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by Peter Lance (Foreword by), John a. Gotti (Author)
For four decades the name Gotti has been synonymous with organized crime in the minds of the public, who were told stories about them with varying degrees of accuracy. But now in Shadow of My Father, the real story of the King of the Volcano is revealed for the first time. John A. Gotti who survived four trials and a parole violation hearing without a guilty verdict, in four years, now takes up his pen to tell the story of his father's unwavering dedication to the street, and how as his son he entered that life and then with his father's permission left the life of crime and put the "Family" behind him to live a legitimate life with his real family. It is a saga of betrayal and redemption, and an insider's view of how at times those who are tasked with upholding the law readily broke it to further their careers.
FROM THE FOREWORD:
As colorful and tragic as Gotti Sr's life was, the self-told chronicle of his son's odyssey reads like an epic worthy of Victor Hugo. As far back as 1998 John A. "Junior" Gotti declared himself a "civilian" and with his father's permission withdrew from the Life. But over the next ten years the Justice Department refused to let that happen.
After he'd served nearly six and a half years and paid millions in fines, the DOJ came after him again with four trials and a tax prosecution-five, not four-attempts to send him away for life. One indictment even included a death penalty eligible crime. But in the end, Gotti Junior proved to be "The Teflon Son."
To wage their relentless series of prosecutions the Feds used some fifteen Assistant U.S. Attorneys and more than a hundred cooperating witnesses, many of whom were violent felony offenders who had, in the aggregate, committed nearly a hundred murders and hundreds of assaults and robberies. Then, after testifying, those violent criminals soon got their freedom and many of them were released to the streets with the help and support of their government handlers.
