Product Code Database
Constantino Paul Castellano (; June 26, 1915 – December 16, 1985) was an American crime boss who succeeded Carlo Gambino as head of the Gambino crime family of New York City. Castellano ran the organization from 1976 until his murder on December 16, 1985.
Castellano had an eighth grade education, and then learned butchering and collecting numbers game receipts, both from In July 1934, 19-year-old Castellano was arrested for the first time in Hartford, Connecticut, for robbery a haberdasher. He refused to identify his two accomplices to the police and served a three-month prison sentence. By refusing to break the oath of omertà and cooperate with authorities, Castellano enhanced his reputation for mob loyalty.
Castellano's sister Catherine had married one of their cousins, future Mafia boss Carlo Gambino, in 1932. In 1937, Castellano married his childhood sweetheart, Nina Manno; the couple had three sons and a daughter. Manno died in 1999. He was of no relation to actor Richard S. Castellano from The Godfather, despite claims made by Richard's wife after his death.
Castellano often signed his name as "C. Paul Castellano" because he hated his first name, Constantino. His first name at birth has been cited as both Constantino and Costantino.
Castellano identified more as a businessman than a criminal, taking over non-legitimate businesses and converting them to legitimate enterprises. However, his businesses, and those of his sons, still benefitted from their mob ties. In his early years, Castellano used his butcher's training to launch Dial Poultry, a poultry distribution business that once supplied 300 butchers in New York City. Castellano used intimidation tactics to force his customers, which included supermarket chains Key Food and Waldbaum's, to buy Dial's products.
As Castellano became more powerful in the Gambino family, he started to make large amounts of money from concrete in the construction industry. His son Philip was the president of Scara-Mix Concrete Corporation, which exercised a near monopoly on the concrete supply in Staten Island. Castellano handled Gambino interests in the "Concrete Club," a club of contractors selected by The Commission, the mob's ruling body, to handle contracts between $2 million and $15 million.from the New York State Organized Crime Task Force; Ronald Goldstock director (1990). 9780814730348, New York University Press. . ISBN 9780814730348 In return, the contractors gave a two-percent kickback of the contract value to The Commission. "U.S. JURY CONVICTS EIGHT AS MEMBERS OF MOB COMMISSION" By ARNOLD H. LUBASCH New York Times November 20, 1986 Castellano also supervised Gambino control of Teamsters Union Local Chapter 282, which provided workers to pour concrete at all major building projects in New York and Long Island.
In 1975, Castellano allegedly had Vito Borelli, his daughter's boyfriend, murdered because he heard Borelli had compared him to Frank Perdue, the owner and commercial spokesman for Perdue Farms. In 2004, court documents revealed that Joseph Massino, a government witness and former boss of the Bonanno crime family, admitted to murdering Borelli as a favor to Castellano.
Castellano's succession was confirmed at a meeting on November 24, with Dellacroce present. Castellano arranged for Dellacroce to remain as underboss while directly running traditional mob activities such as extortion, robbery and loansharking.O'Brien, Kurins, pp. 106–108 While Dellacroce accepted Castellano's succession, the deal effectively split the Gambino family into two rival factionsDellacroce's faction in Manhattan, and Castellano's faction in Brooklyn.
In 1978, Castellano allegedly ordered the murder of Gambino associate Nicholas Scibetta. A cocaine and alcohol user, Scibetta participated in several public fights and insulted the daughter of George DeCicco. Since Scibetta was Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano's brother-in-law, Castellano asked DeCiccio's brother Frank DeCicco to first notify Gravano of the impending hit. When advised of Scibetta's fate, a furious Gravano initially threatened to kill Castellano first. However, he eventually calmed down and accepted Scibetta's death as a punishment earned by his behavior.
That same year, Castellano allegedly ordered the murders of Gambino capo James Eppolito and his son, James Eppolito Jr. Eppolito Sr. had complained to Castellano that Anthony Gaggi, another Gambino capo, was infringing on his territory and asked permission to kill him. Castellano gave Eppolito a noncommittal answer, but later warned Gaggi about Eppolito's intentions. In response, Gaggi and soldato Roy DeMeo murdered Eppolito and his son.
