins.

Supposedly it was Lansky who conspired with Lucky Luciano to eventually have Masseria killed in 1931. Lansky joined Luciano from 1932 to 1934 forming a national crime syndicate. Lansky became a major banker in the operation and used international accounts to launder money. His success continued as he moved to developing gambling operations in Cuba, Florida and eventually Las Vegas. It was Lansky that financed his old friend Siegel’s casino in Las Vegas and it was also Lansky that ordered the hit on Siegel when he attempted to steal from the syndicate. When Cuba became a problem after Fidel Castro rose in power, Lansky turned his attention to the Bahamas, continuing to expand his gambling empire across the ocean. You name it, Lansky was into it, including narcotics, prostitution, pornography, racketeering, extortion, money laundering, etc. He squirreled away his vast holdings in Swiss bank accounts. In his heyday Forbes named him as one of the 400 richest people in the U.S. with a net worth of over $600 million making him number seven on our list.

Although he attempted to flee to Israel, Lansky was forced back to the U.S. to face charges but due to his ill health he did not spend much jail time. Most indictments were discharged and he died of lung cancer in Miami at age 83. 6. Al Capone: $1.3 Billion Alphonse Capone was born on January 17th, 1899, in Brooklyn, New York. He was born into a respectable family, his father was educated and making a living as a barber. Capone grew up living in a Brooklyn tenement near the Navy Yard. Although Capone was very bright he was expelled from Catholic school at age 14 for assaulting a teacher and he never returned. He met gangster Johnny Torrio and was seduced by Torrio’s lifestyle. He joined Torrio’s gang rising quickly and acquiring the scar in a knife fight that earned him the nickname “Scarface”. He moved to Chicago in 1909 at Torrio’s request to help run operations there and by 1925 when Torrio retired, Capone became the boss of Chicago running the prostitution, gambling and bootlegging rackets there.

He was ruthless, always attempting to take out other gangs and increase his territory. He ran the Chicago Mafia making most of his money during the prohibition period including over $60 million monthly from illegal alcohol alone. He was able to live the high life even refusing to carry a gun as a mark of his status, however he rarely traveled with less than two bodyguards and he almost always traveled under the cover of dark. Capone was involved in probably one of the most infamous gang hits in history; the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. Tired of dealing with his rival, Bugs Moran and his Northsiders gang, Capone ordered the hit for February 14th, 1929, staging it as a raid with the henchmen wearing stolen police uniforms. Unfortunately for Capone, Moran escaped but it was well-known who had attempted the hit. He had just about everyone on his payroll including government officials, judges, police officers and City Hall personnel. His fortune would have been worth approximately $1.3 billion today landing him the number six spot on our list. Unfortunately the law did catch up with Capone and he was arrested and prosecuted by the Internal Revenue Service for tax evasion.

He spent 11 years in prison, serving time in Alcatraz until he became ill and was released early for good behavior. He died on January 25th, 1947 at age 48. 5. Griselda Blanco: $2 Billion Griselda Blanco, also known as the “The Godmother and The Black Widow,” was born in Colombia on February 15th, 1943. She is suspected of having committed over 200 murders while transporting cocaine from Colombia to the U.S. She was raised by an abusive mother and drifted into prostitution at a young age. Working as a prostitute she became involved with the Medellin Cartel. Working for them, she helped smuggle Colombian cocaine throughout the U.S., even designing special undergarments that could be used to transport large amounts through U.S Customs. Blanco arrived in New York in the mid 1970’s, a successful drug smuggler running a huge narcotics operation but U.S. law enforcement was on her tail and after intercepting one of her shipments she and more than 30 of her partners were indicted.

Afraid she would be captured, Blanco returned to Colombia, but eventually she came back to the U.S. and this time settled in Miami. She continued working for the Medellin Cartel, acquiring her reputation for murder until she was eventually caught and jailed for drug conspiracy. Upon her release Blanco returned to Colombia where she was gunned down by two hit men on motorcycles at age 69. In her time she was making approximately $80 million a month and during her peak she was worth $2 billion. That makes this dangerous lady gangster number five on our list. 4. Carlos Lehder: $2.7 Billion Born in Armenia, Colombia, on September 7th, 1949, Carlos Lehder became a founding member of the Medellin Cartel, eventually taking control of an island in the Bahamas and using it to transport cocaine between Colombia and the U.S. He used connections he had made in prison to help him import cocaine and distribute across the United States. A self-proclaimed Nazi, Lehder was eventually run off the island by Professor Richard Novak, a diving enthusiast, hell-bent on keeping his diving paradise pristine.

