Word: castellano
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...against considerable odds, the two FBI special agents who authored this slam-bang policier placed a bug in the Staten Island mansion of Paul ("the Pope") Castellano, New York City's boss of crime bosses. The tap eventually led to the indictment of Castellano, along with more than 100 of his underlings, in the so-called Commission case. Joseph O'Brien and Andris Kurins did the honors, but more like courtiers than arresting officers. They took Castellano to the federal court complex in Manhattan by a back way to avoid the flashbulbs. When the aging diabetic felt a little peckish...
Such is the peculiar intimacy that develops between hunters and quarry. Big Paul Castellano, as the admiring authors describe him, had a certain gritty grandeur. There was one unshakable rule for his boys in the Gambino family: no dealing in drugs. He accepted fiscal tribute from his capos with the lofty dignity of an Indian raja being given his weight in gold by his subjects. And he could discuss, with almost Socratic detachment, the subtleties of when or whether to "whack" a customer who had fallen behind in paying the vig on an extortionate loan...
...contingents -- as well as the token few warships sent by countries like Australia, Spain and Greece -- could accomplish that the alliance's core partners could not remained unanswered by the Pentagon. Even such a muscular U.S. ally as Italy, moreover, kept its participation to a minimum. Said Sergeant Robert Castellano, 26, a U.S. airman: "We look at our troop strength and we look at the others, and we feel they're not doing enough...
...four, Gotti alone is charged with masterminding the most sensational rubout in recent Mob history: the slaying of Paul Castellano, then head of the Gambino family, by three gunmen as Castellano left a Manhattan restaurant on Dec. 16, 1985. Gotti has long been suspected of having arranged the hit so he could take over the family. Police contend that Castellano did not trust Gotti and was grooming Thomas Bilotti, his bodyguard, as the next head of the family. (Bilotti too was killed in the ambush.) While Gotti is not accused of pulling a trigger, investigators say they have a witness...