vt65

was at the show today and met a guy that has a 63 SWC that claims it was originally bought new and raced by John Gotti, he purchased it from Gotti's cousin here in Vero. He has some documentation, thought it was worth passing along altho we didn't see John so was unable to get confirmation...John if you are reading this maybe you can chime in!

UberLegend

Communication maybe difficult.....he died June 10 2002.

StingRay6T3

This is interesting. I went to a car show a few years ago at the Pearl Harbor Navy Exchange car show and saw a beautiful black 65 corvette convertible. The owner told me that it belonged and was registered to John Gotti. He said it was the gangster but I would tend to believe it might be more like the Seinfield episode where George bought a car that he belived to have belonged to John Voight when it actually belonged to another man named Jon Voight. Anyway it would be nice to know it he really did own these cars.

John BX NY

Big fan of non-fiction books about the mob. I must have read almost all of them but have never seen anything mentioned about Gotti ever owning a vette. They love their Caddys though....

Kerrmudgeon

any bullet holes in it? ...

5thvet

Not sure if it is true but I have heard that on several occasions so who knows.......

Lou64

I lived in Memphis for 8 months and taught at a very rough school. Another guy I taught with said he was driving home and heard a loud "ping", like a decent size rock hitting his Chevy Avalanche. Upon further inspection it was most definitely a small caliber bullet hole. Hit his passenger side rear door about the spot where the back of the door meets the rear fender.

A couple months later, someone walking or driving by our school shot into it three times with a handgun (something like a 9mm.) I thought it was a car backfiring, and stuck my head out my window to see what was going on. I used to have a pic of the spot on my old cell phone where a couple of the slugs hit the building.

I quit about two weeks after that.

StingU2

Nope... bulletproof fiberglass.

Frankie the Fink

John Gotti - big deal. I'm looking for Jon Voight's Chrysler Le Baron...

MarkL36

I wonder where Dennis Wilson's car is now?

7vettes

It was an interesting car and the owner seemed like a straight shooter (pun unavoidable).

The red hot rod SWC was itself a magnet for folks and the Gotti story made it all the more interesting...............

BOB WINSKI

Gee Frankie, i had his car on display at the cruise night in old town last week.: Sorry i did not get a chace to see you while i was there.Bob W

ps374

This story is easy enough to prove true or false. What was the selling dealer. John was raise in Howard Beach Queens New York. If this car was purschased out side of that area I would say the story and car are a myth.

Bowtyeguy

Would a mobster lie?????????/

7vettes

FWIW, here's an enlargement from the write-up on the car's show poster........

sub006

Was the "Shut Down Volume Two" SWC cover car really his? The first "cool" new car Dennis bought was an E-Type Jag AIR. And is that Mike Love's '64 Grand Prix?

Tevroc98

Frankie Look for the pencil in the glove box.

Dan Hampton

Not exactly the provenance I am in looking for in a SWC.

jmajor

I'm an advanced collector of mafia/ganagster items and have never heard of Gotti owning a vintage Vette:

This is a highly unlikely story. Gotti came from an extremly poor family and got married to Victoria Digiorgio in the spring of 1962 which was soon pregnant. In the spring of 1963 Gotti was working as a presser at a coat factory and assistant truck diver. He was a punk involved with petty crime at best and had no money. He didn't start rolling in major crime until the late '60's that would have remotely provided the money to buy a Vette. Vettes weren't exactly mafia shek during this time, a mafia guy with money would have bought a big Caddy.

johnyboy

Got a phone call today from my brother who said, "They're talking about your Gotti Vette on a forum". So I joined today.

The car is a 1963 Split Window Coupe originally silver but Gotti painted it red. Gotti owned the car (with his cousin) until 1977 then sold it to his cousin who moved to Florida in 1977. The car sat outside under a tarp until I bought it in 2008. It was a mess.

Gotti raced the car on the streets of New York for money and continued to modify the car for more speed over the years.

I have restored Corvette's before to factory original but this time I decided to restore this one to the way it was when Gotti raced it. It took 18 months.

I would attach a picture to this note, but don't know how to do it on this forum.

Bob