I knew Bruno was in on it, but I thought it was all Bonanno guys? Do we know what role the guys at the Ravenite played in it? I know the article says there was a meeting with Dellacroce 45 minutes after the hit outside the club. I don't remember reading anything about the Gambino's being in on it in the Donnie Brasco book, but of course he didn't know everything either. Would love to hear more if anyone has anything on it.

Here is one more that intrigues me, it says the NYPD said Dellacroce ORDERED the hit on Galante.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rptJAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nwwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1254,7518518&dq=dellacroce&hl=en

Probably just confirming with Neil that the hit went off. It was most likely Commission approved so I am assuming that the Ravenite was just a convenient place for Bruno to go for confirmation with Neil.

Knuckles...i have a NY Times article dated Oct 18 1972 that says Lombardi was shooting at Carmine Consalvo who the article said was an associate of Dellacroce. The shooting was at the Ravenite and happened on aug 1 1972. He missed and they beat the crap out of him. He then returned on Aug 8 with a machinegun. The gun jammed and he took off. 2 days later Lombardi was shot twice in the head with a .38 as he was driving with his girlfriend on Route 17 in Thompson NY.

No mention though of Dellacroce being the target in the 2 shootings at the Ravenite but it did say that Lombardi was "feuding" with Neil.

Another NY Times article on May 3, 1972 said that Gambino was semi retired then and that Dellacroce was basically running the family. It said in 1972 he was considered to be the most powerful mobster in the state of NY.

No mention of Big Paul who in reality was running most things for Gambino in 72 when Carlo was sick.

Giancarlo I've noticed that too. It seems that a lot of newspapers claimed he was even running the family instead of Castellano when he was boss.

Yeah Dixie...these old articles are a trip. In another NY Times article from the early 1970's that i posted on another forum a few months ago it said Gambino wanted to reduce the number of families in NYC from 5 to 3 and possibly to one. Most guys over there said they thought it was just FBI bullshit which it probably was.

Thanks for posting the articles. I wonder if these were written by general or specialized crime reporters?

What was meant by FBI bullshit? Does that mean the FBI didn't know what was going on....or was the FBI purposely having the NYT write articles with incorrect information?

Everyone seemed to think the NY Times story about Gambino wanting to merge families and possibly reduce the number of NYC families to 2 or 3 (and possibly 1) was a bullshit story the FBI fed the NY Times reporter just to stir up shit. Who knows.

Has the footage of Bruno meeting Dellacroce outside the Ravenite after the Galante hit ever been released? I've seen a quick 3 second clip of it on a Galante documentary but that's it.

Here's a part of a Apr 12, 1972 NY Times article that was on the Gallo-Profaci conflict. Joe Gallo punched Dellacroce in the eye and Gambino gave Gallo a pass on it. I bet Dellacroce wasn't too happy with that.

I agree the fbi would/does feed bs to reporters for stories like that. I think they do it to stir up information, get guys talking on wire taps, even if they're not going to get anything useable in court they could get confirmation on the going's on in that world by hearing guys gossip on the phone "oh did you see the article in the times that said guy a was doing this, that's total crap it's really guy b because of x, y and z"

I'm not a gambino expert but when I first read that artile of dellacroce trying to usurp carlo, like the rest of you I thought "what?". As others have researched (great work by everybody to) it is most likely nonsense. Although I do disagree with the notion that this lombardi would have been protected if he had just been carrying out orders. It wouldn't be out of the question, especially in a move that big, for the hitter to be killed if he failed. It's a way for the puppet masters to cover their tracks, and as punishment to the guy for screwing up.

Thanks guys for the additional articles. They are cool to read and it´s fun sharing thoughts.

You would think this Lombardi would have disappeared immediately after his first failed attempt at shooting Consalvo, not allowed to return with an automatic eventhough that attempt also failed miserably lol

These are great articles, keep them coming.

The contradictions are unreal. In one article, Dellacroce is the strongest mobster in the city, ready to make a power grab for Carlo's crown. Then, we have an amateur punk trying to take out Neil's crew with a machine gun in his social club. Now, we have Crazy Joe bitch smacking Neil with no consequences.

The last sentence of the article indicated that Carlo made Dellacroce accept his public humiliation because he breached mafia tradition by siding with Profaci....what?!

