01x04 - Don't Go Rogue

[bunniefuu]

[narrator] This playbook has shown you

how to harness your mob boss energy,

grow your bottom line,

and obliterate everyone

who threatens your rule.

[g*ns firing]

It's a classic for a reason,

but not all mob bosses

pay attention to its lessons.

I want to tell you about someone

who thought he knew better.

His name, John Gotti.

John Gotti flipped

the playbook on its head.

You don't talk.

You don't strut yourself around.

[narrator] During his tumultuous

six-year reign

over New York's Gambino crime family,

Gotti blew off the playbook at every turn,

leading to an endless series

of arrests and betrayal

that brought him

and his entire organization to ruin.

John Gotti destroyed the Mafia.

You can't operate like John

and expect to survive. You just can't.

[narrator] Ready to learn what not to do

on your mob boss journey?

The Dapper Don is at your service.

[theme music playing]

In his prime,

John Gotti was the most recognizable

mob boss in the world.

[Gotti] You'll never see another guy

like me if you live to be 5,000.

[narrator] But by following

his own impulses

instead of the playbook's wisdom,

he blew his chance at greatness,

lost the respect of his peers,

and ended up dying behind bars.

There's a lot of guys

who look up to John Gotti,

the way he dressed, the way he acted,

because they're not mob guys.

The real story is

it's the worst thing you could ever do.

[narrator] Before we get into

the bad choices Gotti made at the top,

let's give him his due

for making it there in the first place.

Here's how he pulled it off.

[George] John Gotti was a thug.

His attributes

only worked well in organized crime.

So he gravitated toward the one business

where what he was good at

would have a payoff,

and then he started

to work his way up the ladder.

[man] The leaders of the Gambino family

were very much impressed

by the young John Gotti.

He was making money for them.

He had the reputation

for being violent because he was,

and, by all accounts,

Gotti was a raconteur.

He was somebody who had charisma.

He was somebody

that had leadership qualities.

[George] Aniello Dellacroce, who was

the underboss of the Gambino family,

became a mentor for Gotti.

Dellacroce came up from the streets.

It was somebody

that Gotti could look up to.

Dellacroce taught Gotti

you got to be tough, you gotta be strong,

and you don't take any guff from anybody.

This is not about diplomacy.

This is about an iron fist.

[siren wailing]

[narrator] In 1973,

boss Carlo Gambino's nephew is kidnapped.

The main suspect,

Irish-American gangster Jimmy McBratney.

[Ed] People in the Gambino

crime family decided

that the people responsible

for the kidnapping should be dealt with.

Gotti was given

the task of k*lling Jimmy McBratney.

[g*nsh*t]

So Gotti ends up

pleading out the manslaughter,

and I think doing four years.

When he comes back,

you know, he's a stand-up guy.

He's been involved in a m*rder,

and so now he can get made.

[narrator] Gotti was now a made man,

a fully initiated member of the Mafia,

but he wanted to be a boss,

and his plan for getting there

had him run afoul

of the playbook from the opening g*n.

No matter what organization

you're looking to lead,

you have to respect its structure.

That's especially true

with the Italian Mafia,

also known as Cosa Nostra.

[Sammy] You live by Cosa Nostra's rules.

It's not your thing.

It's not my thing.

It's our thing, as a family.

[narrator] And in this family,

everybody needs to know their place.

In Cosa Nostra, there's a pecking order.

[man] At the top, you have your boss.

Under the boss, you have your underboss.

Then you have your consigliere,

which is basically the advisor

or the counselor.

Then you have your captains.

That's sort of your mid-level managers.

And then you have your soldiers.

Those are the made guys.

Beyond that, you have associates.

They're not made members of the group,

but they're people

who work with and contribute to the mob.

[George] And if everybody buys into that,

the organization

will probably function fairly smoothly.

[narrator] But when you're

a street fighter like John Gotti,

working your way into upper management,

it can be hard to just blend in.

He just wanted it the way he wanted it.

By his rules only,

and nobody else's rules mattered to him.

- [siren wailing]

- [g*n firing]

[Ed] In the mid-1980s,

Paul Castellano

was the boss of the Gambino family.

His faction was sort of

the white-collar faction of the family.

They made their money

through committing fraud crimes.

They used labor unions,

and they used sophisticated means,

less violent means.

[narrator] Gotti's relationship

with the top boss was complicated

by more than just artistic differences.

Castellano put out an edict, "No drugs."

Anybody deals drugs is gonna get k*lled.

[g*nsh*t, g*ns firing]

[narrator] As a loyal captain,

you should always make sure

your boss's commands are followed.

