By Keith Idec

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Joe Gatti stood inside an unofficial shrine to his late younger brother on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon in September.

Behind the bar at Ringside Lounge, a boxing-themed tavern right on Routes 1&9 in Arturo Gatti’s adopted hometown, it is clear Joe Gatti gets along well with its owner, Mario Costa. They’re talking to a couple regulars seated on stools at the end of a long bar, near where a picture of Ida Gatti, the mother of Joe, Arturo and four other children, is prominently displayed.

She is holding one of Arturo Gatti’s championship belts in the photo, taken outside a Montreal church the day of Gatti’s funeral 16 months ago. Ida Gatti would not have approved had she seen what occurred on the other side of this bar a couple weeks earlier.

On a fittingly gloomy, rainy day, Amanda Rodrigues-Gatti, Arturo’s heavily scrutinized widow, walked through that same space with their son, Arturo Jr., in tow. Costa claims her trip to Ringside was arranged solely so that Mike Tyson, Costa’s longtime friend, could meet the son of a fan favorite Tyson admired.

Tyson, who has had a pigeon coop for years atop an adjacent apartment building owned by Costa, was in town filming episodes for “Taking On Tyson,” a show about competitive pigeon racing that’ll debut on Animal Planet in January. The heavyweight legend held Arturo Gatti Jr. and played with him, but that’s not why witnesses were appalled that day.

Two fans of Gatti were disgusted by what they saw, including Arturo Jr. riding his tricycle in an establishment Jersey City officials attempted to close earlier this year because a man was murdered there Dec. 30. Those same men, who requested anonymity, also believe Amanda Gatti was at least involved in Gatti’s death, despite that Brazilian authorities have ruled that Gatti, 37, committed suicide July 11, 2009, in Porto de Galihnas, Brazil.

Here’s where Arturo Gatti’s sad, strange saga grows even more mysterious — Joe Gatti urged Rodrigues-Gatti to go to Ringside, largely because Joe Gatti is convinced she is innocent of any wrongdoing related to his brother’s death. That’s the complete opposite of what virtually all of Arturo Gatti’s family members and friends believe, but Joe Gatti doesn’t think there’s any reason to apologize for trusting his instincts.

“I’m not even talking to my family, not because I’m choosing sides, but because I wanted to see Junior,” Joe Gatti said. “That makes me on her side, I guess. I don’t know, but she didn’t do it. So what do you want me to do, crucify the lady? I can’t. What do you want me to do?”

Anna Gatti, Joe’s older sister, wants him to stop spending time with Rodrigues-Gatti, whose turbulent relationship with Arturo Gatti began in August 2006 at Squeeze Lounge, a go-go bar in Weehawken, N.J., and led to their violence-marred marriage about a year later.

“I don’t know what’s going on in Joe’s brain or mind or whatever,” Anna Gatti said. “First of all, he doesn’t know her. He never met her [when Arturo was alive]. I’m sorry to talk about my brother that way, but he was jealous of Arturo from Day One, from when he one the championship. So that’s what it is, basically jealousy and it’s sad to say that.”

Arturo Gatti tagged along with his big brother to Jersey City in 1990, when Joe Gatti was the promising prospect in the family. Arturo Gatti was an afterthought then, but eventually became boxing’s beloved “blood and guts warrior.”

While Joe Gatti enjoyed a respectable professional career from 1987-2002, he lost his shots at the IBF super middleweight title (Sven Ottke) and the WBC junior middleweight crown (Terry Norris). He retired with a 30-8 record, including 22 knockouts.

His younger brother, however, won the IBF junior lightweight and WBC junior welterweight titles, was one of HBO’s featured fighters for more than a decade and earned more than $30 million in purses. Arturo Gatti’s huge heart, incredible recuperative powers and often-stunning slugfests assured him stardom, despite that he never received pound-for-pound consideration. Gatti became such big business in New Jersey that he drew capacity crowds in excess of 11,000 to Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City for 11 straight fights from 2002-2007.

