I know that Thomas Eboli was murdered in the early 1970’s; but I never found out the real reason;

It’s been said that he was killed because he owed Carlo Gambino money; but that don’t make any sense;

Do anyone know the real reason why Thomas Eboli got killed???

His brother Pasquale Eboli got killed also.

Because he was the only boss who didn't kiss Gambino's ass...So they used the money excuse to kill him and put someone in who did kiss ass

@DiLorenzo

I still don’t get it though;

My theory is that the Gambino’s didn’t have anything to do with Tommy Ryan’s demise;

Why would the Genovese’s have another family whacking their Acting Boss/Front Boss; It would make them look weak.

They were very powerful in the early 70’s; They had guys like Salerno; Catena; Miranda; and Lombardo..

I think it was Ebola stepping on other people’s toes and pissing people off in the family…and they decided to whack him (Genovese; cleaning house)

Anyone else have any idea?? Where’s (NYMafia when you need them lol)

Because Gambino wanted Tieri as Genovese front boss.

There is a theory, of LE, etc., that it was a culmination of things. It is said that Tommy didn't really like Carlo underneath it all to begin with, And the feeling was mutual. Yet, they interacted as needed.

But the one particular major event that helped to seal Eboli's fate was that he 'allegedly' refused to pay back something in the neighborhood or $2, $3, $-million dollars that was lost by the Genovese and Gambino crews (and maybe other NY families also) in a joint venture to finance the multimillion dollar heroin importation network of Louie Cirillo.

When the DEA came down and nabbed Cirillo for the drug case there were packages lost to them. And then dug up his front yard in the Bronx and discovered over $1,000,000 in cold cash, collectively the families lost a ton of money.

Supposedly Eboli had organized this joint venture and had 'guaranteed' the money. When he reneged on paying back the other investors (the other bosses) They decided to clip him.

PS: Gambino also did favor Tieri as well for the top spot. He was helpful to installing Funzi in the top slot after Eboli's demise. So who really knows? But these are the prevailing theories

Wikipedia theories.

This was a theory that was presented by a top NYC law enforcement official at the time of Tommy Ryan's murder. This theory was also printed in the NYDaily News or the Post at that time. (in print).

How do I know that? Because I (myself) read it at that time.

This was way back in the early 1970s at the time of his killing. Decades before the internet was ever created, and way before there even was a "Wikipedia!"

Now whether there is any truth to this theory or not is anybody's guess. But thats the main reason that I ever heard for his death. (I'm sure there were other reasons and causes as well). There usually is.

I think you have it right, especially the ridiculous idea that they would let Gambino kill their man to put another in. It had to be internal. On one FBI recording that is on MaryFarrelll, Eboli was recorded actually joking about thinking he was going to be killed leaving a store---this was years before he was killed. He laughed about ducking behind some machines in place he was in because he thought a car outside had gunmen in it. He could not control his temper obviously, evidenced by the time he jumped into a boxing ring and tried to punch the referee after one of his boxers lost a bout. It seems he was a real street type guy who was elevated to a position he was not fit for, and the mystery is not "Why was he killed" but "How did he last so long"

Most likely to be the case. When the stuff hit the fan, Ebola was the fall guy.

I read somewhere that Tommy Ryan wanted to be more then Acting/Front Boss and it pissed a lot of the top guys off.

This was definitely a internal cleaning inside the Genovese’s.

Who put Joe Colombo in charge ??

At that time in the 60's it wasn't the same Genovese family that it was with Vito...They were much weaker..Eboli wasn't on Gambino's level...Gambino was the commission and nobody could taken him on...How do you think a stooge like Colombo was made boss, because Gambino wanted him to be...Just like years later when Chin Gigante dictated to Philly who their boss was gonna be !!

Genovese took out Anatstasia with Gambino's help, and made Gambino the boss...Nobody lifted a finger trying to go after Genovese..He was too powerful !!

@DiLorenzo

If Gambino was the person who had Thomas Eboli whacked in 1972;

Why was Pasquale Eboli killed 4 years later?? Was that a Genovese move or Carlo’s?? Why wait so late to kill Tommy Ryan’s brother??



Why didn’t Gambino just whacked both of them at the same time???

I still think this was a Genovese plot.

Possibly to prevent retaliation?

It was by any sense of reason, but people like to throw Gambino's name into the mix for whatever reason.

@Njein

4 years later? Come on….

They could have whacked him around the same time that Tommy Ryan got whacked.

@Jace

Agreed; Doesn’t make any sense whatsoever;

What is Gambino doing whacking a Acting Boss/Front Boss??

The Genovese’s were powerful in the early 70’s under Lombardo;

Wouldn’t Gambino have to get permission from Lombardo to have Eboli whacked?? This was Lombardo’s plot to clean-house;

NO boss (regardless of which borgata it may be, or how strong they are) whacks out a boss from another family unless there is strong agreement from influential forces within that family that go along with the plot.

