Castellano is always remembered as a businessman and not a hoodlum, what were his days as a Capo or even a Soldier and Associate like?

-When did he make his bones and when was he made? (If there's information)
-How did he run his crew and who was in it?
-Did he actually do any dirty work?

Ive always been curious about Paul during those years as well.

On the show "The Definitive Guide to the Mob" it shows at the beginning that Big Paul was inducted in 1940. It also shows Joey Gallo being inducted in 1946 which would have made Joey around 17 years old, so I'm assuming they're just making dates up.

Big Paul was made sometime in the 1940's(not sure the exact year). He was present at the Appalachin meeting in 1957 so his status had obviously gone up at that time. As far as I know he never did any dirty work. he was involved in a robbery with friends when he was a kid. He got caught sent to jail and refused to rat on his friends which earned his respect

Castellano made the robbery in 1934 but his fortune was that his sister married Carlo Gambino, so big Paul having strong blood ties with Gambino can easly get made and become the boss after don Carlo death, even the capos think that dellacroce deserve the role not castellano and this nepotisc choice led to the his murder in december 1985.

He had a lot of money on the street in Brooklyn and Long Island, not to mention this would have in theory been the timeframe in which he established his meat distribution and construction businesses that were thriving once he became boss several years later. He was closely aligned with Nino Gaggi during this time

Paul was made in the early 40s while in his mid 20's.

His initial exposure to crime was collections for his father, Joseph, who run a La Rosa lottery. It seems he moved on to bigger and better things on the coattails of cousin Carlo.

He was made capo in 1956, following the death of his uncle Francisco "Frank" Castellano who's crew he had been in.

Although information is sketchy, it seems he had a lot of money on the street as a loanshark.

His crew was one of the family's larger, especially after absorbing the robliotto/eppolitto regime in the late 1960's.

It was during this period he moved into legitimate business more as well..emcee meats/blue ribbon meats/dial poultry as well as various construction intrests. scaramix concrete.

He was upped to acting boss late 1975/early76 as Gambino began using him in more of this capacity as his health declined.
Nino Gaggi took over Castellanos crew and made official captain 1976.

I came across an old FBI report a while back that noted both Gambino and Castellano being involved in an unsolved homicide in 1933 at the request of Vincent Mangano. It suggested that it was Paul who had beaten a guy to death with a ball bat. Guys surname was Ardino (Arduino??)I've never been able to find any corroborating documents on the matter. I asked if anyone had ever come across this before a while back in another thread but never got a reply.

I would love to see that FBI report. Know where I can find it?

I will see if I can dig it out. Basic story is December 1933, Ardino family is selling bootleg whiskey in completion with Gambino/Castellano. As a cover they were using Christmas trees, giving away a case of bootleg liquor with everyone sold. Castellano and co. attacked several guys with baseball bats, with Paul actually beating one to death. Found some documents linking several guys with this surname to Vito Genovese for this period but not much else. Apparently they distributed the unused trees amongst the poor.

I thought it was jimmy brown failla who was acting boss in between gambinos death and castellanos official unveiling as boss

Castellano had been "acting" for Gambino as far back as 1967.

mary ferrell

Nice DiMaggio but even these are sometimes wrong , look on page 301 , tramunti was a lucchese not a bonnano how could he possibly take over that family , he couldn't . Think the informant Defo got that wrong

I read that passage as the Bonnanos are to be assimilated into the Gambinos OR alternatively, Trummanti will be installed as boss at the behest of the gambinos and Luchesses.
Could be the informant just fucked up!!

awesome post though DiMaggio cheers pal , that's my day off work sorted reading through this . Any interesting pages to read ??

The 21st Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933 and went into effect on December 15. They would of had no reason to kill a bootlegger since there was no illegal alcohol.

Bootlegging went on years after Prohibition ended as a way to circumvent alcohol tax laws.

He was a pussy & hid behind Carlo's shadow if u ask me...

Even Carlo (whom i highly respect) was a hamster of a man,but was the brain of all brains.

True or untrue, that supposed incident made it in that horrible chazz palminteri movie about Castellano (boss of bosses.

Snakes that's first time I read that about bootlegging went on after it became legal makes aton of sense I wonder why some of this guy were called bootleggers even thou they were born after 1910 or so. Guess your still a bootlegger selling untaxed booze in the late 40tys.

@Ted
Might not be entirely accurate, in Mafia Dynasty, it says Carlo Gambino bought Bootlegging stills, distilling equipment, and acquired a monopoly on all illegal alcohol basically in the entire NY region, from mobsters getting out of the bootlegging business after repeal. The book says this was the source of Carlos first fortune, the ration stamps in the40s being what took him to superstar status.....

