Betrayal, Death in New York

Letters about Peter Gotti, reputed head of the Gambino crime family, addressed to the federal judge who is to sentence him later this month have shattered omerta, the code of silence extending to mob wives and mistresses.

“His self-serving greed and his philandering has put him where he is,” Catherine Gotti wrote of her husband, who was convicted last year of money laundering and racketeering. He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.

“The prosecutors and the jury should be praised for their hard work and dedication,” Catherine Gotti continued. “Please don’t waste your sympathy on him or any of his cohorts.”

But Gotti’s longtime mistress, Marjorie Alexander, apparently saw things differently.

In one of six letters to U.S. District Judge Frederick Block, she called the 64-year-old alleged mobster her “soul mate” and castigated prosecutors for embarking on a witch hunt.

The saga took another turn when Alexander, 43, was found dead Wednesday at a Red Roof Inn in Westbury, N.Y. Detectives have said her death was probably a suicide, but an autopsy is pending.

New York’s tabloids, meanwhile, have been having a field day with the story of the competing letters and lovers.

The New York Post, which obtained copies of Catherine Gotti’s angry words, filled its front page Wednesday with the headline “Gotti Moll Dead.”

In her letter to Block, Gotti’s wife told the judge that she had sentenced herself to “42 years of abuse and humiliation” and that the lives of her four children and seven grandchildren had been ruined. The couple are in the middle of a divorce.

“I hope with all my heart, when he comes before you for sentencing, that you will levy the maximum penalty possible,” she said.

Catherine Gotti did not attend the trial of her husband -- whom prosecutors say assumed leadership of the Gambino family in 1992 after his brother John Gotti received a life sentence in prison. John Gotti died of cancer in 2002.

Compared with his flamboyant brother, whom the media had nicknamed the “Dapper Don,” Peter Gotti -- a former sanitation worker -- has seemed an unlikely and somewhat drab don.

His lawyers have requested a reduced sentence, saying he is blind in one eye, and has a thyroid condition and other medical issues.

Through it all, however, Alexander regularly came to the courthouse to lend support.

Police said Alexander’s body was discovered by the staff in a third-floor room along with several notes. Her family had reported her missing Tuesday.