Something’s wrong when a miserable killer-racketeer gets so much attention.

Something is wrong in a society that seems so eager to follow and even embrace a personality as sociopathic as the late John Gotti, the infamous organized crime leader in the East.

Gotti, the heralded Teflon Don, so labeled because of his ability to avoid convictions, died in a Missouri prison recently of throat cancer. He had orchestrated murder after murder and one criminal activity after another during his reign. His career resume should leave most considering him despicable. He was noted for, among other things, having someone killed if that member of his clan was unable to make a scheduled meeting.

Yet the flamboyant Gotti retained a strong following not only among his fellow hoodlums and their families but with many others who had a strange affinity for such a misfit. He killed, maimed and racketeered with the top criminals in our history. He relished showing off in his $2,000 suits, in effect thumbing his nose at law enforcement and our courts.

Also amazing was the extensive media coverage, print and broadcast, that his death and infamous career drew. In many instances, Gotti’s death became front-page news. One New York City paper actually published a special “souvenir” section on the Dapper Don, something that readers could pull out and save the way local people do special events like our 1951 flood, the Kansas University Edition and KU basketball achievements.

It should be pointed out that among the most critical of the lionizing efforts of Gotti are numerous Italian Americans, who are embarrassed by him and the Mafia-style crimes with which Italians are associated  because of people such as John Gotti.

“My God,” exclaimed one female television talk show hostess with an Italian heritage. “They give him a whole section, a bum like that! What are they going to do when somebody like Pavarotti (famed Italian opera star and vocalist) dies?” It’s an interesting perspective.

The Gotti funeral drew hundreds of cars and countless floral displays. Among the mourners, of course, were many associates or wanna-bes who went out of their way to obscure their faces from still cameras and avert glances into television lenses. We wonder why.

But such people are confirmed crooks. What about the many decent people who still find a Gotti fascinating and in some cases secretly identify with him and his nefarious record? The Gotti fixation by so many from so many walks of life is not an encouraging sign about the condition of our morality.