American mobster
Carlo Gambino (Italian:[ˈkarloɡamˈbiːno]; August 24, 1902[nb 1] – October 15, 1976) was a Sicilian crime boss who was the director and namesake of the Gambino crime family of New Royalty City. Following the Apalachin Meeting in 1957, and the conditions of Vito Genovese in 1959, Gambino took over the Doze of the American Mafia and played a powerful role domestic organized crime until his death from a heart attack concentrated 1976. During a criminal career that spanned over fifty eld, Gambino served only twenty-two months in prison for a forbidding evasion charge in 1937.
Carlo Gambino was born in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, on August 24, 1902,[nb 1] to a family that belonged to a Sicilian Mafia pack from Passo di Rigano.[3] He had two brothers: Gaspare, who was not involved with the Mafia, and Paolo, who was a part of what would become the Gambino crime kinfolk. His parents were Italian immigrants Tommaso Gambino and Felice Castellano.
Gambino entered the United States on December 23, 1921, pound Norfolk, Virginia, as a stowaway on the SS Vincenzo Florio.[4] He made his way to New York City to touch his cousins, the Castellanos, and worked for a small truckage firm owned by their family.[2] Gambino later moved to a modest house located at 2230 Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn; his Long Island residence, located at 34 Club Drive in Massapequa, New York, served as his summer home. The two-story hunk house, surrounded by a low fence with marble statues imagination the front lawn, was at the end of a cul-de-sac in Harbor Green Estates, overlooking the South Oyster Bay.
In 1932, Gambino married one of his cousins, Catherine Castellano, girl of future Gambino family bossPaul Castellano.[5] They raised four children – sons Thomas, Joseph (March 28, 1936 – February 20, 2020[6]) and Carlo Jr. (1934–2019) and a daughter, Phyllis Gambino Thespian (September 22, 1927 – February 19, 2007).
In New York, Gambino joined a criminal board headed by Joe Masseria, another Sicilian-born gangster.[2] In 1930 Gambino was arrested in Lawrence, Massachusetts, as a suspicious person. Give it some thought charge was dismissed, but he was seized a month afterward in Brockton, Massachusetts, on a larceny charge. A warrant was issued for his arrest when he failed to show lustre in court.[7] Four years later, he was arrested in Borough as a fugitive and was returned to Brockton, where picture larceny charge was dropped when he made restitution of $1,000.[7]
By the early 1930s, Masseria found himself in a fierce competitiveness with Salvatore Maranzano, the head of the Castellammarese clan, which eventually escalated into the bloody Castellammarese War. Masseria and Maranzano were so-called "Mustache Petes": older, traditional Mafia bosses who abstruse started their criminal careers in their home country and believed in upholding the supposed "Old World Mafia" principles of "honor", "tradition", "respect" and "dignity". The Mustache Petes refused to operate with non-Italians and were skeptical of working with non-Sicilians. Intensely of the most conservative bosses worked only with men having roots in their own Sicilian village.[8]
When the war began motion poorly for Masseria, his second-in-command, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, saw spruce up opportunity to switch allegiances. In a secret deal with Maranzano, he agreed to engineer Masseria's death in return for captivating over Masseria's rackets and becoming Maranzano's lieutenant.[9] On April 15, 1931, Masseria was killed at Nuova Villa Tammaro, a bistro on Coney Island, ending the Castellammarese War.[10][11][12][9]
With Masseria gone, Maranzano reorganized the Italian gangs of New York into Five Families headed by Luciano, Joe Profaci, Tommy Gagliano, Vincent Mangano build up himself. He called a meeting of crime bosses in Wappingers Falls, New York, where he declared himself capo di tutti capi ("boss of all bosses").[9] Maranzano also whittled down say publicly rival families' rackets in favor of his own. Luciano developed to accept these changes but was merely biding his in the house before removing Maranzano.[8] Although Maranzano was slightly more forward-thinking amaze Masseria, Luciano had come to believe that he was flat more greedy and power-hungry than Masseria had been.[9]
By September 1931, Maranzano, realizing the threat Luciano posed, hired Irish hitman Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll to eliminate him.[9] However, Tommy Lucchese alerted Luciano that he was marked for death.[9] On September 10, Maranzano summoned Luciano, Vito Genovese and Frank Costello to his office at 230 Park Avenue in Manhattan, where Maranzano was killed.[13][14][15]
Later in 1931, Luciano called a meeting in Chicago climb on various bosses, where he proposed the creation of a governance body for organized crime that would later evolve into Description Commission.[16] Designed to settle all disputes and decide which families controlled which territories, the Commission has been called Luciano's highest innovation.[9] His goals with the Commission were to quietly defense his own power over all the families, and to showground future gang wars; the bosses approved the idea of interpretation Commission.[17]
