John Burke was sentenced yesterday to life in prison for the 1991 murder of Bruce John Gotterup and the 1996 murder of John Gebert but the drug dealing Gambino mobster was unphased by the heavy term because he has the joy, joy, joy, joy down in his heart as reported by John Marzulli for the Daily News:
"I'm happy with myself…My sentence won't shake me," Burke added. "My foundation's built on a rock and that rock is Jesus."
Burke now certainly will have plenty of time for reading scripture and prayful reflection about his life on the streets.
Federal prosecutor Evan Norris "said there was no way to
sugarcoat Burke's life on New York's streets in the 1980s and 1990s," and wasn't buying his born again claim as reported by Mitchel Maddux for the New York Post: "John Burke devoted his entire adult life to the Mafia . . . He is
unremorseful and unrepentant."
Former Junior Gotti pal John Alite who copped to his role in the Gotterup slaying and became a government witness was prepared to speak on behalf of the victim's widow but she "had changed her mind about him reading a statement
because she felt it would become a distraction to the proceeding,
sources said."
The feds benched John Alite as a witness in the racketeering trial against Gambino associate John Burke but Alite will appear at Burke's sentencing hearing tomorrow on behalf of the family of Bruce Gotterup whom the pair murdered in 1991 as reported by John Marzulli for the Daily News:
"They have always had a sense of forgiveness and I will be sticking up
for them," he said about the Gotterup family in an exclusive interview
with The Daily News. * * * "He (Burke) was a coward then and he's still a coward for not owning up to his crime and apologizing to the family." Alite said he will out Burke, who faces life in prison, as a fraud for
portraying himself on an Internet blog as a Bible-quoting Christian who
claims to have found religion in prison. "If he really believes the Bible, then he should tell the truth," Alite, 50, said.
Alite, a former pal of John "Junior" Gotti, served ten years in prison after becoming a federal informant and copping to the Gotterup murder, and says his priority now is "disrupting the mob's recruiting pipeline of
young men lured by false dreams of money and honor -- like he was while
growing up in Woodhaven, Queens."
Burke was convicted last June for racketeering conspiracy spanning nearly
three decades involving, in addition to the Gotterup murder, the 1996 murder of John Gebert and drug dealing.
Chicago Outfit mobster Frank "Frankie Breeze" Calabrese Sr. died on
Christmas Day at the age of 75 while serving a life sentence at the
federal facility in Butner, NC, and there was no wake or funeral supposedly in accordance with his final wishes as reported by Chuck Goudie for WLS: "once upon a time, the passing of a top Chicago hoodlum attracted
hundreds of mourners -- in a command performance of public sadness and
wailing -- surrounded by huge spreads of flowers and food."
Even among the mobster's immediate family there seemed to be few tears on his passing, and Calabrese's youngest son Kurt said: "He did everything he could to ruin our family. All for greed. Money was God...didn't care about anyone and
hurt people."
Calabrese was convicted on racketeering charges involving multiple
murders in the 2007 Family Secrets trial after his son Frank Jr. became a
wired cooperator for the feds, and in commenting on the old man's Frank Jr. said "I am comfortable with the fact that he's not
suffering in there anymore and that no one else has to suffer on the
street" as reported by Bridget Doyle for the Chicago Tribune.
An increasing number of mobsters' children publicly are acknowledging the dark impact that the life had on the family.
Rita Gigante, the daughter of deceased Genovese boss Vincent "The Chin"
Gigante, recounts being "tormented by experiences that included witnessing at age 5 her dad beat
a rival senseless as she hid under the dining-room table" as reported by Hamilton for the New York Post.
Today Rita is a massage therapist who has created a new life with her
lesbian partner, and she writes in her newly-published memoir The Godfather's Daughter that "I grew up in the dark and escaped the dungeon to find my way to the light."
Junior Gotti hopes that movie audiences will better appreciate the mob's
downside after viewing a biopic in the works about his deceased father
and one-time Gambino boss John Gotti as reported by Steve Fishman for New York magazine:
"It's a fascinating story," Gotti says,
as if pitching the picture to
me. "It's an opportunity to say, 'Look at the street life.'" He pierced
the air with a thick finger. "People don't see the pain. They don't see
my mother, 23 years without my father. They don't see my wife without
me. They don't see houses and buildings that were taken from me.
Businesses that were taken from me. They don't see the price that we had
to pay, the tolls that were taken on my children. They don't see any
of it."
Hollywood's portrayal of the Mafia often involves a lot of hogwash and
propaganda from know-nothing groupies and disingenuous apologists but
now that the children of mobsters are speaking out maybe more movies
will get real.
Allen Archie Hurley, a prison inmate who stabbed Gambino associate Joseph O'Kane in the head 92 times with a shank at the federal facility in Canaan, PA, has been sentenced to life as reported by Steve McConnell for The Times-Tribune: "Hurley testified during his federal court trial in Scranton that O'Kane had threatened to kill him and his family."
The jury apparently accepted Hurley's claim of self-defense to some extent by convicting him only of manslaughter rather than second-degree murder, and "the life sentence was mandatory because of Mr. Hurley's prior felony bank robbery convictions."
O'Kane was serving a life sentence on a racketeering and murder conviction, and
testified for John "Junior" Gotti in October 2009 during the mob scion's
fourth racketeering trial which ended in mistrial.
Frank Calabrese Jr., the mob scion who turned against his own father to become a wired cooperator
for the feds which resulted in the Family Secrets trial against the Chicago Outfit in 2007, is bringing his life story to the silver screen as reported by Dane Placko for My Fox Chicago:
"What I was concerned with is not just somebody that wants to make the
next shoot 'em up gangster movie. This is about family. This is about
the dark side of crime," he said.
An increasing number of mobsters' children publicly are acknowledging the dark impact that the life had on the family.
Rita Gigante, the daughter of deceased Genovese boss Vincent "The Chin"
Gigante, recounts being "tormented by experiences that included witnessing at age 5 her dad beat
a rival senseless as she hid under the dining-room table" as reported by Hamilton for the New York Post. Today Rita is a massage therapist who has created a new life with her lesbian partner, and she writes in her newly-published memoir The Godfather's Daughter that "I grew up in the dark and escaped the dungeon to find my way to the light."
Junior Gotti hopes that movie audiences will better appreciate the mob's
downside after viewing a biopic in the works about his deceased father
and one-time Gambino boss John Gotti as reported by Steve Fishman for New York magazine:
"It's a fascinating story," Gotti says,
as if pitching the picture to
me. "It's an opportunity to say, 'Look at the street life.'" He pierced
the air with a thick finger. "People don't see the pain. They don't see
my mother, 23 years without my father. They don't see my wife without
me. They don't see houses and buildings that were taken from me.
Businesses that were taken from me. They don't see the price that we had
to pay, the tolls that were taken on my children. They don't see any
of it."
Hollywood's portrayal of the Mafia often involves a lot of myths and propaganda from know-nothing groupies and disingenuous apologists but now that the children of mobsters are speaking out maybe more movies will get real.
