John Gotti, the reputed head of the nation's most powerful Mafia family since 1985 and described by authorities as the most elusive gangster since Al Capone, could now lose it all based on three simple words: "Bust him up."
After Gotti issued that order, prosecutors say, a gang of Westies, an Irish mob anxious to curry favor with his Gambino crime family, tracked down a Carpenters Union leader and plugged four bullets into his buttocks.The May 1986 shooting reportedly was meant as a warning to the union not to tangle with the Gambinos. Unbeknownst to the union, the Manhattan restaurant they trashed in a dispute over non-union labor was Gambino owned.
Prosecutors hope the order - secretly recorded on a bug planted in Gotti's headquarters at the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club in Queens - will convince a Manhattan jury to convict him on assault and conspiracy charges.
With one more conviction, Gotti, 49, a convicted killer and hijacker, could be branded a "persistent felon" and sent to prison for life.
But when he strolls into state Supreme Court in Manhattan, Gotti exudes the confidence of a man who has beaten every rap since 1985, when Boss of Bosses Paul Castellano was gunned down outside a Manhattan steak house and Gotti allegedly immediately assumed his throne.
Last winter, when a swarm of 50 uniformed cops, detectives and FBI agents arrested him on a Little Italy street on the most recent charges, Gotti told them, "I give you 3-to-1 odds I beat this case."
He may well do just that. Even the government admits its key evidence - hours of secretly taped conversations - is at times muffled and difficult to understand.
"The Dapper Don," who is chauffeured about town in a black Lincoln Continental and wears expensive suits and a diamond pinky ring, has frequently slipped from the government's grip for the past 15 years.
In 1985, he went to trial for assaulting Romual Piecyk, a refrigerator repairman, and robbing him of $325 during an argument over a parking space in Queens.
However, Piecyk soon learned who Gotti was, checked himself into a hospital, developed amnesia and said he could no longer remember who popped him. The judge had no choice but to dismiss the charges.
Gotti also was acquitted in 1986 of running an 18-year racketeering enterprise with six Gambino co-defendants that included gambling, loansharking, truck hijackings, armored car robberies and three murders from 1968 to 1985.
During the trial, however, his $1 million bail was revoked when the judge declared he was "dangerous" and threw him in jail to guard against possible jury tampering. Gotti's appeal was bolstered by testimony from, of all people, Romual Piecyk.
Gotti's courthouse winning streak was shared by his son, John, 25, a suspected Gambino soldier, and for a while, his brother, Gene, 42, a reputed capo.
The younger John, who lists his occupation as president of a trucking firm, was acquitted of assault charges in 1987.
A narcotics trafficking and racketeering case against Gene Gotti ended in two mistrials before he was convicted in May 1989.
In his middle-class neighborhood of Howard Beach, neighbors gush that the elder John Gotti is a generous man who sponsors an annual summer street party at his Bergin Hunt and Fish Club. After his most recent acquittal, they tied yellow ribbons around trees near his house - the symbol of concern for hostages.
Gotti, a high school dropout who claims he works as a plumbing salesman, has been married for 29 years to his wife Victoria, has five children and at least two grandchildren.
One of his sons, Frank, 12, was killed in a traffic accident in 1980. Four months later, the driver of the car that hit him disappeared and has not been heard from since.