John Gotti | The Teflon Don | 3

It's December 16th, 1985, in midtown Manhattan.

A frigid breeze ruffles the awning outside Spark Steakhouse, one of the city's swankiest restaurants.

A little further down the street, a man in a trench coat and a fur hat loiters in the cold as a restless crowd drifts around him.

Vincent Artuso furrows his brow and checks his watch.

It's 5.30, they should be here by now.

He leans against a wall and shuffles his hand in his coat pocket.

As he closes a fist around his gun, his walkie talkie buzzes.

Finally, the target has arrived.

Vincent edges his way along the packed sidewalk towards the restaurant, trying not to draw anyone's attention.

Converging on the establishment from the opposite direction are three other men, also in trench coats and fur hats.

Vincent shares a tiny nod with them as a black Lincoln town car pulls up alongside the valet stand.

The passenger door opens and a pale hand holding a pair of leather gloves floats out.

Vincent rushes forward, drawing his gun from his pocket.

Paul Castellano, Don of the Gambino crime family, barely has time to register what's happening before Vincent squeezes the trigger.

But nothing happens, he just hears a dry click.

Paul's eyes widen behind his rosy glasses.

For a split second, he knows.

Then, shots ring out to Vincent's right and left as his comrades close in and start shooting.

A haze of bullets rains down on Paul and his right hand man, Thomas Bellotti, as panicked pedestrians scream and run down the street.

Paul and Thomas never stood a chance.

They're both struck by six bullets and likely die before they even hit the ground.

One of the most significant mafia hits of all time has begun and ended in a matter of seconds.

As the sound of gunfire is replaced by traffic once more, Vincent shoves his useless weapon back in his pocket and power walks down the street, careful not to run.

Running is conspicuous and right now Vincent needs to blend in.

He needs to disappear.

Vincent reaches the corner and turns one last time before he's lost in the crowd.

His part in the plot is over.

As Vincent disappears around the corner, another Lincoln slowly passes the chaotic crime scene out front of the steakhouse.

Inside the car, John Gotti and Sammy the Bull Gravano carefully survey the carnage.

In the passenger seat, Sammy sticks his head out the window to get a better look at the slaughter than turns to nod at his boss.

They're dead already.

No question.

John just smiles, rolls up the tinted windows and eases his Lincoln around the block.

He heads east on Second Avenue towards Brooklyn, melting into the traffic.

The car is silent as the gravity of the hit sinks in.

It's done.

In a single gutsy stroke, John Gotti has become the most powerful mafioso in New York.

From Airship, I'm Jeremy Schwartz, and this is American Criminal.

Just before Christmas in 1985, John Gotti executed a hit on the leader of the Gambino crime family, the largest mafia group in New York City.

Until that point, he'd spent more than 30 years taking orders from the guys above him in the hierarchy.

But now, that part of his life was over.

He'd already been a rising star in the Gambino family, and with Paul out of the picture, he was perfectly positioned to assume the throne and start calling all the shots.

After the assassination, no one in the mafia dared to stand against John Gotti, but the government was still determined to hold him to account.

They'd been trying to nail him on various charges for years.

Through an unprecedented surveillance campaign, the feds had gone after his trusted friends and associates.

Meanwhile, prosecutors had thrown every charge they could at John using the new RICO laws, hoping just one of them would stick.

But they could never make a strong enough connection between John and the actual crimes.

He always seemed one step ahead.

And now that he was mob royalty, the new Don was determined to hold on to power by any means necessary.

He had a small army of soldiers awaiting his orders, ready to manipulate the system and help him stay out of prison.

But while John Gotti might have been untouchable, the men who failed or betrayed him were another story entirely.

And anyone who disappointed John faced his swift, brutal wrath.

This is episode 3 in our four-part series on John Gotti, The Teflon Don.

It's January 17, 1986, a month after Paul Castellano's assassination.

John Gotti, age 46, arrives at the Bergen Hunting Fish Club in a brand-new Mercedes-Benz SEL.

At a $60,000 sticker price, it certainly wasn't cheap.

But it pays to be the boss.

John's given a hero's welcome inside the club, with men offering him drinks and flattery at every step on the short walk to his office.

It's not all fun and games, though.

His desk is practically invisible under a mountain of paperwork.

