as the 1940s. Major figures in organized crime had always been perp-walked when arrested. Later in the 1980s, one of these, John Gotti, head of the Mafia's Gambino family, "took the perp walk to a whole new level", according to Miller. He made his walks wearing the expensive custom-tailored suits that earned him the "Dapper Don" nickname. Reporters would politely ask him how he was doing as he walked. A Times freelancer once asked him the question in formal Italian: "Buona sera, signore, come sta?". Gotti responded in kind "Bene, grazie" and turned to the cameras and smiled, giving the photographers and television cameras the memorable image they had sought. During the Whitewater investigation in the 1990s, Susan McDougal, held in contempt for refusing to testify before special prosecutor Kenneth Starr's grand jury, was perp-walked wearing leg irons and a waist chain as well as handcuffs, which she wore over an ensemble consisting of a jacket, white blouse, miniskirt, black stockings and high heels. Starr was criticized for what was seen as a gratuitous attempt to humiliate an uncooperative witness. He claimed his office had nothing to do with the level of restraint she wore, and the marshals' service said that was standard for all prisoners in transit. In 1995 Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, already in Oklahoma Highway Patrol custody for a firearms violation, was paraded before television cameras by the FBI nearly three hours before he was officially arrested for the bombing. His lawyers later asked to have eyewitness identifications of him excluded from evidence, on the grounds that they were all based on the widely televised perp walk and none of the witness had been asked to pick him out of a lineup. 1990s–present: Legal challenges and resumption Some of the NYPD's own officers were subjected to a notable perp walk in 1994. After a wide-ranging investigation found extensive corruption at the 30th Precinct in Harlem, a large group of officers were arrested in uniform and led out in handcuffs before the media. William Bratton, then the city's new police commissioner was present, holding a news conference to announce the arrests. He removed the officers' badges, with the cameras rolling, and threw them in the garbage. In the late 1990s, the NYPD stopped doing perp walks when one led to a lawsuit. John Lauro, doorman at an Upper East Side apartment building, was arrested on theft charges