Paul Castellano

American criminal boss Constantino Paul Castellano succeeded Carlo Gambino as the head of the Gambino crime family. On December 16, 1985, Castellano was slain in an unauthorized attack.

### early years

Giuseppe and Concetta Castellano were Italian immigrants who settled in Brooklyn's Bensonhurst where Castellano was born in 1915. Giuseppe was a butcher and a founding member of the Mangano criminal organization, which was the ancestor of the Gambino family. After finishing eighth grade, Castellano quit school to learn from his father how to butcher animals and gather receipts for number games. Castellano was initially detained in Hartford, Connecticut, in July 1934 for robbing a haberdasher. The 19-year-old Castellano was given a three-month prison sentence after refusing to name his two conspirators to the authorities. Castellano improved his mob allegiance by refusing to work with the authorities.

Catherine Castellano, a sister of Castellano, wed Carlo Gambino, a future mafia boss, in 1932. Castellano wed Nina Manno, his childhood sweetheart, in 1937; the pair produced three sons and Constance Castellano, a daughter; Manno passed away in 1999. Contrary to assertions made by Richard S. Castellano's widow following her husband's passing, he had no family ties to the actor from The Godfather.

Because he detested his first name, Constantino, Castellano frequently signed his name as "C. Paul Castellano." Both Constantino and Costantino have been listed as his first names at birth.

### Mafia life

Castellano married into the Mangano family in the 1940s. Under Albert Anastasia, the boss's successor, he was promoted to capo.

After the murder of Anastasia and Carlo Gambino's promotion to leader in 1957, Castellano went to the fruitless Apalachin meeting in Apalachin, New York. Castellano was one of 61 high-ranking mob figures detained when the New York State Police raided the meeting. Due to his refusal to respond to the grand jury's inquiries regarding the meeting, Castellano was sentenced to a year in jail for contempt. Castellano received a five-year prison term for information conspiracy on January 13, 1960. Castellano's conviction was overturned by an Appeals Court in November 1960, nevertheless.

Castellano saw himself more as a businessman than a criminal; he took over illegal businesses and made them legal ones. However, Castellano's enterprises and those of his sons benefited from their connections to the mob.

Castellano started Dial Chicken, a poultry distribution company that once provided meat to 300 butchers in New York City, in his early years using his butchering experience. Walbaum's and Key Food supermarkets were also among Dial's clients. Castellano utilized coercion to compel his clients to purchase Dial's goods.

Castellano began to generate significant sums of money from construction concrete as he rose in the Gambino family. The CEO of Scara-Mix Concrete Corporation, which had almost a stranglehold on the supply of construction concrete in Staten Island, was Castellano's son Philip. Castellano also took care of the Gambino interests in the "Concrete Club," a group of builders chosen by The Commission to manage contracts worth $2 million to $15 million. In exchange, the contractors handed the Commission a bribe of 2% of the contract value. Additionally, Castellano oversaw Gambino's management of Teamsters Union Local 282, which supplied laborers to pour concrete at all significant construction projects in New York and Long Island.

Vito Borelli, the boyfriend of Castellano's daughter Constance, is said to have been murdered in 1975 because Borelli allegedly compared Castellano to Frank Perdue, the proprietor and spokesperson for Perdue Farms. According to court records from 2004, Joseph Massino, a government witness and former boss of the Bonanno crime organization, acknowledged killing Borelli as a favor for Castellano.

### Succession

Carlo Gambino passed away from natural causes at home on October 15, 1976. Contrary to predictions, he chose Castellano over his deputy, Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce, to succeed him. Gambino seemed to think that Castellano's focus on white collar industries would be advantageous to his crime organization. Dellacroce was unable to challenge Castellano's succession because he was at the time incarcerated for tax evasion.

On November 24, a meeting was held to confirm Castellano's appointment. Dellacroce was present. The customary Cosa Nostra activities of extortion, robbery, and loansharking were carried out directly by Dellacroce while he continued to serve as underboss under Castellano's arrangement. Dellacroce acknowledged Castellano's succession, but the agreement divided the Gambino family into two hostile groups.