I read that as Niel was meddling in the gallo wars on the side of profaci which is against mob protocal because you're not supposed to go meddling in the affairs of other families unless the boss asks the other family's boss for help. Carlo wanted to stay out of it and dellacroce got involved. gallo humiliated dellacroce in public, dellacroce wants to do something about it and carlo tells him no because he's still trying to stay out of profaci's war.

Profaci was the don. Neil was supposedly helping the don. Not sure how that could be against mob protocol.

Now, if Neil was sponsoring the insurgents, then I could see how that would ruffle feathers.

Thats the only footage i've ever seen of it...too bad there wasn't audio with it.

If my memory is correct one of the cops on the documentary said they were high fiving each other and joked if they had a football they probably would of spiked it.

Neil wasn't the don of his family however. If Carlo wanted to publicly remain neutral, then Neil would be in trouble for helping out either side. Profaci would have to ask Gambino to get Dellacroce's help. So Dellacroce was either usurping Carlo or going behind his back by helping out Profaci, neither of which would be good for him.

One of the articles posted above was written by Ralph Blumenthal. He is a recognized crime reporter and author. He was the one who wrote Last days of the Sicilians published in 1988.

Regarding the Dellacroce beating...I´ve heard it was the opposite. Two younger members of the Gallo gang (Joe Gallo was not present) started an argument with Neil inside the Luna Restaurant on Mulberry Street. Two ex boxers and friends of Neil, who were standing outside, saw the commotion, jumped inside and gave the Gallo gang members a severe beating.

Knuckles i remember reading about that somewhere, but i can't remember where. Seems to be 2 versions out there of what happened but the one that says Dellacroce caught a beating seems to be the more accepted...but i really don't know which version is the truth.

Has Dellacroce's FBI files ever been released?

You can request to see them through the Freedom of Information Act. Be forewarned though, they will most likely be heavily redacted.

I hate when they do that...probably half or more of Carlo Gambino's files were unreadable or redacted.

I know a few times a year the FBI releases files on different people on their website but i don't recall ever seeing Dellacroce's. You can make a FOIA request but it usually takes a long time and i think they might charge you per page...not positive on that though.

I think the ones they release on their website are frequently requested subjects.

Working with government records, I can say that it is a pain in the ass to go through documents and redact names, addresses, etc. so the cost is probably justifiable.

No doubt it takes time to go through the stuff and it must be a pain in the ass to do. My only complaint would be paying per page and then seeing 90% of it redacted or unreadable. I'd be more then happy to pay them double or more and get the untouched files....but unfortunately that isn't an option they make available.

Another thing i'd love to get is access to the fed mugshots. They must have tons of good pics of the hoodlums that we've never seen.

Was just reading a few more of those old NY Times articles and a couple years after Gambino died the NYPD still thought that Dellacroce was the boss but the Feds knew it was Castellano.

Some of the more interesting articles were right after Gambino passed away and everyone was trying to figure out what was happening. One article said there was a debate going between law enforcement who was the most powerful mob guy in the country and some thought it was Joe Bonanno while others said Frank Tieri. Still others insisted it was Neil while others said it was Paul. It sounds like it was pretty confusing.

Another article said Carlo was trying to keep the books shut but was too physically weak to stop it. It said out of respect to Carlo while he was still alive they limited it to 10 guys per family but after he died the papers speculated that the floodgates would be open and how some guys were waiting a long time to be made. It said Gambino warned them about making too many new guys and he actually wanted to reduce the numbers not increase them. Sounds like he was worried about the new guys getting made.

This is why the previous articles posted in this thread might have been written incorrectly, but honestly. Back then, the intel was much harder to come by. For example, whoever thought Joe Bonanno was the strongest mobster back in '78 was way off.

Looks like it was the NYPD who thought Bonanno was the top guy. Heres the part where Bonanno is mentioned. The article is dated Aug 6, 1978.

Sounds like Galante before his parole was violated tried to get the commission to back him as boss of bosses. lol...that guy had balls.

Info was seemingly so unreliable back then, they couldn't even agree on who the dons were. Some thought it was Galante, others thought Bonanno....when it was really Rastelli. Ditto with Castellano and Dellacroce.

And again with the boss of bosses stuff....the media was waiting for someone to "consolidate the five families", lol. Can I assume that shortly afterward, the media crowned Castellano the boss of bosses? I know he wasn't, but there was both a book and a movie by that name.