Two was a gold mine for him. He became a millionaire by bribing city officials for ration stamps, which he then sold on the black market. After the war, the softly-spoken Gambino forged an unlikely alliance with the murderous Albert Anastasia and together they planned the overthrow of New York’s Mangano family. Its leader, Vincent Mangano, vanished in 1951 in what was assumed to be a killing arranged by Anastasia and Gambino. In 1956 Anastasia appointed Gambino his underboss . He didn’t serve his master for long; the following year he ordered the barber’s shop assassination of Anastasia. One of Anastasia’s loyalists, James Squillante, followed his boss to the grave in 1960. Carlo Gambino now set about consolidating his power base.
In 1962 his eldest son Thomas married the daughter of fellow Mob boss Gaetano Lucchese in a union not only of two young people but of two burgeoning crime families. Rackets throughout New York were carved up between the ‘amico nostra’ – literally ‘friends of ours’.
After surviving his main rivals – Joe Bonanno was ousted by ‘The Commission’, Vito Genovese died of a heart attack and Tommy Lucchese of a brain tumor – Carlo Gambino became all powerful. Quietly, throughout the Sixties and into the Seventies, he built an empire that operated in New York, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas.
The Gambino family – with names like Carmine ‘Wagon Wheels’ Fatico, Carmine ‘The Doctor’ Lombardozzi, Joseph ‘Joe Piney’ Armone, Armand ‘Tommy’ Rava, Joseph Biondo, Aniello ‘Mr Neil’ Dellacroce and Joseph Riccobono – had between 500 and 800 ‘soldiers’ operating a $500 million- a-year business.
The Gambinos became the dominant family in Manhattan. They ran the Longshoremen’s union, thereby controlling all goods entering New York by ship. The unions at the city’s airports were also under their influence. However, Godfather Carlo avoided the lucrative but high-profile drugs trade. His warning ‘Deal and Die’ meant a death sentence to any family member dealing in heroin or cocaine.
It was a strangely moral stance for someone who had ordered the deaths of an untold number of enemies. Thomas Eboli was one murder attributed to him. The drug racketeer owed Gambino $4 million and, when he failed to repay, was sprayed with bullets from a passing truck as he sat in his car in Brooklyn in 1972. The same year, the Godfather’s 29-year-old nephew ‘Manny’ Gambino was kidnapped and, despite aransom being paid, murdered. Irish mobster James McBratney was suspected of being one of the kidnappers and the order went out for him to die slowly and painfully, in a manner befitting his crime against Carlo Gambino. The three-man hit squad, including a new protégé named John Gotti, found their man in a Staten Island tavern and, perhaps fortunately for him, was swiftly dispatched when he tried to flee.
Carmine ‘Mimi’ Scialo’s end was less swift. A member of the Colombo family, the drunken Scialo verbally abused Carlo Gambino in a restaurant in 1974. Gambino remained calm, as he always did, and uttered not a word in retaliation. Soon afterwards, however, Scialo’s body was found at a Brooklyn social club – semi-encased in the cement floor.
There were many challenges to Gambino’s authority, particularly as he became old and frail, but he survived them all. While the Mafia had supposedly abolished the title of ‘Boss of Bosses’, Gambino’s position afforded him all the powers such a title would have carried. He was the undisputed head of the largest, wealthiest and most powerful crime family in the country and was the leader of the Commission, a position only previously held by ‘Lucky’ Luciano.
Carlo Gambino died of a heart attack in October 1976 at the age of 74. He had given explicit orders that his brother- in-law and cousin, Paul Castellano, take over the family. But many of his associates and underlings believed his loyal
In 1962 his eldest son Thomas married the daughter of fellow Mob boss Gaetano Lucchese in a union not only of two young people but of two burgeoning crime families. Rackets throughout New York were carved up between the ‘amico nostra’ – literally ‘friends of ours’.
After surviving his main rivals – Joe Bonanno was ousted by ‘The Commission’, Vito Genovese died of a heart attack and Tommy Lucchese of a brain tumor – Carlo Gambino became all powerful. Quietly, throughout the Sixties and into the Seventies, he built an empire that operated in New York, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas.
The Gambino family – with names like Carmine ‘Wagon Wheels’ Fatico, Carmine ‘The Doctor’ Lombardozzi, Joseph ‘Joe Piney’ Armone, Armand ‘Tommy’ Rava, Joseph Biondo, Aniello ‘Mr Neil’ Dellacroce and Joseph Riccobono – had between 500 and 800 ‘soldiers’ operating a $500 million- a-year business.
The Gambinos became the dominant family in Manhattan. They ran the Longshoremen’s union, thereby controlling all goods entering New York by ship. The unions at the city’s airports were also under their influence. However, Godfather Carlo avoided the lucrative but high-profile drugs trade. His warning ‘Deal and Die’ meant a death sentence to any family member dealing in heroin or cocaine.
It was a strangely moral stance for someone who had ordered the deaths of an untold number of enemies. Thomas Eboli was one murder attributed to him. The drug racketeer owed Gambino $4 million and, when he failed to repay, was sprayed with bullets from a passing truck as he sat in his car in Brooklyn in 1972. The same year, the Godfather’s 29-year-old nephew ‘Manny’ Gambino was kidnapped and, despite aransom being paid, murdered. Irish mobster James McBratney was suspected of being one of the kidnappers and the order went out for him to die slowly and painfully, in a manner befitting his crime against Carlo Gambino. The three-man hit squad, including a new protégé named John Gotti, found their man in a Staten Island tavern and, perhaps fortunately for him, was swiftly dispatched when he tried to flee.
Carmine ‘Mimi’ Scialo’s end was less swift. A member of the Colombo family, the drunken Scialo verbally abused Carlo Gambino in a restaurant in 1974. Gambino remained calm, as he always did, and uttered not a word in retaliation. Soon afterwards, however, Scialo’s body was found at a Brooklyn social club – semi-encased in the cement floor.
There were many challenges to Gambino’s authority, particularly as he became old and frail, but he survived them all. While the Mafia had supposedly abolished the title of ‘Boss of Bosses’, Gambino’s position afforded him all the powers such a title would have carried. He was the undisputed head of the largest, wealthiest and most powerful crime family in the country and was the leader of the Commission, a position only previously held by ‘Lucky’ Luciano.
Carlo Gambino died of a heart attack in October 1976 at the age of 74. He had given explicit orders that his brother- in-law and cousin, Paul Castellano, take over the family. But many of his associates and underlings believed his loyal
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