Once off the island, Lehder attempted to keep the law at bay with threats and payoffs, but eventually he was arrested, extradited to the U.S. and sentenced to 135 years in jail. After agreeing to testify against the Panamanian dictator, Manuel Noriega, Lehder was put into the witness protection program and virtually disappeared. Supposedly he was given a reduced sentence of 55 years and is serving time under another name. At the time of his arrest government officials seized Lehder’s bank accounts and took ownership of his possessions bankrupting the gangster. During his prime through drug trafficking and racketeering Lehder amassed a fortune of over $2.7 billion, making him number four on our list. 3. Joaquin Guzman Loera: $5 Billion It is believed Joaquin Guzman Loera was born on December 25th, 1954, in Mexico, although his exact birthdate is not known. He grew up the son of a cattle rancher, his family was very poor and he helped by selling fruit when possible to help earn a living. He also learned to grow his own poppies for opium and marijuana to increase the family’s income.

His nickname was earned by his short stance; Loera at full height was only 5 feet 6 inches tall earning him the moniker of “El Chapo”, which means “Shorty”. After his father kicked him from his family home, he went to live with his grandparents and he became associated with the Sinaloa Drug Cartel, overseeing drug trafficking between Mexico and the U.S. The drugs were obtained from Colombia and delivered into Mexico where Loera ran logistics, ensuring their delivery from there into the U.S. and Europe by way of plane, boat, truck, train, or helicopter. When the heads of the cartel were eventually arrested, Loera took control. He added the manufacturing of meth within Mexico as well. According to Forbes, Loera’s net worth is estimated to be approximately $5 billion. Although eventually a $5 million dollar reward was offered for his capture, Loera managed to evade the authorities and stay at the top of the FBI’s most wanted list for more than 10 years. He was only recently captured and arrested on February 22nd, 2014 at a resort in Mazatlán, Mexico. 2.

Amado Carrillo Fuentes: $25 Billion Amado Carrillo Fuentes was born December of 1956 in Navolato Sinaloa, Mexico. He was known as the “Lord of the Skies”, earning his nickname utilizing private planes to carry cocaine around the world. He owned a fleet of 27 private jets, most were Boeing 727’s. Flying into mostly municipal airports and airstrips around Mexico, he was able to successfully transport massive amounts of cocaine. Fuentes murdered his former boss, Rafael Aguilar Guajardo, leader of the Juarez Drug Cartel and took over operations. Under his direction, the cartel flourished and Fuentes became one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world, shipping tons of cocaine directly to Manhattan monthly. Married with a family, Fuentes resided in a middle-eastern style home that resembled a fortress called “The Palace of a Thousand and One Nights”. It was finally ordered to be torn down in 2006 by Governor Eduardo Bours. Fuentes lived a far from peaceful existence spending the last ten years of his life mostly on the run from the law.

In 1997, as capture became imminent Fuentes decided to change his appearance and after admittance into a hospital in Mexico City, he died on July 3rd, 1997, while undergoing extensive plastic surgery. The operation lasted over nine hours and it’s unclear as to whether Fuentes had a reaction to a medication or the respirator failed but he died on the table. Strangely enough, three months afterward, the two doctors who had performed the surgery were found dead, buried in concrete tombs. There was evidence torture had taken place. The funeral of Fuentes was considered to be one of the most expensive in all Mexico’s history with thousands in attendance. This gangster, in his prime, was reported to have a net worth of over $25 billion making him number two on our list. 1. Pablo Escobar: $30 Billion Number one on our list is Pablo Escobar, born December 1st, 1949 in Antioquia, Colombia. He was a founding member of the Medellin Cartel, one of the most powerful drug cartels in all of Colombian history.

