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To John Gotti Junior his mob boss father was simply 'dad'.

He only realised his father, John Gotti, was a key figure in the mafia when he was profiled on TV and his school classmates reacted with awe.

But the clues were there. Gotti Jr was banned from dressing as a police officer for Halloween, such was his father's hatred for the authorities.

And when Gotti Jr was found out to be paying the postman not to deliver notes home about his truancy, he was packed off to military school.

There is is little doubt Gotti senior was the most flamboyant, most colorful, most powerful, most public gangster in the second half of last century.

Details of his life inspired television series like the Sopranos and unlike many underworld figures lived his life on the front pages.

He avoided justice three times and earned the nickname "Teflon don".

But then, in 1992, he was convicted of a string of crimes including five murders and sentenced to life in prison, only to die a decade later of throat cancer.

Gotti Jnr idolised his father and took over some of the business interests when he was jailed and himself was unsuccessfully prosecuted for racketeering.

Now speaking in a four part documentary on History UK he has given fascinating detail about what it was like to be a child growing up with a notorious father.

(Image: Getty Images)

Criminal dad

"From the time I was, you know I guess up until I was 13 and my father had done about nine years in prison.

"You know all your friends their fathers are around and active in their lives, but, you know my father was, for the most part absent.

"The kids would giggle and say, you know, you don’t have a father. Your father’s not coming home. Yeah your mother’s a single parent.

"I’d go home and I would share that with my mother.

"Bless her heart, my mother, love her to death rollers in her hair, slippers on, Vicki Gotti walking down the block, and call out the parent.

"My mother protected us like a fierce mother bear. But she made our home probably as normal as possible.

"I mean, she did all the things that the other kids, their parents were doing. Take me to my little league games.

"We put a lot of emphasis on holidays, birthdays, Christmases. We did all the things that other people would do.

"It was pretty joyous, pretty joyous growing up in our house."

(Image: NY Daily News via Getty Images)

Homecoming of Gotti from prison

"One day we’re playing in the block, the middle of the block and I remember saying my father’s coming home today.

"And they were all like yeah. Hey ma, John’s father’s coming home today. It was a joke. It was a joke.

"About an hour goes by, this beautiful, brand new chocolate brown Lincoln Continental Mk IV comes rolling down the block slowly.

"The windows come down. And I turn and I said 'there’s my father. He’s home, see, I told you'. Everybody stopped.

"You could hear a mouse p*** on cotton. Everybody stopped.

"He says 'where’s the house'? I says 'down the block dad, it’s the house with the green awning, I’ll see you over there'. He pulls into the driveway and I run down the block.

(Image: Getty Images)

"Gets out of the car, his hair is jet black. Tony Curtis with muscles. He’s beautiful.

"If you could read lips you could see that the mothers, my friends’ mothers like, look like holy God. This guy’s a movie star.

"He turns and looks down the block like he was royalty. He gives a regal wave.

"And walks up the stairs and in the house. And that was his entrance back into our lives.

"He says come on, let me see where you sleep. He wants to start digesting as much as he can about me.

"And he sees a Met poster on the wall. And he says you’re a Met fan? I says yeah. He says, 'I’m a Yankee fan'.

"He gives me a kiss on top of the head. He walks out and then he walks into the room with my mother.

"And I stood for a second and I stared for a bit at the poster. And I just walked over and tore it down. I liked what he likes, that’s it."

Charming dad

"It’s intoxicating. My father’s charisma was, on a scale of one to 10, it was 11.

"And I watched all the people come and go every day, gravitate to him and circle around him, and want to please him. And

"I just wanted to be like him.

"Most sons aspire to be like their father in some way, shape or form.

"If my father had told me, John we’re butchers. That’s who we are, so go get a smock.

"And I would put my smock on, I would tie it in the back and I would start cutting the meat."

Playing truant like Henry Hill in Goodfellas

"My father came home when I was 13. I was still in Junior High School. I started high school at 14 years old.

"And school wasn’t for me. So I became what’s called as a constant truant.

"Back then in high school they would send these little yellow cards to your house.

"And I made a hook with the mailman that I told him, every time one of those cards comes to the house, if you give it to me I’ll give you two dollars every time.

(Image: New York Daily News)

"Those cards were coming fast and furious to my house and this guy made a nice little racket going with me.

"My mother never received one of my absentee cards. She gets a phone call several months into the school year and the dean says to my mother that we’re just calling to inquire about your son.

"'Is he okay?' She says 'sure he is, why would he not be okay?' He says, 'well we haven’t seen him in months'.

"You haven’t seen him in months? She says 'I watch him every morning getting on the bus. What are you talking about?'

"'Well, we don’t know where he’s going when he gets on that bus, but he’s certainly not coming to Beach Channel High School'.

"When I got home she opened me up.

"My mother was shorter than I was and she was just throwing wild punches, haymakers, body blows and everything else that she could muster up.

"And she says, 'this is only the beginning when your father walks through that door tonight it’s on'.

"And he’s only home at this point, you know, maybe six months or so, you know. He comes in my room.

