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CNN Live Saturday

Gotti Laid to Rest in Family Tomb

Aired June 15, 2002 - 18:19   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CALLAWAY: Mafia kingpin John Gotti was laid to rest today in New York and in typical Gotti fashion, the send-off was controversial and done in high style. Here's CNN's Brian Palmer with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Family, friends, and associates gathered to give John Gotti, a man convicted of murder and racketeering, a hero's send-off. Burly men held umbrellas in front of camera-shy guests at the funeral home in this middle class section of Queens, New York.

Few guests spoke to the pack of media gathered to memorialize the reputed former boss of the Gambino crime family. One who did, a former Gotti attorney Bruce Cutler. Asked by a reporter if the grand funeral glorified a criminal, Cutler fired back.

BRUCE CUTLER, GOTTI ATTORNEY: Because you're a lady, and because you're a woman, I want to be courteous to you, although you are discourteous to me. You are discourteous to me. But, I won't fall into any dirty, hypocritical tricks by you or anybody else, to take a day of significance and throw the treatise on it.

PALMER (on camera): Should there be some acknowledgment of the suffering that he caused some people? Because of his profession.

CUTLER: I can't speak to that issue, only because it's not auspicious to me now, and it's not propitious, but I'll speak to it a day after the funeral.

PALMER (voice-over): Pallbearers carried Gotti's coffin several paces down the street to the hearse. The procession of vehicles led by limousines bearing elaborate flower arrangements, stopped at Gotti's home where more people gathered for a glimpse, and to pay respect.

MARIA CATALANO, NEIGHBOR: I just feel that I want to pray for his soul, that he rest in peace.

PALMER: At St. John's Cemetery, more media, helicopters, and another crowd. Among them the curious, the mournful, and a few of the upset.

PETE WATERS, CRITIC: You know, we're glorifying a criminal or in my opinion a criminal, and when the real heroes in the world -- just the average people don't get any compensation.

PALMER (on camera): You're saying he's great. He was convicted of murder and racketeering.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to know something? You're a reporter, right? There's certain things that you take risks in your job, right? Same thing with cops, same thing with everything. Whoever was involved with what, they knew the risks and that's just flat out what happens. And, you want to know something? Just because somebody's convicted of something, don't mean it's true.

PALMER: Inside the cemetery, a service for John Gotti. The local Catholic diocese had denied the family's request to hold a formal funeral mass. Gotti was buried in the family tomb. The myth of the Dapper Don, however, will likely live on.

Brian Palmer, CNN, New York.

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