He's got a lot of catching up to do.

John assumed de facto control of the Gambino family practically before Paul's body was even cold.

Detectives investigating the killing feared such a major shakeup could lead to intramob warfare.

In the past, the murder of Adon had sparked revenge campaigns from captains and soldiers who remained loyal to their old boss.

This time, though, there was no immediate retaliation because Paul Castellano wasn't all that popular.

There weren't a lot of men in the family willing to put their lives on the line for Paul's memory, and no one in the wider criminal world was anxious to step in either.

The Gambinos are still the largest family in the mafia, and the smaller families didn't want to risk starting a war.

So, John enjoyed a peaceful Christmas with his family, and reportedly felt confident enough to walk the streets unarmed.

He'd taken a major gamble by gunning for Paul, but it looked like it had all paid off.

Just last night, January 16th, the family held an induction ceremony, where John Gotti became the official head of the Gambino family, the new godfather.

Now John has to get to work.

His men, along with some new advisors, give him a rundown of the family business.

John isn't the smartest guy, but he's no meathead either.

He listens carefully to the numbers being thrown around, trying to keep everything straight.

The mafia is like one big corporation.

At the top is the Don, who is entitled to a cut of the profits collected by everyone below him.

Day to day operations are run by captains who each control their own crews of up to 30 or so soldiers.

That means, broadly speaking, that there are two ways for John to make more money.

One is for the captains to set up more profitable jobs for their crews.

This brings in more money for everyone and eventually trickles up to the boss.

The second is for the Don to unilaterally decide to take a larger share of each captain's operation.

That would essentially mean a pay cut for everyone except the boss.

It's clear that Paul Castellano preferred the second strategy.

John can't believe it when he hears that Paul has been confiscating money from a mob wife's savings to compensate for her elderly husband's underperformance.

He puts a stop to those kinds of payments and makes several other revisions to show some financial mercy.

By the end of his changes, many of the guys lower down the ranks are making a bit more money.

Now, of course, it isn't just compassion driving John.

Although he seized power without any opposition, he knows that if he wants to keep it, then he'll need to win the loyalty of the rank and file.

He doesn't want any other upstarts following his example in gunning for the boss.

In his first few weeks in the top job, John does a lot of traveling around New York.

His new responsibilities mean he has to go to meeting after meeting, schmoozing gangsters of all stripes.

He pays regular visits to the social clubs that serve as gathering places for the crews that work under him.

And every morning, he stops by his old haunt Bergen for a shave and a haircut.

He works hard because he knows he's going to need as many people as possible in his corner in the coming months.

While it doesn't seem like his life is under threat, his freedom certainly is.

Along with most of the high-profile Gambino mobsters, John's facing major court battles.

The first is a racketeering charge, also known as a RICO case.

John's been indicted with his now deceased mentor, Neil de la Croche, and one of his confidants, Angelo Ruggero.

Soon after Paul's death, John arrives at the courthouse for a pretrial hearing.

He ascends the steps with his typical smile, sporting a gray double-breasted suit and a camel hair overcoat.

The press buzzes around him.

John Gotti used to be a little-known figure in the mob, but now he's rocketed to celebrity status.

And he loves the attention.

He grins as reporters snap his photo and shove microphones in his face.

Mobsters are notoriously tight-lipped and typically refuse to answer even innocuous questions.

Now John Gotti, when asked point-blank if he's the new head of the Gambino family, he smirks and replies, I'm the boss of my family, my wife and kids at home.

He makes a couple more cracks and then holds the door for a reporter, Mary Taylor.

As she passes by, he makes one final remark before disappearing inside the courtroom.

I was brought up to hold the door for ladies.

This kind of banter goes a long way towards shaping the public's first impressions of John Gotti.

And considering he's a known crime boss, it's a relatively good one.

Unlike his predecessors, John isn't afraid of the media or of standing out.

His lines are definitely corny, but they're not scary.

He always dressed in a suit like a gentleman.

And to a certain kind of person, his old-fashioned manners make him sound almost trustworthy.

On the whole, his shtick harkens back to another era of gangsters, which somehow feels gentler to the general public, more acceptable in its openness.

This initial court appearance kicks off a legendary love affair between John and the media.

He's a character, the kind of one that sells papers, which means editors want more John Gotti.

