John Gotti

Former New York mob boss John Gotti, who is terminally ill with throat cancer, was rushed from his prison cell to a hospital, a longtime family friend said. Gotti was in stable condition at an undisclosed hospital in Springfield, friend Lewis Kasman said. Gotti was transferred after some of his lesions began bleeding, Kasman said. Diane Smith, spokeswoman for the federal prison, said she could not comment on the situation, citing privacy laws.

A reputed Gambino crime family captain has admitted that he ran a multimillion-dollar gambling ring, one of a slate of charges against a man authorities say helped run the once-powerful mob empire. Nicholas "Little Nicky" Corozzo, 68, pleaded guilty in state court to enterprise corruption, the Queens district attorney's office said. He still faces murder, extortion, money laundering and bookmaking charges in a federal case. Authorities say Corozzo was a Gambino insider close to infamous boss John Gotti.

With his condition still a closely held secret, former New York crime boss John Gotti was expected to remain in a hospital for several weeks, one of his lawyers said. Gotti, in the advanced stages of throat cancer, was being treated in the intensive care unit at St. John's Regional Health Center in Springfield. Gotti had been imprisoned in Marion, Ill., but has not left the hospital since Sept. 13. Gotti was sentenced to life in prison for murder by a federal jury in 1992.

Victoria Gotti, daughter of the late convicted mob boss John Gotti, has been sued by HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide for failing to complete a memoir about her life or return a $70,000 advance. Gotti, 45, a former columnist for the New York Post and sister of accused gangster John A. "Junior" Gotti, starred in the reality television show "Growing Up Gotti," about her life with her three sons, which was broadcast on the A&E Television Network. HarperCollins said in its complaint filed this week in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan that Gotti promised to deliver a completed memoir to the publishers by Nov. 1, 2005.

On the night Big Paulie got whacked, John Gotti became a star. It was 5:25 p.m. on Dec. 16, 1985, and a long black Lincoln nosed its way through rush-hour traffic in mid-town Manhattan, halting in front of Sparks Steak House. Paul Castellano, the beefy, big-jowled boss of the Gambino crime family, lumbered out of the car and headed inside for a T-bone dinner. But he never made it to the first course.

Hair styled by regular visits to the barber shop at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, creases sharp in his $1,800 suit, silk necktie carefully chosen to coordinate, John Gotti once again is center stage at a high-stakes, high-visibility trial with more than a touch of Hollywood. After winning acquittal three times, the reputed head of the nation's largest organized crime family is the chief attraction in a Brooklyn courtroom.

Lawyer Bruce Cutler is ticked off. For one thing, he figures he's the subject of a federal investigation. For another, his former client, convicted Mafia leader John Gotti, is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Then there's the problem of his current client, Thomas Gionis, who has just gone on trial for a second time for allegedly ordering the beating of his ex-wife and her boyfriend.

When John Gotti gets mad, Jerry Capeci gets a wake-up call. "Why don't you punch him (Capeci) in the (expletive) mouth?" the New York crime boss fumed during a wiretapped conversation played at his current murder trial. "Make an appointment, I'll punch him in the (expletive) mouth for you, that rat (expletive)." In the long and bloody saga of the "Dapper Don," there are many corpses. Wise guys who crossed the belligerent Gotti and paid the ultimate price.

He was a killer, an arrogant crime boss who inspired fear. But when John Gotti was buried Saturday in an elaborate mob funeral, many New Yorkers hailed him as a hero--a man who had been true to his code. Under drizzling skies, Gotti's gray hearse rolled past his favorite neighborhood haunts and his home in Howard Beach, Queens, before reaching the gates of St. John's Cemetery, where he was laid to rest in a family mausoleum next to his son Frank.

The custom-made black Brioni suit, the elegant, hand-painted silk tie, handkerchief, and Gucci loafers were all part of his image. He looked more like a movie star than a man accused of racketeering and extortion. --From "I'll Be Watching You," by Victoria Gotti * The gentleman described above is, technically speaking, Dimitri Constantinos, a casino developer. He is framed by ambitious, corrupt prosecutors, poor soul, and by villainous turncoats in his own family.

Bruce Cutler planned to maul the prosecution. The acclaimed New York defense lawyer expected to fight like an escaped animal from the Bronx Zoo to keep legendary record producer Phil Spector out of prison, as he had done three times for the late mob boss John Gotti. But for the last four weeks, Cutler has sat silently as other attorneys took on Spector's murder defense. Instead of a courtroom predator, Cutler has been like an expensive statue adorning the defense table.

As a New York lawyer best known for defending the boss of the Gambino crime family, Bruce Cutler is used to brash clients and bold words. So it was really no surprise that he opened Phil Spector's local murder trial alternately bellowing against police officers with "murder on their mind" and offering a polite thanks to the jury for making him "feel at home in a strange, new and different place."

A federal grand jury charged John "Junior" Gotti with committing a series of mob-related crimes in the last year, despite his claims that he quit organized crime years ago. The new accusations come as prosecutors prepare for the July 5 start of Gotti's third trial on racketeering charges. Juries deadlocked at two previous trials.

A judge in New York warned John A. "Junior" Gotti that his lawyer had a conflict of interest, but the son of late mob boss John Gotti said he was happy with his representation in an upcoming racketeering retrial. Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin said lawyer Charles Carnesi might give Gotti biased advice because he also represented a co-defendant. Gotti shrugged off the potential conflict.

After six years behind bars, the son of late mob boss John Gotti left his prison cell and was driven to his mansion on Long Island's Gold Coast, where he'll remain under house arrest pending a retrial in a racketeering case. John A. "Junior" Gotti, 41, was released from a federal lockup in Manhattan on $7-million bond and then went to his estate in Oyster Bay Cove, said his lawyer, Jeffrey Litchman.

John A. "Junior" Gotti went on trial on kidnapping, extortion and fraud charges, with a prosecutor saying he ordered the 1992 kidnapping of a radio host to silence him for his harsh attacks on the Gotti family. As a bespectacled Gotti, 40, sat emotionless, federal prosecutor Victor Hou accused him of taking over the street leadership of the Gambino crime family during the 1990s after his father, John Gotti, was sentenced to life in prison.

I pointed to my trigger finger. He pinched it. Blood came out. . . . He said honor the oath, that if I divulge any of the secrets of this organization that my soul should burn. --Salvatore Gravano, on his Mafia initiation Call him Sammy the Bull's-Eye. Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano is getting out of prison this spring and joining the Witness Protection Program with a new name, a new hometown and a mob-ordered bounty--reportedly worth up to $1 million--on his head.

Federal prosecutors kicked off a case against seven alleged mobsters -- three of them relatives of the late convicted crime boss John Gotti -- accusing them of rigging contracts, shaking down businesses and controlling unions. On trial are Peter Gotti, reputed head of the Gambino crime family and John Gotti's older brother, younger brother Richard V. Gotti, nephew Richard G. Gotti and four others, all charged with racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and loan-sharking.

The older brother of late mob boss John Gotti was sentenced to 25 years in prison in New York after being convicted of conspiring to kill mob informant Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano. Peter Gotti, 66, was also found guilty in December's trial on racketeering and extortion charges included in the federal court sentencing. He will not start the 25-year sentence until he finishes a nine-year prison term he began in 2002 for money laundering and racketeering.

Investigators found the remains of two people at a vacant lot apparently used for years as a graveyard for people ordered killed by the late mob boss John Gotti and other gangsters, authorities said. Searchers recovered bones, a partial jaw and personal items that led investigators to believe they had the remains of Bonanno crime family captains Philip Giaccone and Dominick Trinchera, law enforcement officials said.