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249

John Gotti

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
John Gotti

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Auction Date:2011 Oct 12 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Organized crime boss (born 1940) who became a major media celebrity. After an extensive operation that cost $75 million, Gotti, who had repeatedly eluded the law, was convicted of murder and racketeering in 1992. As a repeat offender, he was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole and sent to federal prison in Marion, Illinois, where he died in 2002. ALS signed “Johnny,” five pages, 8.5 x 11, no date [postmarked July 29, 2000]. Gotti writes Rebecca Farish from the US Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. In part: “I feel great! I received all the ‘items of interest’ and memorabilia along with the law books and newspaper article. Thank you. Getting to the article first, the reporter is—as most of them—pawns for their editors, who in turn print only the governments [sic] slants on these sorts of things. I don’t want to get into the case too much as I’ve been advised not to. Much as I would like to, ‘the McBratney Case,’ was and is both a joke and farce—and there is not doubt their [sic] is no doubt the reporter knows nothing about the entire case as it was strictly a ‘gambling case’ and the McBratney Counts thrown in for window dressing, and you can tell him yes he is innocent.

As for the jury being bribed, anyone attending the trial including every reporter said and knew I wouldn’t be found Guilty! Also there were 12 jurors and 6 alternates who got in touch with [attorney] Bruce Cutler—as they were anonymous—after the case was over invited him to a party, something they did for three years in a row. Some even went on television saying the Governments [sic] were wrong to even bring the indictments. You can’t bribe 18 folks! As I said earlier I don’t want to get into the case—But like this reporter…you can tell him he is in the minority where it concerns me or my case. Ask him to just walk the streets of New York. Not to mention World Wide mail.

In closing this part of my letter, I’d like to include a passage by Thomas Jefferson that he made while addressing Congress June 11th, 1807. ‘Perhaps every Editor might begin a reformation in some such way as this. Divide his paper into four Chapters, heading the 1st truths. 2nd Probabilities. The 3rd, Possibilities, and 4th, Lies. The 1st Chapter would be very short.’” Gotti concludes by describing his prison surroundings. In part: “It’s that time of year again, when the heat and humidity—this place is built on a swamp—keep the cells like saunas. There is no A.C. And so writing becomes almost impossible as there isn’t any furniture in the cell, I have to rest a pad on my knee and write with a two inch flexible rubber pen. I am not complaining, just letting you know why I may not write often enough.” In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope on which Gotti has penned “Gotti 18261-053.”

This correspondence is as fascinating as it is lengthy. Across each page, Gotti exerts the bravado that helped keep him at the top of the New York underworld for years. “’The McBratney Case,’ was and is both a joke and farce...it was strictly a ‘gambling case’ and the McBratney Counts thrown in for window dressing,” Gotti writes, referencing the murder of James McBratney, a member of a gang that specialized in robbing and kidnapping bookmakers and loan sharks—a murder in which Gotti allegedly had a major role. His involvement was a pivotal part of his 1986 trial mentioned here. Further on in the letter, he defends his attorney, Bruce Cutler, against accusations that he had tampered with a jury. “You can’t bribe 18 folks!,” Gotti boastfully writes. He was, of course correct...as it purportedly only took one $60,000 bribe of a jury foreman in one case to avert a successful prosecution. Following several unsuccessful prosecutions, Gotti became known as the ‘Teflon Don’ because criminal charges against him never stuck and he always seemed to outwit the criminal justice system. By 1990, however, the FBI had collected damaging evidence against Gotti through an extensive eavesdropping operation, and in 1992 he was sentenced to life in prison.
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