Paul Castellano - biography, personal life and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

The famous mafia boss of the last century Paul Castellano was a remarkable man. His height was almost 190 cm, and he weighed under 150 kg. At one time he was the richest mafia. At the same time, he did not hide the size of his condition. So on Staten Island, opposite New York, he built a house for himself, an exact copy of the White House, which at that time cost him a gigantic sum.

Begin biography

Paul Castellano's biography begins on June 26, 1915, when he was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Giuseppe Castellano, was a respected member of the Mangano family, at the time one of New York's notorious crime families. He worked as a meat seller and owned a number of butcher shops.

Paul's father, working with a local gangster group, provided his territory for an illegal lottery, the so-called "Numbers" game.

The full name of the future mafia boss is Constantino Paul Castellano. However, according to unknownreasons, hated his first name. Never mentioned it in the docs. In mafia circles, he was known as Paul Big, Paul Castellano.

In 1926, his sister Katherine committed a landmark act for him in the future - she married a cousin, Carlo Gambino. After some time, the latter became the all-powerful boss of the most famous mafia family in the United States - the Gambinos. Paul himself married in 1937, his chosen one was Nina Mano, whom he had known since elementary school. In the family of Paul Castellano, four children, three sons and a daughter were born during their married life.

Becoming a criminal path

Castellano himself did not feel the desire to learn. He dropped out of school in the eighth grade and began cutting meat carcasses with his father. At the same time, he actively participated in the organization of illegal lotteries. The first time Paul Castellano was arrested was in 1934. He, along with his comrades, robbed a local haberdasher. His accomplices fled the scene of the crime, only Paul was detained. By a court decision, he was placed under arrest for 3 months. During the investigation and at the trial itself, he did not betray his comrades, as a result of which he strengthened the reputation of a reliable person in the local criminal environment.

Start working for the family

In the forties of the last century, Paul Costellano was officially included in the members of the mafia family, where he began to hold the position of cappo (corresponding to the captain in the hierarchical structure of the mafia clan).

As a member of the mafia in this position, he successfully subjugated the entire Manhattan, one of the largest areas of New York. Under his control was the entire process of collecting and removing garbage from this metropolis. After Paul's partner was elected leader of the Brooklyn dockers union, the Gambino clan further strengthened its influence in New York. The spheres of activity of this criminal family began to spread outside the city, including Boston, Miami, Las Vegas, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles. At the same time, the clan had strict rules on the prohibition of drug trafficking, in order to exclude the possibility of becoming objects of close police surveillance.

Career advancement

Paul himself began a successful career in the clan in the fifties. At that time he was the owner of a company selling meat. Known in New York as Big Paul, driving around in a luxurious shiny Buick.

In 1957, his cousin Carlo Gambino became the de facto all-powerful and all-powerful leader of the mafia family that bears his name.

Don Carlo, as he was called in his inner circle, brought Castellano closer to him, made him his deputies. Under the leadership of the boss, Paul began to build schemes for a new type of mafia activity, the so-called white racket, and successfully implement them. The meaning was that the mafia infiltrated trade unions, created political corruption ties, etc., which was used to make a profit, establish mafia control in various areasbusiness. Another deputy Don Carlo Dellacroce, unlike Paul, supported the traditions of the old bandit school. Recognizing only force as the main arguments, including murder.

After Don Carlo grew old and slowly began to retire, Castellano took his place. Since 1975, he actually managed the affairs of the Gambino clan.

The head of the mafia clan

Developing new areas of criminal activity, Paul Castellano was engaged in business as well. He masterfully knew how to turn the criminal business of the mafia into a legitimate one. However, his prosperity, as well as the well-being of the whole family, was ensured precisely by criminal connections. Most of Castellano's income came from the concrete business. He made his son Philip the president of a corporation that had a monopoly on all concrete construction in New York. He himself was a representative of the Gambino family in the so-called. "Concrete Club", a mafia structure without whose approval no major construction was carried out.

The head of the Gambino clan Carlo died in October 1976 of a heart attack. Big Paul has officially become the head of a mafia family.

