In this episode of Gangland Wire, I pull back the veil on one of the most pivotal moments in John Gotti's rise through the ranks of the Gambino crime family—the 1973 murder of Jimmy McBratney. As a retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective, I bring a lawman’s eye to the tangled web of revenge, power plays, and myth-making that surrounds this infamous hit.

We start with the murky legend: that Gotti made his bones by taking out McBratney, earning Carlo Gambino’s favor. But like many mob stories, the truth is far more layered. I examine the wave of underworld kidnappings gripping New York in the early '70s, led by Eddie Maloney and his gang, who impersonated cops to abduct mobsters for ransom. Caught in that chaos was Jimmy McBratney—an Irish tough guy with a soft side, a devoted father who hoped to leave the life behind.

Through Maloney’s own words, I draw a portrait of McBratney as more than a casualty of mob politics. We explore his role in the kidnapping racket, the deadly fallout from a botched grab, and the inevitable spiral toward vengeance that would seal his fate.

This episode also delves into the mysterious death of Manny Gambino, nephew of the boss, and how his murder—whether linked to McBratney or not—helped fuel a narrative that demanded retribution. Was Gotti the hand of that justice? Or was the story reshaped later to burnish his legend?

We follow the footsteps of NYPD Detective Raymond Taylor and the team that tracked Gotti down. Their investigation, pieced together from reluctant witnesses and underworld whispers, ultimately cracked open the case—and helped launch the myth of the "Teflon Don."

In the end, this story is more than just a mob hit. It's a study in blurred lines—between law and lore, loyalty and survival. Through wiretaps, memoirs, and police reports, I unravel a tale that speaks to the human cost of life in the shadows—and the power of a story to outlive the truth.

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Transcript

[0:00] Well, hey guys, welcome back to the show. This is Gary Jenkins,

[0:02] retired Kansas City Police Intelligence Unit detective. Well, I have a story about John Gotti and how he made his bones with the murder of Jimmy McBratney and that whole backstory behind that. It seems like with most mob stuff, there's two or three different stories about it. You know, we just have to go with people's memories, but yet mob guys will throw out different stories and, you know, in order to maybe throw the cops off or the agents off. And so you never really know exactly, but you just have to go to the sources of each of these stories and work it back from there. So I'm going to tell you these different stories, and you let me know what you think happened here. You know, the story is he made his bones by killing this Jimmy McBratney and got the respect of Carlo Gambino, which, you know, is mob lore now. Now, in the early 1970s, there was a series of kidnappings of New York City wise guys. and there's a book out there called tough guy the true story of crazy Eddie Maloney and this book Maloney.

[1:05] Discusses in detail some of these kidnappings that he and his gang were involved with and Jimmy McBratney was part of this gang. The two men had met when they were incarcerated at Greenhaven State Prison in New York and they became close friends.

[1:20] Maloney in the book describes McBratney as a devoted family man who stood six foot three, weighed 250 pounds,