Luckily for them, it's not just the Rico charge that John is fighting.

Back in 1984, when John was still a capo, he and one of his goons, Frank Coletta, got in a tussle with a man outside a club.

The victim, Romual Pyschek, was leaning on his car horn because a double-park vehicle was blocking traffic.

Irritated by Romual's honking, John and Frank both hit him in the face through his open driver's side window.

Frank also grabbed $300 from Romual's pocket as punishment.

Unaware of John and Frank's mob connections, Romual reported the incident to police.

That was two years ago.

And now John's court date is finally coming up.

It's a petty case next to his larger racketeering trial, but that's part of the reason it gets so much attention.

John is now the don of the Gambino family, an important man.

To hear that he's stooped to robbing a guy for $300 makes him look pathetic.

Romual didn't know who he was messing with when he originally pressed charges, but he certainly does now.

And he thoroughly regrets his decision.

Anonymous callers phone him in the middle of the night and hang up without saying a word.

Someone even cuts the brakes on his van.

Terrified, he buys a gun to protect himself, but the tension is so much that his pregnant wife even temporarily moves out.

On February 24th, 1986, the trial is only a couple of days away.

A detective visits Romual at home to talk about the proceedings.

But it's all too much.

Romual tells the cop that he's no longer willing to testify against John Gotti.

In fact, he wants to go to court to defend John.

A few days later, Romual tells the press that he's on John's side.

He denies having received any death threats and says his brakes weren't cut after all.

On the day he's scheduled to appear in court, Romual is nowhere to be found.

Authorities track him down two days later in a hospital, where he's waiting on some elective surgery, hoping it'll get him out of testifying.

But the authorities don't want to let their victims' fear derail their case.

They want to nail John on this charge.

So a few days after that, Romual's finally forced into the witness chair, and he looks like a man on the verge of a breakdown.

He's thinner than usual, sweaty, and wearing dark glasses.

The court asks Romual to identify his assailants.

He casts a quick glance around the room, barely letting himself look at John and Frank, and says he doesn't see them.

When the prosecutor asks him to clarify, Romual states he no longer remembers the assault.

He can't describe the men who slapped him in the face and stole his money.

After that, there's nothing the prosecution can do.

John Gotti skates.

The result only raises John's profile further.

The press start calling him the Teflon Don, law enforcement compile charges on to him, but they can't get anything to stick.

John laughs his way out of the courthouse and throws a major celebration that night.

For the next couple of months, he's riding high, but he knows that this was just one hurdle.

Getting Romual to change his tune was easy, but his next case has a lot more moving parts and will be a much bigger challenge.

On April 7th, John's racketeering trial begins, and he wastes no time messing with the system once again.

After only a single day in court, John sends two men to intimidate a prospective witness, Dennis Quirk.

The men find a place that Dennis used to live and pose as detectives, asking around to find out his current address.

With that knowledge, they find Dennis and pull alongside him in traffic, make veiled threats, then speed off.

As a result of the incident, the judge agrees to keep the prosecution's witnesses secret until the day of their testimony.

The prosecutors also threaten to challenge John Gotti's bail if he doesn't stop tampering with the proceedings.

But it turns out that John doesn't have to lift a finger to make things harder for the courts.

His very public profile makes jury selection a frustrating process.

Many potential jurors have to be dismissed because they insist they can't keep an open mind about the case.

People are scared to be chosen, because despite his affable media persona, nobody wants to have anything to do with John Gotti or the Gambino family.

He might be a nice guy, but people have enough common sense to know that he's not someone you want to cross.

After only four months in the top job, John's influence is spreading out from the mob and the neighborhoods where he operates.

People are either in awe of him or afraid, but fear is fickle, and there are also plenty of people with reason to hate John Gotti.

Even if they're keeping their heads down for the moment, the danger is still out there, and John is about to get a painful reminder of that.

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It's April 13th, 1986, about two weeks into John Gotti's racketeering trial.

John's top underboss, Sammy the Bull Gravano, sips espresso at the Veterans and Friends Social Club in Brooklyn.

Next to him is Frank DiCicco, another underboss.

He's a big man in his 50s with a bulbous nose and thick jet black hair that curls when it isn't slicked back.

DiCicco is supposed to be meeting John at the club this afternoon for some business, but he gets a call with a change of plans.

