NEW YORK -- The son of convicted mafia boss John Gotti said he doesn’t know if murder “can ever be justified,” but that he understood why his father was involved in it.
“[My father] swore 'I'm going to live and die by the rules of the street, the code of the streets’ and everybody that John is accused of killing or may have killed or wanted to kill or tried to kill was a part of that same street," he said to CBS’ “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft. "And my father …always said in his mind, 'you break the rules, you end up in a dumpster.'"
In an interview to be aired on Sunday, April 11, Mr. Gotti said he played the role of “the street guy” in the Gambino Crime Family, a role he thought his father was proud of.
“[He] looked at me as a street guy, as a knock-around guy, a bounce-around guy like himself. [It was] the proudest moment of my life…because I was slowly becoming like him," Gotti said. "I think [my father] was very happy. I think he was as proud as a father would be if his son just made all-American."
Mr. Gotti, who engaged in gambling, extortion and tax evasion was asked if as a street guy he ever worried about being whacked.
“Every day… there's a possibility that something could happen to you every day of your life…When you hang out in the streets, you're hanging with a different type of a person…you don't know what’s going to happen," he said. "Tony's here today, then Tony's doing 10 years tomorrow. Billy's here today and then you never see him again…it’s a volatile existence."
In 1992 Gotti’s father was convicted of 13 murders, conspiracy to commit murder and tax evasion. He was sentenced to life in prison where he died at the age of 61 of throat cancer.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
