In 1978, Castellano allegedly ordered the murder of Gambino associate Nicholas Scibetta. While Dellacroce accepted Castellano's succession, the deal effectively split the Gambino family into two rival factions. Castellano arranged for Dellacroce to remain as underboss while directly running traditional Cosa Nostra activities such as extortion, robbery, and loansharking.

Ĭastellano's succession was confirmed at a meeting on November 24, with Dellacroce present. Dellacroce, at the time, was imprisoned for tax evasion and was unable to contest Castellano's succession.

Gambino appeared to believe that his crime family would benefit from Castellano's focus on white collar businesses. Against expectations, he had appointed Castellano to succeed him over his underboss Aniello 'Neil' Dellacroce. On October 15, 1976, Carlo Gambino died at home of natural causes. In 2004, court documents revealed that Joseph Massino, a government witness and former Bonanno crime family boss, admitted murdering Borelli as a favor to Castellano. In 1975, Castellano allegedly had Vito Borelli, the boyfriend of his daughter Constance, murdered because he heard Borelli had compared him to Frank Perdue, the owner and commercial spokesman for Perdue Farms. Castellano also supervised Gambino control of Teamsters Union Local Chapter 282, which provided workers to pour concrete at all major building projects in New York and Long Island. In return, the contractors gave a two-percent kickback of the contract value to The Commission. Castellano also handled the Gambino interests in the 'Concrete Club,' a club of contractors selected by The Commission to handle contracts between $2 million and $15 million. Castellano's son Philip was the president of Scara-Mix Concrete Corporation, which exercised a near monopoly on Staten Island on construction concrete. Īs Castellano became more powerful in the Gambino family, he started to make large amounts of money from construction concrete. Castellano used intimidation tactics to force his customers to buy Dial's products. Dial's customers also included supermarket chains Key Food and Waldbaum's. In his early years, Castellano used his butcher's training to launch Dial Poultry, a poultry distribution business that once supplied 300 butchers in New York City. But Castellano's businesses, and those of his sons, thrived from their mob ties. Ĭastellano identified more as a businessman than a hoodlum he took over non-legitimate businesses and converted them to legitimate enterprises. However, in November 1960, Castellano's conviction was reversed by an Appeals Court. On January 13, 1960, Castellano was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy to withhold information. Refusing to answer grand jury questions about the meeting, Castellano spent a year in prison on contempt charges. When New York State Police raided the meeting, Castellano was one of 61 high-ranking mobsters arrested.

In 1957, after Anastasia's homicide and Carlo Gambino's elevation to boss, Castellano attended the abortive Apalachin meeting in Apalachin, New York.

He became a capo under boss Vince Mangano's successor, Albert Anastasia. In the 1940s, Castellano became a member of the Mangano family. His first name at birth has been cited as both Constantino and Costantino. Paul Castellano' because he hated his first name, Constantino. Castellano from The Godfather, despite claims made by Richard's wife after his death. He was of no relation to actor Richard S. In 1937, Castellano married his childhood sweetheart Nina Manno the couple had three sons (Paul, Philip, and Joseph Castellano) and a daughter, Constance Castellano Manno died in 1999. Ĭastellano's sister Catherine had married one of their cousins, future Mafia boss Carlo Gambino, in 1932. By refusing to cooperate with authorities, Castellano enhanced his reputation for mob loyalty. The 19-year-old Castellano refused to identify his two accomplices to the police and served a three-month prison sentence.

In July 1934, Castellano was arrested for the first time in Hartford, Connecticut for robbing a haberdasher. Ĭastellano dropped out of school in the eighth grade to learn butchering and collecting numbers game receipts, both from his father. Giuseppe was a butcher and an early member of the Mangano crime family, the forerunner of the Gambino family. Castellano was killed in an unsanctioned hit on December 16, 1985.Ĭastellano was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in 1915, to Italian immigrants Giuseppe and Concetta Castellano (née Cassata). Carlo Gambino (cousin and brother-in-law)Ĭonstantino Paul Castellano ( Italian: J– December 16, 1985), was an American crime boss who succeeded Carlo Gambino as head of the Gambino crime family.

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