Originally posted by Don Marco:
I've got to go with Carlo Gambino. Try as they did, the government wasn't able to touch him. He died a natural death, which is no small feat in this line of work.
I agree, Don Marco: a Don who dies peacefully in his own bed, a free man, is a Don who was, by definition, more successful than 99% of his colleagues. That's one of the things that separated Frank Costello and Meyer Lansky from Lepke Buchalter and John Gotti.
Gambino was probably the last of the really successful Dons. Iron hand in velvet glove. As you said, the government couldn't touch him--the best they could do was to try to deport him, and he always developed "heart trouble" that kept him from being tried. One bad mark on his record: choosing your avatar over Neil Dellacroce as his successor.
