Death of a Don
John Gotti succumbed to cancer on June 10, 2002, at the age of sixty-one. The Associated Press eulogized him as follows: “John Gotti, who swaggered, schemed, and murdered his way to the pinnacle of organized crime in America only to be toppled by secret FBI tapes and a turncoat mobster's testimony, died at a prison hospital Monday while serving a life sentence.”
Sammy the Bull has made it back into the news in recent years. Living in Arizona as “Jimmy Moran,” he became involved in trafficking the popular drug known as ecstasy. He was arrested along with his wife, son, daughter, and son-in-law. A real family affair.
John Gotti delivered his own obituary right before he was sent to jail. It is naturally more colorful and more hubris-laden than the press reports that covered his death. The Dapper Don was nothing if not full of himself. “I'll always be one of kind. You'll never see another guy like me if you live to be 5,000.” And as his hearse wound its way through Queens, thousands of people were there to witness his last drive through town.
