MOB HEIR Gotti Jr. gets host of new charges

The charges accuse him of crimes during his time in prison.
LONG ISLAND NEWSDAY
NEW YORK -- The federal government socked the son of the late mob boss John Gotti with a host of new charges Thursday, including the attempted murder of radio talk-show host Curtis Sliwa.
Apparently following closely in his father's footsteps, John A. Gotti, also known as Junior, was indicted on racketeering-murder and a host of other charges, including attempted murder, conspiracy and securities and mail and wire fraud, said Manhattan U.S. Attorney David Kelley.
Gotti, who is serving five years at the Rye Brook Federal Prison in upstate New York, was to be released Sept. 7 after serving time for a 1999 racketeering conviction.
Three men who were reportedly members of Gotti's Gambino crime family crew were also indicted. Two of the men, Joseph D'Angelo and Michael Yanotti, were part of the hit team sent to kill Sliwa, Kelley said.
Sliwa, who was the co-founder of the Guardian Angels, frequently attacked the elder Gotti over the air and referred to him as "Public Enemy No. 1" just before Gotti was sentenced to life in 1992. Gotti died of cancer on June 10, 2002, at the federal prison hospital in Springfield, Mo.
Sliwa attack
Sliwa was shot five times June 19, 1992, after he got into a taxi in Manhattan's East Village. Kelley said that prosecutors were able to develop new information that Yanotti and D'Angelo ambushed Sliwa in the cab.
"Unknown to Sliwa at the time was that the cab he hailed was intended to serve as a hearse and not a cab," Kelley said Thursday.
Sliwa, who had been beaten with baseball bats at the same intersection two months earlier, survived the shooting.
In addition to the Sliwa attack, the younger Gotti was also charged with committing a host of crimes while in federal prison, including two murder conspiracies, extortion, loan sharking and gambling.
Law enforcement officials said that after the elder Gotti was imprisoned, his son took over leadership of the family along with his uncle, Peter Gotti. He has held various positions in the Gambino family, they said, including serving as a captain and part of a triumvirate of leaders.
The younger Gotti's attorney, Richard Rehbock, said that he was requesting that Gotti be brought to the city as soon as possible.
D'Angelo and Yanotti were arrested in connection with the case by FBI agents Wednesday night, while a third man, Louis Mariani, an alleged Gambino associate charged with loansharking and securities fraud, was arrested Thursday, officials said.