MADELEINE BRAND, host:
I'm Madeleine Brand, and this is DAY TO DAY.
John Gotti doesn't just share his infamous father's name. He allegedly has his old job, too: head of the Gambino crime family. The 41-year-old Gotti, known as Junior, is on trial in New York right now charged with extortion, loan sharking and kidnapping. Junior Gotti faces a similar fate as his father, time behind bars. Jerry Capeci writes a weekly column about organized crime for The New York Sun, and he joins me now. And he was in the courtroom on Monday.
Jerry Capeci, that was the first day of the trial. Describe the scene there.
Mr. JERRY CAPECI (The New York Sun): The opening statements went pretty much as expected, with Gotti's lawyer saying that his client was a gangster, had been a gangster, but that he had renounced his organized crime ways after going to prison in 1999 and was innocent of the charges that were now being brought against him. The government, on the other hand, contended that he was a gangster right up until the time he was arrested and, in fact, that they were going to have several witnesses tie him to loan sharking, gambling, securities fraud up until the year 2002.
The first witness, Frank Fappiano, gave a pretty good accounting from the government's point of view of how he grew up in the mob, became a gangster and how he was associated with Junior Gotti both in business dealings and social matters.
There was only one mild outburst during the day, and that came from a larger-than-life fellow who accompanied Victoria Gotti, Junior's sister and star of "Growing Up Gotti." He became agitated during Fappiano's description of the mob's protocol of dealing with rats. He explained that all rats are supposed to be marked for death and killed. `Ironic,' he barked, `from an F'ing rat.'
BRAND: He said that in the courtroom?
Mr. CAPECI: He said that in the courtroom loud enough for people in several of the rows surrounding him to hear, but not loud enough to disturb the testimony that was going on in the well of the courtroom.
BRAND: And the kidnapping charge against Junior is drawing most of the attention. And this involves radio talk-show host and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa. Tell us about that.
Mr. CAPECI: Sliwa was allegedly picked up and kidnapped on Gotti's orders because he continued to bash the Gotti family, particularly Junior's father, as no good gangsters and drug dealers who deserved to spend the rest of their lives in prison. This infuriated the Junior don, according to the key testimony that's expected to come later, and he ordered Sliwa to be put in the hospital. And that's why the charge of kidnapping is on the table.
BRAND: You know, this entire trial is a bit of a surprise because I was under the impression that there was no more Italian organized crime in New York City; that Rudy Giuliani had gotten rid of it all.
Mr. CAPECI: (Laughs) Well, I guess Rudy Giuliani broke the back of the mob so many times, but it seems to have resurfaced and reattached itself to the rest of the crime families. And it's still alive and functioning in the New York metropolitan area, not as powerful and influential as it once was. There's no question about that. But there are still five families. They are still organized to some degree and, you know, are a force to be reckoned with.
BRAND: Jerry Capeci writes about organized crime for The New York Sun and for his Web site, ganglandnews.com.
And, Jerry Capeci, you're no rat.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. CAPECI: It's always a pleasure to chat with you, Madeleine.
BRAND: DAY TO DAY returns in a moment. I'm Madeleine Brand.
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