Mobsters Documentary - Paul Castellano - Gambino Boss

Mobsters Documentary - Paul Castellano - Gambino Boss

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Pull Castlano learned at the feet of the greatest organized
crime leader that ever existed.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Paul Castellano wasn't a real gangster. Paul was a businessman.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
When Paul became the boss and the game Beingo family,
there was a tremendous rip from day one.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
This guy's sitting there in his silk wow with his
belt with slippers at a big white house, and he's
taken every dollar we got.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
And he was very greedy when he took over the family.
He wanted everything John got.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
He said, he's useless, Let's get rid of it. He
in effect wrote a death warrant for himself and.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
Long Island, New York. January nineteen eighty three, Roy DeMeo,
a made member of the Gambino crime family, said goodbye
to his son and left home in his Cadillac.

Speaker 5 (01:09):
I knew beforehand that my father's days were numbered. They
started bargaining with God, saying please just let him come
home tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Roy DeMeo had made a name for himself as the
enforcer for Gambino boss Paul Costellano. De Mayo also earned
huge profits from pornography and auto theft rackets. But DeMeo
had been subpoena to testify about the Gambino auto theft ring,
and Costellano made an executive decision Demeyo had to go.

(01:39):
When DeMeo didn't return home that night, Albert figured his
father was on the run.

Speaker 5 (01:44):
I had a plan set up with him. If he
didn't show up at home, it was the beginning of
him going into the wind, going on the lamb.

Speaker 4 (01:53):
Following the plan, Albert waited patiently for his father to
make contact.

Speaker 5 (01:58):
I didn't want to report him missing because I wanted
to give him lead time. So that was the plan,
and then finally I reported a missing.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
We had.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
An alert out with the police department to look for
that catillac.

Speaker 4 (02:13):
Eight days later, the cops finally tracked down Tomeo's Caddy
in a Brooklyn parking lot and discovered that DeMeo hadn't
made it into the wind.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
When we popped the trunk, the first thing we saw
was the curled up body of Royd DeMeo.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Castellano gave you order to kill him. The next thing
we know, mister Demeyo was found in his trunk with
bullholes of his head.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
It was a testament to Costellano's cloud as one of
the mobs most powerful bosses. Constantino Paul Costellano was born
in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, in nineteen fifteen.

(03:03):
His parents, Giuseppe and Conchetta, had immigrated from Sicily a
few years earlier.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Bensoners in those days was the next rung on the
immigration ladder for the Italian immigrants. It was considered a
middle class suburban community.

Speaker 4 (03:20):
Giuseppe landed a good job as a butcher, but the
father of three also joined a small time side racket
with mob ties, selling illegal lottery tickets to Italian immigrants.
The lottery, called La Rosa Wheel, provided some of the
necessary capital for the mob to branch out into more
serious and violent rackets. Not much of a student, Paul

(03:46):
dropped out of school in the eighth grade and started
training as a butcher, but he also learned the ropes
of his father's side business.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Paul's first flirtation with organized crime was to help his
father on the lottery.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
Running around for his pop gave Costellano a glimpse into
criminal life. He liked what he saw. His father's blood
soaked apron paled in comparison to the expensive suits worn
by gangsters. In Paul's young mind, his career choice was obvious.

(04:21):
In nineteen thirties, New York old world monsters were dying
out and a new breed of gangster was taking over.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
They were Americans, and in their view, what would make
when I organized crime work was a combination of sicilia
mores with modern American business methods.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
And during the height of Prohibition, business was booming. One
of Paul Costellano's cousins was a maid member in La
Coos and Nostra named Carlo Gambino.

Speaker 6 (04:53):
Carla Gambino was a tough guy growing up, he was
not afraid to uses.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
His As Paul began slowly to drift into organized crime,
he began to cross paths with Carlo. Carlo is an
up and comer in the organization.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
By nineteen thirty four, Paul Costellano was nineteen and took
to wearing the sharp suits he admired. Working for his
father both as a butcher and a hustler, allowed him
to afford the finer things in life. At six foot two,
big Paul was ready to make a name for himself.

(05:30):
Over the July fourth weekend, Costellano and two buddies drove
to a party in Connecticut. Along the way, they stopped
off at a clothing store, but shopping was the last
thing on Paul's mind. He wanted to rob the joint, so.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
They told him, I mean, this is going to be easy.
He's like taking candy from a baby.

