Crime syndicate heir follows in father's footsteps
John Gotti, the son of a New York crime boss, has been charged with multiple offences including the attempted murder of Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels.
Gotti, also known as Junior, is scheduled to be released from prison in September after serving a five year sentence for racketeering.
He was charged in the new indictment along with three other alleged Gambino organised crime family members whose identities were not immediately released.
Charges against the four include murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, extortion and illegal gambling.
If convicted, Gotti could face 130 years in prison.
It was not immediately clear which attack on Sliwa the indictment referred to. In April 1992, police said he was attacked by three bat-wielding young men, leaving him with a broken hand and an injured scalp. Two months later, he was shot twice while in a cab.
The elder Gotti, known as the Teflon Don, was convicted of murder and racketeering in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison. He died of throat cancer in a prison hospital in 2002.
Sliwa founded the Guardian Angels in 1979, gaining renown and aggravating officialdom with the group’s citizen arrests on underground trains and its flair for self-promotion. Sliwa acknowledged years ago that he had manufactured some of his most dramatic early exploits. He is also a radio personality in New York.
