Illinois Police & Sheriff's News

Paul "Big Pauly" Castellano
Gambino Family Crime Boss

Paul "Big Pauly" Castellano
"The Banker"

Not a mobster as much as he was a racketeer.

Successor to and handpicked at age 61 by his cousin, Carlo Gambino, to head the Gambino crime family.

Castellano clan in Sicily helped Carlo Gambino come to the United States and set his roots in New York.

His father was a butcher who ran numbers for mob controlled bookies.

Dropped out of school in 8th grader and learned to be a meat cutter, running numbers for his father.

Grew up in a middle class, Italian neighborhood where the crime was not that evident.

At the age of 19, Paul was involved in an armed robbery. His two friends escaped, but Paul was convicted and spent 3 months in jail. He refused to squeal on his colleagues and his reputation took a major boast as word got around and became a hero among the hoodlums and thugs in his neighborhood about his allegiance to his friends. He was made an official member of the La Cosa Nostra.

At age 22, he married the sister-in-law of Carlo Gambino, Nino Manno. They had 3 sons and a daughter. But while the marriage appeared to be good on the outside, it soured quickly in private. Castellano suffered from diabetes, and it was aid that one of the side effects was sexual impotency. He separated from his wife, and had an affair with his Colombian house keeper, Gloria Olarte. It was rumored that he had a penile implant. Whether it was true or not, his underlings believed it and ridiculed him. They lost respect for him. And the more they lost respect for Castellano, the weaker he became as a mob boss.

Owned a lucrative whole sale meat company by the early 50s, driving a sleek and flashy Buick convertible. He became close to his cousin Carlo, and developed the so-called "White Rackets," construction bid rigging, union infiltration and political corruption, while another Carlo Gambino lieutenant, Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce, managed the "blue collar" rackets and was headquartered at the Ravenite Social Club in Little Italy, the headquarters of future Gambino crime boss John Gotti. Dellacroce, "a hoodlums hoodlum," was from the old school who followed the tradition of unquestioned loyalty, accepting the deathbed decision of Carlo Gambino to anoint Castellano as the new Gambino family head.

While Dellacroce used force and murder to keep his turf in line, Castellano preferred dealings. He negotiated a truce with the leaders of the Irish New York Mafia, the Westies, offering their leaders, Jimmy Coonan and Nicky Featherstone, to use the Gambino family name in their business in exchange for 10 percent of their earnings out of Hell's Kitchen on the West Side of Manhattan. However, they could not kill anyone unless they had permission from the Gambino family. The Westies abused the privilege and in an ironic twist, forced the police to confront Castellano in a private meeting concerning Westies committed murders. The police wanted Castellano to cut his ties with the Westies, which he did.

Castellano lived in a mansion on a 3.5 acre estate on Staten Island at the top of Todt Hill, valued at $3.5 million and built as a copy of the White House. In fact, he called it his "White House." It sharply contrasted the humbled, middle class home of Gambino and most of his Gambino family hoodlum underlings. The mansion was protected by a rottweiler named "Duke."

Castellano did not mingle with his family hoods, and instead spent most of his time with his monied, private industry friends, dining frequently at Sparks Steak House in New York.

The man who nurtured a real hate for Castellano was Gotti, a lieutenant to Dellacroce who believed that Dellacroce and not Castellano should have succeeded Gambino.

Castellano, although adverse to using violence, did not shy from it. He turned to one of his serial killer hit squads, headed by Roy DeMeo, who specialized in murder-for-hire killing some 250 victims. DeMeo's style was to shoot his victims in the head, quickly wrap their heads in a towel, hang the victim upside down to drain the blood, and then butchered the body and placed it at the bottom of a landfill. Castellano ordered DeMeo to murder his son-in-law, Frank Amato, whom he had heard was beating his pregnant daughter, Connie, and was having affairs. When Connie had a miscarriage, Amato's body disappeared on Sept. 20, 1980.

A federal probe of DeMeo in 1982 prompted Castellano to have DeMeo murdered when DeMeo refused to meet with Castellano to discuss the federal probe. DeMeo's body was found in the trunk of his car Jan. 10, 1983.

Castellano controlled some 24 street crews, increasing his take from 10 percent to 15 percent, always making a point of complaining about the money that he received. It seemed it was never enough, adding to the growing animosity among his soldiers and supporters of Dellacroce.

Contractors paid a mob tax to the Gambino family, making construction costs in Manhattan the highest int he country. It was one of the main sources of income for the New York Gambino family mob.

Animosity increased between Gotti and Castellano as Gotti's street crews in Bergen, New Jersey, became more and more involved in secret dealings, that Castellano heard about, and also in drugs.

The FBI planted bugs in Castellano's "White House" in late 1983 with the help of his maid and lover, Olarte, who had been approached frequently by the FBI. It was Olarte who told the FBI that Paul Castellano often sat at his kitchen table where he discussed business.

With Castellano's trusted aide and driver Tom Bilotti at his side, an FBI agent posing as a repairman, planted a bug in the kitchen near the table. The bug recorded 600 hours of conversations detailing Gambino crime family business.

It was a bug in the home of Gotti aide Angelo Ruggiero that provided evidence against 8 Gotti aides. Ironically, Ruggiero picked up information while meeting often with Dellacroce, who died of brain cancer, and repeating Castellano's comments to others in his home.

Castellano was arrested on March 30, 1984, and charged with sanctioning the murder of 24 people, from information based on the two wire taps. He was released on $2 million bond.

On Feb. 25 1985, Castellano was arrested along with the heads of several other crime family bosses in what became known as the Commission Case, an investigation into mob control over the construction business. Much of the evidence came from the tap in Castellano's kitchen.

It was rumors that Castellano planned to rat on the Gambino family that prompted Gotti to seek his murder. Dellacroce, who believed in the principle of loyalty to the family, refused to permit it.

But on Dec. 2, 1985, Dellacroce died from brain cancer and Gotti took his place. When Castellano refused to attend Dellacroce's funeral, fearing it would cause more federal problems, Gotti went into a rage, calling Castellano disloyal.

Using, Frank DeCicco, an insider close to Castellano, Gotti was able to get Castellano to attend a meeting with Dellacroce's son on Dec. 16 at Sparks Steak House in Manhattan. That, DeCicco said, would be Castellano's chance to show his respect to the Dellacroce family. DeCicco said it would also ease the tension caused by his failure to go to the Dellacroce funeral. After a meeting with his lawyer, James LaRossa, Castellano drove with Bilotti to Sparks where he was gunned down by Gotti's killers. Watching the killing with Gotti from a nearby car was former Gambino lieutenant Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano.

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