Speaker 4 (05:47):
Costellano pulled a pistol from his glove compartment and the
three young men entered the store. Paul brandished the pistol
to the owner, relieving him of the fifty one dollars
in his wallet. Costellano and his two partners rifled through
the cash register but found nothing. It wasn't the big
payday Paul had hoped for. The men left the store

(06:10):
with only seventeen dollars each. Witnesses reported the license plate
number to the police. When Paul returned home to Brooklyn,
he was arrested. During interrogation, Costellano claimed the other two
men were hitchhikers and he didn't know their names. Big
Paul took the fall alone and was sent to the
slammer for a year.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
He went off to prison uncomplainingly, got out after three
months and discovered he was suddenly a hero in the neighborhood.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
Local mob leaders praised Costellano for not ratting on his friends,
and his cousin Carlo Gambino, took notice.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
That's when Carlo Gambino said, you belong in the organization.

Speaker 4 (06:54):
Gambino had established himself as a business savvy earner for
one of the top five under world crime families, the Manganos.
Everything he touched turned to gold. When he was promoted
to captain, he brought young Paul Costellano under his wing,
introducing him to the business side of organized crime.

Speaker 6 (07:15):
Carlo Gabino wanted his cousin not to be involved in
the dirty work that you know, the other guys could
do for us.

Speaker 4 (07:24):
The two men worked together, expanding their gambling scheme. They
were about to forge even closer ties. In nineteen thirty seven,
Paul married his childhood sweetheart, Nina Mano, a pretty girl
from the neighborhood. She was also Carlo Gambino's sister in law.
By the nineteen fifties, Costellano was a hard working father

(07:44):
of four. He took what he learned from his cousin
Gambino and developed a successful meat distribution company called Blue
Ribbon Meats.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Paul thought in terms of a businessman. For some of
his loan shark customers on butcher shops and they couldn't pay. Now,
the standard routine at the time was you can't pay,
you're going to need a new set of knees. But
Paul said, well, why would you do that? Instead he
would take a piece of the business.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
In the early fifties, Paul's cousin Carlo Gambino, was rewarded
for his shrewd business style. A coppo named Albert Anastasia
had muscled his way to the top of the Mangano
family and eventually appointed Carlo Gambino his underboss. Gambino was
now second in command. He used his new position to

(08:36):
promote his cousin Paul Costellano to captain. But Gambino wasn't
happy being number two, and he joined with other mobsters
to plan Anastasia's demise.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
So Carlo began political maneuvering, and he began to undercut
albert Anastasia, and before we knew it, there was a
murder plot.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
On October twenty fifth, nineteen fifty seven, Anastasia entered a
Manhattan barbershop for a shave. While relaxing in the chair,
his head covered in towels. Gunman burst in and shot
rang out. Five bullets riddled the mob chief's body. A
dazed Anastasia lunged at the assassin's reflections in the barbershop

(09:18):
mirror before falling to his death.

Speaker 6 (09:21):
It was the assassination of Anastasia that led to Calo
Gambino rising to the top of that crime family.

Speaker 4 (09:29):
With Anastasia out of the way, Gambino became the de
facto head of the Manganos, and his cousin Paul was
right by his side.

Speaker 6 (09:38):
Paul Castellano was right hand man, so he prospered, hiss
call O prospit, and he went wherever Callo went.

Speaker 4 (09:45):
Things were looking up for Costellano. He had a happy family,
a successful business, and a spot near the top of
New York's most powerful crime family. But he would hit
a bump in the road when the cops crashed a
party of the mafia elite. By October nineteen fifty seven,

(10:10):
Carlo Gambino was in position to become the next boss
of New York's Mangano crime family. His most trusted coupo
was his cousin and friend, Paul Costelano. In November nearly
one hundred elite mafiosi leaders gathered for a secret meeting

(10:31):
in upstate app Lac in New York. Costellano attended as
a guest of Carlo Gambino.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
This was a signal of his status in the organization,
because for Gambino to bring him along it was very,
very very significant.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
There was a lot on the agenda, but number one
for Gambino was his official swearing in as the head
of his crime family.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
There were issues on top of issues, but mainly this
whole succession business.

Speaker 4 (10:59):
We got a straight At forty two years old, Costellano
was one of the youngest men at the meeting. Big
Paul was honored to rub elbows with such powerful mobsters.
While the men conducted their business inside, a local cop
grew suspicious of the numerous Cadillacs and Lincoln's parked in
the driveway. When the mobsters noticed the officer writing down

(11:22):
license plates, pandemonium broke out.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
The effect was something like a young boy kicking over
of hornets nests. And there were guys, big time dons,
and there's silk suits in their five hundred dollars Italian
shoes running through the fields and among them was Paul Costellano.