His ruthless ambition gained him control of over 80% of the cocaine that was smuggled into the U.S. Born into a poor family Escobar started his criminal career early, stealing and selling tombstones. By the 1970’s he began to be involved with cocaine. In partnership with five other illegal business owners he formed the Medellin Cartel, purchasing large amounts of coca paste from Bolivia and Peru and importing it to the U.S. According to Fortune and Forbes magazines he came in as number seven on their list of the ten richest people on earth. He crafted his position and status carefully sponsoring charity projects and soccer clubs and investing in the right contacts and influential friends. Unfortunately, his ambition brought an early death to many that threatened to get in his way including at least three Colombian presidential candidates, thousands of law enforcement personnel, attorney generals, judges and even journalists brave enough to report the truth. At one point it was said he offered to pay off Colombia’s national debt estimated at $10 billion. He attempted to lobby for a no-extradition clause and generous amnesty to drug lords if they agreed to give up drug trafficking.

This makes sense as by this point he had distanced himself from the trade instead choosing to impose a so called “tax” on those trafficking directly. His fortune was estimated to be over $30 billion earning him the number one spot on our list. He attempted to hide himself in prison to escape assassins but that only lasted a year then he was on the run again. He was finally shot to death by the Colombian police in 1993. Please follow and like us: Posted on Brink’s-Mat Robbery The Brink’s-Mat raid was the robbery of the century, the stuff of legends in the criminal underworld. On November 26, 1983, a group of robbers burst into the Brink’s-Mat warehouse near Heathrow Airport, expecting to find a decent-sized haul of cash – but instead they stumbled upon nearly seven thousand gold bars worth £28 million.

More than twenty-five years later, £20 million of bullion remains unrecovered, and it is thought that most people in possession of gold jewellery made in the UK after 1983 are wearing Brink’s-Mat Scene: 1983 police van and officers Fool’s Gold: The curse of the Brink’s-Mat gold bullion robbery More than 20 people whose lives were touched by the bullion have met an untimely, often gruesome end since the record-breaking raid, an investigation has revealed. When veterans of London’s criminal underworld meet, they grimly refer to the Brink’s-Mat millions as Fool’s Gold. Just after dawn on November 26, 1983, six armed men burst into the Brink’s-Mat warehouse at Heathrow expecting to find £3million in cash. Instead they stumbled across nearly seven thousand gold ingots, worth nearly £28million. The heist turned them into some of Britain’s richest men and filled the pockets of countless other crooks as the gold was melted down and the money laundered to fund shady activities such as drug smuggling.

Just three out of 15 men involved in planning and executing the robbery were ever convicted – robbers “Mad” Mickey McAvoy and Brian “The Colonel” Robinson and security guard insider Tony Black, Robinson’s brother in law. The vast majority of the gold – worth over £500million at today’s prices – has never been recovered. But nearly 30 years on, most of those involved have come to regret the day they ever came into contact with the Brink’s-Mat bullion. More than 20 people connected to the heist are dead. They include an ex-policeman who ended up with an axe in his head, an underworld figure gunned down on his yacht off Corfu and an enforcer now believed to be part of the foundations of the O2 Arena in London. A senior detective who worked on the investigation said he was never surprised by the brutal murders. He said: “These villains were out of control, many of them off their heads on drugs bought with their new-found riches.

“The trouble was that when that money either ran out, or in the case of some of them, never materialised, there was only one way to respond – to kill people to show others that even 25 years after the robbery, if they dared to cross the gang they would still pay with their life.” Bullion: The heist gang came into riches The book, The Curse of Brink’s-Mat: Twenty-five years of Murder and Mayhem by Wensley Clarkson, traces the fate of the men whose lives became entwined with the case. It tells how the idea of a curse was the last thing on the minds of the six robbers who, after tying up guards at the depot, found riches beyond their wildest dreams. Robinson, McAvoy, Brian Perry and three other men managed to disable the security alarm and enter the warehouse thanks to “insider” Black, who worked at the depot. Once inside, they doused the guards with petrol and threatened to set them alight unless they revealed the combinations to the vault, which they knew contained £3million. But when they got inside, they could hardly believe their eyes.

