Thanks to the release of the new Netflix docuseries, Get Gotti, viewers are finding themselves absolutely riveted by the tale of infamous New York mafioso John Gotti. While older audiences will recognize the events in the three-part series, younger audiences might not be aware that all of this happened in real life.
Despite being a literal crime boss who orchestrated a brutal takeover of the Gambino crime family, Gotti was practically a celebrity in the ’80s, and it didn’t hurt that actual celebrities wanted to hang out with him. According to USA Today, stars couldn’t help but flock to the controversial figure even as he was facing trial for murder and loan sharking. Actor Anthony Quinn, who starred in HBO’s Gotti, showed up to the courtroom at the mob boss’s request, who remained grateful for years.
“He was very nice to me and very kind to me,” Quinn told the Hartford Courant in 1996. “In New York, whenever I went to a restaurant – for years – I would find a bottle of wine on my table from ‘Mr. G.’”
Here’s the official synopsis:
It’s 1985 and John Gotti is the most powerful man in New York; he’s also the most surveilled. His public execution of ‘Boss of Bosses’ Paul Castellano sets in motion a series of events that catapults the young mobster to the helm of America’s most powerful mafia family. As the tentacles of Gotti’s criminal enterprise extend deep into the heart of the city, law enforcement and state prosecutors scramble for their chance to bring the charismatic Godfather to his knees. From the creators of ‘Fear City,’ this three-part series for Netflix chronicles Gotti’s meteoric rise and crashing fall – all told from the very mouths of those who brought him down.
Get Gotti is available for streaming on Netflix.