Augustus Sclafani, d. 1986, also known as "Big Gus", was a New York mobster who was a mob associate with the Gambino crime family. Sclafani is not to be confused with the younger Augustus "Gus Boy" Sclafani, another Gambino family member.
During the 1970s, Sclafani and Mildred Russo, his mother-in-law, used her position as a court clerk in the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to leak confidential information on the Gambino family to Paul Castellano. In 1987, both Russo and Sclafani were indicted for racketeering and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Sclafini had already been declared as a fugitive from justice, although law enforcement believed that Sclafani was dead.
According to mob witness Sammy Gravano, while Paul Castellano was boss of the Gambino family, Sclafani accused Gambino mobster Frank DeCicco of being a mob informant. DeCicco successfully defended himself from this charge and told Gravano that he would murder Sclafani after Castellano was out of power. In 1986, Gambino hitman Joseph Watts shot and stabbed Sclafani to death in a club in Little Italy, Manhattan on orders from new Gambino boss John Gotti.
After Castellano's murder, DeCicco told Gravano that "Gus is gone."
John Joseph Gotti Jr. was an American gangster and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. He ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambino boss Paul Castellano in December 1985 and took over the family shortly thereafter, becoming boss of what has been described as America's most powerful crime syndicate.
Constantino Paul Castellano, was an American crime boss who succeeded Carlo Gambino as head of the Gambino crime family. Castellano was killed in an unsanctioned hit on December 16, 1985.
Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano is an American former mobster who became underboss of the Gambino crime family. Gravano played a major role in prosecuting John Gotti, the crime family's boss, by agreeing to testify as a government witness against him and other mobsters in a deal in which he confessed to involvement in 19 murders.
Vincent Louis Gigante, also known as "The Chin", was an American mobster who was boss of the Genovese crime family in New York City from 1981 to 2005. Gigante started out as a professional boxer who fought in 25 matches between 1944 and 1947. He then started working as a Mafia enforcer for what was then the Luciano crime family, forerunner of the Genovese family. Gigante was one of five brothers; three of them, Mario, Pasquale, and Ralph, followed him into the Mafia. Only one brother, Louis, stayed out of the crime family, instead becoming a priest. Gigante was the shooter in the failed assassination of longtime Luciano boss Frank Costello in 1957. In 1959, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for drug trafficking, and after sharing a prison cell with Costello's rival, Vito Genovese, Gigante became a caporegime overseeing his own crew of Genovese soldiers and associates who operated out of Greenwich Village.
The Gambino crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. The group, which went through five bosses between 1910 and 1957, is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963, when the structure of organized crime first gained public attention. The group's operations extend from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering, gambling, loansharking, extortion, money laundering, prostitution, fraud, hijacking, and fencing.
Gotti is a 1996 American crime drama television film directed by Robert Harmon and written by Steve Shagan, based in part on the 1996 non-fiction book Gotti: Rise and Fall by Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain. The film stars Armand Assante in the title role as infamous Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, along with William Forsythe, and Anthony Quinn. It aired on HBO on August 17, 1996. Assante won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Special for his performance. Assante also received a Golden Globe nomination the same year.
Aniello John "Neil" Dellacroce, was an American mobster and underboss of the Gambino crime family. He rose to the position of underboss when Carlo Gambino moved Joseph Biondo aside. Dellacroce was a mentor to future Gambino boss John Gotti.
Thomas "Tommy" Bilotti was an American mobster with the Gambino crime family who served as underboss for two weeks. It was this promotion that helped trigger the 1985 assassination of Gambino boss Paul Castellano; Bilotti would end up killed as well as part of the assassination.
Frank "Frankie Loc" LoCascio was an American mobster in New York who became the Consigliere to the Gambino crime family boss John Gotti.
Anthony Salvatore Casso, nicknamed "Gaspipe", was an American mobster and underboss of the Lucchese crime family. During his career in organized crime, Casso was regarded as a "homicidal maniac" in the Italian-American Mafia. He is suspected of having committed dozens of murders, and had confessed to involvement in between 15 and 36 murders. Government witness Anthony Accetturo, the former caporegime of The Jersey Crew, once said of Casso, "all he wanted to do is kill, kill, get what you can, even if you didn't earn it". In interviews, and on the witness stand, Casso confessed involvement in the murders of Frank DeCicco, Roy DeMeo, and Vladimir Reznikov. Casso also admitted to several attempts to murder Gambino family boss John Gotti.
Michael DiLeonardo is a former Italian-American mobster turned government informant. He was a capo belonging to the Gambino family. In the early 2000s, DiLeonardo decided to cooperate with the FBI and managed to convict over 80 mobsters. He was temporarily in a witness protection program.
Bartholomew "Bobby" Boriello was an American mobster who belonged to the Gambino crime family and served as boss John Gotti's favorite bodyguard and chauffeur. A prominent hitman during the 1980s, Boriello participated in the 1990 murder of Gambino soldier Louis DiBono.
Frank DeCicco, also known as Frankie D and Frankie Cheech, was an American mobster consigliere and eventual underboss for the Gambino crime family in New York City.
Angelo "Quack Quack" Ruggiero Sr. was a member of the Gambino crime family and a friend of John Gotti's. Once Gotti became leader of the family he made Ruggiero a caporegime. Although he showed little organizing or money making ability, anyone questioning Ruggiero's suitability for a top position in the hierarchy did so at their peril; the FBI regarded Ruggiero as an unpredictable psychopath not amenable to confrontational tactics. While Gotti was held in pretrial detention for a state case that he eventually beat, Ruggiero served as his contact with the crime family, until the impulsive capo got himself thrown in jail beside Gotti by cursing and arguing with the judge during a hearing. This blunder lost Ruggiero any chance he had of becoming Gotti's underboss.
Thomas Francis Gambino is an Italian-American New York City mobster and a longtime caporegime of the Gambino crime family who successfully controlled lucrative trucking rackets in the New York City Garment District. He is the son of Carlo Gambino and nephew of Paul Castellano.
Joseph "Piney" Armone, also known as Shorty, was an American gangster in the Gambino crime family who served as underboss.
James "Jimmy Brown" Failla was a senior caporegime with the Gambino crime family who was a major power in the garbage-hauling industry in New York City. Failla's crew was based in Brooklyn, with operations stretching into Staten Island, Manhattan, and New Jersey.
George "Big Georgie" DeCicco was a New York mobster and longtime captain in the Gambino crime family. DeCicco is one of the last captains of the old John Gotti administration in the 1980s who have not been under any indictment until now. DeCicco is the brother of former Gambino underboss Frank DeCicco, who was killed in a car-bomb meant for his boss John Gotti, ordered by then boss of the Genovese crime family who is now deceased, Vincent "Chin" Gigante, and Lucchese crime family leaders Vittorio "Vic" Amuso and Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso as revenge for the murder of former Gambino crime family boss, Paul Castellano, a strong ally of both the Genovese and Lucchese crime families.
Joseph Paruta, also known as "Old Man", was a respected soldier in the Gambino crime family and considered a "key member" of Sammy Gravano's Bensonhurst, Brooklyn crew. He is the only known mobster who asked for a mercy killing after becoming terminally ill with lung cancer. The proposition was not agreed upon by John Gotti but Paruta died before the mercy killing was performed.
Nicholas Scibetta, also known as "Little Nicky", was a Sicilian American mobster who was the nephew of Joseph and John Zicarelli, the brother-in-law of mobster Sammy Gravano and uncle of Gerard Gravano, who was a Gambino crime family mob associate who was later marked as an informant by fellow crime family members.
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