After four trials, five years of effort and untold amounts of money dedicated to putting John A. Gotti in prison, the federal government has given up.

On Wednesday evening, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, announced in a terse statement that the government had decided not to further pursue charges against him. The move solidified Mr. Gotti’s legendary record against the federal government, which has tried four times to have him convicted of charges including racketeering and murder conspiracy. Each case ended in a mistrial.



“In light of the circumstances, the government has decided not to proceed with the prosecution against John A. Gotti,” Mr. Bharara said in the statement. “Today we submitted a proposed order of nolle prosequi to the court. The order has been approved by the presiding United States district judge, and thus the prosecution of the case has ended.”

The order — a Latin phrase meaning “to be unwilling to pursue” — ended a saga that began in 2004, when Mr. Gotti was charged with securities fraud, extortion and loan sharking. Among the charges he faced in the four trials were accusations that he plotted to kidnap the radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa, murdered at least two men and ran a vast drug trafficking ring.

Mr. Gotti employed an unusual defense, saying he had once been a gangster, even taking the reins of the Gambino crime family, but asserting that he had broken ties with the mob and was not guilty of the crimes he was accused of. This semiconfession apparently persuaded some jurors each time.

After Mr. Gotti’s final trial, which ended in early December, jurors said the government should end its pursuit of Mr. Gotti. “They should stop this now — it’s ridiculous,” one juror said.

Mr. Gotti can now claim a record of sorts that surpasses that of his father, John J. Gotti, who earned the nickname Teflon Don after avoiding conviction by the federal government three times. On the government’s fourth try, in 1992, the senior Gotti was convicted of racketeering and murder and sent to prison. He died in prison 10 years later.