How Did John Gotti Die? The Crime Boss’ Funeral Had 19 Limos Just For Flowers
He was one of the biggest crime bosses of the 20th century and a larger-than-life character, but the story of how John Gotti died is strangely pedestrian—even if it was behind bars. Also known as “The Teflon Don” and the “Dapper Don,” Gotti was a notorious American mobster and head of the Gambino crime family.
He was born on October 27, 1940, in the South Bronx, New York City—the fifth of 13 children—and grew up in a life entrenched in organized crime. He became involved in criminal activities as a teenager and eventually rose through the ranks, gaining notoriety for his involvement in gambling, loan sharking, narcotics, and other racketeering activities. His ascent within the mafia was swift—by organizing a hit on Paul “Big Paulie” Castellano—and by the late 1980s, he was one of the most powerful men in New York.
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Gotti’s life and his rule over the Gambino crime family have been the subject of numerous books, movies, and television shows, contributing to his enduring legacy in popular culture as one of the most iconic figures in American mafia history.
In the Netflix series released in October 2023, Got Gotti documents his rise and fall as the head of the Gambino crime family. The synopsis of the series is as follows: “It’s 1985 and John Gotti is the most powerful man in New York; he’s also the most surveilled. His public execution of ‘Boss of Bosses’ Paul Castellano sets in motion a series of events that catapults the young mobster to the helm of America’s most powerful mafia family.
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As the tentacles of Gotti’s criminal enterprise extend deep into the heart of the city, law enforcement, and state prosecutors scramble for their chance to bring the charismatic Godfather to his knees. From the creators of ‘Fear City,’ this three-part series for Netflix chronicles Gotti’s meteoric rise and crashing fall – all told from the very mouths of those who brought him down.” But how John Gotti died is… sort of boring for the life he lived before going to prison.
How did John Gotti die?
John Gotti died in a prison hospital in Missouri on June 10, 2002, while serving a life sentence for multiple charges, including murder, racketeering, and other organized crime-related activities. The mob boss’s health had been deteriorating in the years leading up to his death. In 1998, he was diagnosed with throat cancer and while it was treated, it returned and in 2002, he died in a federal prison hospital.
In the news report of his death, the Washington Post observed: “Gotti became the face of organized crime in a way no one had since Al Capone in 1920s Chicago. Like Capone, Gotti loved nightlife, enjoyed dining in expensive restaurants and mingling with sports and entertainment celebrities. He made his nightly rounds in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes-Benz,” they wrote in 2002. “Gotti gained fame and a degree of public admiration despite the fact that he did little to hide a vicious and murderous side. After all, fear is good for discipline. Federal wiretaps recorded hours of Gotti’s rantings to associates about the need to kill various people.”
Known for his charismatic persona and his penchant for snappy dressing—including hand-painted ties and coordinating pocket squares from the designer Brioni—Gotti quickly became a tabloid sensation (even though a spokesperson for the brand told the New York Times that Gotti had never been in their store).
“These guys craft an image,” said Fred Martens, former director of the Pennsylvania Organized Crime Commission,” said in the piece, published in 2002. “You have to remember that symbols are especially important to a man who is doing filthy, repulsive stuff on a daily basis but can fool the community with a clean-as-the-driven-snow façade.”
Facilitating the murder of Castellano would be the act that put Gotti on top, but it was also ultimately his demise. Having placed hidden recording devices in Gotti’s Ravenite social club, federal agents captured audio of his discussions and meetings, which they later used against him. On December 11, 1990, the FBI arrested Gotti and fellow Gambino members, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano and Frank Locascio on multiple charges.
Gotti himself was charged with five murders, including the slayings of Castellano and his close associate Thomas Bilotti, as well as with racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder, illegal gambling, bribery, tax evasion, obstruction of justice and loan sharking. Gotti had previously earned the nickname “Teflon Don,” because he was acquitted in three different, consecutive criminal trials between 1986 and 1990.
These final charges stuck, however. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury took only a day and a half to decide Gotti’s guilt. In 1992, the mob boss was sentenced life in prison on the racketeering and murder counts, with concurrent maximum 10-year sentences on the other counts. He was also fined $250,000. Several years into his sentence, Gotti developed throat cancer and died a decade into his sentence.
At his funeral, the New York Times reported that “it was a pageant of pomp and excess. Nineteen flower cars, 22 black limousines, hundreds of private cars — and at least four news helicopters—wended through, and above, the Howard Beach and Ozone Park sections of Queens to St. John’s Cemetery in Middle Village. Clusters of admirers in jeans and T-shirts stood along the route holding candles, as scores more waited on the manicured lawns outside the Resurrection Mausoleum as Mr. Gotti’s burnished bronze coffin was carried in through a sea of hefty, bull-necked men.
“We all loved him; he was the greatest,” JoyceAnn Dominico, a former hospital worker told the paper at the time. “He was kind to all of us.” An onlooker questioned: “Why is it that a gangster is so elevated with a funeral like this? It’s like the movement of the kingdom. Does this make any sense?”
Got Gotti is streaming now on Netflix.
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