Word: capo
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Gambino. Traditionalists expect Thomas Gambino, 57, son of former Boss Carlo Gambino, the Mafia's last true godfather (he died of natural causes in 1976) to reclaim his family's leadership. A low-profile capo, or captain, Gambino avoids the flamboyant dress and behavior that so quickly drew attention to current Boss John Gotti. Gambino has been making good money from the rackets, and some experts think he may prefer to remain a contented capo rather than become the boss...
...ruthless "Lucky" Luciano organized the Commission in 1931. Luciano acted to end the gang warfare that had wiped out at least 40 mobsters in just two days in September of that year. Before that, top gangsters like Salvatore Maranzano had conspired to shoot their way into becoming the capo di tutti capi ("Boss of Bosses"). Maranzano, who had organized New York's Sicilian gangsters into five families, was the first victim of Luciano's new order...
...crusading Giuliani admits that the old practice of locking up a capo or % two "just helped to speed the succession along." But by striking at all levels of the Mob families and then "peeling away their empires," Giuliani insists, "it is not an unrealistic goal to crush them." Perhaps. But first there are two new and potentially historic courtroom battles to be fought. For the Mob, and for an optimistic new generation of federal crime fighters, it is High Noon in New York...
...years, while Giacalone moved from college to law school to a job at the Justice Department, Gotti was moving up through the ranks of the Mafia. Four years ago, their paths crossed more decisively. Giacalone had become an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, and Gotti was a feared capo in the Gambino family who ruthlessly ran his empire from the same red brick building on 101st Avenue. Giacalone had just successfully prosecuted four men for two armored-car robberies totaling $1 million, and set about to trace the unrecovered money. Some of it, she discovered, had found...
...Castellano, rather than Dellacroce, succeeded Carlo Gambino as the family boss. Gotti reportedly thought Castellano, who was Gambino's brother-in-law and had little in common with hard-core mobsters like Gotti, was unworthy of the high position; the prudent Castellano was wary of the hot-tempered young capo. When Dellacroce died last year, Gotti was in line to become the new underboss. Castellano, however, had other ideas and seemed ready to elevate his chauffeur-bodyguard, Thomas Bilotti. Last year Castellano and Bilotti were mowed down in a brazen late-afternoon slaying outside Sparks Steak House in midtown Manhattan...