Paul Castellano and Neil Dellacroce

How did these two co-exist from when Paul became boss In 1977 until Neil died in 1985? Were they buddies during Carlo Gambino's reign? Are there any photos of these two together?

Neil respected the philosophy of your boss is your boss but he kind of layed over for Castellano for 8 years. What do you guys think?

Obviously they went all the way back to the Mangano days. Like you said they had respect for eachother but were polar opposite. Paul as we know was into white collar crimes while Neil was your typical blue collar street thug As for not getting along Ive heard about some arguments. I read one time things got a little heated when Neil felt Paul was talking shit to guys who respected Neil and Neil finally said "Fuck this job and break me down to a soldier". Obviously we know about the whole Angelo tapes drama. Neil said Paul would constantly bring it up.

According to Kurins and O'Brien in "Boss of Bosses," Paul and Neil had a sitdown soon after Paul became boss. Paul told Neil that he could keep everything he had under Gambino, and if he wanted more, they'd talk about it. Neil was old-school and went along with it. But, Paul disrespected Neil by not attending his funeral and wake, which turned a lot of the blue collar guys against him.

as well as in murder machine there was the meeting w gaggi where he told dominick to shoot if neil became boss

I seriously doubt one guy with a rifle would be picked to stand across the street and fire at The Gottis and Neil. When they popped Fred Weiss they had 12 guys around the block in case something went wrong.

Dominick does not seem believable to me

The Gottis werent at that meeting. John was in jail until July 28 1977 and I doubt Gene Gotti was there who wasnt even made at that point. But I agree that story seems a bit crazy

@Turnbull.
I don't get why the blue collar faction got pissed off at Paul for not attending Neil's funeral, and wake? I'm sure the whole family realized that Paul was in deep trouble with LE, and didn't want the attention.

@Luxurydog.
The story does seem way out there.

@Jcrusher
When was John made? I thought it would have been before 1977. It's been said that Gene got straightened out before John did.

thats one of the storys i actually belive dom at. he also said nino had a gun tape under the table. im mean nino was a gangster he shot a police officer in like the early 80tys and was in his 50tys not a young hot head.

niel went to jail for tax evasion for a short amount of time maybe 2yrs but it was around 74 75 when carlos health started slipping. theres th4e famouse picture of carlo big paul and frank sinatra a few others i think 1976 rite before he died. neil might have been locked up why hes not in picture

Gotti was made some time in the fall of 1977. He was released from Green Haven on July 28 1977. Ive tried to find a date but all I know is that he was made the same night as Peter Mosca, son of longtime capo Ralphie Bones Mosca. But they were waiting for him to come home so probably September/October of 77. Yes Gene got made before John. Many have said in 76 by I think more likely the Spring of 77.

Kurins and O'Brien made that point. The blue collar guys sided with Neil as Gambino was dying, so they were inclined against Paul from that point onward. Looking for reasons to resent Paul, I guess.

The two authors offer up several reasons why Paul was disliked in the family, and not only by the blue collar guys. But the most important one was that he was miserly in sharing the wealth. You can never go wrong in analyzing Mob killings if you follow the money.

i think neil also prevented paul from getting whacked by gotti earlier
neil was a real mafioso that's for sure he respected paul as boss and his decisions whether he agrees with them or not
he knew that the boss he is the boss no matter what

[quote=MeyerLansky]i think neil also prevented paul from getting whacked by gotti earlier
neil was a real mafioso that's for sure he respected paul as boss and his decisions whether he agrees with them or not
he knew that the boss he is the boss no matter what[

/quote] Depends on how much earlier. If you meant September of 85 then maybe. But Gotti wasnt doing a damn thing unless Sammy and Frank Decicco joined him.

i still don't get why sammy choose gotti over paul ?
paul liked him no ?
if so then i don't get why he choose to go with john and take paul down

it came down to who Paul was gonna leave in charge if he went to jail. He was gonna leave Tommy Gambino and Bilotti in charge and Sammy didnt like either.

I think Sammy was close to Paul at one point. Something caused that relationship to deteriorate though. Was it Because Sammy's brother in law was murdered on Castellano's order? May be wrong...

Anyone think if Tommy Gambino became boss; and had Jimmy Brown Failla and Frank Decicco in the Admin; The blue collar faction would have allowed that? I dont think anyone in the blue collar faction would have touched Carlo's son Thomas.

Nino was something. Him and Paul were good buddies for a long time. I think when he shot that cop like you said in the early 80's; Their relationship wasnt the same. Paul was angry about it. I read Nino wanted to be underboss under Paul one day. He was out the streets for a few months when Gotti took over before he got jailed.

Sammy was only a soldier under pauls time. Frank d was bumped to capo in the early 80tys. I think gotti had planned to kill paul with frank. And others. Frank brought sammy into it not gotti. He wouldnt have trust him. Sammy started getting power after frank is blown up otherwise he may have never risen above capo. Also sammy told nino paul was gonna have him killed after the demeo crew n pauls stolen car trial. He said it on the ravenite tapes. Explaining paul was gonna kill nino in time. For all the heat with demeo an the cop

Nino was definitely a dead man walking. Was he liked in the family at all? I know Gotti and him couldn't stand each-other. Think Gotti called Nino to a meeting and he declined or said something along the lines "Gotti comes to see me; Its not the other way around". Was Nino well liked at all?

In "Underboss," Sammy da Bull cites every compliment Paul gave him, but he denigrated Paul as "a racketeer," whereas he and Gotti were "gangsters."

I was reading some old posts about Nino; He actually refused to meet Gotti several times. One occasion is when Gotti met with most of the captains to "investigate" Paul's demise. Gaggi was one of the few captains to not show up. He was very bold... Another interesting Fact; Gaggi never got demoted while in prison. Gotti must have still had some respect for him.

Sammy is lucky Paul didn't whack him over the brother-in law issue. He was on thin ice.

things would have turn so much different if sammy would have choose paul over gotti and they would make a move against him...
but who knows maybe other members of the gambino's would have kill paul afterwards
cause some of them they hated him because of his attitude towards the streets guys/soldiers

the Frank Piccolo murder was something Sammy took offense to because he sold out his own guy for no reasons. He said that was a "bad moved by Paul" which I agree with. There were also some other disagreements like when he had a dispute with louis dibono. It was a number things that kept chipping away

Another thing O'Brien and Kurins mention in their book is that they never noticed Dellacroce come and pay respects to Paul.

"The capos check in once a week or so. The bagmen and the hangers-on find plenty of excuses to drop by. Bilotti practically lives there. And the underboss, whose house is only half a mile away, doesn't pay respects once in almost three months?"

I have to look at the timeline but Neil was pretty sick in 1984-85 and Gotti was actually representing him at meetings a lot more. I know there is a photo of gotti meeting with paul and joe n gallo in the summer of 84

Can you post this pic

Gotti was going to Castellanos house all the time and I think the pic your talking about is at Martinis Seafood Restaurant This was after Paul Castellano,Gotti, Joe N and Hat Distefano had just met with them and Sal Catalano from the Bonnanos....