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This name is probably known all over the United States and far beyond it. And its obviously known as one of the richest and most powerful crime families. Its history was full of murders and betrayal. It was betrayal that made the family loose its traditions, its power and dissolve.

But it is important turn to the very birth of this crime family. It all began in the late 1920s the days of Alfred Mineo, when Joe Masseria (Joe The Boss) was in power. Al Mineo closely related to Joe Masseria. At that time the family included Tata Chiricho, Joe Traina, Vincent Mangano, Frank Scalise and Albert Anastasia. Masseria fought a lot of gangsters he could make deals with, only because they were not Sicilian. A lot of people of the Mafia world did not respect that. Al Mineo supported Masseria in all his actions, was his chief strategist and was of a great help to him. Until Masseria was the most dominant figure of the gangsters world Mineo stayed in power. But soon things changed.

The beginning of 1928 was the time for the Castellammarese War. It was a war between the most two powerful men in the New York area Joe Masseria and Sal Maranzano. At that time one of the capos - Frank Scalise turns out to be a defector to the Maranzanos side. Scalise perfectly knew the importance of Al Mineo for Joe Masseria so he and Maranzano decided to kill Mineo in order to undercut Masseria. Scalises interest was in play, because Mineos death was his way to get power over the family. Al Mineo and his underboss Steve Ferrigno were murdered in 1930. In 1931 Masseria was killed in the Coney Island restaurant by his own men Albert Anastasia, Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel and Lansky. Frank Scalises betrayal became a great hit for the existing family, because if it was not for that no one knows what would have been the result of the war. Though Scalise became the boss of the family, nobody really believed in his power and it really turned out to be not a long time he was on top. Maranzano decided to get rid of Lucky Luciano but instead he was killed by the plan of Lucky Luciano and Lansky. His death symbolized the end of the era of Old Mafia.

After that Scalise was replaced by Vince Mangano in 1931. The real reason for that was not to make Lucky Luciano angry for he knew Scalise was too close to Maranzano. And though Mangano was a defector too, he was less dangerous then Scalise. He was powerful, but his power was more of recognition of his family power (New York Crime Family). Owing to all these connections those days what they did was they ran an outfit limited largely to rackets in Brooklyn, the waterfront and gambling - horse betting, the numbers, the Italian lottery. Being Lucky Lucianos friend he was made to call Albert Anastasia his underboss. In 1951 Vince Manganos brother Philip was killed and after that Vince disappeared and was not seen ever again. Then his underboss Albert Anastasia known as the head of Murder Incorporated a myth organization with professional hit men waiting for assignments - took over (1951-1957). Anastasia was unofficially advised by Frank Costello (who was from another crime family). With the help of Lucky Luciano Frank Scalise comes back by becoming Anastasias underboss. Anastasia expanded the organization greatly into new rackets, especially gambling, loan-sharking, and drug trafficking. But he couldnt not go further that this for he was a man who was really into dangerous actions, which sometimes had no explanation. As Anastasia was not eager to share power and even more that that he wanted to take control over the crime family he got into a deal with his friend Costello and Vito Genovese. The two of them decided to get rid of Anastasia with the help of Carlo Gambino. Costello stepped down and Anastasia stayed without his support. After that in June 1957 Anastasia found out Scalise was selling memberships and made an order to kill him. Scalise was dead, Anastasia was all by himself and on the 25 of October 1957 Gambino got rid of Anastasia by murdering him in a barbershop. Though his actions were rough, Gambino understood that it was not safe to be enemies with Luciano and Costello and he tried to tie up a friendly relationship.

Even at this point Gambinos crime family history was all over in blood: the first boss, Al Mineo, has been killed by the second, Albert Anastasia who, in turn, was betrayed by the third, Carlo Gambino. Gambino ruled with the assistance of Dellacroce. Gambino made money from illegally selling war ration stamps.

Gambino was a man who did not really care about what people thought of him, though he liked to be believed to be a common guy from the neighborhood. He often visited his old neighborhood. And obviously he did not pretend, because he was a man that had a strong believe in traditions, old ties. For him coming there was like recalling what he went through to get to the place he was at the moment. It reminded him of his family, which he really loved and respected. Gambino wanted everything to be the way it is supposed to be, democracy obviously was not the thing he preferred. Gambino was famous by the way he shook hands because it tells a lot about his personality. When he did not know the person and did not really care to get to know him his hand was under that persons hand and did not mean anything. But if the person dealt with his business or had his respect his hand was on top.

