Gotti suffers cancer relapse

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Organized crime boss John Gotti is reportedly fighting a cancer relapse.

Gotti, who is serving a life sentence for murder and racketeering, is being treated at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, prison officials said Friday.

Gotti, who turns 60 next month, was transferred from the federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, to the prison hospital on September 13, said hospital spokesman Dianne Smith.

Neither Smith nor Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Tracy Billingsley would disclose the nature of Gotti's illness or course of treatment.

The New York Daily News reported Friday that Gotti is suffering from throat cancer.

Doctors removed a malignant tumor from his throat two years ago.

Federal prosecutors identified Gotti as head of the New York-based Gambino crime family.

After winning acquittals in his first three criminal trials, Gotti earned the nickname the "Teflon Don." He was convicted of the murder and racketeering charges in 1992.

His son, John A. Gotti, last year began serving a six-year federal sentence for racketeering, bribery, and tax evasion in an upstate New York prison.

Like father like son: 'Junior' Gotti goes to jail
September 3, 1999
"Dapper Don" diagnosed with cancer
September 23, 1998
FBI goes after Gotti's apparent successor
December 18, 1996
Gotti may face even tougher sentence -- from mob
November 14, 1996

Federal Bureau of Prisons

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