The new boss is tied up, so he and another associate, Frank Bellino, are gonna have to pick John up in Manhattan.

Sammy finishes his coffee as DiCicco and Bellino make for the door around 1.30.

He watches the two men exit the club and leans back in his chair, grateful for a little time to himself.

But just seconds later, Sammy hears a massive explosion right outside.

It's so loud that he thinks an entire building has collapsed at first.

He rushes on to the street outside to find a two-foot crater where DiCicco's Buick was parked just moments ago.

Sammy rushes over to the carnage.

He can see DiCicco's unmoving form and he grabs a hold of his smoldering leg.

He tries to drag his friend away from the wreckage, but the leg he's pulling on detaches from the rest of DiCicco's remains.

Eyes wide with horror, Sammy drops it and runs back into the club to call John Gotti.

No one is sure why DiCicco and Bellino were killed or who might have planted the bomb.

In the days that follow, John starts walking around with tighter security, but he doesn't make any moves to sniff out and punish the killers.

Not with his court case on going.

There are too many eyes on him, and the bombing only attracts more attention to the trial.

Although John isn't making any moves to seek revenge, the authorities don't want him to even have the chance.

Citing concerns that there will be more violence if John stays free, the prosecution demands that his bail be revoked.

The judge agrees, and on May 13th, a month after the bombing, John is jailed.

It's an inconvenience, but this isn't John's first rodeo.

He continues calling the shots for the Gambino's from behind bars, and if anything, the safety of his cell gives him the confidence to be even bolder.

John orders Sammy Gravano to whack one of his underlings.

The target is Robert DiBernardo, or DB.

A capo who earns money for the family is a pornographer.

Sammy is shocked.

DB is a major money maker, which is typically the most important thing to a boss.

Not only that, but DB doesn't even have a crew of his own.

He runs his pornography operation all by himself.

That means it won't be easy to replace him in the business since he has no direct underlings.

It also means that DB poses no credible threat to the boss's power.

He doesn't have an army of guys at his beck and call.

He's a nobody.

Sammy wonders, why kill a guy that's earning you money and has absolutely no threat?

John says he's been gossiping, lobbing veiled insults at the higher ups.

Supposedly, he once implied that Angelo Ruggiero wasn't smart enough to be an underboss.

Apparently, running your mouth like that about John's friends is enough to get you killed no matter how much money you bring in.

Hearing all of this, Sammy is conflicted.

He doesn't have a problem with DB.

He worries John has gone off the deep end, but he doesn't really have any recourse.

What the boss says goes, that's how this works.

A few days after getting the order, Sammy calls DB down to his office on Stillwell Avenue for a meeting with a couple of other guys.

While DB makes small talk, Sammy asks one of the men to make them some coffee.

That's the signal.

The designated killer grabs a silenced pistol from behind the coffee machine, spins around and puts two bullets in the back of Robert DiBernardo's head.

It's all over in minutes.

Afterwards, Sammy and his crew clean up the mess, then go eat at Burger King.

Business as usual.

Another life snuffed out.

In the midst of all this violence, the judge in John's racketeering case decides that finding an impartial jury is currently impossible.

He delays the proceedings from May of 86 until the coming September, hoping things will simmer down some.

John's got to remain in jail in the interim.

Soon, the boss is joined behind bars by one of his most loyal friends, Angelo Ruggiero.

He'd been out on bail while facing his own racketeering charges, but he's got a temper, see?

In the courtroom, he openly threatened a US.

Marshal, which got his bail revoked real quick.

John's furious to see his friend jailed.

Angelo had been helping to run the family in John's absence, but now there's one less man on the street John can trust.

And he's already running short on confidants.

He recently learned that another close friend, Willie Boy Johnson, has been an FBI informant for years.

John can barely contain his rage, but decides to give Willie a pass, temporarily.

He's got plans for revenge against Willie, but he tells his old friend he can continue to live in peace with his family for now, as long as he stays far away from the mafia.

In the meantime, he focuses on dealing with Angelo.

Before his bail was revoked, John was thinking about promoting Angelo to underboss to fill the void left by the murder of Frank DiCicco.

But now, as punishment for getting himself thrown in jail, John elevates another Gambino captain in Angelo's place.

As far as mobster punishments go, it's light.

