paul castellano pre boss question

Idk if this has ever been discussed here or if I missed it in the search function but Big Paul was a capo in the early 70s before he became boss right?

I read that was the position when Carlo picked him as boss. Does anyone know is this true, where he was a Capo out of, who was in his crew and who took over when he got upped? I do apologize if this has been discussed before and I missed it but any insight would be much appreciated. Thanks guys

Its been discussed on this forum manny times.Paul inherited his crew from his cousin or uncle in 1956 probablly.Pauls crew went to Nino Gaggi in 1976 when paul was uped to boss.He never was too involved with his crew,especially from 1967.Roy Demeo was in his crew,Greg Depalma,Epolito and his son,Gandolfo Sciandra,Lulu Marciano and a bunch of oldtimers and relatives of paul like the Masottos...It was based ot of Brooklyn,the most part...They had a club on 86th street,next to Tommasos.Friends and Veterans social club

Thanks for the response Alex sorry if I brought up a topic thats been discussed ad nauseum but the search function blows.

I always thought Nino was a capo at the same time as Paul didnt know he became a capo at that time takin over for paul. But that wojld make sense in the case of Paul lettin Demeo and his crew get away w all the killing and drug dealing since they had a connect and they were obviously funneling a shit load of money to Castellano. Appreciate the insight buddy

More broadly: Castellano was the head of the Gambino's "white collar" rackets (construction, wholesale meat and poultry), while Neil Dellacroce was in charge of the "blue collar" rackets (gambling, loan sharking, hijacking, drugs). Dellacroce may not have sanctioned drug dealing by his underlings, but part of the money that got kicked up to him was from drugs.

Well I like reading about that crew,here a list of soldiers in the crew,H knuckels to to thank.He did most of the foot work..http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=620725&page=2
Nino was real Cosa Nostra..He was from the lower east side acctually,but moved to bath beach in the 40s,related to Frank Scalice...Roy was acting capo while Nino was in jail in 1979,1980 or something like that.Big Paul was very powerfull even before he became capo,dont know how much was he involved with his crew but I think it wasnt much,not sure..

Read in files jimmy brown was acting boss Early's 70tys I think before Paul was ever acting. Then the whole time Neil was in for tax shit brown was acting under that time and Paul was acting for Carlo who was sick. But look at that Sinatra 76 pic Carlo doesn't look bad just old then crokes lil later. HK probaly can help if he sees this.

This is what always had my attention of the power and influence of the Gambinos. They seemed to have every possible market cornered to keep the cash rolling in. From the top of the mountain to the lowest mud puddle.

yeah, the family was a money-making machine, until gotti and Sammy took over. then the dumb fat kid jr.

So at what point did Paul Castellano establish and run blue collar rackets like loansharking, and hijacking. Which he DID do.

its sound like he was lucky carlo gambino was his cousin and liked him

Dont know if he ever did those things,he had guys do it for him under his protection and his name..Maybe as a young man,probablly..Nino was acctually very blue collar,Roy too.The oldtimers I mentioned did some loansharking and bookmaking.Pete 17 Piacenti,a soldier in Pauls crew had a club at 1717 86th street.In front of that club mimi scialo was killed in 74..Paul was very smart,in my opinion the best choice for underboss.Not saying that Neil would been a great boss.Think the Gambinos needed someone to take the top spot,not those two.Maybe Jimmy Brown

Think I also read Joe n gallo was sick heart when Carlo was naming a successor. If anyone he went back with Carlo far was at the lil ap meeting with the new Orleans guys and Santo t. Was that 66.

Thinking about bosses snake persico younger then chin was sitting in the driver seat way before chin or just a few years but them guys could get killed on any day. Yaeh that family was only half the size but you think a boss is a boss. Today if Andrew Russo boss he could sit with any other family and hold his own.

He did those things. There's numerous sources which say he did. He established loansharking and hijacking operations, and took over his fathers bookmaking operation and enlarged it. He was knee deep in blue collar rackets at one point.

Yes you are right,everyone in Bk was into hijacking.From the docks to jfk

What hijacking operations were you talking about?

I could see Castellano being a loanshark at one point but his bread and butter was the butcher trade, which he probably was pushed into by his father and uncles. His conviction for robbery in the 1930s was likely a "teenage spur of the moment crime" to make his bones in a bid to impress his buddies. There is no evidence of Castellano being a "blue collar criminal". He became the president of the Allied Retail Butchers Association and also operated The Emcee Meat Market Co before also going into the construction business. He and his partners made tons of money, with the help of "strong arm tactics" I´m sure.

Another thing that needs to be said is that the Family was not divided into one what you call "white collar" and one "blue collar" faction. Where the heck does that assertion stem from? The line between the two factions was not that clean cut. Both factions had members active in both white collar and blue collar crimes.

EDIT - Something I forgot to mention... Castellano was the acting boss sporadically starting in 1967. Jimmy Brown was the acting underboss in around 1973-1976. Before him it was Mike Caiazza.

The Gambinos were from Passo di Rigano. The Castellano/a family lived outside of Zisa, close to where Mangano's family lived in the 1890's. One major figure that I recall was Onofrio Castellana he was part of Olivuzza before that group and Piana dei Colli and several other Palermitan mobs split up to form smaller groups.

In NYC, Palermitans had an early Little Sicily in Red Hook back in the 1880's (it's largely forgotten today by historians). In 1892 Palermitans had a great show of force on the Lower East Side. These fragments would later be connected to the Palermitans in the Bronx.

The Riccobono, Gambino, Virzi, Castellano, Scalici families constituted a string of interconnected relatives that brought/continued the Palermitan Mafia in NYC under the "Gambino" faction as it's called today.

Yes thats what i thought,I know Paul establied white collar rackets real early..Of course white and blue wasnt so clear cut,i always figured it the brooklyn faction under paul and those 2 or 3 crews under neil.



Thats great info,where in South Brooklyn was there sicilians later on?

Great thread

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/U1840890/paul-castellano-arrested-with-family

Here is a link describing how Big Paul Castellano and his son were arrested for loan sharking.One of the rare examples of Paul being indicted of a so called blue collar crime before the 80s.Anyway in this link here isnt a full story,but there is one on the net because i read it some time ago.The charges were later droped.It was about the creation of a big loan sharking ring.Cant find the whole story but if somebody can please post it.