But Gotti wasn't that loyal.

[George] Gotti's brother Gene

and Angelo Ruggiero, Gotti's good friend,

get jammed up in a heroin case.

[narrator] Not a good look.

[George] Gotti decides,

"I got to do a preemptive strike."

"If I don't take this guy out, he'll take

my brother and my best friend out."

"Maybe he's gonna take me out."

[narrator] When it comes

to targeting mob royalty,

you can't just act alone,

and Cosa Nostra

has some particularly strict rules.

In the American Mafia,

you can't k*ll a fully initiated

or made guy in your family

without getting permission from your boss.

You can't whack

a made guy in another family

without getting permission from your boss

and the boss of the other family.

And if you want to clip

your own boss, good luck.

You need approval from the Commission.

Basically, the Mafia board of directors.

The rules were clear.

John Gotti needed to make his case

through the proper channels,

but he decided otherwise.

He said, "Do it. f*ck it."

We knew we couldn't get permission

from this thing.

Bosses want to protect each other

in the Commission,

so we formed this alliance

which we called The Fist.

So, there was five of us,

and there was nobody saying no.

It was just a time and a place.

[narrator] It's the height of the holiday

shopping season in Midtown Manhattan.

And John Gotti and Sammy Gravano

are awaiting their prey,

Paul Castellano

and his underboss, Tommy Bilotti.

Sammy scored a tip

that Gambino higher-ups

were meeting at five o'clock

at Sparks Steakhouse.

And I said, "This is perfect."

We know the restaurant.

We know what time.

We can make it happen.

I had told John, "They're a little late."

"I wonder what's going on."

As I said that,

four feet, five feet away from me,

was their car stopped at the light.

I told John they're right next to us.

[narrator] But luckily,

their targets are distracted.

They give Gotti's

conspicuously-dressed hitmen the word.

Castellano is approaching.

And as the boss's car

pulls up to the valet,

the assassins execute Gotti's plan.

[ominous music playing]

[music crescendos]

[g*nsh*t]

And it couldn't have been a better plan.

[crowd screaming]

No legitimate people were hurt.

There was hundreds of people

who saw this, was witnesses.

[screaming continues]

"What did they look like?"

They didn't know.

All they saw was those hats,

the jackets, and people getting shot.

[siren wailing]

[narrator] Within days,

John Gotti's power play bears fruit.

He's named the new boss

of the Gambino family.

So, what's the problem?

He absolutely knew

what he was doing was against the rules.

There's no doubt about it.

[narrator] And this unsanctioned hit

puts a huge target on John Gotti's back.

The very next day, he's out there.

He's just, "I'm the king now."

[Michael] You know, m*rder brings heat.

Doesn't only bring heat to you.

It brings heat to everybody.

[narrator] When the temperature

gets too hot,

our trusty playbook

has just the trick to cool things down,

which, naturally, Gotti would ignore

big time.

As a mob boss,

the spotlight is not your friend.

[Elie] Smart mobsters

don't want attention on themselves

from law enforcement,

from the media, from the public.

They know

that what they're doing is ill*gal,

and attention can only hurt

their bottom-line goal,

which is to make money.

[narrator] Let me show you how it's done.

Florida mob boss Santo Trafficante Junior

earned the nickname "The Silent Don"

for his low-key lifestyle,

despite being a big enough player

in both the US and Cuba

that he was allegedly enlisted by the CIA

to k*ll Fidel Castro.

Sicilian mob boss Bernardo Provenzano

managed to evade capture

for nearly 40 years

by avoiding phone calls

and all electronic communication.

He would task his lieutenants

by sending messages on small

folded pieces of paper called pizzini.

While Genovese crime boss

Vincent "the Chin" Gigante

deflected attention from his activities

by feigning dementia for 30 years,

shuffling around Greenwich Village

in a bathrobe

while muttering to himself

and nearby parking meters.

After the Castellano m*rder,

Gotti had good reason to lay low.

[John] It blasted John Gotti

all over the media

that the people that didn't know him

outside the local areas of New York,

they all knew who John Gotti was now.

[narrator] But instead of following

the playbook and going underground,

Gotti decided to do the opposite.

[Sammy] But John Gotti decided,

"I have to present myself as a boss now."

So his whole demeanor changed.

His wardrobe changed,

and his attitude changed.

[narrator] Within months, Gotti's profile

was going to be raised even higher

by his first of three public trials.

This one was a blast from the past.

A year before he becomes the boss,

John Gotti is just another Gambino captain

looking to blow off steam

at the family's favorite bar

when his good time is interrupted.