Speaker 4 (11:46):
Police reinforcements joined the chase and set up roadblocks. One
by one, they rounded up sixty three gangsters, including Costellano.
The cops took Costellano to jail, his suit torn and mondied.
Two years later, Costellano was brought before a grand jury
to testify about the mobster's conference in Appalacan, but he

(12:10):
claimed that he was simply there to visit a friend
to talk about a heart condition.

Speaker 6 (12:15):
Castellano refused to cooperate, refused to testify before a grand jury,
and earned the respect of other gangsters.

Speaker 4 (12:23):
Costellano was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to five years
in prison, but after just seven months, the conviction was
overturned on appeal. Costellano was released and returned home as
a stand up guy in the eyes of fellow mobsters.

(12:43):
In the nineteen sixties, Costellano's cousin and close friend, Carlo Gambino,
had established himself as the well respected patriarch of one
of the biggest crime families in the United States. The
Manganos were now known as the Gambinos, but Carlo ran
the family illegal rackets with the same shrewd business sense

(13:03):
under his reign, the Gambino family boasted about two hundred
and fifty made men and more than twice as many associates.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Carlo Gambino built that organization into what is still regarded
as the premier criminal organization of all time.

Speaker 4 (13:20):
His family was raking in millions of dollars a year.
His trusted coppo and brother in law, Paul Costellano, was
learning from the best and reaping the benefits. Meanwhile, Costellano's
own legitimate business dealings were also on the rise.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
Paul's big thing other than the organized crime activity was
the poultry business.

Speaker 4 (13:43):
His moderately successful Blue Ribbon Meats grew into an enterprise
called Dial Meat Purveyor's Inc.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
The poultry business was very competitive. It stopped being competitive
Costellano got into it.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
That's because Costellano used the lessons he learned from the Mob.
He strong armed local butchers and supermarkets into stocking his products.
Those who refused faced harassment from Mob soldiers and union leaders.
By nineteen seventy six, Carlo Gambino's health was failing, so
Costellano temporarily took charge of the Gambino family's business.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Gambino realized, I'm going to have to decide on a successor,
so he had to make a choice.

Speaker 4 (14:27):
It came down to two men, Gambino cousin and protege Costellano,
who had longtime street smart underboss Aneli O'Neil Dellacroach. Rumors
flew that the loyal Delacroach would be the next boss
of the family, but on his deathbed, Gambino shocked everyone
and selected Paul Costellano as his successor.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
Carlo very much wanted somebody like himself, a criminal capitalist
who subscribed to his theory of taking illegitimate profits and
them into legitimate operations. Delacroach was your prototypical mafia street thug.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
Gambino members immediately split into two factions, those who supported
the business savvy Costellano and those who favored the blue
collar Delacroach.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Where the rob came with the Delacroach faction was that
Paul Castellano wasn't a real gangster.

Speaker 4 (15:25):
Paul was a businessman. The Gambinos called a meeting to
confirm Costellano's appointment and gauge Delacroach's reaction to Carlo's controversial decision.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
Delacrosse had a big sit down with Paul and Delacrotis
didn't like that decision, obviously, but he was a fanatical
mafia loyalist. He said, that's what Carlo wants. I go
along with this.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
Costellano realized he needed a happy Delacroach to keep the
Gambinos united, so he asked Delacroach to continue on as underboss.
Delacroach accepted the offer, but the disc vision didn't please everyone.
Among the disgruntled in the Gambino family was a young
hothead named John Gotti.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
Gotti was a Delacros loyalist. Gotti wanted Delaquos to have
it because he was his mentor, so he resented Castellano
from day one.

Speaker 4 (16:16):
Though not everyone favored the decision, war within the Gambino
crime family was averted. As Boss, Costellano focused on white
collar crimes like bid rigging, political corruption, and union infiltration,
but he still needed muscle enter a thug named Roy DeMeo.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Roy de Mayo looked like the Yangster was a Doug.
Roidmeo was a homicidal maniac.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
DeMeo served Costellano well, running a gang of brutal murderers
called the DeMeo Crew.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
They were the most.

Speaker 4 (16:50):
Feared crew in New York City. When Costellano ordered a hit,
Roy would lure the targets to the Gemini Lounge, his
bar in Brooklyn. The Mayo would murder the victims, dismember
the bodies, and dump them in a landfill.

