Victoria Writes a Memoir of the Gotti Family - Part Three

Victoria on the cover of her new book

Victoria as a young girl on the right with her mother and brother Frank

John Sr. on left and John Jr. on right

Victoria as she is today

Victoria and her sons during the hey day of her reality show

Victoria as a young sexy Mafia princess

Columnist and socialite; she was born November 27, 1962 in Brooklyn, New York to convicted mob-boss, John Gotti, and his wife, Victoria DiGiorgio. As a girl, Victoria Gotti was raised in a modest two-story house in Howard Beach, New York, with her four siblings. She was the shy one of the Gotti children; Victoria was so quiet that for several years her parents suspected their daughter was autistic.

Despite claims otherwise, Gotti says her family lived a sheltered, lower middle-class life with old-fashioned family values. Her mother made all of the children's clothes, and cut the girls' hair. As a teenager, her father was a very strict enforcer of curfews and was insistent on screening Victoria's boyfriends.Gotti's father was also frequently in-and-out of jail during her childhood. Her mother told the family that their father was away on business as a plumbing supplier, helping to build a prison facility. "I was raised to believe...none of what you hear, and only half of what you see," Victoria has said of her early years with her father.

The young Gotti daughter was an avid reader and devoted straight-A student. She skipped two grades in high school, entering St. Johns University in 1977, at the age of 15. While she was still attending St. Johns, Victoria was diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse, a condition that makes the heart race, causing dizziness and palpitations. Her condition meant that Gotti needed to watch her health carefully, take regular medication, and occasionally wear a heart monitor.

In March of 1980, Victoria's 12-year-old brother, Frank, was hit by a car after he steered his motorbike into traffic. The accident devastated Victoria, who referred to her brother as her "little doll." Soon after the incident, her mother reportedly hospitalized the driver of the car, John Favara, after she bludgeoned him with a baseball bat. Four months later, Favara was abducted and never seen again. Victoria always claimed she knew nothing of the incident, or her family's involvment in Favara's disappearance.

Despite the tragedy, Gotti was determined to finish college and pursue a law degree, but she dropped out when she decided she was "too shy" to become a lawyer. In 1984, shortly after leaving school, she married her high school sweetheart and "first real boyfriend," scrap-metal dealer, Carmine Agnello. Together, the couple had three sons, Carmine, Frank and John, as well as a daughter, Justine, who was stillborn.

In 1992, when Victoria was 30 years old, her father, John Gotti, was convicted of racketeering and five counts of murder. He was sentenced to life without parole. For Victoria, his imprisonment came as a shock. She denied the court's allegations, and remained devoted to her father. "They don't make men like him anymore," she has said of the alleged mob-boss, "and they never will."

In 1995, Gotti wrote her first book, Women and Mitral Valve Prolapse. Inspired by her own struggle with the illness (she now has a pacemaker), the book documented her heart condition in relatable terms, and was critically acclaimed by patients and doctors alike. This non-fiction success led to her career in fiction writing, and in 1997, her mystery novel The Senator's Daughter hit bookstores to solid reviews.

In a recent interview to promote her latest book, Victoria finally, publicly admitted her mob boss father was a murderer on an episode of 48 Hours Mystery on CBS . Victoria came clean about her thoughts on her dad's life of crime on the show. According to People.com she said:I would lie awake nights and cry. 'Is my dad gonna come home? Is he gonna go to jail again? Is he going to get hurt? Is he gonna get killed?"

John Gotti was the head of the Gambino crime family in New York. He was called the "Teflon Don" before he was finally convicted of 13 murders in 1992. He died of cancer 10 years later while still in prison. It's still unknown how many murders he had a hand in.Victoria has just finished her book 'This Family of Mine': What It Was Like Growing Up Gotti. She said her father approved of the book, and didn't want to be made out to look like a good guy. We certainly hope not.

In Victoria's new tell-all she reveals that she didn't know what her father did for a living until she was in her twenties -- and remarkably didn't know what her husband did either! The mob wool was still over Victoria's youthful eyes when she married ex-hubby Carmine Agnello. She didn't know about his life of crime until 15 years after the wedding! "When he got arrested for the first time, I was blown away."

Victoria also recalls chilling events that reminded her of the life her family lived -- including when her mother stabbed her father with a fork, and when her own husband held a gun to her face. "He was on top of me. I woke up, literally opened my eyes to the barrel of the gun." Gotti may be breaking the crime family code of silence, but she maintains she was given her father's blessing to talk. "He said, 'I have to tell you, don't make me out to look like an altar boy 'cause I wasn't."

The mafia princess also opened up about the mysterious disappearance of the neighbor who killed her brother Frank in a car accident. "I wanted revenge," Gotti admits, adding that most people believed her father granted that wish. Victoria herself believes her father was innocent. "Ironically, this was something someone did and they thought they were gonna get a pat on the back."

Gotti also believes that brother John Jr. -- now awaiting trial on murder and racketeering charges -- is innocent. "John has never killed anybody. John was never a hardened gangster, per se." According to Victoria, John shied away from the family business, and John Sr. was happy to let him go. For more on Victoria's life in a crime family, pick up a copy of "This Family of Mine."

Victoria who has had some financial setbacks since her show went off the air has just made a deal with the feds that would have made her late father proud.Gotti will get to keep her Long Island mansion, which she was about to lose to foreclosure, by agreeing to pay an undisclosed sum for 11 commercial properties previously owned by her ex-husband, Carmine Agnello.

Agnello, who got out of prison earlier this year, still owes the government $7 million of a $10 million ruling against him. Until the deal was made, Agnello's mother owned the properties and was attempting to sell them. Agnello probably put the properties in his mother's name to keep them safe from the feds until he got out of prison. She may have been trying to sell them to give him the proceeds . It would have helped pay down the money he owes Uncle Sam.

Victoria will now be able to sell the properties to pay off the $700,000 currently owed on the mortgage on her home -- a mortage she says Agnello took out without her knowledge and neglected to tell her about when she was awarded the house during the divorce settlement.

The Gotti inheritance seems to be a notoriety that never fades.It moves down the line, engulfing one family member after another.We have yet to hear from John Gotti's grandchildren. It's only a matter of time.