The New York Daily News
August 20, 1996

by Jerry Capeci and William K. Rashbaum

Gotti Beaten Bloody in Prison Yard Fight

John Gotti suffered the ultimate indignity last month -- a jailhouse beating by a fellow inmate as a crowd of prisoners looked on, the Daily News has learned.

The man who was once the nation's most feared crime boss was beaten bloody in a recreation area at the U.S. Penitentiary in Marion, Ill., federal law enforcement sources said.

But the don was a standup guy, telling doctors who treated him in the infirmary that he "fell down," the sources said.

One law enforcement official said the Gambino family boss, doing life without parole on murder charges, was assaulted after a dispute in which he "mouthed off" to a black prisoner.

"It was a racial thing. John mouthed off to a big black guy," said the official. "The next day, the black clocked him. He beat him up pretty bad, his face was all bloody. He needed some kind of medical help."

The sources said that while the inmate pummeled Gotti, fellow prisoners on the cellblock neither intervened to help the once-dapper don nor piled on.

The exact extent of Gotti's injuries could not be learned, but sources said he was taken to the infirmary after the incident.

Gotti lawyer Bruce Cutler said there was no beating, no racial incident and called the report, which was confirmed by four law enforcement officials, "an out-and-out lie."

"John was not hurt, John was not in any fight," Cutler said. "John is no stranger to prison. He's been there many, many times before and he comports himself like John Gotti in prison and out on the street. He's no stranger to prison and the things that go on inside. The story is a lie."

Jim Hyland, spokesman for the Marion prison, declined to comment.

The sources said the assault occurred where inmates take their indoor recreation, an open area in the cellblock outside the cells. Hyland described the area, which encircles the cells, as about 120 feet long and 18 feet wide.

Gotti once boasted: "Me, I like jail better than I like the streets," and Cutler has said his client could do jail time "standing on his head." Gottiís lawyers have often reported that in his cell he does 2,000 to 3,000 pushups and 1,000 to 2,000 stomach crunches daily.

Gotti has lived alone in a 6-by-8 foot cell since his June 23, 1992 sentencing.

Authorities say Gotti still holds the rank of Gambino family boss, but his son, John (Junior) Gotti is running day-to-day operations.

In the early months of his incarceration, prison officials said Gotti was locked in his cell 23 hours a day, and his lawyers as recently as early this year said he was only allowed to leave his cell twice a week for an hour.

Gotti is one of 390 prisoners at Marion. Until recently, it was the federal Bureau of Prison's most secure and only Level Six facility.

Now it has been lowered to a Level 5.5 facility, with the bureau's Supermax facility in Florence, Colo., the only Level Six.

Prison officials at Marion said Gotti is now locked in his solitary cell about 21 to 22 hours a day.

And Gotti, like others in the general prison population, gets up to 14 hours of indoor recreation a week, Hyland said. The cons also get twice-weekly, two-hour sessions outdoors.