Speaker 7 (17:06):
Once the body got into the dump, it was impossible
to find it, and that the Mayo CRU's philosophy was
no body, no crime.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
Costellano was willing to look past Tomeo's brutal methods and
was all too pleased at the cash he brought in
to the family. Costellano eventually agreed to inductd Mayo into
the family as a maid member for his ability to
take care of problems and his potential to earn money
by working with an Irish gang known as the Westies.

(17:41):
It was the beginning of a very profitable relationship. Costellano's
business fortunes were on the rise, but personal problems would
soon threaten his empire. In the late nineteen seventies, Paul
Costellano was raking in millions from legitimate businesses and criminal

(18:02):
rackets as boss of New York's Gambino crime family. By
infiltrating construction unions, Costellano seemingly controlled every drop of concrete
used to build the ever changing Manhattan Skyline. His presence
made New York construction costs the highest in the nation.

(18:28):
Costellano used some of his earnings to build a three
and a half million dollar mansion on Staten Island. Hardly
a modest man, he called it the White House. While
he and his wife, Nina lived in luxury, their marriage
was strained.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
They were sleeping in sep firms. You could cut the
tension with a knife.

Speaker 4 (18:46):
That year, Nina hired a thirty year old Columbian immigrant
named Gloria Alarte as a living maid. Big Paul was
immediately smitten.

Speaker 8 (18:56):
One day he was alone in the house and I
was lasted, and then he called me to make a coffee.
Then he said to me, why you are baby shy?
Say because ida'm speaking well and you are my boss.
Then he says, sit down, and he made me sit
down with him at the table, and he said to me,

(19:17):
don't be afraid of me.

Speaker 4 (19:20):
She wasn't. The two became lovers, and sixty four year
old Castellano started focusing more attention on his young mistress
than on family business. By the nineteen eighties, he was
growing reclusive and rarely left his Staten Island mansion. The
captains of his crime family regularly came to pay tribute,

(19:40):
delivering envelopes filled with cash.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
His couples would go through the beautiful wrought iron gates.
They go up to the magnificent white columns and the
front entrance, and there it would be sitting Paul castloll
in a beautiful silk dressing gown and velvet slippers. They
saw him as this very obscure, high and mighty figure,
and they didn't respect him.

Speaker 4 (20:05):
It was difficult for Costellano to keep an eye on
his men from his posh domicile. One of Costellano's rules
was carried over from Carlo Gambino's reign. Members were prohibited
from dealing drugs. Believing that drugs were bad for business,
Costellano issued two decrees. Individuals dealing drugs could not become

(20:27):
made members, and any family member implicated in drug trafficking
would be killed full Costellano.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
If you had asked them at the time, does your
family deal drugs? Of course not. I know of no
one and my family who deals drugs. He suspects, no,
he takes their money. Can he prove it? No, he
doesn't want to prove it.

Speaker 4 (20:47):
Costellano regarded himself as more of a businessman than a gangster,
but he didn't hesitate to do what he had to
to protect his crime family and his bloodline. Frank, a
street thug who married Paul's only daughter, Connie, found this
out the hard way.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
Frank Mato turned out to be a philanderer and physically abusive.
She had a miscarriage. Paul Castellano instantly decided that miscarriage
was because his daughter had been abused.

Speaker 4 (21:18):
Big Paul was furious and turned to hitman Roy DeMeo.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
Castellano went directly to the Mayo to tell him to
take a mano out.

Speaker 4 (21:28):
DeMeo allegedly invited Frank to join him in his Brooklyn hangout,
the Gemini Lounge.

Speaker 3 (21:35):
They killed him there and cut his body up, and
he was never seen again. Frank Comato was killed because
Castellano blamed him for his daughter's miscarriage.

Speaker 4 (21:44):
Period, federal investigators had developed a powerful tool in the
fight against organized crime and bosses like Paul Costellano. It
was called the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations ACT or
Rico Rico enabled prosecutors to charge leaders of corrupt organizations
for the crimes of their underlings.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
The FBI reorganized its effort. They created a series of
task forces, each one aimed at a specific family. So
there was a so called Gambino Squad and their sole
function was to put together a Rico case against the
Gambino family.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
When Rudy Giuliani became US Attorney and he decided to
use the Rico statue to go after the whole Commission
in general, the whole five families which ran the organized
crime call tell in this country.

Speaker 4 (22:36):
The Department of Justice knew that bringing down the mob
would require a lot of manpower, so Giuliani formed an
organized crime task force.

Speaker 2 (22:46):
Rudy Giuliani's shopping called and asked for the FBI agents
to be assigned to his task force.

