John Gotti, Jr., the son of one of the most notorious mobsters in American history, got out of prison on Wednesday after serving six years for racketeering.
A week ago a mistrial was declared in another case against Gotti that alleged he ordered the 1992 kidnapping of Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa is the founder of the Guardian Angels, a civilian crime-fighting group, and claims John Gotti, Jr. was behind a bloody attempt to murder him 13 years ago.
Sliwa joined MSNBC's Tucker Carlson on "The Situation" Wednesday.
To read an excerpt of their conversation, continue to the text below. To watch the video, click on the "Launch" button to the right.
TUCKER CARLSON: So, how does it feel to see the guy you say tried to have you killed get out of prison? That's like a nightmare.
CURTIS SLIWA, FOUNDER OF THE GUARDIAN ANGELS: Well, remember, every time I see this guy's mug I feel like a human pinata again because I relive the baseball bat attacks against me in the summer of 1992, followed up quickly by the shooting in a cab that aerated my intestines, and if I hadn't jumped out of that moving cab through an open window, I probably would have been room temperature and a human speed bump.
So, yes, it causes me a great deal of duress and anger and I look and I say, "Judge, how could you let this marauder, this enemy of society out?" He's got a target on my back. Don't you realize three might be the lucky charm for him?
CARLSON: Well, wait a second. Why are you blaming the judge when it was the jury who couldn't reach a decision? This mistrial was the result of their indecision. I mean how could they not have convicted this guy?
SLIWA: Well, Tucker, I can't blame all the jury because on four of the major counts, eleven of them found him guilty. It was a lone holdout juror. In the conspiracy to kidnap me, ten found him guilty, two were holdouts. So, obviously there was division and that's why it's a hung jury and we've got to go back and do it all over again on February 13 of 2006.
But I'll never forget the judge saying "I can't believe anyone would be crazy enough, if I were to release him on bail, John Gotti, Jr., to go out and commit crimes." I'm saying, "Judge, down to the marrow of his bone he's a member of organized crime. He's the head of the Gambino crime family. He's been responsible for murders, racketeering, extortion, bending legs, stuffing it in people's pocket." Where did he go at one point in his life to resign from La Cosa Nostra? Is there a booth you go to ... where you get a pension and welfare?
CARLSON: Curtis, haven't you been reading the tabloids? He's a reformed man. Now his sister, Victoria, along with her kids, has achieved some celebrity on cable television. What do you think of her? Do you know her?
SLIWA: You mean Victoria Gottilocks and the three little Dons, the glorification of the Gotti family takes place on the A&E reality show and, in fact, it became a bone of contention in the bail hearing because she put up that 14-room mansion in Old Westbury in Long Island as part of the collateral.
And I was like just chomping at the bit to say, "Judge, don't you realize the $4 million was the result of ill-gotten gain of the husband, Carmine Agnello, who is now in federal prison, who had the biggest chop shop in America, stealing cars and breaking them down for parts?"
"How could you accept that as bail - even the federal government said - and not only that judge, there are liens on the property." But the judge seemed to have window shades on her eyes and she allowed him to have his homecoming.
CARLSON: So, do you think you're going to get whacked? I mean are you worried he's going to try and kill you now that he's out?
SLIWA: Tucker.
CARLSON: Curtis.
SLIWA: I've seen the odds in Atlantic City, right, and Las Vegas that I am a dead man walking. I got to do the rope-a-dope and it's not that John Gotti, Jr. is going to do this, no.
But one of his up-and-coming young wannabes who want to earn their stripes, make their bones, would love to brain me and basically turn me into a pine box that's shoved six feet underground and I'm pushing daisies because, let's face it, they don't want me to get in the witness box and redo it all again in February 13 of 2006. Without me, let's face it, the case pretty much falls apart.
CARLSON: Damn, I'd move to a foreign country if I were you, Curtis Sliwa, but I sense you're going to stay right here in New York and I hope you're going to join us again. Good luck.
SLIWA: Well, right in his face every day of my life until God himself calls me up.