It would cause a gang war. 100%

Even when Vito clipped Anastasia in 57', it was really Anastasia dissidents who committed the act. NOT Genovese men. It's considered very disrespectful to allow another crew to hurt a guy with you. Crews are supposed to handle their own business. Now we all know that Genovese was behind the Anastasia murder, and he gained a lot of power by that murder. But he still put Carlo up to it for the actual act.

So Eboli getting killed would have had to be formulated and executed by Genovese guys. Even though the Carlo and the Gambino's benefitted by his demise.

I’m not sure Tommy Ryan was ever the boss, I could be wrong but I seem to remember from Fish Cafaros testimony that Eboli was the Underboss and Funzi Tieri was the street boss...Benny Squint was the actual boss at the time and they probably put out the rumor that he was wacked cause of Gambino to make Carl feel indebted but there is no way anyone but them decided and wacked out a member of theyre family much less one that was in the administration...

Some of Fish Cafaros 1988 testimony....

In 1974 I got "straightened out." In other words, I became a "made" member of the Genovese family or the "brugad," a true amico nostra. This is not something that you ask for. It is some- thing that you are offered by the family, if they feel you are worthy.
Our family or our "brugad" has approximately 400 members, with a definite hierarchy: a boss, an underboss, and a consigliere, followed by 14 caporegimes. Each caporegime has a crew of at least eight.
The boss of the Genovese family is Vincent Gigante, also known as "Chin." Bobby Manna-Louis Manna-is the consigliere. Until his death in Apri11987, Sammy Santora was the underboss of our brugad.
Beginning in the early 1980's, Fat Tony Salerno was generally recognized on the streets as the boss of the Genovese family. In fact for years Fat Tony reported back to Phillip Lombardo, also known as Ben or Benny Squint.
In the 1960's, when Vito Genovese went to jail, he had turned over control of our brugad to Lombardo. Lombardo wanted to stay in the background and keep the heat off himself. So over the years, Tommy Ryan, then Eli Zaccardi, then Funzi Tieri, and finally Fat Tony, fronted as the bosses of the family while Lombardo con- trolled things from the background.
In 1981, Fat Tony had a stroke and was "pulled down" by Lom- bardo, Vincent "Chin~' Gigante, Manna, and Santora. Lombardo was also in poor health and retired.

