Hapless Junior Gotti Arrested, Again

August 5, 2008— -- John Gotti Jr., whom a jury three times failed to convict on charges of attempting to kidnap New York's colorful radio personality Curtis Sliwa, was arrested early this morning on federal racketeering and murder conspiracy charges, according to a federal indictment unsealed in Tampa, Fla.

The hapless son of the now deceased dapper don, Junior Gotti, 44, was arrested at his home in posh Oyster Bay, New York, on conspiracy charges that tied him to three New York area mob murders, and a major Gambino Crime Family drug dealing operation, according to that indictment.

One of the murders Junior is charged with was the 1990 hit on mobster Louis DiBono, which the elder Gotti, who in 2002 died of cancer at age 61 while serving life in prison, admitted to at trial. DiBono was found slumped down in his Cadillac, four bullets in his head and three in his body, inside a parking garage at the World Trade Center.

That hit that has gone down in mob lore because of the rationale for it offered by the former head of the Gambino crime family.

"He didn't rob nothin'. You know why he's dying? He's gonna die because he refused to come in when I called. He didn't do nothing else wrong, " the elder Gotti said in a conversation recorded by a federal eavesdropping device.

In addition to the murders, federal prosecutors who brought the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) indictment allege that they have linked Junior Gotti to a former Gambino drug ring that operated in New York, New Jersey and Florida. The indictment also states that Gotti acted at times as the de facto head of the crime family, communicating on mob matters with his incarcerated father.

Following his arrest at about 6 a.m. Gotti was handcuffed and brought to the FBI offices in Melville, New York, where he was fingerprinted and photographed. He was then transported to the federal court house on Pearl St. in Manhattan.

The government has three times sought to prosecute Gotti for the kidnapping of New York personality Curtis Sliwa.In September 2005, a six-week federal trial ended when a divided jury failed to reach verdicts on three charges — kidnapping, racketeering and extortion and conspiracy — and voted not guilty on a fourth charge of securities fraud. In March 2006, a retrial on the three unresolved charges ended in a mistrial.In September 2006, prosecutors made a third attempt, but a six-week trial ended when jurors again failed to reach a verdict, although they said they believed Gotti to be guilty of organizing the kidnapping of Sliwa. During each of those trials Junior Gotti said he had renounced the mob.