John Joseph Gotti, Jr., mobster who became boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City, was born in the Bronx on October 27, 1940. Gotti rose to prominence, and evenrually would become the boss of one of the most powerful crime families in America, one that made hundreds of millions of dollars a year from construction, hijacking, loan sharking, gambling, extortion, and other criminal activities. In 1992, Gotti was convicted of five murders, conspiracy to commit murder, racketeering, obstruction of justice, illegal gambling, extortion, tax evasion, and loansharking. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole and was transferred to United States Penitentiary, Marion. Gotti died of throat cancer on June 10, 2002, at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. Find John Gotti at the library, on hoopla, and on OverDrive.

On October 27, 1970, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, who would go on to become the most successful composer-lyricist team in modern theater history, released a double-LP “concept” album called Jesus Christ Superstar, which only later would become the smash-hit Broadway musical of the same name. Find Jesus Christ Superstar at the library, on hoopla, with free downloads from Freegal.

Sylvia Plath, American poet, novelist, and short-story writer, was born in Boston, on October 27, 1932. Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for her two published collections, The Colossus and Other Poems, and Ariel. In 1982, she won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems. She also wrote The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her death. Plath was clinically depressed for most of her adult life. She committed suicide on February 11, 1963. Find Sylvia Plath at the library, and on hoopla.