LOL Tony_Pro, that movie was fucking hilarious. What about when Chazz walks into the club and the girl who was with "John Gotti" starts going all around him. Fucking great.

Maybe I should rewatch it for the laughs, quite honestly I think I didn't get twenty minutes in to it before I turned it off in disgust.

Girls swarming a beaked-nosed old man like Paul? Now someone has an imagination. Must have been the magic of the 'ole penis pump thing he had lol

Actually, Paulie was very hardcore and did many crime inc. murders himself. He would've been one of the most promising bosses of this era, considering how most bosses today are more legitimate. He was born way to soon.
Back in that day, the made guys needed a strong street presence because they were more on the streets. It's way more secret today.

And I think Carlo saw that coming, you know, the 2000s. That's why he choose Paul and not Neil.

Merely a hypothetical. Paul survives the murder attempt. Purely by circumstance. Lets say Tommy Bilotti still dies, Paul gets hit once or twice but survives.

My question isn't necessarily what may have happened to "the fist" and their co-conspirators. My question is more, have a nearly successful attempt to his life Paul would have then been under police guard in the hospital and more than likely until any of his upcoming trials.

My question is had he lived to be fully prosecuted, wasn't he potentially being named in three seperate RICO trials as Boss of the Family?

1) The Pending Ruggiero (Gotti Crew) Drug bust tapes

2) The DeMeo Crew trials. There was nobody left to take the years but the Twins, but Paul was the top tier of that case even before Roy was killed.

3) The Commission Trial. Open and shut case, another easy 100 years guaranteed.

This has gotten rant-like but my point was had he survived the murder attempt based on those trials alone where he was the highest ranking member in all three trials not to mention anything else that may have surfaced in the events of those trials had Paul stayed alive, he may have been the longest sentenced mobster ever. I'm not saying served the longest time, but the unrealistic amount of years handed down and added on to the sentences of guys like Nicky Scarfo and Junior Persico might not have even been that bad compared to what Paul may have been looking at unless those cases were consolidated or dropped for a single case forcus.

Can you imagine a life sentence for three difference RICO trials?

Mobsters sold illegal alcohol years after prohibition was over. As a way around the tax on liquor and other things. I thought this was common knowledge. Guess not.

Castellano was acting boss for Carlo as far back as the early seventies, possibly earlier. This is stated in the Boss Of Bosses book, which is no way linked to that film other than it's name and whom it pertains to, written by the agents whom we're investigating him for the Commission case, I believe. He was at one point a very successful loanshark, with a lot of money on the street and never seemed to have trouble getting his money back.

Another interesting thing mentioned in the book, is that Carlo desired for the Gambinos to be more of a white collar crime family. Thats what he wanted it to become, and he placed the guy who was more suitable to see his desire come into fruition and who was more capable. That guy was Paul Castellano, not Neil Dellacroce. We always hear the "he rode his coat tails, Carlo wanted the crime family kept within his own blood relations..." narrative. But is it not possible that he simply wanted his syndicate to go another direction and become something more, and again, he left the guy who was more capable in white collar criminal matters, in charge?

Have to agree with all of that.

@Sinatra


That's what I think, Carlo wanted the capos to become Angelo Pontes, legit like Profacis heirs, legit like Tore Locasio, legit like a Chicago Tony, Victor Colletti; Like Bonnano almost got a third interest in Saputos billion dollar dairy company, moves like that one. That's what Carlo saw as the future, not 30, 40 years later and there still like, still in the streets.



Take that Ferttita family , I think that was the natural progression that the Gambino, Catena type guys were going for.



It's like take Naples, they control the Garment Center, and as a result, they control untold numbers of retail outlets. In the book Gommorah, he says that this network is more important than the drug trafficking. Sinatra, you mentioned Boss of Bosses, remember the part where Paul is talking about the Garment Center with a couple of his guys? They were talking about how the Gambino rep, basically for like years, maybe decades just showed up and collected his money. Never really tried to build or anything, and they lost ground to the Chinese eventually. They shoulda had probably most of the NY market by now, and legit too. It's like they never leveraged the opportunity into something bigger. ( I know they got the trucking, but it should be trucking, supplying the materials to the shops, to supplying the equipment like sewing machines, I mean every aspect they should have sewn up...)



That's what guys like Carlo understood; The Michael Corleone model, the transition to corporate thuggery, lol

Salvatore Locascio is/was as legit as those nice Nigerian princes that email me looking for money which they will definitely pay back with interest.