John Gotti is always put down becuse he supposedly loved the lime light.
Im here to tell you thats bull shit. The true reason Gotti lived on front street was because he wasnt afraid of prison, this fuckin guy was a true gangster. He just wasnt afraid of going away. Give the man some respect.

But it's not just himself that went away for life. He dragged down others without intention, without even becoming an informant. Those regular meeting of all the capos at the club under surveillance (refusing to come meant getting whacked), that helped the FBI to know the complete list of the high-ranking members of the whole family. That Gotti was boss, they could have discovered by themselves, but he basically delivered to them the list of the capos as well. And with him never talking in code, always in the same bugged room, this helped to get information about others too. I mean, to say "to kill" when talking about murders, instead of "solve the problem", "take care of" or whatever a lawyer can question the meaning of in court, this is just dumb. But again, if it was just about him, it would be one thing, but he brought under radar others too.

Joey Merlino in Philadelphia is similar to him, I am wondering how did he avoid ending up like Gotti so far....

He was an an o.g. He had balls. He didn't think of the big picture. Tell Frankie Loc your feelings.

With or without Gotti, all those guys would of went down. Gotti is somehow used as a scapegoat. Law enforcement just started using advanced technology and they all would of met the same fate.
Ask the top genovese, lucchese, colomobo, or bananno's if Gotti is the reason for their current conditions. Why you are at it, ask some gambimo's as well. That life is over.

He was a very shortsighted boss, forcing all his guys to turn down plea deals. His brother Gene might've been home fifteen years ago if John would've let him plea down.

John's mouth and ego pissed off Gravano so much it convinced him to flip. Maybe Sammy was so scared of the can he would've flipped anyway, but Gotti badmouthing him certainly helped push Sammy in that direction. Sammy certainly testified about the leadership of all of the five families too.

Merlino avoided wiretaps and none of his top guys betrayed him.

Advanced technology? They bugged the building Gotti held court in. Even in 1990 that wasn't advanced technology.

In terms of importance and power, merlino doesnt come close to gotti. Merlino is a big fish in a very small pond. Gotti controlled unions, complete industries, and many other rackets. Merlino is selling fake creams.

Not to get in a pissing match but Gotti was a scumbag career criminal gambling junkie murderous thug and egomaniac.

He died where he belonged.

That may be true but he was boss of the most powerful crime family in america at age 45.
Any of the other families could of tried to kill him, why didnt they???
With the exception of the car bomb on 86 street in 1986, thta was it. It wasnt because the other families were so smart and knew his in your face persona would eventually hang him. And it washt because gotti methodically conducting business in the open so there would always be media around and no one could whack him because of the media and cops always being around.. thats bullshit.
How did he stay boss for over 5 years??. Just luck??? No? He was feared and respected regardless of what most say. He had a tough and loyal crew.

Why is there all of a sudden new members who praise and look up to these criminals? And if you are gonna "praise" a gangster then john gotti wouldn't be a good choice. Yes he was tough and he didn't "rat" but he was the boss so there really was nobody to give up anyway. Lets be honest gotti was a moron. You can trace back his criminal career and he did a lot of stupid things in the life and got caught a lot of the time. The Mcbratney hit was a complete fuckup and if it wasn't for Carlo Gambino helping him out by getting him Roy Cohn he probably gets a long sentence. Also without Neil dellacroce gotti wouldn't have gotten far lets be fair. neil's biggest mistake in his career was helping gotti move through the ranks. Gotti's crew had to resort to drug dealing because he blew away of their profits on gambling. Obviously when he becme boss he acted like a movie star and continued to do stuid things that eventually got him arrested and brought the mob down. So to answer the original question.....No he wasn't overcriticized

You're giving Gotti too much credit. the reason other families didn't try to kill him after the car bombing of 86 was because they were smart enough to know that it would bring heat on them....they weren't scared of Gotti. Its common knowledge that gotti was terrified of Anthony Casso as well as Roy demeo(when he was alive) so basically gotti made peace with The Lucchese family and with the Chin in order to save his own ass

It probably would of taken the feds atleast another 10 years to bring down Locasio.He was a low key guy.Thats probably 10 extra years he could of enjoyed his life on the streets.There was absouloutly no point in Gotti discussing murders from 6 years before

I bet my mortgage that if Frank decicco was named boss instead when big paul got killed the Gambinos would have be strong for a while.

