How Carlo Gambino Quietly Became One Of The Most Powerful Mafia Bosses Of All Time
Wikimedia CommonsDespite a Mafia career of 50 years, Carlo Gambino only ever spent 22 months in prison.
If you met Carlo Gambino on the street, you might not guess that he was a powerful mob boss.
Quiet, understated, and known for offering FBI agents coffee and dessert when they visited him at home, Gambino was nevertheless cunning and cold-blooded like few other bosses before or since. By the time he died of natural causes at the age of 74 in 1976, he climbed through the ranks of the mob to become one of the Mafia’s most powerful and wealthy leaders.
Gambino was born in Sicily in 1902, in a neighborhood so tightly controlled by the Mafia that The New York Times reports that Italian police were hesitant to even enter it. He made his way to Brooklyn, New York, in the 1920s, and soon joined up with the criminal gang led by Joe Masseria.
When Masseria was killed during the Castellammarese War, Gambino went to work for his rival, Salvatore Maranzano. When Maranzano was killed, Gambino joined up with the Mangano Family. When its leaders were killed by Albert Anastasia, Gambino became loyal to Anastasia. But when Anastasia started breaking Mafia taboos in the 1950s — he ordered a hit on a civilian, something forbidden by Mafia code — Gambino helped orchestrate a hit on his own boss, carried out on October 25, 1957. Then, Gambino became boss of the family.
Bettmann/Getty ImagesCarlo Gambino was known for offering coffee and desserts to the FBI agents who came to his home.
Though Gambino kept a low profile, he swiftly amassed great power and wealth. The New York Times reports that his family had as many as 1,000 men involved in gambling, loansharking, hijacking, narcotics, and labor racketeering up and down the Eastern Seaboard.
Indeed, the Gambino Family was perhaps the nation’s largest and most powerful, while Gambino himself also exerted strong influence over the other four New York families. And his power was all the more chilling for how calm and quiet it was. For example, Gambino said nothing when an associate named Dominick Scialo drunkenly insulted him one night during dinner. But soon afterward, Scialo was found buried in cement.
Gambino died in 1976 at the age of 74. Despite his illegal activities during his reign as a Mafia boss, he only ever served 22 months in jail. And when he died, it was in the comfort of his Long Island home.
Frank Costello: The “Prime Minister” Who Helped Inspired Don Corleone
NY Daily News Archive via Getty ImagesA mugshot of Frank Costello from the 1930s.
When Frank Costello agreed to testify before the Senate about organized crime in the 1950s, he made an impression in more ways than one. Not only was Costello the only mobster to forgo pleading the fifth, but his calm demeanor and raspy voice would later inspire Marlon Brando as he developed the iconic character of Don Corleone in The Godfather.
Indeed, the fictional Don Corleone bore a strong resemblance to the real-life mob boss Frank Costello in more ways than one.
Like Corleone, Costello was born in Italy in 1891. Both men made their way to the United States at a young age, where both changed their names (Costello was born Castiglia; Corleone as Andolini). And both rose through the ranks of the American Mafia to become powerful bosses in their own right.
Costello, who aligned himself with Lucky Luciano early on, benefited by Luciano’s ascension after the Castellammarese War by becoming a consigliere of the Luciano Family. But then Luciano was deported and his underboss, Vito Genovese fled to Italy to avoid prosecution. In their absence, Costello became the boss of what became known as the Genovese Family.
Wikimedia CommonsFrank Costello during his Senate testimony.
Like Don Corleone, Costello projected respectability (he was even nicknamed the “prime minister”) and made strategic alliances to ensure his power.
But Costello’s life would ultimately take several unexpected turns. After he was called to testify before the Senate in the 1950s, Costello faced a number of legal problems, including charges of contempt for walking out during his testimony. He was also nearly assassinated by Genovese in 1957, who wanted to retake control of the Family, and soon afterward agreed to cede power.
Nevertheless, Frank Costello died a rich man at the old age of 82 in 1973. Like Gambino, he passed away at home. But Costello’s one-time rival and fellow Mafia boss Vito Genovese was not so lucky…
