The Gotti Wars: Taking Down America's Most Notorious Mobster

The Gotti Wars: Taking Down America's Most Notorious Mobster

by John Gleeson
The Gotti Wars: Taking Down America's Most Notorious Mobster

The Gotti Wars: Taking Down America's Most Notorious Mobster

by John Gleeson

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Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

There are few topics in true crime that fans are drawn to more than “the mob.” Gotti Wars is a detailed and authoritative work on that very organization, as well as one of the most notorious of contemporary mob figures: John Gotti.

“Riveting…an electrifying true crime story of the Mafia-smitten eighties and nineties. Suspenseful and multifaceted, The Gotti Wars can’t be missed.” —Esquire, The Best Nonfiction Books of the Year

A “meticulous chronicle of good triumphing over evil” (The Washington Post) from the determined young prosecutor who, in two of America’s most celebrated trials, managed to convict famed mob boss John Gotti—and ultimately took down the Mafia altogether.

John Gotti was without a doubt the flashiest and most feared Mafioso in American history. He became the boss of the Gambino Crime Family in spectacular fashion—with the brazen and very public murder of Paul Castellano in front of Sparks Steakhouse in midtown Manhattan in 1985. Not one to stay below law enforcement’s radar, Gotti instead became the first celebrity crime boss. His penchant for eye-catching apparel earned him the nickname “The Dapper Don;” his ability to beat criminal charges led to another: “The Teflon Don.”

This is the captivating story of Gotti’s meteoric rise to power and his equally dramatic downfall. Every step of the way, Gotti’s legal adversary—John Gleeson, an Assistant US Attorney in Brooklyn—was watching. When Gotti finally faced two federal racketeering prosecutions, Gleeson prosecuted both. As the junior lawyer in the first case—a bitter seven-month battle that ended in Gotti’s acquittal—Gleeson found himself in Gotti’s crosshairs, falsely accused of serious crimes by a defense witness Gotti intimidated into committing perjury.

Five years later, Gleeson was in charge of the second racketeering investigation and trial. Armed with the FBI’s secret recordings of Gotti’s conversations with his underboss and consigliere in the apartment above Gotti’s Little Italy hangout, Gleeson indicted all three. He “flipped” underboss Sammy the Bull Gravano, killer of nineteen men, who became history’s highest-ranking mob turncoat—resulting in Gotti’s murder conviction. Gleeson ended not just Gotti’s reign, but eventually that of the entire mob.

A spellbinding, page-turning courtroom drama, The Gotti Wars “tells us in electrifying detail how the good guys finally won, how justice triumphed over evil, and how Gleeson himself was transformed by his long war” (Nelson DeMille).

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781982186944
Publisher: Scribner
Publication date: 05/03/2022
Sold by: SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format: eBook
Pages: 368
Sales rank: 211,889
File size: 13 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

John Gleeson, currently a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, has had distinguished careers as a federal prosecutor, federal judge, and practicing defense attorney. He was lead counsel in the successful racketeering-murder trials of John Gotti and Vic Orena, respectively the bosses of the Gambino and Colombo crime families, for which he received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award. As a United States District Judge in Brooklyn, he presided over more than 200 civil and criminal jury trials. Gleeson currently teaches at New York University School of Law, Harvard Law School, and Yale Law School. He lives in New York City with his family.

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters ix

Author's Note xiii

Prologue: Sparks 1

Part 1 The First Case

1 "This Thing of Ours" 5

2 The Lure of Crime 9

3 Cravath 15

4 Baptism by Fire 21

5 Willie Boy 29

6 Wiseguyspeak 37

7 The Cast 47

8 Into the Spotlight 57

9 False Start 67

10 Take Two 73

11 The Grind 81

12 Words in Court 85

13 Traynor 97

Part 2 The Interlude

14 Hanna 107

15 The Ruggiero Bug Cases 115

16 Ddroy 125

17 Mike Coiro 131

18 The Bug of All Bugs 141

Part 3 The Second Case

19 The Motherlode 155

20 The Team 163

21 Turf War 171

22 The Arrests 181

23 Mary Jo 191

24 Brace's Crucible 201

25 Lawyering Up 209

26 The Overture 217

27 "You're Still Going to Need a Body" 229

28 The Flip 237

29 The Reveal 247

30 Bosko's Juror 255

31 Angelo's Lie 265

32 The Pressure Builds 273

33 "Christ-Killer" 281

34 A Different Show of Force 291

35 "By Gosh, Tommy Bilotti Is Dead" 297

36 Summations 305

37 Little Vic; George Pape 317

38 The Superstar 325

Epilogue 331

Acknowledgments 333

Index 335

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