The put-upon ex-wife of jailed mob boss Peter Gotti can’t collect the meager city pension she’s owed, according to a filing in Brooklyn federal court.
After a very public and acrimonious divorce battle, Catherine Gotti – who discovered her husband’s love letters to his mistress while he was in jail – won the right to keep the couple’s Howard Beach, Queens, home and a paltry 71 percent of his $2,011 pension.
But she’s not getting even that.
According to the filing, the government is garnisheeing her portion along with her husband’s, and has been since December 2005. Gotti, the brother of notorious “Dapper Don” John Gotti and a retired city Department of Sanitation worker, is entitled to a disability pension from the agency.
“The amount garnished is more than the January 2005 writ of garnishment permits; amounts of pension owned by Catherine Gotti are not and should not be subject to garnishment,” her filing states.
A law enforcement source said the court was never made aware of the divorce settlement between the mobster and his ex-wife and didn’t know she was supposed to be receiving most of the monthly pension.
But a 2005 letter included in the filing from the city retirement system says the U.S. Attorney’s office put a restraining order on Gotti’s pension, barring them from making any disbursements.
Catherine Gotti’s attorney, Dustin Bowman, would not comment. The U.S. Attorney’s office also declined comment.
Peter and Catherine Gotti were married in 1961. The union hit the skids after Catherine came across her husband’s letters to his mistress, Marjorie Alexander. Alexander committed suicide in a Long Island motel in 2004.
When the mob couple’s divorce was finalized last year, Catherine told The Post she had to take on a job as a receptionist to keep up with bills.
Peter Gotti was sentenced to 25 years in 2005 for trying to kill Gambino turncoat Salvatore “Sammy Bull” Gravano. He’s still serving a 91/2-year sentence for a previous racketeering conviction.