Where Is The Gotti Family Today? - Nicki Swift (2024)

Crime

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ByCandice JeffriesandBrian Boone/Oct. 13, 2017 8:17 am EST

Throughout much of the 1980s, organized crime leader John Gotti (a.k.a. the "Dapper Don" and the "Teflon Don") was known for his bombastic personality and his role as head of the infamous Gambino crime family. With numerous high profile trials and an aptitude for evading the police, Gotti captured the public's attention and became one of the mostinfamous crime figures of the twentieth century. And people are still interested in his story: a 2018 movie starring John Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston — the aptly-titled Gotti — follows Gotti's storied rise and fall. (And while John Gotti was convicted of a lot of nasty crimes, the film Gotti is arguably more loathed than the Teflon Don himself, earning a remarkable 0 percent rating and a "Fuhgeddaboudit" critics consensus on Rotten Tomatoes).

Although Gotti died in jail in 2002, the years since his passing have witnessed his offspring and their kids gaining quite a bit of fame of their own, with some of them becoming unlikely celebrities and pop cultural figures. Here's a look at what the members of the Gotti family have been up to recently.

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John Gotti's oldest son John A. Gotti (a.k.a. John Gotti Jr.) initially followed in his father's footsteps, reportedly serving for a number of years as his successor as the head of the Gambino family when the elder Gotti went to prison. In 1999, Jr. was found guilty of various mob-related crimes and sentenced to prison. After his 2004 release, he facedfour separate trials on racketeering charges, though he was never found guilty. By 2010, he claimed that he'd made the decision to leave "the life" during his first stint in prison.However, "the life" found Jr. yet again in 2013, when he was stabbed in the stomach after breaking up a fight in a CVS parking lot. Jr. was reportedly "uncooperative" with the police, and no arrests were made.

Lately, Jr. has been focused squarely on legitimate income streams. He released a book,Shadow of My Father, in 2015, which details "his father's unwavering dedication to the street," as well as his own life in and out of the "Family." Jr. also reportedly served as an advisor to the director of the aforementioned 2017 biopicGotti, and has said that he's involvedwith a documentary project.

Jr. toldGangsters Inc.in 2016, "I was offered an enormous amount of money to play a television judge. I was also approached to do a one man stage show. But my projects, the book and the movie were more important, and those other opportunities were passed on." Accordingly,he now lives a mostly quiet life in Long Islandwith his wife and six children.As of 2018, he was working on Witsec Mafia, a book and film project aimed with rooting out crime and corruption in the Witness Relocation program.

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Unfortunately for John J. Gotti (John Gotti Jr.'s nephew — stay with us), the life of crime caught up with him fairly early into his 20s. Gotti Sr.'s grandson was sentenced to eight years behind bars in March 2017, after pleading guilty to charges of "conspiracy"and "two counts of possession and intent to sell narcotics." The charges stemmed from two 2016 arrests, in which the younger Gotti was found to be in possession of hundreds of prescription pills.

According to John J. Gotti's father, Peter Gotti, his son plans to go to college once he's released from jail, telling theNew York Post, "I know what a difference he is going to make when he's given the opportunity ... He will, he will make a difference." According toNBC New York, John J. Gotti was then separately charged with "two counts of conspiracy to commit arson and two counts of conspiracy to commit bank robbery" for an unrelated incident in 2012; he pled guilty in June 2017. The following March, a judge sentenced this particular John Gotti to five years in prison on a car arson charge from 2017, incurred when a business associate persuaded him to douse and torch an automobile.

Prior to the arrests, per his Twitter page,John J. Gotti was working at a tattoo parlor in Ozone Park, N.Y.Page Sixalso reported in 2016 that he wastrying to "fix the family image."

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Angel Gotti is John Gotti Sr.'s oldest child and is extremely active in keeping her father's legacy alive. She runs the official Shadow of My Father Facebook page (and still posts regularly about news about her family and the world of organized crime) and keeps the conversation about her beloved father alive on her Twitter page. ("I love animals more than people," reads her bio, but also, "I disrespect rats." Additionally, she posts a lot of sweet and wholesome family photos over on her Instagram page, in addition to behind-the-scenes photos from the set of Gotti. (Fun fact: John Travolta plays John Gotti Sr. in the film, and Travolta's daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta, plays Angel Gotti.)

According to a 2014 article in Footwear News (a trade magazine of, well, the footwear industry), Angel Gotti launched a line of bejeweled flip flops under her eponymous Fort Lauderdale-based Angel Gotti Footwear line. Unfortunately, the company now appears to be defunct.

