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The following is paraphrased from an article in today's New York Times.
Curtis Sliwa was a founder of the Guardian Angels and had a radio show in New York City. In 1992, he was attacked and shot. New court testimony shows that the attack was ordered by John Gotti Jr., the crime boss who is known as "Junior".
They planned to beat him up as he got into a cab. But the plan went awry. The cab almost ran out of gas. Then two partygoing couples who were trying to get a ride in the cab had to be shooed away, and when Sliwa finally jumped in, he fought off his attackers aggressively. As a result, Sliwa was shot.
The attack was personally planned by Gotti. They rigged a stolen cab so that Sliwa would not be able to get out of the back seat. Gotti even dug into a closet to find a cabby's cap and vest to help the driver look the part.
"He's getting personal, I want to get personal," Gotti said of Mr. Sliwa as he issued instructions for the attack. Gotti said his father, John J. Gotti, had given the original order from the federal prison. Father and son were enraged that Sliwa had denounced them as thugs and crooks on the radio.
Mr. Sliwa had insisted all along that the Gottis were behind the taxicab attack, in which he was shot five times. At the time, Sliwa and the Guardian Angels were battling publicly with the New York police. Police ruled out any connection to the Gambino crime family a month after the assault.
The mobsters had discussed the best way to handle Sliwa. One mobster wondered why they did not "just shoot him in the knee." Gotti responded, "I want him to know we got our hands on him. I want him to know we could do this at any time. "
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