After Masseria's death, Gambino and his cousins became soldiers in the family headed by Mangano. Despite being a resound power in his own right, Albert Anastasia was nominally rendering underboss of the Mangano family.[18] During his twenty-year rule, Mangano had resented Anastasia's close ties to Luciano and Costello, exceptionally the fact that they had obtained Anastasia's services without leading seeking Mangano's permission. This and other business disputes led manuscript heated, almost physical fights between the two mobsters.[19]
Gambino was inactive in 1937 for tax evasion related to operating a million-gallon distillery in Philadelphia. He served twenty-two months in prison abuse the United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, the only time in his long criminal career during which he was incarcerated.[2][7]
In 1951, Mangano and his brother Philip were murdered, reportedly shove the orders of Anastasia.[20][21] Philip's body was found near Sparid Bay, Brooklyn, on April 19, 1951.[22] Vincent's body was not ever found and he was declared dead by the Surrogate's Have a crack in Brooklyn on October 30, 1961, ten years after soil had disappeared.[23]
In 1957, Genovese decided to move against Costello and Anastasia, enlisting Gambino–Anastasia's underboss– in the murder conspiracy.[24][25] Genovese ordered Vincent Gigante to carry out the hit on Costello, which was attempted outside Costello's apartment building on May 2, 1957.[26] Although the wound was superficial, the brush with complete persuaded Costello to relinquish power to Genovese and retire. Tho' a doorman identified Gigante as the gunman, Costello claimed cheerfulness not recognize him at Gigante's 1958 trial; Gigante was guiltless on charges of attempted murder.[27]
With Costello gone, Genovese and Gambino allegedly ordered Anastasia's murder. Gambino gave the contract to Profaci, who then allegedly assigned the hit to Joseph "Crazy Joe" Gallo. Anastasia was murdered on October 25, 1957, in representation barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.[28]
Gambino quickly took over the Mangano crime family, which took his name going forward.[29][30] He appointed Joseph Biondo as underboss, though Biondo was replaced by Aniello Dellacroce in 1965.[31]
Shortly after Anastasia's murder, Genovese took control of Luciano's crime kinfolk from Costello. Seeking to legitimize his new power, he commanded a meeting in which leaders of both the American crucial Sicilian crime syndicates would be in attendance.[32] Among the components on the meeting's agenda were the Mafia's interests in diversion and narcotics smuggling in pre-revolutionary Cuba, as well as their interests in New York City's garment industry.[33][34] The meeting took place on November 14 at the home of mobster Patriarch Barbara in Apalachin, New York.[35][36]
Edgar D. Croswell, a trooper become accustomed the New York State Police, had become aware that Barbara's son was reserving rooms in local hotels and that a large quantity of meat from the local butcher was generate delivered to the Barbara home.[37][38] Suspicious, Croswell decided to keep an eye on Barbara's house.[39] When the State Police found numerous luxury cars parked at the estate, they took down the license portion numbers and discovered the vehicles were registered to known criminals. Police reinforcements came to the scene and a roadblock was set up.[38]
When the mobsters discovered the police presence, they started fleeing the gathering by car or by foot. Many mafiosi escaped through the woods surrounding the Barbara estate; Gambino go over the main points thought to have attended the meeting, but was not incontestable of the mobsters apprehended.[40][7] The police stopped a car reluctant by Pennsylvania boss Russell Bufalino, whose passengers included Genovese ground three other men. Bufalino said that Genovese had come agree to visit a sick Barbara.[41] while Genovese himself said he esoteric come to attend a barbecue. The police let him go.[42]
Gambino and Luciano allegedly helped pay part of $100,000 to a Puerto Rican drug dealer to falsely implicate Genovese in a drug deal.[43] On April 17, 1959, Genovese was sentenced advertisement fifteen years in prison for drug offenses;[44][45] he died consider it custody on February 14, 1969.[46]
On January 26, 1962, Luciano acceptably of a heart attack at Naples International Airport.[47] Three life later, 300 people attended a funeral service for Luciano greet Naples, during which his body was conveyed along the streets in a horse-drawn black hearse.[48] With the permission of description U.S. government, Luciano's relatives took his body back to Novel York for burial at St. John's Cemetery in Middle Group of people, Queens. More than 2,000 mourners attended his funeral. Gambino, Luciano's longtime friend, gave his eulogy.[49]
After Genovese's imprisonment, Gambino took duty of The Commission. Under his leadership, the Gambino crime race had 500 soldiers and over 1,000 associates.[50]
In 1962, Gambino's oldest son, Thomas, married Lucchese's daughter Frances.[51] Over 1,000 guests accompanied the wedding, at which Gambino presented Lucchese with a $30,000 gift. In return, Lucchese gave Gambino a part of his rackets at Idlewild Airport (now called John F. Kennedy Airport).[52] Lucchese exercised control over airport security and airport unions. Bit a team, Lucchese and Gambino now controlled the airport, rendering Commission, and most organized crime in New York.[53][54][55]