Speaker 4 (22:55):
FBI agents turned up the heat. Under Cover officers took
to this to rub elbows with Gambino members and get
inside their heads.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
They would simply walk into a mob hangout and they'd
pick a couple at random, Tony, how are you baby,
and give me a kiss. A boat greets a couple
doesn't know this guy from Adam maybe, while all the
other guys, they're looking, you know, behind it.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
One FBI agent even befriended Costellano's mistress, Gloria alarte E.

Speaker 8 (23:26):
Any place I went, he was behind me. And now
you start to be afree because I don't know what
what's going on. He started to be nice with me,
and he used to explain to me, nothing going to
happen to you.

Speaker 4 (23:42):
The two developed a relationship and occasionally met for coffee
to discuss Big Paul's home life. But it would prove
to be a loose lipped mobster that would finally open
the doors to Costellano's white house. By the nineteen eighties,
Paul Costellano was firm in control of the Gambino crime family.

(24:03):
As his power expanded, big Balls started to get greedy.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Castellana asked a rule. From now on, I get fifteen percent.
As everybody said, wait a minute, this guy is making
money like it's going out of style. What is he
got to chisel another couple of dollars?

Speaker 4 (24:28):
Paul's unilateral rays infuriated John Gotti, a flashy thug loyal
to underboss Annelio Delacroach, but Delacroach kept the volatile Gotti
under control.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
An Ilio Delacrosse kept everything calm, and he insisted on
loyalty to Castellano, even though Castellana was grabbing everything with
both hands. Delacrosse resented it, and Gotti certainly resented it,
but Delaqross kept the lin on things.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
Costellano's home life wasn't going smoothly either. His battle with
diabetes left him impotent, so he could not please his mistress,
Gloria Alarte. Big Paul's selected remedy to the situation would
turn heads, especially those of his macho underlings.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Castelano made the mistake of telling some people that he
had suddenly become passionate again and as a result that
had a penal implant. That was a big mistake that
got around and people said, what's oh my god, you
add that the anger they felt about the way he

(25:36):
treated them like dirt. His foundation was crumbling underneath him.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
For Big Paul, there was trouble brewing in his crime
family and more within the walls of his home, But
up to this point, the FBI's Gambino squad hadn't been
able to crack Costellano's Staten Island mansion. Then, in March
nineteen eighty two, the FEDS out a dent in the
Gambino Armor, lowly soldier and drug trafficker Angelo Quack Quack Regiro.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Raugiro is known as Quackquack because since the time he
was a childhood fred of John Gotti, he could never
shut up. So he was dealing heroin. That was bad enough,
but he couldn't stop talking about it.

Speaker 4 (26:19):
After bugging Ragiro's Long Island home, FBI agents overheard him
admit to breaking a cardinal family rule.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
On those tapes, they talked about heroin, but they also
talked about how much they hated Paul Casteleana. He's a
greedy he wants this, he wants that.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
By November, the Regiro tapes provided enough evidence for the
FEDS to get a judge's approval for a second bug,
this one in Costellano's home. But breaking into the heavily
guarded white house wouldn't be an easy task. First, they
had to determine where Costellano conducted his meetings. Paul's lover,

(26:59):
Glory Alarte, unwittingly provided the answer over a cup of
coffee with the FBI agent who had befriended her.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
Costellano's chief place of business was a huge table, one
of those classic Italian tu tables that looked like it
could survive an atomic attack that was planned right in
the middle of the kitchen.

Speaker 4 (27:21):
FBI agents scoped out the neighborhood.

Speaker 9 (27:24):
There was no alarm system issue, there was no dog issue.
There was just a people issue.

Speaker 4 (27:29):
As it turned out, someone always seemed to be home.
While the FBI tried to figure out how to bug
the White House, they started looking into Roy Demeo's car
theft ring and how Costellano benefited from it.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Castellana was very impressed when Roy DeMeo showed up and
Yero gave him all these envelopes full of cash. The
problem is, of course, that made him a co conspirator.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
When a karthi for the Demeyo crew was arrested, Roy
informed Paul Costlano grew paranoid that he would be linked
to Tomeo's criminal activities and worried that the unpredictable Roy
DeMeo would crumble under the FBI's pressure and rat him out.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Paul Castellano said, wait a minute, there's only one witness
that could testify against me, and his name is Roy
de Meo.

Speaker 4 (28:18):
Costellano summoned Cappo John Gotti to his mansion and ordered
the hit on DeMeo, But like most gangsters, Gotti was
afraid of DeMeo and his crew.

