Dapper Don John Gotti got a clapping, cheering, weeping sendoff yesterday from wiseguys, wannabes and ordinaryfellas who filled the streets as the outlaw hero took his final ride.
“Goodbye John! Goodbye John!” screamed dozens of weeping mourners who banged on the windows of Gotti’s hearse when it stopped at one of his old haunts, the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club in Ozone Park, Queens.
People ran after the car as it sped off.
“John Gotti Will Live Forever,” read a huge banner unfurled on a Long Island Rail Road bridge nearby.
A similar banner hung from a four-story building that Gotti used to stage fireworks displays on July 4.
The godfather of the Gambino crime family, inmate No. 182-053, died in a prison hospital in Springfield, Mo., at age 61 on Monday after battling cancer for four years.
His last ride – 13 miles – began at 10:30 a.m. after 400 mourners attended a somber ceremony at the Papavero Funeral Home in Maspeth.
Eight pallbearers then carried his bronze casket into a pearl-gray hearse.
In front of the hearse were 20 limousines carrying spectacular displays of flowers – including a racehorse, cards in a royal flush, a huge brown cigar and a martini glass with olives.
Behind the hearse were 21 limousines for family and friends, and behind those were dozens of other vehicles, bringing the total to about 100.
“He’s the last of the old-time gangsters,” said Frank Savino, 46, who was standing outside the funeral home when the procession – which stretched for more than a mile – began to move.
“He treated the neighborhood good. What he did for a living is his business.”
Millie Russo, another onlooker, agreed, saying, “I don’t see anything wrong with the man. He didn’t harm people. He went after people in his own business.”
The motorcade’s first stop was the Gotti two-story brick house in Howard Beach, where there were dozens of people, many carrying flowers or candles.
Next came the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club, where the notorious mobster received thunderous applause from thousands of people who lined the streets and snapped pictures.
“He was very charismatic. A man who always dressed well and always a real gentleman,” said Gina Zadubera. “His life of crime was very interesting – something for the movies.”
At noon, the motorcade arrived at St. John Cemetery in Middle Village, where some of New York’s most infamous mobsters are sleeping the big sleep.
The casket was carried into a wood-paneled chapel, where mourners placed roses in urns on either side of it.
Monsignor Joseph Pfeiffer of St. Helen’s Church in Howard Beach held a short prayer service, asking God to comfort the family and “to forgive John for any sins he committed in his life from human weakness.”
Gotti’s daughter, Victoria, her eyes bloodshot from weeping, sat in a front-row pew with her head bowed.
After the service, the casket was taken to family mausoleum, where Gotti lies next to his son Frank, who was run over at the age of 12 by a neighbor. The neighbor vanished, and cops believe he was brutally murdered.
Outside the chapel and the gates to the cemetery were some 400 people, including three protesters who carried signs reading, “Why glorify?” and “Fanfare for 9/11 Heroes, Not Criminals.”
But the protesters were far outnumbered by admirers, including Louis DeVictoria, 17. “If seven million people in New York love him, how can he be bad?” said DeVictoria.
Mike Sfera, 23, who lived two blocks away from Gotti in Howard Beach, agreed.
“To the people in the neighborhood, he was always a gentleman,” he said. “No matter what his business was, he always took care of his neighbors.”