Philomena Gotti | Mob-family matriarch, 96
Philomena Gotti, 96, whose brood of 13 children included Gambino crime-family kingpin John Gotti and four other sons with mob ties, has died.
Philomena Gotti, 96, whose brood of 13 children included Gambino crime-family kingpin John Gotti and four other sons with mob ties, has died.
She died Tuesday at her Long Island home, said Charles Carnesi, a lawyer for her grandson John "Junior" Gotti. Her death came a day before Junior Gotti was to answer federal racketeering charges in Tampa, Fla.
Philomena Gotti, known as Fanny, was born near Naples, Italy, where she married John J. Gotti Sr. They moved to the United States in the 1920s. Her husband died in 1992.
John Gotti, their fifth child and father of Junior Gotti, earned notoriety as the Teflon Don for scheming and murdering his way to the top of the Gambino family in the mid-1980s but repeatedly winning acquittals.
He was finally convicted on federal racketeering charges in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison. He died in 2002.
Four other sons also chose criminal careers; three are serving prison terms, the fourth is awaiting sentencing.
She never saw any of her sons in court. - AP