Speaker 6 (28:29):
You never refuse an order of the boss. But he
basically ducked and expressed his reservations about it, and Castellano
had to go elsewhere when he wanted to take care
of Royd de Mao.

Speaker 4 (28:42):
Costellano let Gotti off the hook. Another trusted Gambino captain,
Nino Gaggi, was assigned the hit.

Speaker 5 (28:50):
Nino was a shadowy figure, very smooth and didn't talk much.
I know that my father respected him and felt deep
sense of duty to him.

Speaker 4 (29:02):
On January tenth, nineteen eighty three, DeMeo left his Long
Island home, knowing he had to be back that night
to celebrate his daughter's twenty second birthday.

Speaker 5 (29:13):
My father was the kind of man that didn't miss
Sunday dinner, was always home on the weekends, didn't miss
his children's parties.

Speaker 4 (29:20):
Although the details are unclear, many investigators believed Nino Gaji
summoned DeMeo to an autobody shop owned by a fellow
crew member.

Speaker 5 (29:29):
My father knew that he was to be killed. He
sat me down and he said, I'm sorry that you
had to deal with all this.

Speaker 4 (29:38):
As soon as de Mayo walked into the shop, Gaji
pulled out a handgun and shot him repeatedly in the head.
Eight days later, police found Demeo's dead body in the
trunk of his Cadillac.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
When we popped the trunk, it was in a fetal
position and his hands were blocking each side of his
head because they had shot him in the head.

Speaker 4 (30:01):
Roy Demeo's son Albert, learned the hard way what happens
to those who crossed Paul Costellano.

Speaker 5 (30:08):
They found him on my birthday and then I went
and identified his body in the uncle, and.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
It just it was a very surreal situation.

Speaker 5 (30:19):
You can't suppress that kind of stuff, you know, when
you see you fall the shot seven times and its
head blown off, nobody can.

Speaker 4 (30:25):
The FED suspected that Costellano had ordered the hit on DeMeo,
but they didn't have any hard evidence. However, a new
opportunity to nab Costellano would soon present itself. The FBI
had finally figured out a way to plant electronic bugs
inside the White House. By nineteen eighty three, Paul Costellano's

(30:54):
personal life was a mess. His wife of forty six years, Nina,
moved out out of the family mansion. The Feds, meantime,
were about to move in. By spring. The FBI finally

(31:14):
figured out a way to plant a critical bug. They
decided to scramble Costellano's cable television signal and wait for
him to call a repair man.

Speaker 9 (31:25):
Cable television was a relatively new concept at this particular
time frame, so cable television lent itself quite easily to
one of the many scenarios.

Speaker 4 (31:38):
When Costellano began having reception problems, he told his favorite COPO,
Tommy Bollati, to call the repair man. FBI special agent
Joe Cantamesa intercepted the call.

Speaker 9 (31:50):
Sometime thereafter, a technician shows up, and, as often was
the case, I'm the technician. I'm to cover capacity. I
am properly attired, I am properly equipped.

Speaker 4 (32:06):
Costellano gave Ballotti strict orders to keep a close eye
on the technician. Ballotti escorted the agent to every TV
in the house. They eventually made their way to the kitchen,
where Costellano held his top secret meetings.

Speaker 9 (32:20):
I entered the kitchen, I know from the case squad
that the business is conducted at the table.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
After surveying the area, canta Messa said he had located
the issue. Wires in the kitchen cabinets were causing the
bad reception. Someone would have to remove the cabinets to
fix the problem. Canta Messa played up his role of
a cranky, uncooperative repair man. He was so convincing that
Ballotti bought it. Hook line and sinker.

Speaker 9 (32:47):
Guys said I'm not doing this. You're going to have
to call your kitchen guy or the carpenter, and then
they were really pissed.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
The grumpy repair man finally relented.

Speaker 9 (33:00):
Three of us in disassembled a major part of the
kitchen cabinetry so I could replace this cabling. I complained
the whole way. I looked at my watch. I made
this to be a big production.

Speaker 4 (33:16):
Cantameessa planted the bug near the kitchen table. After the
agent left, Costellano's mysterious reception problem cleared up, agents set
up a listening post in a nearby building and started
rolling tape on the nation's most powerful mob boss. In
just five months, the FBI captured six hundred hours of
conversations between Costellano and fellow Gambinos.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
It was unbelievable. You had not only Costellano, the leader
of the organization, but also all these couples talking about
organized crib day after day, hour after hour, all these
mafia problems.