That might be partly because John's still unsure how things are going to shake out in the next few months.

Getting rid of Angelo now would just be short-sighted, especially with John's next court date looming.

At the end of September, John's racketeering trial finally resumes after another tense round of jury selection.

To protect the jury from any mafia interference, the prosecution suggests that they be sequestered for the duration of the trial.

But the judge refuses.

They don't want the jurors to have to live away from their homes and be guarded by federal marshals around the clock.

Instead, the judge allows them to come and go from the courthouse as usual, but orders their identities to be kept anonymous.

On September 25th, 46-year-old John struts into court wearing his typical double-breasted suit and takes his seat.

He listens as the prosecution explains the basics of organized crime to the jury.

Then the prosecutors lay out their case.

Despite John's attempts at intimidation, there's a small army of witnesses willing to testify about his connections to the mafia.

Mostly they're small-time Gambino associates, thieves and loan sharks who were never officially inducted into the family.

Not all of them perform well on the stand, but John knows he could be convicted even on a relatively weak case.

So he can't leave it up to chance.

On John's orders, Gambino associates start following jurors to their cars in the parking lot and writing down their license plate numbers.

They use the information to track down names and addresses, meaning the jury isn't so anonymous anymore.

That legwork pays off because it turns out that one of the jurors, George Pape, is friends with a Gambino mobster.

George offers to be a holdout.

He won't vote to convict for $60,000.

That's John's insurance policy.

To be convicted of racketeering, the prosecution requires a unanimous verdict.

So even if a single juror refuses to find John guilty, that's a hung jury and at best a mistrial.

Thanks to George, John is guaranteed to walk away from this round unscathed.

With the prosecution clueless that the process has already been corrupted, the trial continues for just over six months.

On March 6, 1987, the jury finally retires to begin deliberation.

A week later, they return with a verdict.

Not guilty.

The Teflon Don strikes again.

A free man for the first time in almost a year, John swaggers out of the court and gives punchy answers to the reporters swarming around him.

Over the next few weeks, he celebrates his victory by partying at nightclubs, drinking expensive cognac and flaunting his wealth.

Sometime after the verdict, his son gets married and John throws a lavish reception, which the media covers like a celebrity wedding.

All the showboating and fancy clothes earned John another nickname.

The Dapper Don.

Really though, he's the last Don left with his freedom intact.

While he managed to corrupt his racketeering case, the bosses of the other four New York crime families didn't have the same success in the courtroom.

The rest of them were convicted on RICO charges in late 1986 and locked up, making John Gotti one of a kind in New York City.

But while John scored a major victory, the federal government isn't giving up the fight.

And now that John's the last Don standing, he becomes their primary focus.

The FBI steps up its efforts to surveil him, wiretapping all his favorite clubs.

They also push on with their heroin trafficking case against a slew of John's men, including Angelo Ruggero, who still locked up after his bail was revoked.

John isn't a party to that suit, but the government hopes to cripple the Gambino family as a whole by keeping his closest confidants behind bars.

Unsurprisingly, the Mafia seeks to corrupt Angelo's jury the same way they did for John.

Gambino goons jot down license plates in the courthouse parking lot and from behind bars, Angelo employs private investigators to put names and addresses to the faces.

It doesn't take long for one of the jurors to accept a bribe.

By this time, the government knows that something funny is going on.

The court launches an investigation into the blatant jury tampering, which further complicates and delays the proceedings.

In late 1987, the judge declares a mistrial.

Months of work right down the drain.

Now they have to start all over.

The months wear on, as the prosecution repeats its arguments, and the mafia continues its efforts to rig the result.

Most of the case is based on wiretaps that recorded incriminating conversations in which Angelo discussed his heroin business.

That means everyone has to listen to hundreds of hours of garbled tape.

It's time-consuming and tedious, and it's not until June of 1988 that the second trial finally wraps up and the jurors begin deliberating.

It takes all of seven days for the panel to finally call it quits.

They send a note to the judge declaring themselves deadlocked.

Another hung jury means another mistrial.

No one is very happy about the declaration, not even the defendants.

By this point, Angelo Ruggiero has been in jail for over two years.

Faced with the prospect of another lengthy jury selection and argument, the judge allows Angelo out on bail.

He returns to his home in Long Island, a shell of his former self.

