It's been said a million times that Paul wasn't from the streets, but things went downhill quickly for the Gambino family after Gotti wrestled the leadership from Paul.

Paul wanted to legitimize family-run businesses into 'clean money' enterprises, which many OC people do. He just had to get a little dirt on his hands on the way to becoming rich. (Everybody does, mobster or not.)

Gotti couldn't fly beneath the radar - he craved public adoration and exuded a 'try and get me' attitude towards law enforcement. That's the one thing about Gotti I have never understood. Paul was much more low-key. So was Carlo Gambino. They stayed out of the spotlight.

Castellano had no rebellious 'bad boy' sex appeal, and the guys hated him, but I see him as a better operator than Gotti and the blue collar faction. Who was the better money-maker of these two?

Castellano was way better imo, yes he had faults but Gotti literally destroyed that family. During Castellano's reign the family were making tons of money in white collar stuff. Gotti was no way near the businessman Castellano was.

Jesus christ...Gotti lasted for only five years on the street. Even Al Capone had a longer run than him. That should answer your question.

Lmao. Why is this question even asked?

Sorry to say but this is a terrible thread lol. Horrible question.

Terrible thread, you've been watching to many pro gotti documentaries, Paulie was from the streets, born into an oc family, did a few prison bids robberies and stuff. Kept his mouth shut, Carlo was white collar, does that not make him a gangster?? FFS get real.

castellano made more mistakes than most as a mob boss , he was disrespecting his wife he was far to aloof and he thought he was better than the blue collar faction , he let the genovese family whack a gambino soldier in Connecticut and he let his house be bugged ( just like gotti) . He made a big mistake letting Neil dellacroce basically run the blue collar wing splitting the family into two factions , people like gotti thought castellano was handed the position as boss without earning it which was bang on the money . Castellano was a businessman not a mobster and no doubt he would have been a success in the legitimate world , to say that he didn't make mistakes and lay the blame for everything that's wrong with the American mob at gottis door is deluded , yeah he made mistakes but so does every mob boss , castellano included FACT

i cant hear this bullshit "paul was a businessman not a mobster" no more. Dont repeat everything because it was on a mobster series or somewhat else documentary. A guy who has killed lots of guys, through orders or bare hand, doestn matter, is a real mobster. Period.

1. Castellano dropped out of school in the eighth grade and started collecting numbers game receipts.

2.He was first arrested for robbery and served a 3mnth sentence. He was also arrested post the Appalachian conference and served a year for contempt.

Both times he refused to talk to the police.

In 85 he was indited in the commission case and would most likely have been convicted and sent to jail for life. He never gave any indication of rolling over. He was fighting the case up until his murder.

Im tired of people saying PC was a 'businessman' not a mobster.
Im tired of people saying he was 'white collar'.
Im tired of people saying he hadnt 'paid his dues'.
PC had more in common with Gigante than almost any other modern boss, yet one is revered by mob watchers, the other mistakenly, incorrectly derided.

'FACT'.

I don't think that castellano would have ratted at all , I do think he made mistakes though , if anything castellano seemed ahead of his time and the blue collar guys like gotti didn't get it . He did make mistakes though and he paid dearly for them

Fact remains you said he was a businessman not a mobster, which is complete bs. You've watched too many gotti documentaries.

Spot on.

We've had this same fuckin thread a million times

John Gotti was a mans man, a true tough guy, they just dont make guys like him no more, while we have castellano who had a penis implant....end of discussion!

@dellacroce


so paul casetellano's dick wasn't big enough for him to be your boss?

sometimes you leave the "tough guy" a fucking captain because that's all he's capable of

both seem like assholes with different personalities

@ cookcounty

Exactly. Imagine Paulie Walnuts as a Boss in The Sopranos.

What are you on? He's being sarcastic you idiot

casetellano had a dick implant??? really??? why? he wanted bigger? I still think those Gotti/Agnello kids John, Carmine and Frank are very cute.

Whacking frank piccolo for the genovese family didn't do castellano any favours either

Wot I've said I believe , he was allof he was not in touch with the blue collar wing of the family and he was more comfortable in the company of businessman than the rank and file mobster , wot the fuck has that got to do with watching gotti docs I don't know ,

No, it didn't. That move set the table for the captains on the fence about him to look the other way.

Forget all that shit about Gene and Angelo. If not for Piccolo getting popped, I doubt Gotti would have gotten the support that he did.

Well considering Gotti was the worst mob boss of all time(by both mobster and FBI accounts) i'll go with Castellano. castellano had his flaws clearly BUT he still operated much better than gotti. He was a white collar criminal but lets face it blue collar rackets became to risky by the 80's. The only reason Castellano finally got caught near teh end was because Angelo Ruggiero's big mouth.

You say he was just a businessman and not respected..why? where did you hear this? Documentaries...

Ofcourse he displayed himself as a businessman, that's what mobsters do. what do you want him to do. have an interview on TV declaring himself boss of a family?

If he wasn't respected the captains wouldn't have voted him boss, it's that simple.

Wen somone disagrees with someone else they automatically say you don't know wot your talking about u have watched to many docs and read to many books . Were do u think people gather info from ? I agree they r not always the most reliable source but it's common knowledge about castellano and I stand by wot I said . He made tons of mistakes but so does most mob bosses castellano more than most

Once the deed was done the captains fell inline mainly through fear of retribution not out of some 'moral' justification.
And what was there to do, you cant dig Paul up again.



Yes Piccolo getting hit was a bad decision. But in respect to this thread Gotti made 100 more bad decisions a day than Big Paul did in his life. And lets all remember the REAL reason Paul got hit.
Gotti and his crew were about to be fucked by the Ruggerio tapes (convicting the crew of Heroin traffiking) and half his crew hit, the other half taken down or shelved.
Being Boss on top was just a nice cherry.

So lets all stop the 'Paul was a businessman', 'white collar vs blue' crap.
It was an opportunist move forced upon Gotti by his crews Heroin trafficking.

Following, the captains fell in line through fear, though some attempted retribution (Marino, Failla).

Thats the story kids. Thats it.

I agree he made a lot of mistakes. That's not the issue here, you say he wasn't respected. Why would he get voted in as boss by the captains then??

I disagree. Although Gotti was bad I don't think u can do worse than Amuso Casso. They tried to kill the whole borgata.

Understand Castellano was hit NOT because of 'his mistakes' (Piccolo, white vs Blue collar, was Paul a business man or mobster, he wasnt 'from the streets' crap etc etc) but because Gotti was FORCED to.

Any justification beyond this is bullshit. Gotti hit Castellano because his hand was forced (ambition being an added bonus) NOT out of any retrospective pseudo-bullshit justification.

Because carlo wanted it that way? Why was Gotti voted in by all the captains? Not trying to be cute, just saying

I agree 100% , all the mistakes castellano made had nothing to do with why he was killed . It was kill or be killed on gotti and his crews part . My point is castellano made mistakes, that where used against him in justification with the other families if he ever had to explain himself for whacking castellano. Castellano was voted in as boss but who was gonna oppose Carlo gambinos final death bed wishes ??? Nobody , even wen castellano was getting sworn in as boss they expected resistance from the dellacroce wing of the family hence montiglio stationed with a gun ready to whack everyone i