Bosses call this "showing them respect," but it really means "show me the money." And even if there is no money, they still want it.
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Many of the family civil wars revolve around a boss's insatiable greed.
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Ten years after the death of Carlo Gambino, two tough wise guys who had clawed their way to the top of their families, John Gotti and Philadelphia boss Little Nicky Scarfo, were debating their old bosses' greed. According to Philadelphia informer Phil Leonetti, who took part in the discussions, said of Angelo Bruno, the old family boss, "If we would go to him to ask a favor to try to get into a business, he would say, 'No, it's a bad idea,' and then behind our back, he would send his son-in-law or his cousin to get the deal." That rankled Scarfo and Leonetti, since "if he wanted to kill somebody, he would know who to come to; he would come to us."
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"Jesus," John Gotti commiserated, "Paul [Castellano] was the same way, the same type of guy. He did the same thing with us. He wouldn't let us make a living and on top of everything else, he wanted to kill me."
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Not surprisingly both Bruno and Castellano ended up murdered. Other bosses over the years faced similar problems. Joe Profaci, one of the founding fathers of the five families in New York, was a notorious "miser thief," as many of his men called him. He grabbed such a huge cut of revenues for himself that he finally provoked the Profaci-Gallo war. That conflict was still unresolved when Profaci died from natural causesand undoubtedly, said the Gallo people, tried to take his loot with him.
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Carlo Gambino's heir, his cousin Paul Castellano, stood out in the 1980s as the most practiced boss when it came to parsimonious behavior. His sticky fingers simply never let loose of any of his soldiers' money that came his way by mistake. Once Sammy "the Bull" Gravano made a score for $120,000 and was to cut it up in three equal shares of $40,000 for Castellano, for corrupt union people and for himself. Being magnanimous the Bull paid off Castellano and the union boys as the dough rolled in and figured he'd take his share last. Unfortunately, an associate who collected the last $40,000 gave it to Castellano.
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Figuring he was dealing with a man of honor, the Bull went to Paul and explained what happened. "So," he said, "that money's mine."
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Then, Castellano made a big show of jumping out of his skin and pointed in wild panic toward the ceiling, as though he suspected FBI bugs all over the place. He told Sammy, "Don't bring it up to me anymore. I'll bring it up to you."
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He never did. At the time Sammy hadn't been concerned since Paul was "worth a trillion." It turned out that a trillion, forty thousand was even better in Paul's mind.
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That caper was equaled or exceeded by Castellano's other dirty dealings within the mob. Castellano set up an outfit called Metro Concrete for his son-in-law and himself, and they simply grabbed away millions of dollars worth of crooked business from various family companies. At the same time Castellano short-circuited many construction union kickbacks directly and cut his own soldiers out of the loop, taking a monstrous chunk out of revenues due his people.
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Perhaps his greatest sin was selling out Frank Piccolo, the family capo in Connecticut, to the Genovese family. The Genovese people wanted exclusive control of the gambling and loans shark revenues in the state, but Piccolo was grabbing some of the loot for the Gambinos. This should have delighted Castellano, but the Genoveses kept pushing, asking for the right to kill Piccolo. Castellano finally agreed, in part to solidify his position with the rival group and have allies in case he faced an insurrection from within. Also as part of the deal the Genoveses would cut Paul in personally for a share of the state's profits. So, Piccolo died, and the Gambino family was hurt, except for Castellano himself.
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In that sense, Castellano's greed added a link to the chain of events leading to his destruction. When Gotti decided to make his move against his family boss, he sought approval from the other New York families. The Genoveses had no objection. If Castellano departed the planet, they would have Connecticut for themselves and face no obligation to continue the payoffs to Paul's murderers, especially since Gotti would have his hands full getting a handle on all the other revenues coming in.
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Of course, Gotti as boss meant just another greedy boss, despite his insistence he was making everybody richer. Gotti needed the money. He had an expensive wardrobe and lifestyle and during the pro-football season he might lose as much as a quarter million dollars a weekend to gambling.
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Right after taking over, Gotti lectured his capos about not overpaying their soldiers. He particularly went after Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, complaining he was giving too much of their scores to their men. It was not good, he said, to let them make "too much money." He spoke of the virtues of keeping the men down, broke and hungry. He pointed out he paid his chauffeur $600 a week, this to a man who might be in a situation of having to save the boss's life. The Bull was shocked, pointing out that if the driver had to pick up one fairsized tab during the week, he'd have nothing left to take care of his family.
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Gotti could not be persuaded; he just didn't want the guys getting "too fat."
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