Stacked in front of them were 6,800 gold ingots, hundreds of thousands of pounds, travellers’ cheques and two boxes of diamonds. The men spent the next two hours loading their battered blue Transit van before making their getaway. The stolen vehicle creaked under the weight. By the time the alarm was raised 15 minutes later, the robbers and the loot had vanished. Posh: Brian Perry’s house It seemed like the perfect crime – but none of the gang had experience in gold, so they had to recruit other underworld figures who had. So much was melted down that it is thought that most people with gold jewellery made in the UK after 1993 are wearing Brink’s-Mat. Soon millions of pounds were flooding the underworld and unleashing a tide of gangland violence and murders from London’s East End to the Costa del Sol. The effect was not just felt by criminals. The double-strength ecstasy that killed Leah Betts, 18, in 1995 was almost certainly imported using money from the robbery. Police were certain that the gang must have had inside help and were quick to suspect Black, the last guard to arrive on the morning of the raid.

He confessed that he had provided information and a duplicate key, and named three of the robbers, McAvoy, his brother-in-law Robinson, and a man called Tony White. Robinson and McAvoy had spent six months planning the crime, but on finding themselves millionaires they aroused suspicions by moving from their council homes to mansions in Kent. McAvoy is reputed to have named two pet rottweilers Brinks and Mat. In December 1984, Robinson and McAvoy were jailed for 25 years each while Black was sentenced to six years. But there were still many villains at large and an extraordinary amount of gold – and in the coming years death and betrayal were linked to the infamous robbery. The first death occurred in 1985, when Kenneth Noye (pictured), recruited for his links to the smelting trade, stabbed an undercover detective John Fordham in his garden. At the resulting trial, the jury found Noye not guilty of murder on the grounds of self-defence. He was on trial again in 1986 after police found 11 bars of gold at his home. He got a 14-year sentence.

Cops revealed Shirley Bassey’s hit Goldfinger had been primed to play on the stereo whenever anyone walked into Noye’s lounge. He is currently serving life for the murder of 21-year-old motorist Stephen Cameron in a road rage attack in front of Cameron’s girlfriend Daniella Cable, 17, near the M25. The curse has hit many in the criminal underworld including Great Train Robber Charlie Wilson, who was gunned down at his Marbella home after £3million of Brink’s-Mat money went missing in a drug deal. In 1996, Keith Hedley, a suspected money launderer, was shot dead by three men on his yacht off Corfu. Two years later, Hatton Garden jeweller Solly Nahome, who had helped move hundreds of gold bars, was also shot dead outside his home. Perry, who was jailed for handling gold, died after being shot three times in the head in South London at the age of 63 following his release in 2001.

CAUGHT IN THE CURSE The same year, Brink’s-Mat gang member George Francis, 63, was gunned down at point-blank range in his car outside the courier business he ran in South East London. Three decades on, the hunt for the missing gold continues. And with a new generation of gangsters looking for it, police believe the death toll will rise. Most of the bullion is believed to be buried, with only a few old lags knowing the whereabouts. Most believe it is only a matter of time before the curse of the Brink’s-Mat gold claims its next victim. BRIAN PERRY – Brink’s-Mat gang associate shot dead in Bermondsey, South London, in 2001. JOHN FORDHAM – Undercover policeman who was stabbed to death in 1985 by Kenneth Noye SOLLY NAHOME – Bullion smelter was gunned down in 1998 outside his North London home. KEITH HEDLEY – Money launderer was shot dead by three men on his yacht off Corfu in 1996.

CHARLIE WILSON – Great Train Robber shot at home in Spain in 1990 along with dog. GILBERT WYNTER – Enforcer who disappeared in 1998 is believed to be in foundations of the O2 Arena in South East London. NICK WHITING – Suspected “grass” stabbed nine times and then shot twice with a 9mm pistol in 1990. PAT TATE – Associate of Noye shot dead with two other men in Rettendon, Essex, in 1995. STEPHEN CAMERON – Stabbed to death by Kenneth Noye in 1996 road rage incident on the M25. LEAH BETTS – Died in 1995 aged 18 after taking ecstasy thought to have been imported using Brink’s-Mat money. DAN MORGAN – Ex-cop found dead in South London in 1987. DONALD URQUHART – Money launderer who was shot by a hitman in West London in 1995. GEORGE FRANCIS – Publican who handled gold, shot in Bermondsey in 2003.