Cruel leader

From now on, despite the fact that Castellano was considered an intellectual criminal, he began to conduct business rather harshly, not stopping before killing opponents and people who were objectionable to him. Including their relatives. He had a small army of trained killers for these purposes.

A certain Rue De Meo, the leader of a squad of brutal hired killers, became famous for his particular cruelty. According to availableinformation, they have committed about 250 liquidations. The special style of this bandit was that when killing his victim with a shot in the back of the head, he would put his head in a towel or bag and hang the person. After all the blood flowed freely from the body, it was buried in a landfill.

So Big Paul, with the help of De Meo, killed his son-in-law Frank Amata for abusing his pregnant daughter. However, the leader of the killers fell victim to Castellano when the latter became concerned that De Meo was under federal police investigation. His body was found on the side of the road in a car.

Dissatisfaction with the way of life of the Big Sex from associates and ordinary members of the mafia

At the height of power, Paul Castellano boasted of his we alth. So, he built a mansion, a copy of the White House, consisting of seventeen rooms. The house was very richly furnished, a huge swimming pool was built near it. A large exotic garden was laid out around the palace. The mansion was guarded by a special, as some said, outstanding dog, a Rottweiler named Duke. This fact, like many others, was included in the list of interesting facts about Paul Castellano.

This life was similar to the behavior of the mafia bosses who ruled the crime families before Big Sex. All this led to the fact that Castellano had powerful enemies. The most important of them was Gotti, a subordinate of another deputy, Carlo Gambino Dellacroce. He believed that only Dellacroce was obliged to become the head of the family clan after the death of the head of the family. BUTCastellano took office illegally.

Moreover, the mafia structures of the family and Castigliano's constant increase in taxes from street gangs, of which there were almost twenty-five, annoyed. Many believed that by this Paul showed his greed, regardless of the interests of ordinary members. Paul's number of enemies gradually increased.

Paul Castellano had diabetes. The use of one of the drugs led to the fact that he became impotent. He actually stopped communicating with his wife and started an affair with the beautiful housekeeper Gloria Olart. In this regard, his authority fell even more, as rumors began to circulate actively that he got himself an artificial penis to communicate with his mistress.

However, the relationship with Olart played a cruel joke on Paul, actually leading to his death.

FBI wiretap, arrest

With the help of recruited Gloria, the FBI planted a wiretap in Castellano's house in late 1983. It was she who said that the leaders of the mafia discuss all important matters in the kitchen of the White House. There, the FBI agents installed a device with which they recorded almost 600 hours of conversations, revealing all the essential details of the criminal cases of the Gambino clan. In parallel, listening devices were installed in the homes of other members of the criminal family.

Based on the collected evidence, Paul Castellano was arrested in March 1984. At the same time, he was charged with organizing the murders of 24 people, which was proved by tape recordings. Beforethe end of the trial, he was released on $2 million bail.

Murder

In late 1985, Paul Dellacroce's deputy dies of cancer. Big Paul's nemesis, Gotti, takes his place. Disagreements between them, turning into open hatred, have reached a critical state. Castellano repeatedly threatened to destroy Gotti. As a result, the latter decided to preempt events and deal with Paul. Also prompted the decision to eliminate the leader of the clan by the fact that Castellano refused to attend the funeral of Dellacroce, which was perceived as a betrayal of family traditions.

December 16, 1985, Paul Castellano was gunned down outside the Spark Steak House restaurant in New York. The murder was carried out by four masked criminals. Subsequently, they were installed, they were gang members who were directly led by John Gotti. At the time of the murder, he himself watched the execution from the windows of the car.

The assassination of Big Mafia boss Paul Castellano was a notable event in the life of the mafia in the twentieth century. There is an opinion that his murder had a significant impact on the future fate of the mafia. Gotti, who came to power after Paul, became the object of great attention of US law enforcement agencies. The pressure on the crime families from their side has increased significantly. This eventually led to the fact that the influence of mafia clans on the life of the United States practically disappeared.