“Law enforcement has an obligation to investigate fully and to try and identify and prosecute those people who are responsible for the shootings. A murder makes the whole world a little less safe for everyone—no matter who is murdered.”
U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani
The death of Gambino crime family head, Paul Castellano ruined Giuliani’s plans for a major prosecutorial victory over organized crime. He was hoping to bring down Castellano and the Gambino family and wasn’t happy that three assassins had beaten him to it.
The death of Paul Castellano and his driver, Thomas Bilotti, was accomplished with great ease, considering the man’s stature in the Mafia—the Boss of Bosses. Castellano and his driver, bodyguard and underboss, Bilotti were both unarmed and were not travelling accompanied by another car of armed bodyguards. They were alone, with more than a few individuals aware of their agenda for that day.
It was December 16, 1985, 14 days since the death of Castellano’s underboss, Aniello “Mr. Neil” Dellacroce, a much feared and respected leader in the Gambino crime family. As Dellacroce had been serving as a go-between between Castellano and factions of the Gambino family who were upset with his rule, Castellano should have been more cautious. Instead he was living under a false sense of security.
As head of the Gambino crime family, Castellano, who owned a wholesale meat company, Meat Palace, a distributor of Perdue Chicken, considered himself a legitimate businessman. While he certainly gave orders to eliminate others, he was said to abhor excessive violence and avoided dealing with those who did. As a matter of trade, Castellano ignored many of the hoodlums in his own organization, breeding distrust and disloyalty in many of them.
On this particular day, Castellano was sure he could forge a peace within his family. He was scheduled to meet with several members of his family, including capo John Gotti and Armond Dellacroce, Aniello’s son. Castellano had upset many when he failed to attend Aniello’s wake.
The day was going well. The 70-year-old Boss of Bosses was under indictment on murder-conspiracy charges and running a car theft ring. Court was in recess on the 16th. At 2:30 p.m. he drove to Manhattan to meet with his attorney, James LaRossa, who expressed his belief that due to some uncredible witnesses, the case would turn in his favor. As he had time before his dinner engagement, Castellano set out to do some Christmas shopping.
Having carefully planned the evening’s hit, and aware of Castellano’s agenda, a group of eight to ten men took up position around Sparks Steak House at 210 East 46th Street in downtown Manhattan. A table had been reserved under the name Mr. Boll, for 5:00 p.m. Before 5:00 p.m., Frank DeCicco, Jimmy Failla and Armond Dellacroce entered the restaurant and took their seats.
Castellano and Bilotti were running late and didn’t arrive at Spark’s until shortly after 5:30 p.m. The city streets were busy when Bilotti pulled the car in front of the restaurant and he and Castellano got out. Castellano was immediately approached by three men identically dressed in trenchcoats and fur hats, who opened fire with semi-automatic weapons. He went down, falling backwards, he head coming to rest just inside the car door, his body between the car and curb and his feet stretched out across the sidewalk. Although he was all ready dead, one eyewitness to the scene reported one of the hit men walked over to his body and delivered one gun shot to his head.
Bilotti had no time to react—unarmed, there would have been very little he could have done. At the same time Castellano was being cut down, so was he. According to the book, Mafia Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family by John H. Davis, a witness to the crime scene was able to identify Gotti associate Tony “Roach” Rampino as the man who pumped six bullets into Castellano.
The killers had succeeded and the Boss of Bosses was dead. He’d finally lost a power struggle within the Gambino family, which saw him and future Boss of Bosses, John Gotti at odds with one another. On December 16, 1985, it was Gambino capo John Gotti, accompanied by Sammy “The Bull” Gravano who drove by the prone bodies of Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti just moments after both were murdered.
The Decision
The murder of a Godfather is serious business. A crime that cannot be entered into light-heartedly. Castellano’s death wasn’t. As Ronald Goldstock, director of the State Organized Crime Task Force explained, Castellano’s murder was sanctioned by the heads of New York’s four other crime families for a number of reasons:
- The dispute between the Castellano and Dellacroce factions.
- The belief that Castellano was neglecting the business affairs of the Gambino family because of his legal difficulties.
- In addition to the murder-conspiracy charges, he also faced five other State and Federal indictments.
- The various mob bosses worried that Castellano was becoming careless, and had done nothing to avoid being indicted. They cited as evidence the fact that Federal Agents had been able to successfully bug his Staten Island home.
- Castellano could not meet with various crime family leaders because he was under constant surveillance. He couldn’t authorize new ventures or run earlier business ventures because he was being watched so closely.