But Joe Gatti and Mario Costa watched much of Gatti’s celebrated career from afar, for various reasons, depending upon who’s telling the story. Though later estranged, Arturo and Joe Gatti lived in one of Costa’s Manhattan Avenue apartments, a stone’s throw across the highway from Ringside, when they arrived in Jersey City two decades ago.

Arturo Gatti eventually moved all across New Jersey — from Jersey City, to Middletown, to Weehawken, to Mahwah, to Hoboken, to Marlboro — before he moved to Montreal with Amanda after their marriage three years ago. Joe Gatti got married years earlier, and moved to Bayonne before settling in Oakland, N.J.

It was in his Oakland home earlier this year that Amanda Gatti convinced Joe Gatti that she didn’t have anything to do with his brother’s death.

“I wanted to meet Junior and I wanted to meet her and talk to her,” Joe Gatti said. “I mean, she would have to have some bananas to do that to my brother and then show up to my house. You could do anything [to someone] in your house. We all know that.

“I looked in her face. I’m not a professional, but she wasn’t trying to hide, [trying] not look me in the eye and look the other way … her walking into my house, right there it shows me. If I invite you and you did something wrong, you’re not walking into my house. You don’t know what you’re expecting, and she did it, no problem. To me, [that means] she was not guilty. What else do you want me to say?”

Those that are equally convinced that Arturo Gatti didn’t commit suicide want a Quebec Superior Court judge to say on an undetermined date that Gatti’s estimated $6 million estate will be awarded to Arturo Gatti Jr. and Sofia Gatti, his 4-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. Gatti changed his will three weeks before he died, though, and left everything to Rodrigues-Gatti, who signed a prenuptial agreement three years ago.

Gatti’s will switch was one of numerous mysterious moments during the weeks preceding his death that raised suspicions among Gatti’s family members and friends, most of whom declined interview requests.

They cannot comprehend how Amanda Gatti thought her husband was drunk, sleeping one off on the kitchen floor, that infamous morning. They’re also distrustful of the Brazilian authorities that arrested Amanda Gatti in the immediate aftermath of his death and indicated she was a primary suspect in his “murder,” only to release her 18 days later without charging her.

The well-documented details surrounding Gatti’s death prompted Dr. Michael Baden — the famed forensic pathologist Pat Lynch, Gatti’s manager and close friend, hired to investigate Gatti’s death — to determine Gatti didn’t hang himself, as Brazilian authorities ruled. It seems, though, that the odds of Brazilian investigators re-opening the Gatti case are extremely slim.

The only court proceedings planned pertaining to Gatti’s death will be scheduled in Montreal later this year. Anna Gatti alleges that Joe Gatti has had the judge’s impending decision in mind while befriending Rodrigues-Gatti.

“Even when he’s dead they’re fighting for his money,” Anna Gatti said, referring to Gatti and Costa. “They won’t even leave him to rest in peace. They’re still back-stabbing and disrespecting him when he’s dead. They’re hoping she gets the money and gives some of it to them.”

Costa counters that he harbors no ulterior motives, that he just wants the world to know “the truth about Arthur,” how he lived more than just a rock star’s existence. When asked to elaborate, Costa claimed the time would be right in the near future to discuss Gatti’s “demons.”

Joe Gatti was more direct.

“Everybody forgets the problems that my brother had,” Joe Gatti said, reiterating his belief that Arturo Gatti hanged himself with Amanda’s purse strap, a theory Baden dismissed as “unlikely” in his final report. “They’re all in denial. I’m not, because I know what happened. Even though I was on the outside, I know the truth. Unfortunately, it was bound to happen. It happened to [occur] in Brazil, and [Amanda] was there.”

None of this, unfortunately, will bring back their brother. Nor does it help their mother’s heart heal up in Montreal.

“Joe, he’s worried about what’s coming up or about her, or that she didn’t kill him,” Anna Gatti said. “He didn’t even know [Amanda when Arturo was alive]. He should find out what happened to his brother. That’s what he should find out.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.