Castellano is accused of giving the go-ahead for Nicholas Scibetta's murder in 1978. Scibetta, a cocaine and alcohol addict, engaged in multiple brawls in public and insulted George DeCicco's daughter. Scibetta was the brother-in-law of Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, thus Castellano requested that Frank DeCicco first alert Gravano to the imminent hit. The news of Scibetta's demise infuriated Gravano, who vowed to kill Castellano first. DeCicco eventually managed to calm Gravano down such that he could accept Scibetta's death as the consequence for his actions.

Castellano is accused of giving the order to kill Gambino capo James Eppolito and his son, the gangster James Eppolito Jr., in 1978. Anthony Gaggi was encroaching on Eppolito Srdomain, .'s so he protested to Castellano and requested authorization to kill him. Eppolitto received a resounding no from Castellano, who later forewarned Gaggi of Eppolito's plans. Gaggi and soldier Roy DeMeo responded by killing Eppolito Sr. and Jr.

The Westies, an Irish-American gang from Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen, and the Gambino family formed a deal in February 1978 thanks to Castellano. Castellano sought assassins who could not be linked directly to the Gambino crime family by law enforcement. The Westies intended to shield the Gambino family from the other Cosa Nostra organizations. In a meeting between Castellano and the leader of the Westies, James Coonan, the Gambino-Westie partnership was established. Mickey Featherstone, a notorious criminal in the Westies, claims that Castellano instructed them to do the following:

You guys need to stop being huckster-like and wild. You will now be here with us. You need to acquire our approval before killing somebody.

In order to utilize them as armed men, the Cherry Hill Gambinos, a group of Sicilian heroin importers and distributors in New Jersey, formed an agreement with Castellano. The Cherry Hill Gambinos and the Westies made up Castellano's little army of lethal assassins.

Frank Amato, a former son-in-law of Castellano, was allegedly killed on his orders in September 1980. Amato had physically mistreated his wife Connie Castellano while they were married. Amato was a hijacker and petty criminal. FBI records claim that Gambino soldier Roy DeMeo killed Amato, dismembered his body, and dumped the pieces at sea.

Castellano had two meetings with the suspected mastermind of the 1975 murder of Borelli, millionaire Frank Perdue, in 1981. Perdue requested Castellano's assistance in preventing a unionization push at a Virginia-based Perdue facility. Perdue claims that although the two men conversed, they never came to an agreement.

Castellano constructed an opulent 17-room mansion at Todt Hill on Staten Island during the height of his authority on a ridgeline. Castellano's residence, which was modeled after the White House in Washington, D.C., included Carrara marble, an Olympic-sized pool, and an English garden. He began a relationship with Gloria Olarte, his domestic helper who lived with him. Castellano became into a recluse, rarely leaving the estate. Capos like James Failla, Thomas Gambino, and Daniel Marino went to see Castellano at Todt Hill to provide him intelligence and take orders. Castellano walked around the home in velvet slippers and satin or silk dressing gowns when he wasn't hosting visitors.

Former Dellacroce protege John Gotti quickly grew disillusioned with Castellano's management style because he thought the new leader was too selfish and materialistic. Like other family members, Gotti had his own specific dislikes towards Castellano. The boss lacked street cred, and those who had earned their respect by working low-level jobs on the street did not respect him. Gotti also had a financial stake in the matter because of a disagreement he had with Castellano over the share of the proceeds he received from Kennedy Airport hijackings. Gotti was allegedly pushing into the lucrative narcotics sector that Castellano had outlawed.

### legal issues

Castellano is accused of giving the order to kill Roy DeMeo, who was discovered shot dead in the trunk of his Cadillac car in January 1983. The FBI received a warrant in March 1983 to put covert listening devices in Castellano's home. Agents sedated Castellano's watch dogs, turned off his security system, and planted devices in the dining and living rooms while they waited for him to depart on vacation to Florida. These tools gave law enforcement a ton of information that was used to convict Castellano.