- [indistinct chatter]

- [horn honks]

[honking]

Refrigerator repairman Romual Piecyk

is boxed in and livid.

Not knowing who he's dealing with,

he asks the wise guys

to get out of his way.

They decline

[grunts, screams]

and make sure

the fridge guy knows that he got off easy.

Piecyk runs off straight to the police.

This was a nonsense as*ault.

It was almost street thuggery.

[narrator] But with Gotti

publicly flaunting his mob boss status,

the authorities were eager

to take him down

whether Mr. Piecyk likes it or not.

[Ed] All he had to do

was open up the paper and see

that the leader of the most notorious

and violent organized crime family

in the country

was the subject of his complaint.

[narrator] As prosecutors

refine their case,

the new mob boss makes sure

Piecyk and his family

also get some extra attention.

[John] Gotti wasn't sending out

orders to hurt this guy.

He was just trying to make him go away.

[narrator] Inside the packed courtroom,

Gotti and his attorneys

wait for the proceedings to begin,

but Piecyk doesn't show.

He has scheduled elective surgery.

It only delays the inevitable.

[gavel knocking]

But when Piecyk finally takes the stand,

he can't seem to remember a thing.

If I did go stand there and say

that this is Mr. Gotti

and this is Mr. Colletta,

they assaulted me and robbed me

I'm not sure.

[narrator] The judge throws out the case,

leading to even more headlines

about Gotti's great escape.

True to form,

Gotti took all the wrong lessons

from his brush with justice.

[George] That was an example of,

"Hey, this celebrity stuff

can really work to my advantage."

"Look at this guy."

"I didn't even have to do anything."

He forgot.

[narrator] But when you continue

setting the playbook on fire,

don't expect to get off that easy.

[Lou] If you're gonna be out there

and be flashy,

you're going to embarrass law enforcement.

So now we're gonna double down.

[narrator] Even so,

you can still get back on side

with the playbook by using your head

and making sure it doesn't get too big.

Throughout history,

excessive pride or hubris

has been the downfall

of many powerful figures.

[woman] One thing that can happen

when somebody develops

this hubris is they make mistakes.

Because they are operating

under this false belief

that nothing can touch me.

[narrator] And by the mid-1980s,

John Gotti was getting

ever closer to the sun

whether he knew it or not.

[Ed] John Gotti was

an egotistical narcissist

who appeared to revel in the attention

that he was getting from the press

and from the public.

And the more he got, the more he wanted.

[newscaster] He's called the Dapper Don.

[newscaster 2] The Dapper Don.

[newscaster 3]

The so-called Dapper Don, John Gotti.

Whoever named him the Dapper Don

should have came down and talked to him.

The reporter. He would've paid

that guy $100,000 for that label.

He loved those labels.

I mean, you couldn't make that stuff up.

[John] He'd get his hair done

on a regular basis,

so he'd have

one of the barbers come over to the club,

and they'd cut his hair

and shake as they're cutting.

He's got very good taste.

He likes his hair extremely perfect.

[Ellie] He operated

in front of the cameras.

He made himself into a celebrity,

into a "front page of the tabloid" figure.

[narrator] But Gotti's uncontrolled ego

quickly got him into even worse trouble.

[Ed] Gotti moved his headquarters

from the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club

in Queens to the Ravenite,

and this was the ancestral home

of the Gambino crime family

in Little Italy, in Lower Manhattan.

It was a move up the ladder, clearly.

You know, it's Manhattan now.

You're not out in Queens.

Now you're in the city.

Guys had to come there

to meet with Gotti on a regular basis.

The FBI's outside taking pictures.

[camera shutters clicking]

Is that good? That's not good.

He put the whole Mafia on Front Street.

A secret brotherhood.

[narrator] How do you think

that went with the heads

of the other Mafia families?

They were appalled that Gotti was

carrying himself in this flamboyant way,

bringing all this attention

upon himself and the family.

[narrator] And they were going

to do something about it

by borrowing a technique

from their criminal cousins

across the pond.

The Commission hired

Sicilian mobsters to have Gotti k*lled.

A car b*mb exploded today

not in the Middle East,

but in a quiet neighborhood of Brooklyn.

[narrator] But things didn't go

according to plan.

The Sicilian mobsters botched it.

[newscaster] One man was k*lled,

the 58-year-old Frank DeCicco

described as a lieutenant to John Gotti.

They put a b*mb in the wrong car.

[narrator] Were it not

for a little operator error,

Gotti's ego would have cost him his life.

You may not be so lucky.

But the Dapper Don's string

of good fortune was about to hit a snag.

For a studious mob boss,

a stay in the big house

can be just a temporary inconvenience.

