Peter Gotti, the older brother of Gambino crime family boss John “Dapper Don” Gotti and himself a former acting boss of the family, died of natural causes on February 25, 2021, at age 81 while incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina. He had served more than 17 years of a combined federal sentence of roughly 300 months stemming from two separate racketeering convictions, and had been denied compassionate release twice in the final years of his life.1NBC News. Gambino Crime Family’s Elder Gotti, Peter, Dies in Prison2CBS News. Peter Gotti Dead: Brother of Gambino Crime Boss Dies in Prison
Where He Died and Why He Wasn’t Released
Gotti spent his final years at FMC Butner, the Bureau of Prisons’ medical facility in North Carolina. Court filings in the last stretch of his life described a long list of serious conditions: heart disease, kidney disease, blindness in one eye, early onset dementia, gout, an enlarged prostate, borderline anemia, and what his attorney called a likely cancerous growth in at least one lung.3New York Post. Gambino Boss Peter Gotti Wants Compassionate Prison Release
In late June 2019, his attorney James Craven filed a motion for compassionate release in Manhattan federal court under the First Step Act of 2018. The motion cited 22 medical ailments and a renunciation of Gotti’s criminal lifestyle, including a stated wish to “help others not make the life mistakes he made.” He asked to live under probation supervision at his daughter’s home in Howard Beach, Queens.4USA Today. Peter Gotti, Gambino Crime Family, Seeks Compassionate Release From Prison
Manhattan Federal Judge Colleen McMahon denied the request in January 2020, ruling that Gotti remained a “threat to society” because even if he would not personally commit violence, he still had the power to order others to do so. His lawyers tried again later that year, pointing to the risk of COVID-19 at Butner. McMahon rejected the second motion in December 2020, writing: “What I said a year ago remains true today. Nothing has changed since last January — not even the threat of COVID19 — to cause this court to alter its earlier decision.”5New York Daily News. Gambino Mob Boss Peter Gotti Loses Second Bid for Compassionate Release He died roughly two months later.
What He Was in Prison For
Gotti was serving the stacked sentences of two separate federal cases. His projected release date was May 2032.6New York Daily News. No Change of Address for Peter Gotti
The Brooklyn Waterfront Case
On June 4, 2002, federal authorities arrested Gotti and 16 others in a 68-count indictment that prosecutors described as a “crushing blow to Mafia infiltration of unions and businesses along New York City’s waterfront.”7CBS News. Gambino Crime Family Figures Charged8Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Prosecutors: 17 Alleged Gambinos Are Indicted The charges alleged that under his direction, the Gambinos had used threats to seize control of Brooklyn and Staten Island chapters of the International Longshoremen’s Association, extorted waterfront businesses, rigged union elections, and steered a lucrative pharmaceutical benefits contract to a company co-owned by a Gambino associate.9U.S. Department of Justice. Civil RICO Complaint
After a ten-week trial in Brooklyn federal court, a jury convicted Gotti on March 17, 2003, of racketeering, conspiracy, and multiple counts of money laundering, acquitting him on two additional money-laundering counts.10QNS. Peter Gotti Found Guilty After 10-Week Jury Trial On April 15, 2004, Judge Frederic Block sentenced him to nine years and four months.11The New York Times. Gambino Crime Boss or Not, Peter Gotti Gets 9-Year Term
The Plot to Kill Sammy Gravano
Even before the waterfront conviction, Gotti faced a second federal case in Manhattan. Prosecutors alleged that between October 1999 and May 2000, he ordered the killing of Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, the former Gambino underboss whose cooperation had helped put John Gotti away in 1992.12CBS News. Peter Gotti Accused in Mob Plot13New York Post. Peter Gave Order: Hit Man Says Gotti Put Out Bull Contract14SILive. Gambino Boss Peter Gotti Dead; Infamously Put $70K Hit on Sammy the Bull Gravano
On December 22, 2004, a Manhattan federal jury convicted Gotti of racketeering, conspiring to murder Gravano, and extorting construction contractors. He received a 25-year sentence, ordered to run consecutively after the Brooklyn term.15The New York Times. Peter Gotti Is Found Guilty in Murder and Racket Case
How He Became Acting Boss
Peter Gotti was not an obvious candidate to run the Gambinos. Before taking the top role, he had worked as a sanitation worker and was considered a low-profile figure within the organization. The job came to him through the legal destruction of those ahead of him: his younger brother John was convicted in 1992 of racketeering and murder and sentenced to life, and John’s son, John “Junior” Gotti, was later convicted of bribery and extortion.16CNN. Gotti Sentencing With the leadership depleted, Peter stepped in as acting boss around 1999 and held the position until his 2002 arrest.17New York Post. Peter Gotti, Former Gambino Crime Boss, Dead at 81
His tenure was not considered successful. Lewis Kasman, a longtime Gotti family associate who later cooperated with the FBI, called Peter a “regular knockaround guy” who was “trying to do his brother’s bidding” but was ill-suited for the job. Kasman said other families took advantage of him, with the Luccheses in particular “walking all over him,” and many Gambino captains were unhappy with his leadership.1NBC News. Gambino Crime Family’s Elder Gotti, Peter, Dies in Prison
John Gotti had died in prison of cancer in June 2002, nearly two decades before Peter. Between the two brothers and the convictions of Junior Gotti, Richard V. Gotti, and Richard G. Gotti, the federal government’s prosecutions had sent an entire generation of the family to prison by the time Peter died at Butner.2CBS News. Peter Gotti Dead: Brother of Gambino Crime Boss Dies in Prison