This Family of Mine
What It Was Like Growing Up Gotti
Chapter One"Papa Was a Rolling Stone"
Winter 1952
The door blew open with driving force; shards of wood like shrapnel sprayed the cold, cramped Brooklyn railroad flat. To a twelve-year-old, the U.S. Marshal's arrival came in the form of an unfathomable explosion that would haunt his dreams into adulthood. Two local police officers and one marshal from the housing department had been dispatched to evict a poor and hungry family of thirteen -- despite the fact that Christmas was less than one week away.
My father lay huddled with his six brothers, all forced to survive in one room, on two mattresses, in the musty three-room apartment. It was in the dead of winter and none of the Gotti children -- seven boys and four girls, ages five to sixteen -- had clothing suitable for protection against the elements. Dad would later recall that evening as being not only unbearably cold but accompanied by a dark, empty sky.
The Gotti children were accustomed to sharing tight quarters. If it seemed unnatural, even cruel, it was nonetheless preferable to sleeping on a cold bare ... read full excerpt from: This Family of Mine: What It Was Like Growing Up Gotti ebook
