Gotti about rubbing out DeMeo. Another bug in Gotti headquarters indicated that John and his brother Gene discussed the fact that DeMeo had killed 37 peopleall the victims they knew about. Apparently Gotti demurred on the contract.
|
Big Paul then turned to Nino Gaggi. "Take care of him, Nino," the crime boss was heard saying on the tap. Gaggi could get close to DeMeo, who still trusted him, and that was it. On January 10, 1983, DeMeo was no longer a problem to the Gambino family. His body was found in the trunk of his own car.
|
Ironically, after DeMeo's death, Gaggi was arrested and would have faced prosecution, but he suffered a fatal heart attack while being held in jail. Still, the noose was tightening on Castellano, and he faced almost sure conviction. Gotti and his crew saved the boss from that fate by whacking him out.
|
See also: Dracula; Women as Mafia Victims .
|
Demotions in the Mafia As in big business, promotions in the Mafia are normal operations based on a prescribed ladder, from buttonman or soldier to capo to underboss. New openings are created through retirement, illness, jailings, natural death or violent death. And a successor to a syndicate post is held to exceptionally high standards of performance. Mafiosi who can't cut the mustard are quickly replaced, whether willingly or unwillingly.
|
Within the Honored Society, certain behavior (although, as in many other organizations, the rules tend to be applied selectively) automatically leads to demotion in rankif not more serious retribution. Carmine Lombardozzi, a high-ranking member of the Gambino family, fell into disfavor for all sorts of misdeeds, including bringing dishonor on the organization when, although a married man, he took up with the daughter of another member of the crime family; for punching a policeman and above all failing to prevent his brothers and other relatives from assaulting an FBI man at the funeral of his father. This last misdeed, it was ruled, brought the organization too much bad publicity at a time when the mob was going all out to prove there was no such thing as the Mafia. Eventually Lombardozzi won his way back into mob good graces by purging himself of his bad habits (for instance, divorcing his wife and marrying the young lady in question), and demonstrating his "class" by making the mob millions in shady Wall Street operations. Being a moneymaker remains the most convincing way to expiate one's sins within the Mafia.
|
Sometimes a man is put in a certain job to obtain certain results, and failure means dismissal. Gaspar DiGregorio was installed by the national commissionor at least the four other New York crime familiesto replace Joe Bonanno as head of that family. This followed Bonanno's promise to quit following his aborted attempt to dispose of a number of other leaders, including Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese. Bonanno sought to have leadership passed to his brother-in-law Frank Labruzzo and his own son, Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno, but the other families refused to buy that, realizing the pair would just be fronts for the elder Bonanno. DiGregorio was assigned to eradicate Bonanno influence, and he tried to do so in what became known as the Troutman Street Shootout in Brooklyn in December 1966. A great number of DiGregorio gunners sought to ambush Bill Bonanno. Apparently 100 or more bullets were fired, but there were no casualties and not a single wound was inflicted, not even on an innocent victim. Naturally the commission was infuriated by the fiasco, evidently feeling somebody should at least have been scratched. DiGregorio was consigned to the doghouse, and the commission installed Paul Sciacca in his place. Sciacca himself was demoted back to the ranks in 1970.
|
A mafioso held in awe by the public if not by his fellow gangsters, Ciro Terranova was likewise demoted in the 1930s by Lucky Luciano. Terranova was assigned to drive the murder car in 1931 when Joe the Boss Masseria was murdered under Luciano's plans. The four killers marched calmly out of the Coney Island restaurant where they had dispatched Masseria, but the trembling Terranova was so shaken he could not get the car in gear. Contemptuously, Bugsy Siegel shoved him away, took the wheel himself, and sped off. Later Luciano had Dutch Schultz killed, and Terranova, who had been Schultz's No. 2 in the Harlem numbers racket, moved to take over. Luciano and Vito Genovese then informed Terranova he was now in retirement, replaced by Trigger Mike Coppola. Generally, such displaced crime leaders are assassinated for fear they will go to war to retain their rights. Luciano correctly judged that Terranova would do nothing.
|
A recently demoted top Mafia boss, according to an FBI report, was Jerry Angiulo, the top man in Boston, who with the death in 1984 of New England boss Raymond Patriarca, moved to take over the entire area. However, Angiulo was never held in very high esteem by New England mafiosi, and a full-scale revolt developed. Even his underboss, Ilario Zannino, opted, the FBI said, for Patriarca's son, Raymond J. Patriarca, who then took over. Angiulo was removed as boss in Boston, and reduced to the rank of a mere soldier. In theory Angiulo did not have to take it, but as he faced massive federal racketeering prosecutions that could put him
|
|