Anthony Casso, One Of The Lucchese’s Most Ruthless Hitmen
Wikimedia CommonsAnthony Casso tried killing a federal prosecutor and a federal judge while under indictment.
Anthony Casso was a loan shark before joining the Lucchese crime family and rising in the ranks to become an underboss. Nicknamed “Gaspipe” after his criminal father’s favorite weapon, Casso was one of the deadliest hitmen of all of New York’s five crime families and killed at least 36 people.
Born on May 21, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York, Anthony Casso had the Mafia in his blood, as his grandfather was a captain in the Genovese crime family. While his longshoreman father tried straightening him out of his teenage gangsterdom in the South Brooklyn Boys gang, Casso was soon poached by the Lucchese family.
While one investigator called Casso “a ruthless homicidal maniac who enjoyed killing,” the mobster certainly had the help of the New York Police Department. Bribing officers Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa with a monthly $4,000 salary, Casso deployed them as hitmen and received tips about potential informants.
Wikimedia CommonsSammy Gravano with Anthony Casso.
Casso’s tenure in the Lucchese family during the 1980s saw him rise in the organization’s ranks to second in command. Even when he was indicted on 67 counts by the Brooklyn Federal Court in 1990, he didn’t stop plotting — and conspired to murder a federal prosecutor and a federal judge in 1992 and 1993, respectively.
The Mafia hitman had such deep-seated hatred for police informants that he tried murdering Patricia Cappazola in 1992, and she was merely the sister of informant Peter Chiodo. She was shot in her car and barely survived the hit. Her brother was just as fortunate, surviving a failed hit in May 1991.
Ultimately, authorities had enough to charge Casso with racketeering charges in 1993. While he provided them with information in court the following year, Casso only ratted out Eppolito and Caracappa — whose status as police officers weren’t covered by the Mafia’s code of silence.
In the end, Anthony Casso pleaded guilty to 72 criminal counts that included racketeering, extortion, and 14 counts of first-degree murder. Sentenced to 455 years in prison, he died of COVID-19 behind bars at the age of 78 in December 2020.
