A Legacy Admission

It is not often I read an article in the NYT and laugh out loud, but yesterday's take on John J. Gotti being sentenced is one for the ages. Usually you can count on anything appearing in the Times as being well-written, but invariable dry. Not so when Alan Feuer turned his sights and mind on witnessing the scene inside a courtroom as John J. was being sentenced.

The Gotti name doesn't carry the instant recognition amongst the New York City population that it once did, certainly because John Gotti Sr. died in prison in 2002, and his son John A. Gotti Jr. and even his grandson, John J. Gotti, sentenced on Monday, did not receive the splashy tabloid headlines that would mark Senior's arrests and trials.

Nevertheless, there is a case to made that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, especially when you consider John J.'s two grandfathers, along with two uncles and two great-uncles were all at one time time sentenced to Federal prison. Like any Ivy League school, legacy admissions are alive and well in New York's Federal courts.

I went to same high school as my father, and when I got there, my father's chemistry teacher was still there. I didn't have him, and he retired before I graduated, but he was on the faculty, drawing breath as well as salary. And like there can be tenured continuity in academic settings, there is also long-term employment in civil service jobs. Consider Mr. Feuer's observation that John A. Gotti Jr. son of John J. Gotti Sr. greeted the court sketch artist with true affection, as she had sketched his trials (no convictions) and those of his father's (convictions).

Peter J. Gotti, the defendant's father, and John A. Gotti, the defendant's uncle. both presented the court with written statements trying to explain things and asking for the court's mercy at sentencing.

Lots of families have traditions. My family created a line of florists. And "storied American families" certainly have theirs. Mr. Feuer channels Jimmy Breslin when he tells us:

"Storied American families often have traditions. The Kennedys are known for playing football on skis. The Bushes gather ranch brush. The Gottis it would seem write notes to federal judges asking them for mercy for their loved ones."

It should be remembered there was only one fatality involving a Kennedy on skis playing football, and it occurred when the the intended wide receiver skied straight into a tree that wouldn't get out of the way.

No letter to the Almighty was going to spare him.

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