Would Paul Castellano's biggest mistake be having Roy Demeo killed?

would gotti have moved on big paul if roy was still alive?

His biggest mistake was in not hitting Gotti.

Gotti was going to move on Paul (basis Ruggiero being caught on tape moving H, which wouldve condemned the crew) irrespective of whether Demeo was alive or not.

Gotti knew it was kill or be killed.
Paul didnt.

Though Pauls future was bleak with an almost certain conviction and life sentence in the commission case. So either way, he was on the way out.

Personally I'd take the bullet.

I agree with Sonny. Paul's choice was dying by the bullet or in prison.

If Roy lived, feeling was that he was going to flip and bury Paul (stolen car ring case). If he didn't flip, Paul was still definitely going away on the Commission Case. Why Gambino guys thought every other don would do his time, but Paul would flip confuses me. Same question on why they thought a tough guy like DeMeo was gonna flip.

Without DeMeo, was the most violent capo Eddie Lino? And if so, was he aligned with Gotti or Paul?

Other families had a peaceful handoff of power, it seems. So, if Paul avoided getting whacked....would he have handed the reigns of acting boss to Bilotti?

Eddie Lino wasn't even made until after Paul died. He was one of the Sparks shooters, and Gotti rewarded him with his button shortly after becoming boss. And up to that point, Eddie was aligned mostly with the Bonannos (through his cousin Frank).

Who ever said that the ganbinos thought big paul would flip? Demeo was never a captain. And it was said that castellano mightve been planing some sort powershare between billiotti and tommy gambino if castellano got locked up.

Paul needed to do something about Gotti, but using Tommy Bilotti was beyond dumb, he was even by mob standards not too bright.

He should have borught Frank DeCcicoo and Sammy in with him and they could have countered any bs from Gotti, and Ange Ruggerio who would have gotten whacked as well...

Tommy Gambino would likely have become boss with Jimmy Brown, Joe Gallo, or Piney Armone as underboss and consigliere. There's no way Bilotti would have been made boss.

Castellano had no reason to suspect that DeCicco was going to align with Gotti, as they were never close. Gravano at the time was only a soldier.

Big Paul made a series of mistakes, all of them potentially fatal:

--He was a recluse, holed up in his Staten Island mansion, never mingling with the troops or showing personal leadership;
--He involved himself in petty details that could have been handled by people way below him in the family;
--He made deals with other families that hurt his own people on the street;
--He carried on openly with his maid, Gloria Olarte, right under his roof, in front of his wife, a serious violation of Mob protocol;
--He failed to show up at Neil Dellacroce's funeral and wake, another serious violation of Mob protocol;
--The tapes that the government released after he was charged under RICO showed him disparaging the other Dons. They resented it, and also feared that he'd rat them out in order to buy a few more years with his beloved Gloria;
--Most important: he was greedy with his underlings, squeezing their earnings and earning their enmity. In Mobdom, always follow the money.

Gotti's murder of Castellano was equivalent to regicide and was not sanctioned by the Commission. But the reason Gotti got away with it is that no one within the Gambinos, and none of the other Dons except Chin, cared. Probably they were all glad Paul was gone.

Sure, he could have whacked Gotti first. But then another guy who resented him and Bilotti (maybe DiCicco) would have stepped in to finish him off.

Obviously if Demeo was around gotti would have done nothing because he was terrified of roy based on what gene gotti said in a wiretap. However Paul felt that demeo would rat since in 1982 he had a lot of heat on his crew. Now according to Albert demeo his father accepted his fate long before getting kille din 1983 and was never planning on ratting.

I don't think he chose either way.

I don't think anyone except Gotti would've had the balls to kill Paul.

One of his biggest mistake was letting the feds bug his house. Who would think a paranoid mob boss would fall for a amateurish rouse like the FBI pulled to get in his home.

That's what I read from more than one source. Who knows, maybe it was made up to justify the killing?
I always thought that DeMeo was a capo because his crew was so feared. Thanks for the clarification.



He can thank Angelo Ruggiero for that- IIRC, his big mouth got the Feds permission to bug the White House. Quack Quack was a dead man- just a question if Castellano or Anthony Casso would get to him first. Cancer beat them both.

ya np, Demeo was as a soldier in Nino Gaggi's crew, all the guys in the "demeo crew" were associates.

The only reason gotti had to balls was because both Sammy gravano and decicco agreed to help. If those two didnt help him gotti wouldnt have been able to pull off the hit

Having Bilotti as his #2 didn't seem to help his cause.

And you forgot the most fatal reason of them all and that was the penile implant surgery

Roy seemed to have very little supervision. Did Nino Gaggi know about his murder business and wholesale drug dealing?

Well Gaspipe was in on the Gotti hit as well.

Ironically, Gaspipe was one of the people Gotti and Da Bull consulted before the Castellano hit. Gaspipe agreed. But, Chin recruited him to carry out the attempt on Gotti that killed DiCicco instead.

