On Dec 16, 1985 Gambino boss "Big Paul" Castellano was gunned down by John Gotti's crew. This paved the way for Gotti to take over as Boss of the Gambino Family. Castellano's execution was ingeniously planned, with each of the gunmen wearing identical hats and coats, while Big Paul and his driver, Tommy Bilotti, pulled up to Sparks Steakhouse in Manhattan.

I visited NYC for Thanksgiving in 2003. I went to Sparks Steakhouse because I knew it was where that assassination took place. It was closed when I got there, but I stood in front of it and had a passerby take my picture.

Yeah it really was a perfectly orchestrated hit.

Unfortunately Gotti didn't know his Mafia history, for he repeated Al Capone's experience--be a very public figure, rule for a few years and then be brought down. Both men died under miserable circumstances, also Gotti was the only one in prison.

It sure was a sensational hit, not many hits within the mafia go well like the Castellano hit. Most of the times, crews of hitmen roam the city for months before they make an attempt and most times they fail 2-3 times before they succeed.

Geez, I can't believe it's been 25 years!

I remember that night well. I was having dinner at The Pine Tavern in the Morris Park section of Bronx, a place that's always been known for some of the, er, characters that dine there (along with many politicians and sports stars). Anyway, the hit was reported on the 6 o'clock news while we were at the bar waiting for a table. The place went silent. To that crowd, it was like hearing the President was shot.

It is amazing that someone can get that popular and loved by so many people and known by even more.

I dont think it was a sensational hit. It was a good hit but it was too public. Gravano had a better idea. He said one plan was for them to kill Bilotti at one of their bars or something then frank decicco would call paul and tell him that he would drive him since both were close. This way they could have gotten rid of the bodies and put less heat on their crew.

That sounds about right. It also sums up Gotti in a nutshell. Everything had to be over the top, and boy, did he ever pay the price for it.

I read that DiCicco planned and organized the hit. Brilliant touch, using six identically dressed men, each wearing the same hat, using the same caliber gun. Had a bystander gotten a look at one, and came forward to the cops, he/she wouldn't have been able to make a positive i.d., assuming the cops had arrested any or all of the shooters.

Well if DiCicco was the actual planner, then it wasnt a failed bomb attempt by the Genoveses.

To celebrate the 25 years anniversary of Big Paul's death , posted the photo of sparks steak house, and the execution video from the movie Gotti

Nice movie, one of the best mafia movies. But i didnt like the actor playing Big Paul. Chazz Palmintieri was a better actor for Castellano in the movie Boss of Bosses.

That actor who played Paul Castellano in 'Gotti' was a terrible choice. Seeing this scene reminds me of that. The same counts for Bilotti, who is portrayed as an older man with "white" hair, while he had black hair the last time I saw him lying dead on the ground.

But Gotti sure was an excellent 'TV movie', with a very enjoyable protagonist; Assante.

But now let's also see this scene in Witness to the Mob, with an excellent Paul Castellano played by Salvatore Tess... I mean Abe Vigoda. He is big Paul.

The library cop from "Seinfeld" as Toddo .

There is a multipage account in the book "Gangland" whose primary source was Sammy The Bull.
Many details from Paul fighting the downtown rush hour traffic to Gotti exploding that one of the shooters coats not exactly matching the others.

We've discussed it before but why didn't Castellano see it coming? Maybe not those particular events on that particular day but he should have known what was up.

I mean he ordered Ruggiero to turn over tapes and Ruggiero refused. That alone should have been enough to warrrant Ruggiero's execution and/or let Big Paul know he was losing authority. The Boss tells you to do something and you refuse? You negotiate? You ignore?

Seems like Paul should have arranged for Gotti's removal immediately after Dellacroce's death, if not before.

I think a couple of factors, Lilo. One, Big Paul was under indictment himself and probably preoccupied with his own headaches. Second, similar to the GF trilogy, Castellano underestimated Gotti and those who might conspire against him. According to "Gangland," Gotti was livid that Castellano did not attend the funeral of Underboss Neil Dellacroce. It did not go unnoticed by big earners like Gotti, Gravanno, & DeCiccio that Big Paul rarely shared the wealth he was accumulating from his captains and soldiers.