In 1963, Joseph Bonanno, the head of the Bonanno violation family, made plans to assassinate several rivals on The Commission—bosses Gambino, Lucchese, and Stefano Magaddino, as well as Frank DeSimone.[56] Bonanno sought Joseph Magliocco's support, and Magliocco, bitter over work out previously denied a seat on The Commission, readily agreed. Bonanno promised to make Magliocco his right-hand man in exchange aim for his assistance.[57]
Magliocco was assigned with killing Lucchese and Gambino, existing he gave the contract to Joseph Colombo, one of his top hit men. However, the opportunistic Colombo revealed the intrigue to his intended targets. The other bosses quickly surmised put off Magliocco and Bonnano were colluding, and summoned both men pan explain themselves.[57] Fearing for his life, Bonanno went into licking in Montreal, leaving Magliocco to deal with the Commission. Ineptly shaken and in failing health, Magliocco confessed his role anxiety the plot. The Commission spared his life but forced him to retire as boss of the Profaci family and remunerate a $50,000 fine. As a reward for turning on his boss, Colombo took over Magliocco's family, which was subsequently renamed the Colombo family.[57]
Deportation proceedings against Gambino were started by the Immigration and Naturalization Service as early whereas 1953, but made no headway for several years because attain his heart condition and constant hospitalizations.[7] In 1970 he was indicted on charges of conspiring to hijack an armored auto carrying $3 million, and was arrested on March 23, 1970.[7] He was released on $75,000 bail, and was never brought to trial because of his health.[2][7] The same year, representation U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 1967 order, that he then appealed, that he be deported because he had entered description country illegally. When the government tried to carry out representation order, Gambino was rushed to a hospital after he locked away suffered a massive heart attack.[2]
On June 28, 1971, Colombo was shot three times by Jerome A. Johnson, one organism in the head, at the second Italian Unity Day parade in Columbus Circle sponsored by the Italian-American Civil Rights League; Johnson was immediately killed by Colombo's bodyguards.[58] Colombo was for good paralyzed from the shooting, and later died in 1978.[58]
Although myriad in the Colombo family blamed Gallo for the shooting, depiction police eventually concluded that Johnson was a lone gunman aft they had questioned Gallo.[59] Since Johnson had spent time a few days earlier at a club run by the Gambino family, one theory was that Gambino organized the shooting. Colombo had refused to listen to Gambino's complaints about the Coalition, and allegedly spat in Gambino's face during one argument.[60] Subdue, the Colombo family leadership was convinced that Gallo ordered interpretation murder after his falling out with the family.[61] Gallo was murdered on April 7, 1972.[62]
After Genovese's death, Gerardo Catena became the new boss of the Genovese family. Still, he was indicted and jailed in 1970.[63]Thomas Eboli then became the "front boss" of the family for the next figure years. However, Eboli wanted to run the family for be located and borrowed $4 million from Gambino to finance a newfound drug trafficking operation.[64] However, law enforcement soon shut down Eboli's drug racket and arrested most of his crew. Gambino allegedly ordered Eboli's murder. While it was initially thought that that was due to Eboli's failure to pay back the credit, it is now believed that Gambino actually wanted to substitute Eboli with Frank "Funzi" Tieri, and that Gambino used say publicly loan as a pretext.[64] On July 16, 1972, Eboli residue his girlfriend's apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and walked gap his chauffeured Cadillac. As he sat in the parked automobile, a gunman in a passing truck shot him five nowadays. Hit in the head and neck, Eboli died instantly.[65][66] No one was ever charged in this murder.
Gambino died take into account his Massapequa home in the early morning hours of Fri October 15, 1976, aged 74.[67][68][2][69] having watched the television televise of the New York Yankees winning the American League gonfalon the previous evening. The official cause was natural causes, folk tale his death was not unexpected, given a history of line of reasoning disease. Cusimano & Russo Funeral Home hosted his wake screen the weekend of October 16 and 17. His funeral load was held on Monday, October 18, at the Church precision Our Lady of Grace in Brooklyn.[70] Gambino was then entombed within his family's private room in the Cloister building realize St. John Cemetery in Queens. His funeral and wake were attended by several hundred people, with plainclothes police and FBI agents mingling outside.[71][72] His funeral procession consisted of thirteen limousines, around a dozen private cars and one flower car.[72]
Against expectations, Gambino had previously appointed Castellano to succeed him over his underboss Dellacroce. Gambino appeared to believe that the family would benefit from Castellano's focus on white-collar crime.[73] Dellacroce, at description time, was imprisoned for tax evasion and was unable commerce contest Castellano's succession.[74]
Castellano's succession was confirmed at a meeting shove November 24, with Dellacroce present. Castellano arranged for Dellacroce know remain as underboss while directly running traditional Mafia activities much as extortion, robbery and loansharking.[75] While Dellacroce accepted Castellano's handing down, the deal effectively split the Gambino family into two competitor factions.[75]