There, the 48-year-old is diagnosed with emphysema and diabetes.

These health problems, combined with his legal troubles, throw Angelo into a deep depression.

It only gets worse when he learns John Gotti is freezing him out.

John still hasn't forgiven Angelo for losing his temper and getting his bail revoked.

In fact, he only sours on Angelo as the mistrials prolong the heroin case.

John starts railing against Angelo and his drug business.

All these legal issues are costing the family money, and the increased FBI surveillance forces them to be especially careful when running any kind of operation.

His rant strike his friends is pretty hypocritical.

For years, John was funding his gambling addiction with profits from Angelo's heroin empire.

On top of that, it was the heroin case that got Paul Castellano in trouble and precipitated John's coup in the first place.

In other words, John Gotti is only boss of the Gambino family because of the heroin.

But aside from the hypocrisy, it's the intensity of John's hatred that surprises the people around him.

Angelo is one of his oldest friends, the godfather to his son, and someone who was stood by the family through thick and thin.

Yet on several occasions, John threatens to have him whacked, despite the fact that Angelo is sitting alone at home already dying of emphysema.

It's a cold, harsh wake up call for John's crew.

It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done for him in the past.

If you mess with John Gotti's money, you're dead.

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It's August 29th, 1988 in Brooklyn.

Willie Boy Johnson kisses his wife goodbye and breezes onto the streets outside his plush home.

He smiles in the morning sun and twirls his keys as he walks to the curb.

For the past couple of years, Willie has countered himself among the luckiest men in New York.

During John Gotti's racketeering case, the prosecution outed him as an FBI informant.

Anyone else who betrayed the Gambino family like that would have been murdered immediately.

But because Willie had grown up with John and hadn't told the FBI absolutely everything he knew, John decided to give him a pass.

He banned Willie from associating with the Mafia, but promised he could keep his life.

Willie didn't believe John at first, but the Don has stayed true to his word for more than two years.

Now it's been so long that Willie's no longer anxious walking around outside.

He's got a job in construction and has put his life of crime behind him.

He doesn't feel the need to look left and right before turning every corner.

He doesn't even carry a gun anymore.

So on that late summer morning in 1988, Willie has no idea he's being watched.

He walks out of his house and heads to his car, a new black Mercury.

As he nears the vehicle, two men come out of nowhere and start shooting.

Their first shots miss and Willie books it down the block, but he doesn't get far.

His attackers chase him and continue firing.

He's hit six times in the back, head, and thighs.

Willie falls onto the sidewalk and bleeds out in a matter of seconds.

Behind him, his assailants jump into a getaway car and squeal down the block, tossing spikes out their window to puncture the tires of any cars that might follow them.

Turns out John Gotti's not so forgiving after all.

The tabloids pick up the story of the hit and implicate John and Willie's death, but as usual, there's no evidence tying him to the crime.

It doesn't take long for the news cycle to move on, focusing the public eye back on the never-ending mafia heroin trials.

But the third attempt at connecting John's men to the drug trade begins in April 1989.

By this point, Angelo Ruggiero is too sick to come to court.

Even if he's found guilty, it's not likely he'll make it to sentencing, so the government severs him from the case.

Some of the other defendants are also split off to face their charge at a later date.

So, this trial is a smaller one.

Still, it's just as important to some of John's most trusted men.

Once again, they do their best to tamper with the jury.

They frame one of the jurors by falsely accusing him of trying to sell his verdict.

This gets the man thrown off the case and replaced by an alternate, who actually has accepted a $25,000 bribe to be a holdout.

That would be more than $60,000 today.

It's a clever scheme, in theory, but it turns out their inside man can't take the pressure.

When it comes time to deliberate, he gets cold feet.

Without mentioning the bribe, the alternate tells the judge he's afraid for his family's safety.

He ends up being cut from the panel.

Without a guaranteed holdout, the remaining jurors only deliberate for three hours.

It's a speedy verdict for what's become the longest running federal prosecution in history.

And it's not the one John Gotti wants to hear.

Guilty.

It's taken three trials in just as many years, but the government has finally gotten their drug trafficking convictions against the Gambino family.

The judge hands down a harsh prison sentence for the men.

They won't even be eligible for parole until they've served 20 years.

John reacts to the news with fury.

