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That leaves the remaining capos jockeying for position, a scramble that began long before the trial was announced. With such enormous stakes, the godfather race could touch off a Gambino war. Three candidates lead the field. Capo James "Jimmy Brown" Failla has a strong track record in running the ; lucrative private garbage-carting business, but at 73 he may lack the stamina for big-time crime. Joseph "Butch" Corrao can cite success in overseeing gambling, restaurants and loan-sharking in Manhattan's Little Italy. Then there is John Gotti Jr., 28, cut from the same cloth as his father but widely disliked. Tommy Gambino, son of the family's founding father, once seemed a likely successor, but in February he pled guilty to antitrust charges and was ordered to abandon the trucking monopoly that gave the family control of the garment center.
The toll taken by internal warfare is reflected in the fading power of New York's Lucchese, Bonanno and Colombo families. The Genovese family, the Gambinos' rival for power, has not been as hard hit by internal strife. The Genoveses, with only 300 soldiers, may find this an ideal time to muscle the Gambinos out of some of their business.
Nowhere across la Cosa Nostra is there a leader with the clout and thuggish charisma of John Gotti. Following the verdict, Gotti's distraught daughter, Vicki Agnelli, hurled an angry comment at reporters: "My father is the last of the Mohicans. They don't make men like him anymore. They never will." Law- enforcement officials surely hope she is right.