New York Daily News Exclusive

By JERRY CAPECI
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

In prison, before he became sick with the cancer that killed him, John Gotti commanded the respect he once used to rule the New York underworld - or so his acolytes always insisted.

Marion Federal Penitentiary infirmary photo of John Gotti shows a bloody nose and forehead gash in 1996.

Other inmates stood aside when he swaggered across the prison yard. Gotti, as boss of the powerful Gambino crime family, was a hero among the nearly 400 inmates at Marion Federal Penitentiary in Illinois. He kept his mind sharp with books and his body toned with a rigorous regimen that included 1,000 daily pushups.

But now, four months after his death, new evidence has emerged that Gotti - at least in the eyes of some fellow cons - was just another lifer in an orange jumpsuit.

On July 18, 1996, Gotti got the type of beating he routinely gave others as a young thug.

The day before, he made racial slurs at an African-American inmate who didn't jump out of the way fast enough as Gotti walked past to the other side of an indoor recreation area.

"Get the --- out of my way, you piece of ---. Don't you know who I am?" Gotti said, according to sources.

The con knew who Gotti was, but didn't much care. The joint is a great equalizer.

Bloodied mug

The con glowered and moved just enough to let Gotti by. The next day, as Gotti exercised, the con approached, smiled and landed a sucker punch. Gotti went down in a heap and was pummeled before guards broke up the fight, according to prison sources.

In a Bureau of Prisons photo taken in the Marion infirmary about a half-hour later, Gotti has a trickle of blood by his nose and a bigger splotch on his forehead.

Despite the wounds, the photo - among the last known of Gotti - shows that two years before he was diagnosed with head and neck cancer, he was in fine form. He appears trim and muscled.

He also appears chagrined over the beating. With his wide-open eyes and clenched lips, he seems as intense and angry as he occasionally did when he was free and squaring off in court against turncoat underboss Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano.

"There was no permanent damage, but he definitely came out second-best in that scrap," said one law enforcement official.

Lawyer Bruce Cutler denied that Gotti uttered racial slurs or was beaten, despite the blood that is clearly visible on the face of his longtime client.

No beating, says lawyer

"I saw him right after that," Cutler said. "He didn't have a mark on him. This nut approached him out of nowhere. He was a giant, 6-4, mentally disturbed. There was no beating.

"John righted himself and had to be pulled off the fellow. John got the best of that, like he got the best of any conflict. John ended up in the hole and the fellow ended up in protective custody.

"He carried himself like a man from the day he went in until the day he passed away. He was a champion at all times. This incident had no import," Cutler said.

Gotti died June 10 at a prison hospital in Springfield, Mo., at age 61. Prison officials long refused to discuss Gotti's condition, citing patient privacy, and autopsy findings were never disclosed.

But there were reports that the once barrel-chested don weighed barely 100 pounds, possibly with chunks of his jaw and throat gone.

Family members have alleged that infections were allowed to fester around Gotti's dental implants, possibly leading to the cancer.

Dr. Leonard Linkow, who installed the implants, said Gotti asked him for treatment at Marion in 1996. The request was rejected.

"They didn't care for him whatsoever, they were neglecting him terribly," Linkow said. "He was a killer and everything else, but he was still entitled to some kind of treatment over there."

Capeci operates the Web site www.ganglandnews.com and is co-author of two biographies of Gotti, "Mob Star" and "Gotti: Rise and Fall."

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