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John Gotti was an American mafioso 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, leading what was 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 of New York City. Castellano ran the organization from 1976 until his murder on December 16, 1985.
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, 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.
Roy Albert DeMeo was an American mobster in the Gambino crime family in New York City. He headed a group known as the "DeMeo crew", which consisted of approximately twenty associates involved in murder, car theft, drug dealing, prostitution and pornography. The DeMeo crew became notorious for the large number of murders they committed and for the grisly way they disposed of the bodies, which became known as "the Gemini Method". The crew is believed to be responsible for up to 200 murders, many of which were committed by DeMeo himself.
The Westies were a New York City-based Irish American organized crime gang, responsible for racketeering, drug trafficking, and contract killing. They were partnered with the Italian-American Mafia and operated out of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan.
James Michael Coonan is an Irish-American mobster and racketeer from Manhattan, New York who served as the boss of the Westies gang, an Irish mob group based in Hell's Kitchen, from approximately 1977 to 1988. Coonan was incarcerated and began serving a 75-year prison term in 1988.
The Colombo crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and the youngest of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City within the criminal organization known as the American Mafia. It was during Lucky Luciano's organization of the American Mafia after the Castellammarese War, following the assassinations of "Joe the Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, that the gang run by Joseph Profaci became recognized as the Profaci crime family.
The Irish Mob is a usually crime family–based ethnic collective of organized crime syndicates composed of primarily ethnic Irish members which operate primarily in Ireland, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and have been in existence since the early 19th century. Originating in Irish-American street gangs – famously first depicted in Herbert Asbury's 1927 book, The Gangs of New York – the Irish Mob has appeared in most major U.S. and Canadian cities, especially in the Northeast and the urban industrial Midwest, including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Chicago.
Francis Patrick Salemme, sometimes spelled Salemmi, also known as "Cadillac Frank" and "Julian Daniel Selig", was an American mobster from Boston, Massachusetts who became a hitman and eventually the boss of the Patriarca crime family of New England before turning government witness.
Anthony Frank Gaggi, better known as Nino Gaggi, was an American mobster who was a caporegime in the Gambino crime family. Based in Canarsie, Gaggi was a criminal mentor to Roy DeMeo and a longtime partner of the infamous DeMeo crew.
Michael J. Spillane was an Irish-American mobster who controlled Hell's Kitchen in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. Spillane, the so-called “Gentleman Gangster", was a marked contrast to the violent Westies mob members who succeeded him in Hell's Kitchen.
Events concerning organized crime from the year 1977.
Edward "Eddie The Butcher" Cummiskey Jr. was a New York mobster who served as a mentor to Jimmy Coonan, leader of the Westies. Cummiskey is reputed to have shown Coonan how to dismember and dispose of murder victims by scattering their remains into the waters around the sewage treatment plant, which was operated by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection at Randalls and Wards Islands, notably in the Hudson River. Cummiskey was murdered by hitman Joseph Sullivan on August 20, 1976, in a bar.
Boško Radonjić was a Serbian mobster, former leader of the Westies, a predominantly Irish-American gang based in New York's Hell's Kitchen.
Thomas Kapatos, nicknamed as "Tommy the Greek", was a Greek-American gangster who was associated with the Irish mob in New York City. A convicted armed robber, Kapatos was an enforcer for Hell's Kitchen crime boss Mickey Spillane during his war against Jimmy Coonan in the 1970s. He was murdered in 1977 as a result of a conflict between Spillane's gang and the Genovese crime family.
Dominick "Skinny Dom" Pizzonia is a New York mobster and captain with the Gambino crime family who was a hitman and loanshark. Pizzonia allegedly participated in several high-profile murders.
John Edward Alite is an American former mobster and Gambino crime family associate who turned government witness and in 2008 testified against the crime family and John A. "Junior" Gotti. That year, Alite pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, including two murders and a variety of other crimes, and in 2011, was sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison. Due to his cooperation with prosecutors, he was released on a five-year supervised release in 2012. Alite has estimated that he shot between 30 and 40 people, beat about 100 people with a baseball bat, and murdered seven people. Later in life, Alite publicly denounced the life of organized crime and became a motivational speaker, podcaster and author.
James "Jimmy Mac" McElroy (1945–2011) was an Irish American mobster and racketeer from Manhattan, New York, who was an enforcer for the Westies, a criminal organization that operated out of Hell's Kitchen.
Joseph Watts also known as "The German" is an associate of the Gambino crime family. He was a close confidant of former boss John Gotti and participated in the infamous 1985 assassination of Paul "Big Paul" Castellano. Watts was not a made man due to being only Italian on his maternal side, while being German, Welsh on his paternal side.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Traub, James (April 5, 1987). "The Lords of Hell's Kitchen". New York Times. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Daly, Michael; John Hamill (April 12, 1982). "The Ghosts of Hell's Kitchen". New York Magazine. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
- 1 2 Raab, Selwyn (April 16, 1990). "Books of The Times; The Rise and Fall of a Thoroughly Vicious Gang". The New York Times. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
- 1 2 3 4 Bain, David Haward (April 8, 1990). "New York Stories: Hell's Kitchen Killers". The New York Times. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
- 1 2 3 4 Lubasch, Arnold H. (January 1, 1989). "Admitted Westies Killer Who Informed Is Free". The New York Times. Retrieved March 31, 2021.