Mr. CAFARO. We were a very disciplined organization. A sold.ier
had to check in at least once a week with his caporegime. A soldier could not make a "score," meaning any illegal business, without the approval of his capo. If he wanted to, a caporegime could
demand 10 percent of the profits made by his soldiers on a ~core. A soldier could not even carry a gun without first getting approval from his capo.
Most important, we knew never to ask questions about another amico nostra's business unless it was also our business.
La Cosa Nostra enforces its rules through murder. So we even have rules about who could or could not be murdered, or, as we say on the streets-clipped, whacked or hurt. First of all, killings were mandatory for certain offenses. Messing around with another amico nostra's wife or family; dealing in "junk"; "ratting"; refusing to go on a hit if asked; knowingly killing a cop or other law-en- forcement agent. Also, if someone you sponsored "ratted", you would be killed as being responsible for his actions.
No killing or "hit" could take place without the approval of the hierarchy of your family. The first step in getting that approval was to take your "beef" to your capo, who in turn gets approval for the hit from the consiglieri and the underboss. Ultimately, no hit could go down without the approval of the boss.
If the boss okays the hit, the capo assigns it to you to be carried out. You decide who, if anyone, from your own regime, will help you do the job.
If the hit is against a member of another family, your boss will take the beef to the boss of that family. If he agrees, members of that family will carry out the hit. If he disagrees, and the hit takes place anyway, a "war" may result.
As for me, I was never asked to carry out a hit. I never had to kill anyone. This was because Fat Tony always looked out for me. It was like a father and son relationship. However, I knew that if I was ever asked, I would have to kill or be killed.
What I did for our family was to run the numbers business in West Harlem from about 1l0th Street to 153rd Street. I had about 72 controllers working under me. We had plenty of willing custom- ers. We paid 6 to 1. The New York lottery only paid 5 to 1. At my peak I was grossing about $80,000 per day with a net of about $65,000 before payouts. I had some bad years, but in a good year I could make as much as $2 million or more. Whatever money I took, I split 50-50 with Fat Tony. Later I expanded my business from numbers into sports betting.
My family made a lot of money from gambling and the numbers rackets. We got our money from gambling but our real power, our real strength came from the unions. With the unions behind us, we could shut down the city, or the country for that matter, if we needed to, to get our way.
Our brugad controlled a number of different unions, some of which I personally dealt with, some of which I knew about from other amico nostras. In some cases we got money from our dealings with the unions, in some cases we got favors such as jobs for friends and relatives, but more importantly, in all cases we got power over every businessman in New York.
With the unions behind us, we could make or break the construc- tion industry, the garment business, the docks, to name but a few. For example, Bobby Rao-Robert Rao-was a union official with
a local of Hotel Workers and Bartenders Union, Hotel, Restaurant
Employees, AFL-CIO Production, Service and Sales District Coun- cil.
Bobby and his union belonged to our brugad. Every month, Bobby would bring over anywhere from a $1,000 to $2,000 forme to give to Fat Tony, which I would split with Fat Tony.
At Christmas, Bobby-would bring over $25,000 for me to give to Fat Tony. Fat Tony would tell me how to split the money up-half, or $12,500 to Ben Lombardo who, at the time, was the boss of our family behind Tony; another $6,500 to Tony Provenzano, or Tony "Pro," a family member who controlled Teamstels Local 560; and the remainder to be split between Fat Tony and myself.
I knew that the money that Bobby Rao delivered was money that was skimmed from union funds, including union dental and medi- cal plans. I knew this because Bobby himself told me so.
Although our brugad probably had the greatest amount of union influence in New York City, the other families also had control of unions in certain areas and industries.
As a result, some of the most important industries in New York City, such as the waterfront and shipping industries, construction and concrete industries, the garment center, and the convention center operations, were all subject to mob influence and control.
Another major soutee of our power and income for our brugad was the mob's control of the concrete industry through what we called the "2 percent club." Fat Tony and Paul Castellano were partners with Nicky Auletta in S&A Concrete.
Salerno and Castellano had put up no money, but had provided Auletta with their control and influence of the construction unions; Through S&A Concrete, the Genovese and Gambino families also took over the high-rise construction business of DIC Concrete and Construction.
Castellano also controlled "Biff" Halloran, the owner of Transit Mix and Certified Concrete. Castellano could control Halloran and others like him because Castellano controlled Local 282 of the Teamsters Union. All of the concrete drivers belonged to that Local 282.
For a while, only Halloran was allowed to deliver concrete to construction sites in Manhattan. Fat Tony and Castellano used their influence to insure that contractors bought all of their con- crete from Halloran. In return, for every sale arranged by Fat Tony and Castellano, they got back from Halloran $1 per yard of concrete poured. -
During the same time, "Junior" Persico, the boss of the Colombo brugad and "Tony Ducks" Corallo, the boss of the Lucchese brugad, raised a "beef" about Halloran being the only one allowed to deliv- er concrete in Manhattan.
Both of them had connections with concrete plants and wanted to get a piece of Manhattan. Persico gets $3 to $4 a yard from Fer- rara Brothers, Ozone Park, Queens, New York, for concrete sales obtained for them by Junior. Fat Tony and Castellano told them that Halloran was with them, and given the strength of their fami- lies, were able to keep Persico and Corallo out of Manhattan.
This worked well until a "beef" arose between Castellano and Halloran regarding payment for some damaged trucks. As a result of that dispute, Halloran stopped payments to Fat Tony and Castel- lano, and other concrete companies were allowed into Manhattan. To control the award of contracts, Vinnie DiNapoli came up with a plan for the "2 percent Club" consisting of high-rise concrete con-
struction contractors.
The Genovese, Gambino, Lucchese and Colombo brugads ran the
club. Each family had a "made" guy who knew the construction business as its representative on the club. These individuals ran the club, but any "beefs" were settled by the bosses of the families.
The club members split up all of the jobs over $2 million. S&A Concrete got all the jobs over $5 million. After a while, the smaller contractors who were not members of the club started beefing be- cause there were not enough jobs under $2 million to go around, and eventually, the $2 million rule was raised to $3 million. Any- thing over $5 million still went to S&A concrete.
A club contractor that was given a job had to pay the club 2 per- cent of the contract price. This 2 percent was split among the four brugads.

For what its worth, Tommy Ryan was a silent partner in the dry cleaning business with my father...

I never met him but from what I was told was that they wanted to kill Pat Eboli too, but that he was close with Lucky Luciano and that got him a pass for the time being

Thats very interesting DiLo. If you don't mind me asking, what was the dry cleaners named? and where was it located?

If you wanna state your worth on mob knowledge in the name of Ralph Salerno be my guest.

I'm not sure it was Salerno at all. He was certainly not the only 'authority' on the NYC mob in that era. Plenty of higher echelon 'unnamed police sources' were quoted over the years in the NY tabloids. DA's John Santucci, Eugene Gold, Frank and Robert Hogan, NYCOCB chief Emil Ciccotelli, etc. There were dozens.

Gotta remember that NYC was ground zero for mob operations, still it. So there were tremendous resources devoted to the 'problem' and many expert cops working the mob beat.

It wasn't like where you are in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, or other such states that had a near zero issue with Italian OC, and there are typically no need for experts in that field. It was a 'cottage industry' of sorts in the northeast region for years (not only in NYC).

Fish Cafaro summed it up nicely about who ran the Genovese family and the Concrete Club. Wish the Bonannos were part of the Concrete Club, maybe they would have made millions but alas their involvement in junk and Donnie Brasco led them to being shut out.

Did Cafaro give any insights on the Bonannos as well?

Being a Harlem guy I don't think he had too much interaction with the Bonanno's per se.