Volkman, 1990, pp. 34-45).
In East New York, John Gotti attended Public School 178, where he was a severe problem. He was soon admitted to a new borgata, the Fulton-Rockaway Boys, by his oldest brother, Peter, who was already a member. Gotti soon began to dominate the gang, his violent temper and apparently great charisma attracting a following of goombata (Sicilian slang for fellow gang members) who would follow him for years. His brothers Gene, Vincent, and Richard also joined the gang, and the five Gotti brothers would work together in their "family business" for years to come. However, there was a great difference among the brothers: John was clearly intelligent (his I.Q. was estimated at 140, near-genius level, while he was still in school), whereas his brothers were clearly not very intelligent at all. In 1956, as soon as he legally could do so, Gotti dropped out of school (Cummings and Volkman, 1990, pp. 46-49).
John Gotti began expanding the working territory of his Borgata and began to learn about the profitable activities of neighboring gangs, most of whom were working for the Mafia. By 1957, Gotti had been enlisted under the capo Carmine Fatico. He began to be arrested about once a year but always received a suspended sentence from the corrupt judges in Brooklyn. Despite his continued incompetence at criminal activities, he retained the confidence of Fatico (Cummings and Volkman, 1990, pp. 50-54, 62-63).
In 1960, John Gotti married his pregnant girlfriend, Victoria Di Giorgio, and they became parents of a daughter, Angela. Victoria, being half-Jewish, refused to act like a typically subservient Mafia wife and often walked out on him. They would then reconcile out of an apparent genuine affection. However, when Gotti was sent to prison for six months in 1963, Victoria took the embarrassing step of applying for welfare and suing him for nonsupport, all of which damaged his reputation in the mob (Cummings a...