In February 1978, Castellano made an agreement between the Gambino family and the Westies, an Irish-American gang from Hell's Kitchen. Castellano wanted contract killing that law enforcement could not tie directly to the family. The Westies wanted Gambino protection from the other mob families. The Gambino–Westie alliance was set in a meeting between Castellano and Westies leader James Coonan. According to Westies gangster Mickey Featherstone, Castellano gave them the following directive:
You guys got to stop acting like cowboys – acting wild. You're going to be with us now. If anyone is going to get killed, you have to clear it with us.Castellano also forged an alliance with the Cherry Hill Gambinos, a group of Sicilian heroin importers and distributors in New Jersey, also for use as gunmen. With the Westies and the Cherry Hill Gambinos, Castellano commanded a small army of capable killers.
In September 1980, Castellano allegedly ordered the murder of his former son-in-law, Frank Amato, for physically abusing his wife, Castellano's daughter Connie, when they were married.Raab, p. 251 According to FBI documents, DeMeo murdered Amato, cut up his body and disposed of the remains at sea. The following year, Perdue, the alleged cause of the 1975 Borelli murder, approached Castellano for help in thwarting a unionization drive at a Perdue facility in Virginia. However, according to Perdue, the two men never made a final agreement.
At the height of his power, Castellano built a lavish 17-room mansion on a ridgeline in Todt Hill on Staten Island. Designed to resemble the in the mansion featured Carrara marble, an Olympic-size swimming pool and an English garden.Raab, p. 252 Castellano engaged in an affair with his Colombian maid, Gloria Olarte. Castellano became a recluse and rarely ventured outside the mansion, requiring his capos to visit the residence to give information and receive orders. When not entertaining guests, Castellano wore satin and silk and velvet slippers around
John Gotti, a former protégé of Dellacroce, became deeply dissatisfied with Castellano's leadership, regarding the boss as being too isolated and greedy.Davis, p. 187Capeci, Mustain (1996), p. 61 Like other members of the family he disliked Castellano on a personal level, feeling he lacked . Gotti also had an economic interest: he had a long-running dispute with Castellano on the split Gotti took from hijackings at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Furthermore, Gotti was rumored to be expanding into drug dealing, a lucrative trade Castellano had banned under threat of death.
In August 1983, Gambino members Angelo Ruggiero and Gene Gotti were arrested for dealing heroin, based primarily on recordings from a device in Ruggiero's house.Davis, p. 216Capeci, Mustain (1996), p. 77 Castellano demanded transcripts of the tapes,Capeci, Mustain (1996), pp. 79–80 and when Ruggiero refused he threatened to demote Gotti.Davis, p 238 On March 30, 1984, Castellano was indictment on federal racketeering charges, as well as extortion, drug trafficking, theft, prostitution and the murders of Eppolito and DeMeo. He was released on $2 million bail.
Castellano's legal challenges mounted in 1985. On February 25 he was one of many mob bosses arrested on charges of racketeering, which was to result in the Mafia Commission Trial; he was released on $3 million bail. On July 1 he was indicted on loansharking charges and with tax evasion for not reporting the profits from an illegal racket, and pleaded not guilty. On November 4, in a testimony from car thief Vito Arena, Castellano was named the head of the stolen-car ring that employed him, as well as having been connected to five murders.
Gravano suggested killing both Castellano and Bilotti while they were eating breakfast at a diner.Blum p. 115 However, when DeCicco tipped Gotti off that he would be having a meeting with Castellano and several other mobsters at Manhattan's Sparks Steak House on December 16, Gotti and the other conspirators decided to kill him then.Blum p. 128
As Castellano was exiting the car at the front of the restaurant at around 5:26 pm, the gunmen ran up and shot him several times with handguns and revolvers. Allegedly, Carneglia delivered the fatal shot to Castellano's head. Bilotti was shot as he exited from the driver's door. Before leaving the murder scene, Gotti drove over to view the bodies.
Two weeks after the murder, Gotti was elected as the new boss of the Gambino family. Vincent Gigante, the boss of the Genovese family, was outraged that Gotti had killed Castellano without following Mafia protocol and solicited the help of Lucchese family boss Anthony Corallo in carrying out a hit. On April 13, 1986, a car bomb meant for Gotti exploded outside a Bensonhurst social club, but the only casualty was Gambino underboss Frank DeCicco.
Gotti was arrested by the FBI in late 1990 on racketeering charges and denied bail 10 days later. On April 2, 1992, with the help of Gravano becoming a government witness, Gotti was convicted of numerous racketeering charges, including the 1985 Castellano murder. On June 23, 1992, Gotti was sentenced to life in federal prison, where he died of throat cancer in 2002. No one else was ever charged in the Castellano murder.
|
|