Gambinos crime family structure included: the boss, his assistant, the counselor who transfers necessary instructions, kapo responsible for soldiers in the commands, and, at last, executors of bloody orders of the leaders soldiers. Gambino Family included over twenty commands. Capo was the boss of 250 soldiers. Soldiers swore to the family and were under its protection. Capo, in turn, directed the profit to the three main leaders of family.

John Gotti, Gambinos soldier, was one of the man who did his best to prove he is true to the family. It was him, who by Gambinos order found and killed the murderer of his nephew Emmanuel. John Gotti was also under the protection of Dellacroce. As Gambino was getting older everybody thought that Dellacroce will come after him, as his assistant and right hand, but Gambino did something that no other family leader dared to do while he was alive. He chose himself a person to come after him and it was Paul Castellano the husband of his sister. It is believed he did it because family bounds were very valuable for him. But still Paul Castellano got an enemy Dellacroce. In recompense Dellacroce was allowed to stay the family and was given ten out of 23 branches they had. In 1976 Gambino died. It was this very moment when the family started dividing, because by doing this Gambino formed two different opposing forces in one single crime family.

In 1976 Paul Castellano (1915-1985) became the leader of the family, but he didnt really look like a mafiosi, he was more like a businessmen. There were some professional areas that interested Castellano, such as the garment trade, trucking industries, construction unions. He did not want anybody to die and tried to avoid situations like that. In spite of this he was the boss of the staling cars operations, as the result of which there were a lot of murders. As Castellano did not want his family to participate in some activities he thought were not worth of the family started losing its power and could not affect the same people anymore. One of the things he did not want to do is to deal with drugs.

There still was a person that tried to work with drugs behind his back. It was John Gotti. John Gotti stayed under the protection and gave advice to Dellacroce until 1985 when Dellacroce died. Castellano made an attempt to get rid of him. Castellano thought that the best way to do it would be choosing a different underboss. This way he was stopping Gottis further career movement. If he was a clever mafia boss he would have started killing his opposition, but he did not do it and what he got was awful. In 1985 Castellano and his underboss Thomas Billoti get indicted on racketeering charges. After it got too dangerous the family decided to get rid of him. Castellano was killed by John Gotti and Salvatore Gravano. The same day it happens, Gotti (1985-1996) swears to be true to the Gambino Crime Family and becomes its boss. It was John Gotti who became The boss of the bosses who had a yearly outcome of 16 million dollars. Gotti named Frank DeCicco as underboss. DeCicco was assassinated soon after that. Gottis only mistake was trusting Salvatore Gravano (Sammy the Bull), a real killer who was just afraid of death.

John Gotti was believed to be invulnerable (Teflon don), he always got away from all the charges, but at the moment Gravano got scared of the electric chair he told FBI everything he knew about Gotti and Gotti was accused in 43 federal charges and Castellanos death and sentenced for life. It would have never happened if they did not become enemies. It was the second moment when Gambinos Crime family started dissolving. Actually, as historians assure, this moment was a breaking line and saying it in other words it was the end of an era of a mafia. In 1992 John Gotti sits in prison. His son and successor John Gotti Jr. did not really take his fathers place because the lack of faith in his leading skills. It with the guidance of Peter Gotti, Johns younger brother and capos Nicco Corrozo and Jackie DAmico that the family was ruled. Traditionally a new boss can not be chosen until the previous one is still alive, but by 1996 John Gotti Sr. was made to step down the scene and Nicco Corrozo was declared to be the Gambino Family boss by the other ruling families. But as soon as it was decided Corrozo was jailed for racketeering charges, and John Gotti Jr. took his place. Gotti Jr. was sentenced in October 1999 for racketeering too. It is Peter Gotti, that rules the Family and is directed by the hand of John Gotti from jail. But the family is not the same anymore, it does not have even a half of the control it used to have.

The OLD FAMILY tried to establish the control and over the International association of dockers. They were interested in the financial streams coming in this organization from the insurance organizations and employers. The Family wanted to receive a part of money that should go on payment of pensions to former dockers and for the maintenance to the invalids who have received a trauma at work. Besides the crime family held many shops in territory of Brooklyn. Representatives of a clan also owned underground game institutions where there were slot machines which have not passed procedure of licensing in official bodies of the USA, ect. Gambino Crime Family stopped its real existence at the moment Gotti got into prison. Nowadays, because of the arrests, deaths, betrayals, not following the family traditions the Gambinos Crime family is almost dead. And the EMPIRE that was built for so long on the bones of its slaves is now at the level of earth. But who knows what would have happened if the family did not dissolve. And someday we might hear again about the Italian Power!

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