Speaker 4 (33:57):
The recorded conversations proved the Costelloano was the head of
a criminal enterprise and revealed that the Gambinos were connected
to the other New York crime families through a garment
industry racket. In August nineteen eighty three, agents were ready
to move on information recorded by the bug placed in

(34:17):
the home of Angelo Quack Quack Reggiro.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
The FBI could hear montepe Angelo was telling them, hour
after hour after hour of everything they wanted to know
about the Gambino organization and more.

Speaker 4 (34:31):
On August eighth, the FEDS arrested Regiro and four others
on heroin trafficking charges. As captain of the drug dealing crew,
John Gotti's back was suddenly against the wall. He knew
if Costellano ever heard the Regiro tapes, he'd be dead.
Not only did they talk about dealing drugs, breaking Costellano's

(34:52):
golden rule, they didn't have many kind words to say about.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
Big Paul, and those tapes were so incriminating against me
Jerio and they were talking about the heroin traffick eat.
I mean, it had a list of beefs against Paul Castelano,
that he was greedy, that he was distant, that he
was his comeback.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
Costellano wasn't a fan of Rasiro's copo, John Gotti. When
he heard about the arrests, the mobster in him wanted
to demote Gotti and disband his crew, But the business
side of Costellano knew he needed to avoid a Gambino
civil war.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
The question was, how do we handle it. If we
start killing each other, it's just going to simply destroy
the organization.

Speaker 4 (35:35):
Underboss Neil Dellacroach tried to keep the peace. He recommended
that Costellano wait until prosecutors released the tapes before making
any rash decisions. Big Paul agreed.

Speaker 3 (35:47):
Dela Crosse took up for John Gotti, knowing that God
he was wrong, but he had to stick his neck
out because of loyalty to the faction.

Speaker 4 (35:57):
Well, Costellano waited for information on the Ragio rotapes, the
FEDS beefed up their racketeering case against him. In March
nineteen eighty four, they were ready to make their move.
Federal agents arrested Costellano and nine others in connection with
crimes committed by Royd Demeo's car theft ring.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Everything was suddenly in a mess. Indictments had come down
against Costellano for his alleged role in the Demeyo or
theft ring.

Speaker 4 (36:28):
Costellano now faced charges for murder, car theft, drug trafficking, extortion, prostitution,
and racketeering. Big Paul posted the two million dollar bond
and was released the next day. He may have been
out of jail, but his problems were far from over.

(36:51):
In May nineteen eighty four, Paul Costellano was free on
bail and still raking in millions as head of the
Gambino crime family. VBI was in the process of gathering
evidence when they received a hot tip a meeting of
the five New York crime bosses known as the Commission.

Speaker 6 (37:08):
There was a Commission meeting on Staten Island that Paul
Castellano and other members of the Commission were involved in,
basically to discuss the construction industry and ways of ensuring
that they would make top dollar and would not be
discovered by the law.

Speaker 4 (37:32):
The FBI knew this could be a big break for
their investigation. From a rusty van parked on the street,
an FBI surveillance crew kept an eye on the Staten
Island meeting place. One by one, the bosses filed out
of the house, each caught by FBI cameras. The photos
provided ammunition for the government's ongoing reco case against New

(37:54):
York organized crime. On February twenty fifth, nineteen eighty, Prosecutor
Rudy Giuliani made his move. Federal agents and members of
the NYPD fanned out across the city and arrested Costellano,
as well as top mobsters from all five of New
York's crime families.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
Everything is coming apart. You've got the Auto case, You've
got the commission case. People are getting and die an
oval place.

Speaker 4 (38:23):
That night, Paul learned the evidence that got him locked
up came in part from bugs planted in his own home.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
When Castellano found out about it.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
He went crazy, but it was another short stay in
the slammer for Costellano. He posted the four million dollar
bail and was released after one night. Costellano demanded his
underboss Anelio Delacroach share the tapes from the Angelo Riggio case,
which prosecutors had finally released to defense attorneys, but Delacroach stalled, so.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
There was no way one of those tapes in ans
of Castellana being the on the boss, he was in
a position where he could stall and could get away
with it, but Castellano never missed the beat demanding him.

Speaker 4 (39:07):
Delacroach knew if Costellano got a hold of the tapes,
with their discussion of drug trafficking and trash talking of Costellano,
it would be the end of Captain John Gotti and
his crew. Delacroach kept stalling until the day he died.
Literally in December nineteen eighty five, he passed away from cancer.