He scolds his remaining guys for failing to fix the trial.

He doesn't care about the men who'll spend the next two decades behind bars.

He only cares about how this will affect him.

These are some of the Gambino's best guys, and they're out of commission.

It's a disaster.

The solid structure that's made the family the most powerful in New York is crumbling around him.

He has to get things back on track.

To reassert control over the fractured family, John institutes a new rule.

All his men have to report to him weekly out of one of his clubs, the Ravenite.

Trouble is, the Ravenite is smack in the heart of little Italy, which has Soho on one side and Chinatown on the other.

Parking is hard to come by, and throngs of tourists swarm the area at all hours.

In other words, the Ravenite is a horrible place to hold secret meetings.

All the crowds provide ample cover for anyone who wants to, say, run a surveillance operation.

And John's decision to make the meetings regular, predictable and weekly just gives the authorities a reliable date and time to listen in.

It's an unusual and amateurish move for someone who's been working for the Mafia since he was a kid.

Some of John's men even tell him so, not that it makes a difference to him.

He won't be told.

He never could be.

So while John clings to his pride, the FBI keeps an eye on his weekly meetings.

They watch who's coming and going, how many men go in and out every day, and they realize that the Gambino family is even bigger than they suspected.

And that's very good news.

Because from their standpoint, this is a numbers game.

The more men they can definitively connect to the mob, the more likely they'll be able to turn someone into a government witness.

And that's the sort of thing that could finally bring down the Teflon Don.

While the Federal Bureau bolsters their dossiers, state prosecutors have continued coming at John Gotti any way they can.

In the fall of 1988, a small-time gangster named James McElroy is facing a raft of criminal charges, including murder.

Eager for a way out, he tells the police that he has inside information on a ton of local criminals, including John Gotti.

Unlike everyone else, he's not afraid to testify in exchange for immunity.

The issue is that James isn't an ideal witness.

He's violent, erratic and into drugs.

The authorities get the feeling that he'll say anything to save himself.

But they're desperate to take down the Teflon Don, so they listen to what he has to say.

A lot of it would be useless in a court, but there's one particular story that does have legs.

According to James, back in 86, John Gotti ordered his crew to assault a local union leader, John F.

O'Connor.

This type of thing is business as usual for the Mafia.

Organized crime plays both sides in labor disputes, depending on who's paying them.

One week they might ally with the union to extort business leaders by threatening to organize a strike.

The next, they'll take a check from those same businesses to intimidate a union into backing down.

In this case, what makes James' testimony valuable is that it lines up with information the police already have.

In May of 1986, a group of criminals descended on John O'Connor's office and shot the place to hell.

O'Connor survived the attack, but refused to press charges or answer any questions from the police.

Since then, the authorities have been trying and failing to connect John Gotti to the shooting.

Now, thanks to James McElroy, they finally have the missing pieces of their puzzle.

It's not exactly a major case.

At best, they might be able to get John for assault in connection to the shooting.

But because of his criminal record, he could face a severe sentence for even a relatively minor crime.

Remember back in the 1970s, John was arrested several times?

He was convicted of hijacking twice, and attempted manslaughter once.

That's three strikes.

Which means the state considers him a predicate felon.

In short, instead of 5 to 10 years in prison, John could face 25 to life if he's found guilty of assault.

One tiny conviction could be the straw that breaks the camel's back and puts the Teflon Don away for good.

But John Gotti still has a few tricks up his sleeve.

He's not going down without a fight.

From Airship, this is episode 3 in our series on John Gotti.

On the next episode, John faces another criminal case that puts his status as the Teflon Don to the test and leads to his fall from grace.

If you'd like to learn more about John Gotti, we recommend Mob Star, The Story of John Gotti by Gene Mustaine and Jerry Capecchi, Gotti's Boys, The Mafia Crew That Killed for John Gotti by Anthony M.

DiStefano, as well as Reporting in the New York Times.

This episode contains reenactments and dramatized details.

And while in most cases, we can't know exactly what was said, all our dramatizations are based on historical research.

American Criminal is hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Jeremy Schwartz.

Audio editing by Mohammed Shazi.

Sound design by Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrum.

This episode is written and researched by Terrell Wells.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive producers are Joel Callan, William Simpson and Lindsey Graham.