The late John Gotti, probably the last of the American mafia godfathers, was a terrible crime boss. But on the public stage, he played a great mobster. As head of the Gambino mafia family in New York, he did nearly everything wrong. But in the role of mobster, he was almost perfect -- perfect in the sense that he met the popular media's expectations of what a mobster ought to be, particularly a man of the mafia.

Gotti's crime family and much of the mafia fell into ruin during his time at the top. But he became the most famous mobster of the second half of the 20th Century. That is because he won trials in the world's media capital and swaggered in the ensuing spotlight the way the media wants mob bosses to swagger. He was right out of central casting -- he looked like a gangster, he talked like one and acted like one. Offstage, he was a criminal failure. The story of John Gotti is a case of life imitating art imitating life.
 
 

Date: Thursday, 23 Jan 2003

Time: 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Venue: 14/F, Senior Common Room, K.K. Leung Bldg., The University of Hong Kong.
 

Dr. Gene Mustain --- Thirty-three years' experience as an author, journalist and teacher. Writer of three non-fiction books and hundreds of articles in newspapers and magazines around the world. Staff writer and correspondent for two major U.S. newspapers. Managing editor of daily and weekly community newspapers. Producer and/or consultant for U.S. television news documentaries and a Home Box Office feature film. Full-time or part-time lecturer on writing, reporting and literary journalism at universities in New York, Hong Kong and Chicago. Fellow of the Salzburg Seminar in Austria. More than 200 interviews in publications and on radio/ television news shows.