Originally Posted By: Ted
Originally Posted By: DiMaggio
I will see if I can dig it out. Basic story is December 1933, Ardino family is selling bootleg whiskey in completion with Gambino/Castellano. As a cover they were using Christmas trees, giving away a case of bootleg liquor with everyone sold. Castellano and co. attacked several guys with baseball bats, with Paul actually beating one to death. Found some documents linking several guys with this surname to Vito Genovese for this period but not much else. Apparently they distributed the unused trees amongst the poor.

The 21st Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933 and went into effect on December 15. They would of had no reason to kill a bootlegger since there was no illegal alcohol.


True or untrue, that supposed incident made it in that horrible chazz palminteri movie about Castellano (boss of bosses.

This life of ours, this is a wonderful life. If you can get through life like this, hey, thats great. But it's very, very unpredictable. There are so many ways you can screw it up.-Paul Castellano (he would know)

"I'm not talking about Italians, I'm talking about criminals."-Joe Valachi