Junior Gotti 60 Minutes Interview

John “Junior” Gotti sat down for an lengthy interview on 60 Minutes with newsman Steve Kroft about his life on the streets , his father , and his time behind bars. The interview will be aired on Sunday on CBS at 7 p.m. in full check your local listings for exact channel. Gotti goes into detail on various in depth parts of his life and the up and downs of growing up Gotti.
Junior gotti tells about the first time he learned exactly who his father John Gotti Sr really was a real life Mafia boss. He was 14 years old and at the military school he attended in 1979 and his and some of his friends were watching a tv program. The tv show goes on to say this man is a captain in the Gambino crime family and it was Gotti , Junior said he was mortified while watching. He said he was quietly watching and not saying anything and then some of his fellow cadets turned and looked at him putting together the same last name and wanted to know was he actually the son of the notorious Dapper Don. Junior said many of the guys found it to be pretty cool while at same time some of them were likely a little intimidated. They had a lot of questions Junior said that were mixed with some fear and some adoration like “Does your father kill people? ” or “Does your father beat people up?” to which Junior responded “Not around the house”.
Junior also goes into detail about what he called the proudest moment of his life when he was officially “made” into the Gambino crime family. The day Junior officially became a mobster he said he felt like he was slowly becoming like his father. Gotti Jr said the day he was “made” he could tell his father John Sr. was very happy and proud , he said he thought his dad was as proud as any other father would be if his son made all-American. Junior said of his father “He was my cause” and “whatever he was is what i wanted to be”. Junior said if his father was not part of the mafia lifestyle then he probably wouldn’t have been either. Junior said that if my dad said he wanted to be a butcher , i would tell him , i hope you have a smock for me because that’s the way i felt.
Junior Gotti said his father really loved being a gangster , he loved everything about it. Junior said my father lived that lifestyle 24/7 and his wife and kids were even second to the street life. Gotti Jr said dad just loved the streets , he loved the code and the action that kind of lifestyle supplied. Junior said that his father resigned to the fact that he would very likely die behind bars before it was all said and done. Junior said Gotti Sr used to say that anyone who was really and truly lived the street life not the fringe players or pretenders but the guys who really lived the hard street life like he did that at the end of the day you got to die or go to jail , that’s the rules and just the way it was.
Gotti also talks about some of his younger years and home life including the death of his younger brother Frank. Frank Gotti was killed in a car accident where he was struck and killed by a neighbor in 1980. Junior said his father didn’t show much emotion at the time but from his bedroom and he at times could hear his father crying through the vents. The driver of the car that killed Frank , John Favara later went missing and its been long suspected that Gotti Sr ordered his murder. Kroft asks Junior if his father had anything to do with Favara’s disappearance , and Junior said knowing how his father felt about certain things like his family , probably so ! Junior said he could not say for certain because that is something that his father would have never discussed with him.
Junior also said that he could acknowledge that his father was a killer. He said that he wasn’t sure that you could ever justify murder but he felt he could at least make some kind of argument for it. He said his father John was part of the streets and he swore that was his life and he would live and die by the rules and the code of the streets. Junior said that everyone his father killed , was accused of killing , wanted to kill , or tried to kill was part of that same world and the same code. Junior said his father always said that ‘You break the rules , you end up in a dumpster’.