Was Gotti even in any business other than being a brain dead thug?

Did he even have a shy going? Not to trust gravano but he talks about him like he was basically a retard...

gottis crew was a muscle crew. They werent the big earners of the family.

Castellano was more a business man that a gangster but run good the family while Gotti in 4 years:
led the fed to know every 21 family capos;
made his dumb son and his more dumb brothers;
with the "no plea order" his brother gene and piney armone get long sentence (gene get 50 y while can had only 25 y);
his badmouthing convinced his underboss to flip;
In 1991 there was only 15 crew while in the 1986 was 21;
Made lose respect apponting his son as acting boss that for example dont burned a list of people to made,made lose money during meeting with more smart wiseguy ecc

At The end only in 2011 after Cefalù becomed the boss the family turned to the old sicilian way to made bussiness.

Fake creams? Is this serious?

Or like saying fake hats at the mall?

I agree with Aces in that the late 80's and 90's were the hardest time to be boss, without a doubt. LCN was the nr.1 priority for LE and had almost unlimited funding and budget, unlike pre 1980 and after 2001. Even the most secretive boss of them all, Chin Gigante, got caught in the end. So did almost every other boss in that era.

That being said, Gotti should have known better than to talk so loose, especially after barely getting away with it at two different occasions. Talking about those murders was totally unnecessary. His loose tongue was his greatest weakness imo, other than that he was a pretty good, Machiavellian-type boss and he probably would've done great if his reign was in the 30's, 40's or 50's.

I never paid attention to Gotti cos he was all over the news . It was like to much information.

So if he does not run his mouth up in that apartment he would have never got pinched ?

Maybe later on for something else, but because of his earlier acquittals the government had to have an almost ironclad case to indict him. So if he was very careful and delegated a lot, he could've gotten away with it.

Aside from the tapes and Gravano, did they have anything or anyone else to testify against him? He went to the apartment because he knew the ravenite was bugged. Wouldn't common sense tell you to be a little more precautious. Like everything else with these guys, who knows what it's like to be in their shoes. Maybe he had a mole that told him that they had only the ravenite bugs giving Gotti a sense of security.

Hey may have gotten away with it for a little while but it doesn't matter because he was such a moron anyway. Another thing was tat Gotti was a "blue collar mobster" which may have worked long ago but by the late 80's early 90's you needed to be able to understand white collar crimes too which gotti had no idea. Gravano handled all those type of rackets

It was no coincidence that those tapes were recorded in the winter. Normally Gotti went on walk-talks if he wanted to discuss something important, but the cold on those days was too uncomfortable for him I reckon. He also should've put a guard in the appartement when Mrs. Cirelli went on her vacation..

But at the end of the day it's like you said, it's easy to criticize the man but we never walked a mile in his shoes..

U might want to watch that Diane Sawyer interview again. Far from it.

"John was SMART! No doubt about it, John was smart".

Scarfo is loved on these boards yet he was another celeb gangster like Gotti. IF anything he wanted more attention. He would tell his guys to drop their weapons at scene of crime to send a message

He loved gangster movies and his face lit up with a smile when he saw photgraphers

He made his entire crime family attend his wild parties and the boat parties knowing full well the Feds were filming

Who on this board loves Scarfo? He's a fascinating character but I think everyone agrees his tenure as boss was ultimately a disaster. Also, he never liked talking to reporters. The only notoriety Scarfo sought was for his bloody nature, believing the publicity would make people fear him more (which they did).

I think it's pretty universally agreed on here that scarfo is one of the dumbest motherfuckers that ever lived. I've never even heard it argued.

That's so you don't get caught with the murder weapon.

Agreed. ive been coming on here for years and I have never seen people love Scarfo. Most call him a psychopath. John Gotti on the other hand gets A LOT of love for reasons that I don't understand