But then you'll have to do better

at adhering to the playbook

than John Gotti.

There comes a time

in every mob boss's career

when you will have to work remotely.

To be in this life,

you have to be willing to go to prison,

because at some point,

you're gonna get caught.

[narrator] So make sure your time

in government custody is productive.

[Elie] Whenever a mob boss goes to prison,

they do their best to continue running

the show from behind bars.

But the struggle is to keep the money

coming in to keep control of this family

when you don't have

your individual liberty.

[narrator] These jailhouse operators

didn't miss a step.

During his time in prison,

Pablo Escobar continued running

all aspects of his criminal operation.

And when he discovered

that his phone calls were being monitored,

he started using carrier pigeons instead.

While serving 26 life sentences,

Salvatore Riina successfully ordered

the kidnapping of a 13-year-old boy

to prevent his father

from revealing Mafia secrets.

When the plan failed,

he had the boy k*lled

and his body dissolved in acid.

And to continue

running his operation behind bars,

Sinaloa Cartel leader,

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman,

put most of the prison system

on his payroll.

Friendly guards

also helped him smuggle in cash,

prostit*tes,

Viagra,

and the latest movies

to make his stay more pleasant.

The Piecyk as*ault case

was in the rearview mirror,

but John Gotti was now in jail

awaiting his second trial.

This time on federal RICO charges.

RICO is the worst law

they ever put on the books.

It's Racketeering Influenced

and Corrupt Organizations Act,

and it's an all-encompassing law.

It's very hard to defend.

[narrator] Excuses are for losers.

You still have a business to run.

That will take a firm hand

and impeccable judgment.

Wise guys

aren't the best people in the world.

A lot of people have their own agendas.

When someone has the boss's ear,

they could bring them anything,

and that's a problem.

[narrator] To stay connected in prison,

Gotti relies

on a small group of lieutenants.

His most trusted messenger

is Angelo "Quack Quack" Ruggiero,

known for his duck-like waddle

and big mouth.

Angelo comes to Gotti with urgent news

that another capo,

Robert "DiB" DiBernardo,

the undisputed porn king

of the underworld,

has been talking smack about the boss.

[Sammy] You'd have to be

a complete imbecile

to be talking about a boss

behind his back.

He's got the ultimate power

over your life, whether you live or die.

[narrator] Gotti has heard enough.

DiB needs to be rubbed out.

Back at home, Quack Quack calls

Sammy Gravano to relay the order.

Sammy invites DiB to his office

to discuss construction projects.

Once DiB arrives, Sammy asks an associate

to get their guest a cup of coffee.

It's a signal.

And thus, the demise

of the porn king comes prematurely.

While normally mob hits

are taken in stride,

this one is different.

[Michael] It's a hit that shouldn't

have been ordered. DiB's a good guy.

He made a lot of money,

and he was doing well,

and he was well-liked.

Why's this guy getting k*lled?

What did he do?

[narrator] Later, Sammy Gravano

would find the likely answer.

Angelo, before he makes up this story

about DiB talking behind John's back,

had borrowed 250,000 from him.

When he gets hit,

he just wipes that debt out.

He never talked behind John's back.

The whole hit completely turned me off.

He was a good friend.

[Michael] You know,

that's a treacherous life.

Dissension is created, uh,

and mistrust is created

when something like that happens.

Now, your own men are questioning that

and worried about themselves.

You know? What, am I next?

[narrator] That's what happens

when you take your eye off the ball.

You get a crew full of K*llers

doubting your leadership.

And yet,

Gotti's worst mistake is still to come,

failing to follow the playbook's

most basic commandment of all.

The code in the American Mafia is silence.

Don't talk about

a m*rder that's committed.

Don't talk on your phones.

Don't talk indoors.

Don't talk in your car.

Everything's about

keeping your mouth shut.

[shushes]

[narrator] The Mafia calls

this code Omerta.

[Micheal] When you take

the oath of Omerta,

you're taking an oath to never admit

that the life ever exists

and to never betray the life.

That's the oath.

I tell ya I don't know anything about

For a mafioso to break Omerta

is tantamount to betraying your family,

everything you know, everything you love.

[narrator] But as for John Gotti,

he was never great

at keeping his thoughts to himself,

even while standing trial

on his RICO case.

He goes into the court the next day.

He's smug. He's smiling. He's waving.

He knows he ain't going to jail

on this case.

[John] He starts setting odds.

"I'll bet you three to one,

I beat this case or that case,"

knowing we're getting to the jurors.

[narrator] Well, he was right.