Many within the Gambino family felt that Castellano had not won the right to be head of the family, denying Dellacroce his right, and was a weak leader. Facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life in jail, it was feared he might take the easy way out and cut a deal with the Feds. No Godfather had ever turned stool-pigeon, however, some felt he might be the first.
The Gambino Crime Family
The Gambino Crime Family has a long history in America, dating back to the reign of the “Mustache Petes,” namely Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria (1880-1931). Under his rule, Alfred Mineo and Steve Ferrigno were in charge until they were killed in an ambush in 1930 by Joe Profaci (a future crime family boss), Nick Capuzzi, Joseph M. Valachi (future informer) and an unknown killer from Chicago known as Buster.
On April 15, 1931, Masseria met his end at the Coney Island restaurant Nuova Villa Tammaro. He was lured there by Charles “Lucky” Luciano, a trusted member of his family, who excused himself during the meal so that Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Joe Adonis, Vito Genovese and Albert Anastasia could enter the establishment and gun down the boss. On September 10, 1931, Salvatore Maranzano (1868-1931), who had been at war with Masseria (the Castellammarese War), was also set up by Luciano and murdered in his office. This marked the end of the old-time Mafia rule in America, allowing Luciano to set up a crime syndicate and commission, re-inventing organized crime in the U.S.
As well as setting up the crime families, opening the way for Irish, Italian and Jewish gangsters to work together, and introducing the concept of a consigliere (“advisor”) to the families, Luciano placed Vince and his brother Phil Mangano in charge of the family. Together the brothers focused their activities in Brooklyn and the waterfront.
By the start of the 1950’s there was dissension in the family, as Vince Mangano’s underboss, Albert Anastasia, the head of Murder, Inc. became disillusioned with Vince and his brother’s leadership. A die-hard supporter of Luciano, Anastasia had formed a close bond with Frank “Prime Minister of the Underworld” Costello, who was acting head of Luciano’s family (later the Genovese family).
On April 19, 1951, authorities found the body of Phil Mangano in a marshland near Sheepshead Bay. He’d been shot three times in the back of the head and in both cheeks. Vince Mangano had also gone missing. His body would never be found. It was assumed by the authorities that Anastasia had sought and received permission from the Commission to eliminate the Mangano’s.
As acting head of the family, Anastasia expanded it into new rackets in gambling, loan sharking and narcotics trafficking. He maintained his relationship with Costello, who was locked in a power struggle for control of Luciano’s family with Vito Genovese, who was back in town after a nine-year exile in Italy. When Costello was successfully dropped from the Commission and his place of power in the Genovese family, Anastasia kept conferring with him.
Unfortunately, Anastasia, who was also known as the “Mad Hatter” was becoming a liability to the underworld, having arranged a hit on Brooklyn clothing salesman Arnold Schuster, who had spotted notorious bank robber Willie Sutton on the streets of Brooklyn and notified the police. Neither men had anything to do with the Mob, or Anastasia’s business, but he became enraged while watching the news report on Schuster, screaming, “I hate squealers!” Schuster’s murder outraged the public, who insisted the authorities crack down on the Mob.
When he took over, Anastasia named two underbosses, Joe Adonis and Frank Scalise, and gave capo Carlo Gambino a higher standing within the family. Gambino became the sole underboss, after the Immigration and Naturalization Service succeeded in deporting Adonis back to Italy in 1956 and Scalise was murdered in 1957, while buying fruit at a fruit stand in the Bronx.
In true Mafia tradition, Anastasia knew he was a wanted man, a target now that Scalise had been killed. He could assume Gambino was a target also. Carlo Gambino was not an intimidating figure within the Mob. While he could be ruthless in ordering deaths, he presented himself as weak and gentle, always with a smile, forcing many to underestimate him. In his 1980 biography, A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno, Bonanno wrote this about Gambino:
“He was not a warrior. Given a choice he avoided violence. He was a squirrel of a man, a servile and cringing individual. When Anastasia was alive, Albert used to use Gambino as his gopher, to go on errands for him. I once saw Albert get so angry at Carlo for bungling a simple assignment that Albert raised his hand and almost slapped him. In my tradition, a slap on the face is tantamount to a mortal offense. Another man would have not tolerated such a public humiliation. Carlo responded with a fawning grin.”
That grin was deadly. Behind Anastasia’s back, Genovese had been cultivating a relationship with Gambino, planning to use him to double cross his boss. If Genovese could eliminate Anastasia and put a puppet like Gambino at the head of the family, he’d be closer to his ultimate goal of naming himself the Boss of Bosses of the entire Mafia.