See I actually think big Paul was similar to a lot of other NYC bosses in their 70s

Not many old bosses left their house , many not only screwed other girls in their bed but also screwed the wife's of other made members , lol . Also a lot of smart wise guys never went to wakes as it would violate their parole or bond . All dons talk shit about other dons or anyone for the matter in private and most mob bosses were greedy as hell . Paul was your typical long term old and powerful mob boss except he was more into legitimate business and labor racketeering / construction which was the right strategy at the time.

All of his supposed violations was just Gotti bull shit he used to try and turn other members against Paul .

Paul was in a tough spot, he knew he couldn't just whack Gotti and Ruggerio , he would have to whack Dellacroce too . If he only had to kill Gotti then he would of been dead a long time ago and Paul knew killing a legend like Dellacroce very likely could of led to a family civil war , so he hesitated and Gotti got to him first after Neal died .

Gotti was a true gangster , no doubt one of a kind but he was also one of the dumbest wise guys around and he was as bad a rule violator as there was ( way worse than Paul ) and his stupidity led to disaster for his family .

Paul strategy in construction and labor had a much longer and more positive effect for the Gambino family then anything John did as they are still making millions from construction And concrete . Wisely the current Gambino leaders have undone everything Gotti did . I actually think the family is still a powerhouse and are mis judged by many . They have a lot of guys on the street , have shunned Gottis ways and are much more low key today and have their hands in a lot of NYC construction , unions and drug jars . Also outside of Gravano, Skins and Scars , they haven't had that many rats given their size - double the size of most NYC families and probably 5 times bigger than philly or Chicago -

I also think the Luchesse are the clear #3 by a wide margin followed by the other 2 NYC families, then the Outfit and then NJ/ Philly .

I think Nino took the money and asked no questions.
He would have known where it came from though
Due to his tremendous money making and killing abilities, Roy was given a bit more freedom by Nino than some capos gave their soldiers

If Nino didn't have a problem taking DeMeo's kiddie porn money then I doubt he'd have too many qualms about taking his drug money.

Also, I don't so much think it was a questions of Big Paul's greed or lack of credibility with the soldiers and capos that was his ultimate undoing. He was done in, like the rest of the Commission bosses, by RICO.

Paul was going to jail, I'm not surprised the fallout wasn't greater, After the Chin, who really cared, nobody.

If they had waited Bilotti would have been an easy target to make disappear and never be found as nobody would have cared.

On one of the documentaries Dominick Montiglio said he doubted Gotti would of made the move on Paul if the DeMeo crew was around. He said Gotti didn't want to mess with Roy and his crew. According to Montiglio.. John and Gene Gotti were caught on tape and one of the Gotti's said the DeMeo crew kills more people before lunch then the entire Gotti crew has done over the years. This was when John and Gene were talking about the contract Castellano put out on Roy.

taking the boss's job in the first place

he should've let dellacroce have the job and be underboss or consigliere

Neil was old school, and having him as boss would've kept the family stable for a few more decades.

Going on the assumption that Gotti might have been Neil's underboss and next in line...it would have been a wash.

If Neil was the don, Gotti may have succeeded him after his death in December 1986. In real life, Gotti took over the family after Paul's whacking in December 1986.

There's a different viewpoint from Philip Carlo's biography of Anthony Casso. Casso claims to have been against Paul's murder from the beginning. I find Casso's stories to be exaggerated and he's a self promoter, so who knows which version is more accurate?

According to the biography, Frank DeCicco and Gaspipe were from the same neighborhood and had known each other all their lives. Frank met with Gaspipe in Brooklyn at the 19th Hole (Casso's bar), in December 1985, and had a walk talk around Dyker Park. DeCicco told Gaspipe about Gotti's planned hit on Paul. Gaspipe was appalled as it was against the commission rules and he tried his best to change DeCicco's mind.

Gaspipe warned him and said, "The Chin and Vic won't sit down for this. We're gonna have to come after John...not only John, but everyone involved in this, including you.......I love you like a brother, but if you tie your wagon to this, you'll be dead within a year."

As predicted, DeCicco had a contract put on his head. And 4 months after Castellano was whacked, DeCicco was killed in the bombing....which was planned by Casso.

When Casso was interviewed about the Castellano hit, he said, "What John Gotti did, was the beginning of the end of our thing."

Keep in mind guys that the Gambino Family was divided into two factions at the time. And it seems like the two factions operated seperatly without the faction leaders interfering. Dellacroce had basically a free hand on running his faction. One example is when Dellacroce demoted Mike Caiazza, a captain in his faction, to the rank of a soldier without Castellano opposing. Gotti´s problem started with the death of Dellacroce. Up til then, Castellano could not demote Gotti because he belonged to Dellacroce´s faction. Normally, by LCN standards, a boss can make or break anybody within his Family. But this unusual set up between Castellano and Dellacroce, prevented Castellano to move on Gotti, at least while Dellacroce was still alive.