John Gotti was a Silver Star/Meteor Regular

Recently History Channel came out with a lengthy multi-part documentary on the Italian Mafia, and John Gotti was one of the most high profile "dons" or leaders in the mafia during the 1980's. Evidently his cousin was victim of a private jet crash and after that Gotti (a murderous psycho thug) swore off jets as too scary. He had a house in Florida that he rode Amtrak to frequently.

Anybody ever hear of this? Any stores of one of the most evil criminals in modern times (responsible for billions of dollars in heroin importing and ordering murders in the double or triple digits) travelling by Silver train? I've never heard of him owning a private car, but I can't imagine a multi-millionaire riding in a 10&6 with some retirees from Paramus. If he did ride in sleeper, he probably bought the entire car for him and his friends. He was also a very high profile and popular guy in his prime - lost of folks thought he stole from the rich and gave to the poor (he had very good PR) so he would be mobbed wherever he went.

I'm still trying to get my mind around this one.

I've heard elsewhere that before private jets were affordable and more commonplace, the OC folks did regularly travel between NYC and MIA by train, especially after magnetometers were mandated at airports. Guys like that don't go anywhere unarmed, and the railroad didn't screen passengers or bags.

Reportedly when legendary gangster "Whitey" Bulger fled Boston for Southern California in 1995 with the Mass. State Police closing in (after a lengthy investigation sabotaged by the FBI, them being on Bulger's side) and a
major indictment filed, he took the cross country train, NY to LA.

If you could buy the ticket under a false name, which is harder now when credit cards are required to buy tickets, you could hide pretty well in a sleeper cabin. It might get boring but if that's the price to pay to hide out from Johnny Law and not go to prison for a decade, it might make sense.

Tadman wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2024 7:46 pm If you could buy the ticket under a false name, which is harder now when credit cards are required to buy tickets, you could hide pretty well in a sleeper cabin. It might get boring but if that's the price to pay to hide out from Johnny Law.

Much like Narrow Margin (1952 and the 1990 version) or the chase scene in North By Northwest.