[newscaster] The man they say is the boss

of the nation's most powerful Mafia family

was today found not guilty

of racketeering and conspiracy.

[narrator] With each acquittal,

the Teflon Don's legend grew even larger.

He starts inviting people

to come to his trials. Movie stars.

It brings more notoriety to him.

It legitimizes him.

And it's getting turned around

on the government

that John Gotti is an innocent guy

that works for a plumbing company.

And they don't like him

because he's in the public's eye.

[Renee] The government was jealous of him

because he was winning.

A vendetta's a vendetta.

Doesn't matter where it comes from.

It comes from the good side,

it comes from the bad side,

at the end of the day,

they're gonna get your a*s.

[narrator] Sounds like a great time

to quiet things down,

but then he wouldn't be John Gotti,

would he?

[Ed] Gotti was talking very freely

with countless members,

leaders of the Gambino crime family,

about their criminal activities.

He was talking about the structure

of Cosa Nostra, past hits,

guys that he was contemplating hitting.

The FBI is able to bug an apartment

where Gotti would have meetings.

He assumed the apartment was safe,

and it wasn't.

[Ed] If he just stopped

and used common sense,

he would say,

"I'm running a real risk here."

"I am gonna bring myself down."

"And I'm going to bring

the entire family down."

[Gotti] Anytime you got a partner

who don't agree with us, we k*ll him.

You go to the boss,

and the boss kills 'em.

You tell this punk, I, me, John Gotti,

will sever your [bleep] head off.

You [bleep].

[narrator] Thanks to extensive wiretaps

and other surveillance,

the FBI and federal prosecutors

gather enough evidence

to indict John Gotti, Sammy the Bull,

and consigliere Frank LoCascio

on RICO charges.

Now, they just need to wrap them up.

On December 11th, 1990,

agents spot Gotti, Gravano,

and other Gambino soldiers

arriving for a meeting at the Ravenite.

They swarm in expecting a fight,

but instead receive a cordial welcome.

Gotti's not worried.

He's the Teflon Don after all.

After enjoying a delightful beverage,

Gotti takes his leave.

He's sure he'll be back soon,

until an agent tells him,

"You shouldn't have talked so much

in that woman's apartment."

[Sammy] It must have dawned on him

he was in deep sh*t.

He knew he f*cked up big time.

[narrator] Having now defied

the Mafia's most sacred code,

Gotti's loose lips

will lead to one last karmic twist.

[Ed] John Gotti was being critical

of Gravano on wiretaps.

He was concerned Gravano was taking up

too much power for himself,

too much authority, asserting himself

in a way that was more substantial

than Gotti liked.

Gravano saw this

as Gotti being a dry snitch.

He wasn't ratting on him,

but in case somebody was listening,

he was ratting on him.

You don't have to call John Gotti a rat,

but that's a f*cking rat move.

I was brokenhearted.

We were attached at the hip.

We went into a w*r, took over a family.

People were k*lled.

I k*lled people for you.

I rigged cases for you.

I said, "f*ck the Mafia. f*ck John Gotti."

And I reached out

to the government to change sides.

My allegiance

wasn't going to be to him or the Mafia.

To me, the code was gone.

It was gone. It was over.

[narrator] Thanks to Sammy's testimony,

John Gotti finally paid the price

for rejecting the playbook

and going rogue.

[newscaster] The feds finally did it.

They took down America's

most notorious Mafia boss since Al Capone.

Charges of m*rder, gambling,

and racketeering finally stuck

to the flashy, flamboyant John Gotti.

[narrator] In the end, Gotti did achieve

the attention he always wanted.

He was the best guy around.

[woman] What about the people he m*rder*d?

- What m*rder?

- They say he m*rder*d

[Lou] I think John Gotti represented

people's frustrations with the government.

How the government's

always nickel-and-diming you,

and John Gotti's fighting the government.

[narrator] But the Dapper Don's reward

for doing things his way

was a reign that lasted just six years

and a lonely death

in prison from throat cancer.

Basically, Gotti was an example

of how not to be a mob boss.

[Sammy] If you want fame,

go become a f*cking actor

or whatever you want to be,

but don't be a mob boss.

[siren wailing]

[narrator] Now that you've seen

the wrong path to building

an enduring criminal career,

let's refocus

our attention on the right one.

Our next chapter will show

how with unfailing discipline

and the right priorities,

you can preserve your power

and your freedom for the long haul.

Nobody tackled

this challenge as creatively

as Boston's most legendary mob boss,

Whitey Bulger,

whose ruthless attention to detail

charted his path to infamy

and then pulled

a disappearing act for the ages.

[theme music playing]