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With stints on The Real Housewives of New Jersey,Mob Wives, and of, course, perennial guilty pleasureGrowing Up Gotti, Gotti Sr.'s daughter Victoria has been perhaps the most visible member of the family in recent years. Like her brother, Victoria put some of the family stories down in print — 2009'sNew York Times-bestsellerThis Family of Mine: What It Was Like Growing Up Gottiwas billed as a "brutally honest family portrait that reads like a confidential file, filled with deeply personal reflections, bombshell revelations, and stunning insider secrets." The Real Housewivesalum also published a cookbook,Hot Italian Dish, in 2006.

Victoria made noise in September 2015 with reports that she'd gotten into a "screaming match"with her ex-husband, Carmine Agnello, at her son John's wedding, yelling, "I divorced you a decade ago — get used to it!" She later threw her hat into the political ring with some choice words for then-presidential candidateDonald Trump in October 2016. Followingthe infamous Access Hollywood tape debacle, she told a "pen pal" at The Daily Beast that, among other criticisms, "I was married to #1 gangster and would have cut his throat if he ever said such a foul thing to me."

In 2019, Victoria Gotti narrated her very own made-for-Lifetime biopic,Victoria Gotti: My Father's Daughter. For more Victoria, you can follow her activeTwitterandInstagrampages.

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Frank Gotti Agnello is the youngest of Victoria Gotti's brood, and with his two brothers, made up the cast ofGrowing Up Gotti (though he memorably refused to take part in a 10-year reunion special). After the show wrapped, Frank published a book entitled Gotti Diet: How I Took Control of My Body, Lost 80 Pounds, and Discovered How to Stay Fit Forever,purported to be "the program that turned the Fatty Gotti into the Hottie Gotti."

According toIn Touch Weekly, as of April 2017, Frank works at the family's auto parts shop in Queens, N.Y. (which, along with Victoria Gotti's home, was raided by the fedsto little result in 2016).From the looks of his Instagram page (as of 2014), he's also gotten himself a full-time girlfriend named Savanna Simonetti. He might have a lot of other stuff going on in his personal life, but his Instagram — where his avatar is a picture of himself and his famous grandfather — is locked on private. And, according to his Twitter page, he currently prays not "to GOD," but rather "to GOTTI."

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Victoria Gotti's oldest son, Carmine Gotti Agnello Jr. (named after his father, "reputed mobster" Carmine Agnello), decided to try his hand at singing afterGrowing Up Gotti wrapped, putting in a memorable 2015 appearance on VH1's reality showBut Can They Sing(sorry, Carmine, but the answer is decidedly "no").

Since then, Carmine has mostly eschewed the spotlight, and, according toIn Touch Weekly,works with his brothers at the auto parts store. Unlike Frank, however, he did put in an appearance for his show's ten-year reunion special, reflecting on his squabbles with his brothers: "I guess when we fought we took it a little too extreme ... We don't fight now — we're all close, like best friends." Sweet.

He apparently got a little too involved with the auto parts store, however. According to Newsday, Agnello, now in his thirties, was arrested and charged in criminal court in 2018 for the crime of operating an automotive scrap and recycling yard in Queens, N.Y. without a license. (It's a mere Class A misdemeanor.)

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John Gotti Agnello, the middle of Victoria's three boys, wed long-time girlfriend Alina Sanchez in September 2015, throwing a party thatPage Sixdescribed as "straight out ofThe Godfather."Attendees included John Travolta, actress Debi Mazar, and Entouragestar Kevin Connolly.Guests were reportedly required to shell out a minimum of $5,000 as a gift: according toUs Weekly,the couple raked in a whopping $2.5 million on their big day. That should be a big boost to the money he makes at, you guessed it, the family's auto parts shop.

Agnello's wife gave birth to their son, John (alright, now it's getting confusing), at the end of 2016. For regular updates on Agnello and his growing family, you can head to hisInstagram page.

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We end with one more John Gotti. Gotti grandson John "Jr." Gotti, unlike his cousins, doesn't work at the family auto parts shop. Instead, he's building a name for himself in the world of Mixed Martial Arts.

Son of John Gotti Jr.,John "Jr." Gotti toldBleacher Reportin 2017 that he's working to make his own mark in the field of fighting. "Nobody in my family ever pursued sports to this degree or became a professional athlete," he said, adding, "It's not like my name is Frank like my brother. I share the name 'John Gotti.' I want to put it in a positive spotlight and show people that I'm a hard-working kid and I'm dedicated to this game."

The Long Island-based Gotti posts news about upcoming fights and his MMA progress on his site Team Gotti, where he also sells Team Gotti gear, if you're so inclined.As for his burgeoning fight career — where he's billed as John Gotti III — he's doingalright. As of 2019, he boasts a career professional MMA record of 4-0-0.