On the morning of October 25, 1957, Anastasia arrived at the Park Sheraton barbershop at 7th Avenue and 55th Street, and prepared to be pampered when the Gallo brothers, Crazy Joe, Louie and Kid Blast ambushed him and shot him dead. Gambino was now head of the family—but he was nobody’s puppet!
A true ruthlessness and cunning lay under Gambino’s quiet, amiable façade. He was one family boss who used his brains, as opposed to brawn, in his climb to the top. As soon as Anastasia was out of the way, Gambino set a plan in motion to get Genovese out of the way. With the support of Costello, Luciano and Meyer Lansky he conspired to get Genovese involved in a multi-million dollar international heroin conspiracy. Surprisingly, in an effort to avoid the wrath of the Federal government, which had put the new Narcotics Control Act into effect, Genovese had declared that any soldier or capo in his family caught dealing drugs would face immediate death.
Gambino and his compatriots arranged for a Puerto Rican hoodlum, Nelson Cantellops to testify that he had personally witnessed Vito Genovese buying large quantities of heroin. Cantellops was paid well for his lie, which ended in Genovese’s imprisonment in 1959, where he died in 1969.
Under Gambino’s rule, the Gambino Family rose in power to become the most influential Mafia family in the country, with Gambino realizing Genovese’s dream by becoming the de facto Boss of Bosses. All was well in the family, with Gambino avoiding the occasional assassination attempts, until his death of a heart attack in October 1976.
The Rise of a Mob Star
“Gotti looks like a movie star,” commented a detective who knew the man well. “He wears hand-tailored clothes, drives a big black Lincoln and likes good restaurants.” This wasn’t always the case.
During his early rise in organized crime, John Gotti (1940-2001) was a screw-up. A far cry from the polished, ruthless and feared Mafia leader the world came to know. His early forays into crime, as a petty criminal resulted in his becoming acquainted with the law. Even in 1966, at the age of 26 when he joined capo Carmine “Charlie Wagons” Fatico’s crew, working the East New York section of Brooklyn, he repeatedly failed in his endeavors. Gotti did six months after blowing the theft of a Avis rental car, was arrested in 1969 while trying to pass off fraudulent documents to steal freight at Kennedy International Airport, and was arrested again several weeks later, along with Angelo Ruggiero, after a failed attempt to hijack two trucks on the New Jersey Turnpike. Little did Gotti know, this was the best thing to happen to him.
It could be said the authorities made John Gotti. In 1969, Lewisburg Federal Prison held approximately 400 Mafiosi of varying stature. Gotti’s two years in Lewisburg on a four-year rap was like going to Mafia University. In Lewisburg he met mobsters he normally wouldn’t have been allowed to associate with as a low-ranking soldier on the streets, like 57-year-old Bonanno family boss, Carmine Galante (1919-1979), who took a shine to the young mobster.
Upon release in January 1972, the 31-year-old Gotti was ready to take another stab at a criminal life and this time succeeded. He rejoined Fatico’s crew, which had moved to Ozone Park in Queens, having lost the Brooklyn neighborhood to black criminals. Gotti was put in charge of all gambling operations, where he succeeded in proving himself. Gotti was especially effective in collecting debts.
The year 1972 was a big one for Gotti. Fatico found himself indicted on loan-sharking charges in Suffolk County, and as such made Gotti acting leader of his Bergin crew (the crew was based out of the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club at 101st Avenue), while Fatico concentrated on his defense. This placed Gotti in the position of reporting directly to Gambino underboss Aniello Dellacroce, who quickly became impressed with the young man.
It was also during 1972 that Gambino’s nephew, Emmanuel “Manny” Gambino was kidnapped by a gang of Irish mobsters led by James McBratney. He’d been making a living preying on low-level Gambino associates, kidnapping them for ransom. A ransom of $100,000 was arranged for the nephew’s release, which McBratney took, but instead of being released, Manny Gambino’s body was found in a New Jersey dump. Gambino immediately started planning McBratney’s death.
Still not a “made” man within the Gambino family, and looking to achieve that honor, Gotti was thrilled when he, Angelo Ruggiero and Ralph Galione were given the task of avenging the death of the Don’s nephew. They planned to kidnap McBratney, and work him over accordingly before killing him, making him pay dearly for his actions. Unfortunately, when they tried to kidnap him from a Staten Island restaurant called Snoope’s, a fight broke out, ending with Galione pumping three bullets into McBratney, killing him. It was a sloppy hit, performed in front of many witnesses.
