Death in the family —but the Mafia is looking forward to a happier New Year

Press, 11 January 1986, Page 17

Death in the family —but the Mafia is looking forward to a happier New Year

“The Commission” of La Cosa Nostra

LORANA SULLIVAN

f in London and MICHAEL GILLARD in New York report for the “Observer”

The bullet-riddled corpse of Paul Castellano, otherwise known as “Big Paulie,” was buried quietly without the benefit of a requiem Mass, until now the traditional send-off for Mafia bosses.

Still, the florists of New York City’s five boroughs gained a respite from the more mundane business of. the Christmas season, concocting instead of Christmas wreaths floral tributes the size of tables for delivery to the Cusimano and Russo funeral home where Castellano was the star of a threeday wake. Those paying their respects, including 45-year-old John Gotti, the man believed to be Castellano’s successor as head of the Gambino family empire were, in time-hon-oured tradition, noted discreetly by Mafia watchers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

That Cardinal O’Connor of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New York refused Castellano a funeral Mass during the season of joy and goodwill marks a pronounced shift in the Roman Catholic church’s attitude towards Mafia chieftains. Instead, “Big Paulie’s” send-off was limited to a K'est speaking at his graveside. ice in the last three years the Pope has denounced the Mafia on its home ground of Sicily from which most of the heroin sold on New York’s streets now emanates. The 73-year-old Castellano — “boss of all bosses’’ of the Chicago as well as the five New York Mafia families — was one o£.the largest meat and poultry suppliers in the New York area and a loanshark of some repute. At his death, he was on trial for conspiracy to murder and racketeering. Along with the heads of the other New York Mafia families, he had been charged with belonging to the “commission,” the ruling body of the New York underworld.

Because of its great power, whoever heads up the Gambino family is expected to assume the mantle as titular head of the mob, a position commanding respect but with few responsibilities. When Castellano was gunned down outside Sparks Steak House in New York, his bodyguard, driver and possible successor, Thomas Bilotti, died with him. This left Gotti as the probable successor. According to Martin Short, author of “Crime Inc.,” a study of

organised crime, Gotti is one of the main racketeers in New York’s garment district and at JFK airport. “Gotti,” he says, “provides real mob muscle.”

Short points out that Gotti has served a prison sentence for contract murder. “The Castellano murder was an agreed hit,” adds another Mafia watcher. “You can’t just knock off a man of Castellano’s standing.”

As for Gotti, currently free on $1 million bail, he states: “Gotti is not the kind of guy you’d want as your godfather.” His neighbours might agree. Five years ago John Favara, a neighbour, accidently ran over and killed Gotti’s young son. Soon afterwards, Favara disappeared.

Apart from inter-family squabbles, “Big Paulie” had another problem which could have contributed to his demise at the hands of a three-man hit squad — in all likelihood imported from Sicily to gain experience. F. 8.1. agents, using new electronic surveillance laws, had managed to “bug” Castellano’s Staten Island mansion (a trimmed down version of the White House) for a period of several months. What the Feds learned may well have made Castellano a liability to his fellow mobsters. There is also the possibility — however slim — that “Big Paulie’s” associates were concerned that the ageing don might spill the beans to federal

investigators and they had him “blown away” before he had a chance to talk.

At his arraignment last February, Castellano was distinctly twitchy and frail. He nearly exploded when someone whistled the theme from “The Godfather,” and he had to be helped to his feet by an F. 8.1. agent — before he was granted $2 million bail. A “bug” also led to severe problems for New York’s Lucchese family, headed by Antonio “Tony Ducks” Corallo, another septuagenarian don. Corallo’s mob interests include narcotics, gambling, loansharking and labour racketeering. A friend of the late teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa (whose body has never been found), Corallo earned his nickname by artfully dodging process servers.

It was bad enough when 11 members of the Lucchese family were indicted for using “captive” labour unions to extort $900,000 from cargo companies in return for peace at Kennedy Airport — the evidence of which was partly obtained via the “bug” in “Big Paulie’s” mansion.

It got worse, however, when Corallo’s friend and chauffeur, Salvadore Avellino, bought British — a black Jaguar. Technicians broke into it and planted a bug behind the gleaming dashboard. The result was many hours of studio quality / tapes detailing, through goSsipy conversations with Corallo, the inner workings of the mob. And it got Corallo indicted for being a godfather. At this point, the Lucchese family is said to be in disarray. So, too, is the Colombo family whose boss, Carmine “The Snake” Persico, is in jail. He and 11 family members have also been charged with racketeering and extortion. The family’s acting head, Gennaro Langella, is on trial on racketeering charges. It is a long way from the family’s glory in the early 1970 s when Joe Colombo Jr dreamed up the Italian-American Civil Rights League to wage war on the F. 8.1. by convincing the law-abiding Italian-American population that anyone who attacked the Mafia was defaming them.

Colombo’s public relations campaign worked so well that in 1971 Al Ruddy, producer of the movie “The Godfather,” was forced to

excise from the script all references to the Mafia or La Cosa Nostra. Ironically, the movie proved to be a favourite of the mob, though perhaps not for “Big Paulie.”

Colombo was shot in 1971 at the league’s Unity Day rally. His young black assailant was killed by one of the mobster’s associates. It was rumoured that the gunman had been in the pay of another family, but this was never proved. Young Joe died in 1978, having never recovered from his injuries. The family’s latter-day troubles arose as a result of F. 8.1. undercover operations. In one, F. 8.1. agents posing as lovers wined and dined family members aboard a yacht — where they were invited to sell the agents’ stolen property. In the other, the F. 8.1. financed a pasta importer whom the family

promptly tried to shake down. In the end, however, family members got to know the importer well enough to wander into his shop and gossip — into the F.8.1.’s bug. The Colombos were said to control union branches in the restaurant and transport businesses, and have been charged with extortion. The Bonanno family is likewise a shadow of its former robust self when it was led by Joseph “Joe Bananas” Bonanno. Now said to be retired, he has been replaced by Phillip “Rusty” Rastelli, aged 66, who immediately checked into a hospital with chest pains after his arraignment.

Bonanno will be remembered as the mobster who arranged his own kidnapping in 1964. This triggered the “Banana War” which left countless Mafiosi dead.

When he resurfaced, Bonanno failed to regain control of his rackets in Brooklyn and the family’s interests were more or less split among the other New York families. Besides the Gambino family of the late “Big Paulie” Castellano, the only other family still thriving in New York is the Genovese clan, led by Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno, aged 73, suffering from heart trouble, but able to raise $2

million bail in an hour. The Genoveses are said to control, for all practical purposes, midtown New York, and one of their top mobsters, Matthew “Matty the Horse” laniello is at present on trial on charges relating to his hidden control of several restaurants. The current assault on the Mafia by crime strike forces and the F. 8.1. may well remove the mob’s most visible leaders. If so, it will be a triumph for Rudolph Giuliani, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York who is leading the battle. It may also propel him, as a

result of a highly visible profile, into political prominence. Meanwhile, as the Mafia’s “Mustache Petes” are retired by bullets, jail sentences, or even from natural causes, what of the young, university trained accountants and lawyers who bear their names? The late Meyer Lansky devised the mob’s laundry operation whereby ill-gotten gains were sanitised .via offshore and European banks into funds which could be invested into legitimate businesses. The practice continues. And no-one knows how much of the United States is actually owned by the Mafia.