Gene Gotti - Family Rise

Family Rise

Gene became a made man in 1976, working with his brother John in his South Ozone Park crew.

By the early 1980's, Gene Gotti was running a large illegal drug operation along with Gambino mobsters Charles Carneglia and Angelo Ruggiero, under the direction of then capo John Gotti. However, boss Paul Castellano had expressively forbidden the drug trade in the Gambino family and was incensed over this act of defiance.

However, in 1985, John Gotti arranged Castellano's assassination and took over as boss. In either 1985 or 1986, John appointed Gene as the replacement Capo for the South Ozone Park crew. According to testimony by Gambino underboss Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano, Gene was involved in several mob murders. He has never been charged with any of these murders.

To his brother John's eternal fury, Gene was an amazingly skilled gambler. Gene loved to tell John how he triumphed on a nine-to-one odds at the horse track while John would lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in one weekend betting football, horse racing, and college basketball. According to an inside joke at the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club, "John couldn't win a bet on the color of his own underwear."

On March 13, 1987, Gene Gotti and brother John, were acquitted on federal racketeering charges involving illegal gambling, murder and other charges..