Shortly after McBratney’s murder, Galione was murdered. Realizing they were now targets, Gotti and Ruggiero laid low. Having helped the Don, however, Gotti couldn’t remain quiet, and his bragging of the hit eventually led to his and Ruggiero’s arrest. To help the two men out, Carlo Gambino hired attorney Roy Cohn to represent them, but, through Dellacroce, instructed the two to plead guilty. Gotti didn’t like it, but he followed orders and was surprised when he found out the Staten Island Attorney’s Office had agreed to a plea bargain in which the two men pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted manslaughter and only received four-year sentences.
In August 1975, Gotti and Ruggiero were sent to Green Haven State Prison. Both were unconcerned as they knew two things: for avenging the death of Gambino’s nephew, they would be treated well in prison and upon release will have earned their right to be formally inducted into the crime family as ‘made’ men. Despite a rough start, Gotti was on his way.
The Succession of Power
In 1977, after almost two years in prison, Gotti was paroled. He was rewarded by becoming a ‘made’ man in the Gambino organization. His brother Gene and Angelo Ruggiero had all ready been ‘made.’
Previous to Gotti’s release, Don Carlo Gambino fell ill. On October 15, 1976, he died peacefully at his home at Massapequa, Long Island. Realizing the end was near, Gambino had made arrangements for his cousin and brother-in-law, Paul “Big Paulie” Castellano to take over as head of the family. This move was unprecedented, as underboss Aniello Dellacroce was next in line and should have been named instead.
In an attempt to keep the peace within his crime family, Gambino used his cunning to make this transition work. He was well aware that if Dellacroce decided to take on Castellano, Castellano would lose. Castellano considered himself a refined man, who really didn’t have a taste of the strong-arm killing aspect of the job. Dellacroce, however, was a well respected leader and killer with an edge. According to a federal agent, “He likes to peer into a victim’s face, like some kind of dark angel, at the moment of death.”
At the time of Gambino’s death, Dellacroce was in prison. To appease his underboss, Gambino gave him almost near absolute control of the family’s lucrative Manhattan rackets. Dellacroce was unhappy, but given this control, he accepted. He and Castellano worked relatively well together for the rest of the decade and during the early 1980’s.
Out of respect for the former underboss, Castellano wasn’t officially made the boss until Dellacroce’s release from prison that Thanksgiving. For day one, Castellano’s rule didn’t sit well with many of the family’s capos, soldiers and associates. Along with believing he had unfairly bypassed Dellacroce, Castellano had an attitude about him that didn’t endear him to his men. He acted and believed he was better than and set himself apart from them. He brought this attitude to his relations with leaders of the other four New York crime families. Not realizing the mistake he was making as a leader, he also lacked one other important element that had kept other crime bosses alive and healthy—paranoia.
It is commonly believed that Dellacroce was responsible for keeping those dissatisfied with Castellano in check—whether out of respect for him or out of fear of him. One of those dissatisfied capos, working under Dellacroce’s rule, was John Gotti. One fact that annoyed the future Don was the fact that despite isolating himself from him and the crew, Castellano still demanded his share of the profits from them. Gotti’s crew was earning a lot of money for Dellacroce and the relationship the two men were developing had Dellacroce giving Gotti jobs and responsibilities that reached beyond his responsibilities running the Bergin crew.
Upon being made head of the family, Castellano had declared two things: under his rule there were to be no cop killings and no dealing in drugs, the latter rule punishable by death. Castellano wanted to keep the family business in areas that the Feds weren’t as concerned about, like loan-sharking, construction job shakedowns, labor racketeering in the cartage, meat and garment industries, waterfront extortion and car theft. Unfortunately, Gotti was quite the gambler, but not very good at it. Always finding his personal finances in trouble, and determined to make more money, he got involved in drug dealing, putting up the money for drug buys. Even as a well-respected and feared capo in the Gambino organization, Gotti would be subjected to immediate execution if this were found out.
Bugs—A Mafia Pest
If there wasn’t all ready enough dissension in the Gambino family’s ranks, the efforts of law enforcement to put them away was about to add to this problem. At this particular time in New York (the early 1980’s), Rudolph Giuliani, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was hard at work assembling a case against Castellano, members of his crew and other crime family bosses. In March 1983, the Feds scored a victory when they managed to plant an electronic bug in the kitchen of Castellano’s Staten Island mansion. The kitchen was where he conducted business, and the resulting tapes became known as the ‘White House Tapes’, and an embarrassment to Castellano. The Feds had successfully planted many more bugs, including one in the home of Angelo Ruggiero.