(Image: NY Daily News via Getty Images)

"Get up. Inside. So I follow him into his den and he says to me, he says, I don’t understand.

"'What do you want to be, a dunski in your life? You think by not going to school you’re gonna accomplish something?

"'You want people to laugh at you? Or you want to leave your mark in a positive way John?'

"I says, 'I want to leave my mark in a positive way. I just don’t like school'.

"'You have to go to school. It’s not an option'. And I’m surprised at this point because usually this guy I’m expecting to roar like a lion.

"He’s being understanding. He says 'look then your only option is I’ll send you to military school'.

"I says 'I’d rather go there. Deal'. And that was it.

(Image: Reuters)

"I said, 'where am I going?' He says 'New York Military Academy, Cornwall on the Hudson. That’s where you’re going'."

A dad at war with other gangsters

"He was on the lam for years. I played in the hockey league.

"So he would sneak to come see me play hockey.

"The car would pull up and he would sneak behind the school yard and he would sit there and watch.

"He’d watch for 15, 20 minutes give me the nod, jump in the car and he would pull away."

Halloween costume ban

"I visited my father, it was, it was Halloween ’71. Hits me on the wrist, he says 'what are you gonna be for Halloween?' I says, 'oh I’m gonna be a cop'.

"'Officer Mike down the street is gonna loan me his hat and the cop stick. And I’m gonna be a cop'.

"The colour came out of his face. He’s looking at me and he stared at me and he turns to my mother.

"He puts his hand in his mouth where I can’t see it and he bites his hand.

(Image: New York Daily News)

"And he says 'what are you doing? What are you doing? You got my kid talking to cops?'

"And she says, 'Johnny he’s a neighbor down the block. He’s being nice.' He turns to me.

"Puts his hand on my wrist and tightly grabs it tight. And he says, 'you listen to me.

"'You don’t talk to no cop. You don’t act like no cop. And you will never be no cop. Do you understand me? Not for Halloween, not for anything'. And I was mortified."

Realisation that his dad was a gangster

"It's 1979, they were doing a TV profile on the garment center (a clothing manufacturing centre where the haulage aspects were controlled by organised crime).

(Image: NY Daily News via Getty Images)

I’m in the Day Room and all of a sudden in the profile, I see my father.

"And they says this man right here… John Gotti... is a fast rising captain in the organization, John Gotti.

"They’ve got the surveillance shot of him and he’s holding court in front of the Ravenite (used as the headquarters of the Gambino crime family).

"And you see, you know, he’s articulating and he’s motioning and you could see he’s John.

"All of a sudden everybody in the room stops and they’re all looking.

"And the one kid turns and says, 'he’s got the same name as you. And another kid says I seen him here.

"'John, your father, that’s your father'. And I’m like 'yeah that’s my father'.

"That opened my eyes more than anything else."

(Image: Getty Images)

Construction

"I was eight years old, so I’d like to go sit in his room and watch him get dressed.

"And he’d be, you know, he’d get in front of the mirror, making sure everything was well aligned, his collar was fixed perfectly.

"He was a very meticulous, fastidious guy. And I’d be watching my father.

"I enjoyed watching my father get dressed. And he always had a stack of hundred dollar bills like this, right on his dresser while he’s getting dressed.

"And I went to look at the money and say that’s a lot of money dad.

"And he said 'it’s all yours. You could have it, do whatever you want with it'. I said 'could I take it now?'

"He said 'you can’t take it right now, but I’ll give it to you some other time. You’re gonna hold it for me?'

"'Yeah, I’m gonna hold it for you. I’ll hold it, I’ll make sure you have that money'.

"And I would grill my father on the fact that that money was there and I wanted to be assured that it was coming to me.

"So at some point I would say, 'well where do you make all that money?' And he says, 'well daddy does construction'.

"I said 'you do construction?' He says 'yeah, I do construction'. I said 'well what’s construction? '

"He says 'we build things. We build things'. He said 'I build things, I build buildings. I build houses'.

"He says 'and sometimes I gamble a little bit too'. I says 'I always see you watching the horses and you’re always, you’re always saying bad words when you’re cheering and you’re always cursing'.

"So at that point, you know, there was a lot of clarity that, you know, my father, I understood that my father was in construction."

Frank Gotti - the brother who died

In March 1980 Frank Gotti, the youngest son in the family, was playing in the street with a motorised scooter when he drove out into the road from behind a dustbin and was struck and killed by a passing car.

A police investigation ruled the driver of the car, neighbour John Favara, was not at fault as the child had ignore the "stop, look, listen" advice of road safety.

However within weeks Favara, who had planned to move with his family from the area, had had the word "murderer" daubed on his property and was attacked with a baseball bat by the child's mother.

The on July 28 he was attacked by men wielding guns and bats and shoved in the back of a van, he was never seen again.

When questioned by two detectives on Favara's disappearance, John Gotti said: "I'm not sorry the guy's missing. I wouldn't be sorry if the guy turned up dead."

It's widely believed he was killed by the mobster's friends and had his body dissolved in acid.

Gotti: Godfather & Son is on History UK on Fridays from the 10 May at 9pm