JOHN MARSHALL – Associate of Noye shot in Sydenham, South London in 1996. DANNY ROFF – Gangster mown down in Bromley, Kent, in 1997. SIDNEY WINK – Gun dealer believed to have supplied the guns for the Brink’s-Mat raid committed suicide by shooting himself in 1994. ALAN DECABRAL – Witness due to give evidence against Noye ended up peppered with bullets in a car park in Ashford, Kent, in 2000. JOEY WILKINS – Vice king who grassed on Noye died mysteriously in 2007 after an apparent robbery on the Costa del Sol. ALAN ‘TAFFY’ HOLMES – Brink’s-Mat detective shot himself in 1987. MICHAEL OLYMBIOUS – Drug dealer ended up dead in 1995.

Please follow and like us: Posted on Kenneth Noye Kenneth James Noye (born 24 May 1947) is a British criminal who is serving a life sentence for the 1996 murder of Stephen Cameron in a road rage incident. Noye was involved in laundering the proceeds of the Brink’s-MAT robbery in 1983–4. While he was being investigated for his part in the robbery, he stabbed to death police officer John Fordham who was observing Noye from the grounds of his home. Noye was acquitted of murder on the grounds of self-defence, but was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 1986 for handling stolen gold. He was released from prison in 1994, having served eight years of his sentence. Just over a year later, in 1996, Noye became involved in an altercation with 21-year-old motorist Stephen Cameron on the M25 motorway during what was described at the time as a road rage incident, but which has also been suggested to have been a dispute over a drug deal, Cameron being a small-time drug dealer who owed Noye money.

However, it suited the purposes of both the prosecution and the defence not to mention this during the trial. During the fight, Noye stabbed and killed Cameron with a knife. Noye immediately fled the country, sparking a massive police hunt. In 1998 he was tracked down in Spain, and Cameron’s 17-year-old girlfriend Daniella Cable, who had witnessed the killing, was secretly flown out to positively identify him. Despite the obvious risks involved, she opted to testify against Noye, who at his trial in 2000 again pleaded self-defence. This time found guilty, he was convicted of murder and given a life sentence. Kenneth Noye, who was jailed for handling the Brink’s-Mat bullion, being arrested in Spain in 1998 over the ‘road-rage’ murder of Stephen Cameron Cable was given a new identity under the witness protection programme, having been praised by police for her courage in giving evidence in the presence of Noye and his associates. Another eyewitness, Alan Decabral, declined protection and was shot dead in his car in Ashford, Kent, on 5 October 2000.

However, police sources stated that he was himself involved in drug and gun-smuggling, and that his death was detrimental to Noye’s forthcoming appeal, which would have concentrated on discrediting him. Noye was a police informant for many years, and he was also a Freemason, a member of the Hammersmith Lodge in London. The trial judge at Noye’s trial for murder did not make any recommendation as to how long Noye should spend in prison, but the then Home Secretary David Blunkett set a minimum term before Noye may apply for parole of 16 years in 2002. In 2001 and again in 2004, Noye appealed unsuccessfully against his conviction. He was represented in 2001 by Michael Mansfield QC. In 2007 he challenged the Criminal Cases Review Commission’s decision not to refer his case to the Appeal Court as “legally flawed”.

On Friday 7 March 2008, Noye took another step toward a fresh legal challenge, when Lord Justice Richards and Mrs Justice Swift granted permission for a one-day judicial review hearing, covering the CCRC’s October 2006 decision not to send his case back to the court of appeal. On Friday 25 June 2010, Noye failed in a bid to have the minimum term he must serve for murder reduced. Mr Justice Simon, a High Court judge sitting at Newcastle Crown Court, ordered that he must spend at least 16 years in jail before he can be considered for parole. On 14 October 2010, Noye was granted a fresh appeal against his conviction for Stephen Cameron’s murder. This appeal was rejected on 22 March 2011. Please follow and like us: Posted on

Question: What is the name of the notorious villain who, in 1996, fled to Spain after killing a fellow motorist named Stephen Cameron following an altercation near the M25 motorway?
Answer: KENNETH NOYE