Although Castellano didn’t like the violent aspects of family life, he couldn’t avoid it. One particular capo, who was also involved in Castellano’s car theft operations, would be his downfall. Roy DeMeo was a cold-blooded killer who essentially ran a death factory for hire. Between January 1975 and June 1982, his crew was credited with murdering 25 people. It is believed there were many more. Authorities actually believe he and his crew are responsible for the most individual murders than any other killer in U.S. history.
Giuliano’s investigation of DeMeo and his crew, also ensnared Castellano. In early 1984, a Federal RICO (Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act—enacted in 1970) indictment was issued against Castellano and 20 members of DeMeo’s crew on 51 counts of racketeering in connection with the activities of DeMeo’s crew. Castellano issued a hit on DeMeo and on January 10, 1983 he was found dead in the trunk of his car.
The indictments continued. Eleven high-ranking members of the Lucchese family were indicted, including its’ boss Tony “Ducks” Corolla. In February 1985, Giuliani indicted the bosses and underbosses of the five New York families (Gambino, Lucchese, Bonanno, Colombo, Genovese) under the RICO act for conspiring to operate an illegal enterprise—the Commission. And later in 1985, he indicted Castellano for conspiring to murder former Bonanno family boss, Carmine Galante. Giuliano was determined to hurt organized crime in America, and they were running scared.
If the indictments weren’t bad enough, news of the ‘White House Tapes’ were a huge embarrassment to Castellano, who had been caught on them revealing family business and saying disparaging things about members of his family and leaders of other families.
The Ruggiero tapes proved potentially troublesome for Gotti, as it revealed his and his crew’s contempt for Castellano, along with their foray into drugs. Despite having been bugged himself, Castellano let Ruggiero have it for allowing himself to be taped, and insisted that copies of the transcripts Ruggiero was given be turned over to him. Ruggiero and Gotti used Dellacroce to try and stall Castellano from getting them, although as Dellacroce told them, it was a constant request of Catellano’s.
Life was falling apart for Castellano, although he didn’t know it. Although facing a jail term at the age of 70, he felt he could rule the family from prison, using Tommy Gambino (Carlo’s son) to run the day-to-day operations, along with Bilotti and John Gotti. Gotti didn’t want to share the power.
The Turning Point
On December 2, 1985, Dellacroce, who had been indicted himself, died of cancer. There was nothing stopping Gotti from bringing Castellano down.
As far as many in his family and outside the family were concerned, Castellano wasn’t one of them. He’d set himself apart, making no efforts to endear any of his capos to him. He’d been stupid enough to allow his home to be bugged, where he had said too much, and because of his dislike for violence, was considered weak. As far as many were concerned, Castellano was a strong prospect for turning against the family in an effort to cut a deal that would keep him out of prison. He was a liability.
Making matters worst, under Gambino’s rule, the Gambino family had become the most powerful in the country. Under Castellano’s rule, and based on his refusal to take the family into certain illegal activities (drugs), it lost some of it’s’ influence, with the Genovese family, under Funzi Tieri become number one. The Gambino family only regained its prominence with Tieri’s death in 1981. His successors were weaker men who couldn’t keep the Genovese family on top.
Gotti had no trouble receiving permission to eliminate Castellano, which he quickly did.
The Aftermath
No witnesses came forward in the death of Paul Castellano. Even an eventual showcase of TV’s America’s Most Wanted didn’t spark any calls. Who would be stupid enough to testify against the Gambino family and it’s new Don, John Gotti?
On December 19, John Cardinal O’Connor of the New York Archdiocese refused to allow a public funeral mass for Castellano. The Reverend Peter Finn, a spokesman for the Cardinal explained, “Holding such a mass was ruled out because of the notoriety of Castellano’s death and his alleged—and I underline the word alleged—connection to the organized crime syndicate.” The family was allowed to conduct a private memorial service at the Blessed Sacrament Roman Catholic Church, although the body wasn’t allowed to be present. Permission was also granted for a Priest to say prayers over his grave. Paul Castellano was buried at the Moravian Cemetery in West Brighton on Staten Island.
In 1986 the verdicts came down in the U.S. attorney’s Commission case. Castellano’s fellow Godfathers each received one hundred year sentences plus fines as high as $250,000. He’d escaped prison, something newly inducted Gambino crime family head, John Gotti would do for quite some time, until he too was betrayed, indicted and finally sent to prison where he eventually died of cancer—but that’s another story.
No comments:
Post a Comment