The head of the Gambino organized crime family in New York, Gotti was acquitted multiple times during the 1980s, earning the nickname “Teflon Don.” One of those acquittals came on March 13, 1987, when the larger-than-life figure and six co-defendants were acquitted of racketeering charges.
Artist Aggie Kenny experienced another side to Gotti.
“He was very conscious of his image,” she said. “Few defendants interact with the artists or really seem to care what we are doing. But I always sensed that mafia guys understood the process and saw it as part of the business.”
She also felt a distinct contradiction “between this well-groomed, seemingly affable personality sitting before us at the death squad gangster being tried on RICO charges. It was so hard to believe that he had offed so many people, seeing him interact with others in the courtroom.”
Diagonal front row from top left: Gotti, Anthony Rampino (aka Tony Roach), and Barry Slotnick, the attorney for defendant John Carneglia. Diagonal from top in back row: Gotti’s attorney Bruce Cutler, informant Wilfred Johnson and his lawyer, Richard A. Rehbock.
Attribution: Photo gallery by Monica Burciaga and Andy Lefkowitz. Illustration by Aggie Kenny from the book “The Illustrated Courtroom: 50 Years of Court Art” by Elizabeth Williams and Sue Russell.