Neil Dellacroce was also helping stonewall Big Paul from getting the Ruggerio tapes in order to protect his protegee, John Gotti. The tapes showed that both Quack Quack Ruggierio and Gotti were dealing heroin against Castellano's strict prohibition.

Lastly I think part of it was Big Paul's arrogance. The Gambino leader was the Boss of Bosses, which was a title highly regarded in Cosa Nostra and not someone to go after on a whim.

Was Sammy Gravano a capo, acting capo, or soldier at the time of the hit? I remember in Underboss Sammy met with Tommy Bilotti's brother, and assured him he wouldn't be killed, and told him they had to kill Tommy Bilotti was too loyal to Paul to chance having around. Anyone know what came of Tommy Bilotti's brother, did he say in the life? Underboss said the Bilotti brothers had something like 18 or 19 kids between them, and one of the reasons why the brother wasn't killed.

I agree goombah. I think Castellano no doubt thought about and would have liked to kill gotti and angelo but didn't want to bring more heat on himself since he was under indictment. Another factor is that paul didn't have the Demeo crew anymore who were guys he went to when he had problems like the Eppolito's and Frank Amato

From what I have read, Sammy was not a capo when Castellano was whacked. He was part of "The Fist" (with DeCiccio, Fat Ange, and Robert DiBernado) that conspired with John Gotti to kill Big Paul. Once Gotti was elected Boss, Sammy & Fat Ange Ruggerio were promoted to captains.

Not sure about Tommy's brother...

Yup. At the time of the event Sammy was acting capo of Aurello's crew.

Those are all excellent points, goombah. I guess Paul really was ultimately not that quick when it came to some things. As you say, arrogant. Obviously times change but if he's the boss and gave someone a direct order to give him tapes either he should have had those tapes the next day or someone should have been digging a grave on Arthur Kill Road..

It also just proves what a lot of the soliders and capo's said and hated about paul... that he wasn't a gangster...he was a businessman. He didn't have that gangster sixth sense. If he did he might have lived a lot longer...

Castellano was certainly a mob "elitist." He was very smart and a savvy businessman but he rode to the top on the coattails of Carlo. So obviously a lot of his guys didn't think he had earned his position. And his relative greediness, as well as doing things like allowing the Genovese Family to kill one of his captains, didn't exactly help either.

But he was never the "Boss of Bosses." There's never really been such a thing in the American LCN. The closest to such a thing would be Salvatore Riina in the Sicilian Mafia back in the 80's and 90's. In the U.S., it's more a case of first among equals. Carlo Gambino was the first among equals for a time. But I'd say Chin rivaled Castellano.

Speaking of whom, Gravano said that Chin would have never allowed the Gambinos to kill one of this captains. It says something about the Gambinos at the time that a blue-collar captain from Queens would be allowed to take over the Family in a hostile takeover. Except for a few guys like Failla and Marino, everyone else fell in line behind Gotti.

Arthur Kill Road, Lilo?

I see that someone in Michigan has been using the Google Map app on his iPhone .

Well done!

Sonny, do you know where i can get Witness to the Mob in the netherlands? Dutch subs ofcourse.

It's available in 18 parts on Youtube. No Dutch subtitles, though.

I think there were a series of bad choices. The first was Don Carlo Gambino, he thought, to lead the family, need a Sicilian, chose Castellano, for this reason, and because was also his relative, instead of best Aniello DellaCroce, but it was a Neapolitan. On the death of Gambino, Castellano became boss, however, had not the qualities to be a great boss, he was a white collar that a streetman, it's attracted the hate of his own soldiers.
A typical case was DeMeo.Roy Roy was a butcher, and a serial killer, but he make a lot of money, is said he controll with the family DeCavalcante the 90% of pornography in New york.Castellano hated Demeo, but accepted the percentage on the drug (if in pubblic, he banned it), the carthefts and murders committed by his gang. But when Roy succeeded in concluding an alliance with the Westies, the the terrible Irish mafia gang, Castellano was forced to made him in 1978.
When they became uncontrollable ordered his death in 1983, and it is said that at the beginning, there was no one who had the courage to do kill him.Until DellaCroce was alive, Gotti didn't have the courage to do nothing, but to his death, there was Gotti still nothing from taking power.

Castellano's Death Certificate





Castellano's death scene photo

You hit the nail on the head.