I never understood why people say that Paul Castellano wasn't a gangster. Wasn't this just some rubbish propaganda by Gotti and Sammy? Paul dropped out of school at an early age, was involved in blue-collar rackets and robberies, did some time, was associating and hanging around with gangsters all his life, ordered a lot of hits and was feared. He was a street guy until he became rich and started living more lavishly, just like many other made guys with a lot of money. It's not like he was some college guy from some upper middle class family or something and accidentally wandered into a LCN family.

IMO he wasn't much different from the old school godfathers like Lucchese, Bonnano, Gambino or Profaci, it's just that he was rulling over a family few decades too late in the time of RICO and more sophisticated surveillance. Plus there was this "Goodfellas" generation of blue-collar cowboys that didn't give a shit about rules. Gotti became one of the most famous mobsters and his version of the story is the most popular one, I guess this is why most people view Castellano as a bad boss, but it's far from truth IMO. At least he had a vision and knew how a modern crime family should be run.