Using recordings from a bug in Ruggiero's home as the main source of evidence, Angelo Ruggiero and Gene Gotti were detained in August 1983 for trafficking heroin. When Ruggiero refused to provide transcripts of the tapes, Castellano, who had previously forbade made men from his family from peddling drugs on fear of death, threatened to demote Gotti.

On March 30, 1984, federal accusations of racketeering were brought against Castellano in the Gambino case, which also involved the deaths of Eppolitto and DeMeo. Extortion, drug trafficking, theft, and prostitution were among the additional counts. A $2 million bail was required to release Castellano.

Castellano was one of numerous Mafia bosses detained on February 25, 1985, on allegations of racketeering, which led to the Mafia Commission Trial. He was freed on $3 million bail.

On July 1, 1985, Castellano was charged with loansharking and with tax evasion for failing to declare the proceeds of his unlawful business. He entered a not guilty plea.

Castellano was identified as the leader of the stolen-vehicle ring that hired him and was implicated in five homicides on November 4, 1985, according to a testimony from auto thief Vito Arena.

### Conspiracy

On December 2, 1985, Dellacroce passed away from cancer, setting off a series of events that resulted in Castellano's murder two weeks later. Castellano's decision not to attend Dellacroce's wake was a slight to the Dellacroce family and his supporters, among other things that went into the plot to have him killed. Second, Castellano appointed Thomas Bilotti, his bodyguard, as the new underboss. Bilotti, a devoted follower of Castellano, was a ruthless loanshark who lacked the diplomatic aptitude necessary for an underboss. Castellano also made a suggestion that he was disbanding Gotti's group.

While they were having brunch in a diner, Gravano recommended killing both Castellano and Bilotti. But after DeCicco informed Gotti that he would be seeing Castellano and a number of other Gambino mobsters on December 16 at Sparks Steak House, Gotti and the other conspirators decided to murder him then.

Castellano was killed near the door to Sparks Steak House at 210 East 46th Street.

### Murder

On December 16, 1985, Bilotti took Castellano in his car to the scheduled early evening meeting at the Midtown Manhattan restaurant Sparks Steak House, located on East 46th Street close to Third Avenue. Backup shooters Dominick Pizzonia, Angelo Ruggiero, and Tony Rampino were positioned across the street from the restaurant entrance, where a hit team was waiting. From a car across the street, Gotti watched the action.

Around 5:26 p.m., the assailants went up to Castellano as he was getting out of the automobile in front of the restaurant and opened fire on him. According to reports, Castellano was shot in the head by John Carneglia. As he emerged from the driver's door, Bilotti was shot. Gotti drove over to see the bodies before he left the crime site.

### Aftermath

Castellano was laid to rest in Staten Island's New Dorp neighborhood's Moravian Cemetery. Castellano's renowned life and death were used as justification by the Archdiocese of New York for rejecting his request for a Catholic funeral.

Gotti, 45, was chosen as the new Gambino boss at a conference of capos held in a Manhattan basement two weeks after Castellano's death. Because Gotti never had approval from the Commission for the murder, it infuriated Genovese crime family leader Vincent Gigante. Anthony Corallo, the leader of the Lucchese crime family, was enlisted by Gigante to kill Gotti. The only victim of a vehicle bomb planted by Gotti outside a Bensonhurst nightclub on April 13, 1986, was Frank DeCicco.

After being detained by the FBI in late 1990 on suspicion of racketeering, Gotti was denied bail 10 days later. Gravano's role as a government witness made it possible for Gotti to be found guilty on April 2, 1992, of a number of racketeering offenses, including the 1985 murder of Castellano. On June 23, Gotti was given a life sentence in a federal prison, where he passed away in 2002 from throat cancer. In the Castellano slaying, nobody else was ever put on trial.