(39:30):
Costellano didn't attend any services for his loyal underboss. He
felt that appearing at a mafia funeral surrounded by other
mobsters wouldn't help his legal troubles.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
Castellano had communicated to the family that he didn't want
to bring any attention to the way by his presence,
but they took offense to it.

Speaker 4 (39:50):
Costellano's refusal infuriated the rank and file, especially John Gotti.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Gotti goes around and says a lot. This guy. He
don't even come to his own under boss's funeral. This
is an absolute, gross violation of the most sacred of
all mafia protocols.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
Gotti was even more upset when Costellano appointed his dim
witted sidekick Tommy Bollatti as the families knew under boss.
Gotti felt that he deserved the promotion, and Costellano's disrespect
was a sign of danger to come.

Speaker 6 (40:26):
Once the Gotti cru learned that Ballatti was going to
be brought into the in a circle, it was a
kill or be killed situation for them.

Speaker 4 (40:34):
Gotti wanted Costellano gone, but needed approval from the other
members of the commission.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
If you'd do a hit without permission, particularly of a
big boss, you're next.

Speaker 4 (40:44):
Gotti put out feelers, and it seemed that only the
Genovese crime family, longtime friends of Costellano, would have a
problem with the hit. Got he made his move anyway.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
The decision is made by Gotti that he will kill Costellano.

Speaker 4 (41:00):
Gotti and Angelo Risiro recruited members from within the Gambino
family to hit Costellano. A soldier named Sammy the Bull,
Gravano and several others agreed to take part. On December sixteenth,
nineteen eighty five, Costellano was scheduled to meet with fellow

(41:20):
Gambino family members at five pm. Rush hour traffic filled
the streets of midtown Manhattan outside Sparks on upscale steakhouse
Christmas time.

Speaker 10 (41:32):
The streets were crowded, shopping hotels were all.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
Full, so it was a busy time.

Speaker 4 (41:38):
By five pm, Gotti and his crew of assassins were
in position. Four gunmen stood at various points near the
entrance to Sparks.

Speaker 10 (41:47):
Two shooters were located on safe side of the street
of Sparks, and you had two gunmen also on the
opposite side of the street.

Speaker 4 (41:57):
One backup shooter was placed just down the street from
the restaurant, another across the way. Gotti and Gravano used
walkie talkies to communicate with the troops.

Speaker 10 (42:07):
The John Gotti of San Gravano, who also parked in
a vehicle on the opposite side of thirty Avenue on
the Spok side of the street.

Speaker 4 (42:19):
At five point thirty, Tommy Bollotti pulled up in front
of Sparks in a Lincoln Sedan. Big Paul was on
the passenger side as Paul opened his door. Four men
in trench coats descended upon the vehicle. Two gunmen opened
fire on Paul Costellano, shooting him six times in the

(42:40):
head and torso. The other two assassins fired on Bollatti.
Pedestrians began screaming and scattered. Costellano's head was resting in
the door jam of the Lincoln. Tommy Billotti's body was
lying on the street in a pool of blood. The
unman escaped into the thick crowd of pedestrians.

Speaker 10 (43:05):
Mister Gotti and Gravano drove down the street, rode around
mister Volati's body and just to make short of the
twin him one and fat shot and day.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
Paul Costellano was pronounced dead at the scene, the victim
of the type of hit heat ordered countless times before.
Following the assassination, Gotti took over his boss of the Gambinos,
but legal issues plagued his reign. After years of deflecting prosecution,
in nineteen ninety two, the so called teflon Don was

(43:42):
convicted of multiple murders, including Costellano's. He was sent away
for life.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
Gott he wound up in the maximum security facility where
he was pinned up twenty three hours a day. The
fact that he was John Gotti don't mean anything there.

Speaker 4 (43:59):
Gotti died cancer ten years later. Immediately following Costellano's death,
his mistress, Glorio Larte, returned to her native Columbia. His wife,
Nina moved back into the White House. She shared the
family home with her daughter Connie, until selling it for
five million dollars in nineteen ninety two. Though today the

(44:23):
Gambino crime family still exists, Paul Costellano's downfall signaled the
end of a very prosperous era. Paul ran the Gambinos
with the cunning of Wall Street, but failed to understand
the life of the traditional street gangster. This ultimately led
to his demise.

Speaker 6 (44:41):
Poecastlano will always be remembered as the guy who forgot
where he came from, forgot that he was a gangster.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
Porcastlano, in terms of mafia history, will be remembered as
a very imperfect boss who learned at the the feet
of the greatest organized crime leader that ever existed, when
somehow didn't get it