Famous Bosses
Al Capone
Al Capone still remains one of the most notable residents of "the Rock." In a memoir written by Warden James Johnston, he reminisced about the intensity of public interest around Capone's imprisonment, stating that he was continually barraged with questions about "Big Al." Each day newspapers and press flooded his office with phone calls, wanting to know everything from how Capone liked the weather on "the Rock," to what job assignment he was currently holding.
Before arriving at Alcatraz, Capone had been a master at manipulating his environment at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta. Despite strict convictions from the courts, Capone was always able to persuade his keepers into procuring his every whim, and often dictated his own privileges. It was said that he had convinced many guards to work for him, and his cell boasted expensive furnishings which included personal bedding along with many other amenities not extended to other inmates serving lesser crimes. His cell was carpeted, and also had a radio around which many of the guards would sit with Al conversing and listening to their favorite radio serials. His friends and family maintained residence in a nearby hotel, and each day he was flooded with visitors.
Capone started his life of crime at a young age. Rumored to have started pimping prostitutes before reaching puberty, he was raised on the tough streets of Brooklyn and earned extra money as a bouncer in various brothels. By the age of twenty, Capone had moved to Chicago and was managing a popular nightclub named The Four Deuces. By 1924, Capone had his hand in various rackets, including prostitution rings, bootlegging, and gambling houses and was believed to be earning over $100,000 per week.
Capone had mastered the art of politics, and as a wealthy, powerful gangster figure, he attempted to balance his activities. Despite his illegitimate occupation, he had become a highly visible public figure. He made daily trips to City Hall, opened soup kitchens to feed the poor, and even lobbied for milk bottle dating to ensure the safety of the city's children. City officials often were embarrassed by the politic strength of Capone, and began leveraging his illegal activities through police raids, along with setting intentional fires to his places of business.
In the beginning, the public glamorized Capone's activities and identified with him as a modern day Robin Hood. It wasn't long, however, before the public started weighing against him when it was believed that he had ordered the death of a famed local prosecutor named Billy McSwiggin. The young prosecutor had before tried to pin Capone with the violent murder of a rival gang member and he had a reputation for going after bootleggers. Although many speculated against Al's involvement in McSwiggin's death, there was a great outcry against gangster violence, and public sentiment went against Capone.
Capone quickly went into hiding, fearing he would be tried for McSwiggin's murder. He remained out of sight for nearly three months, and then after realizing he couldn't live the remainder of his life underground, he negotiated his surrender to the Chicago Police. The authorities eventually recognized that they lacked sufficient evidence to bring Capone to trial, and though very unpopular with public opinion, he was set free. The public was outraged and law officials were left embarrassed. "Big Al" had become one of the most powerful crime czars in Chicago. It was said that Capone was now big as life, and more powerful than the mayor himself.
By 1929, Capone's empire was worth over $62,000,000, and he was ready to wage war on his most prominent bootlegging rival, George "Bugs" Moran. Bugs was also one of the principal Chicago gangsters. He was known to publicly talk against Capone, and maintained a sense of spiteful arrogance that was said to anger Capone so much that Moran became one of Al's routine topics of discussion. It was rumored that Capone gave orders to take Bugs down by assassinating his gang members from the bottom, not stopping until they reached Bugs.
Capone was living lavishly in Palm Beach, and assigned one of his top associates "Machine Gun" McGurn to mastermind the hit. McGurn had one of his bootleggers lure members of the Moran gang into a garage to buy liquor at an unreasonably cheap price. The deal was made and the delivery was scheduled to take place on Valentines Day. McGurn and his men awaited them in stolen police uniforms. When they arrived, McGurn's gang pretended to be police making a bust, and ordered all of Moran's men to stand facing the wall. Thinking that they had just been caught by police, seven members of the Moran gang turned to the wall awaiting arrest. McGurn and his men opened fire with machine guns, fatally killing the gangsters. Bugs, who saw the police car before stopping and thought it was a raid, fled the scene. Capone was credited with what would be deemed one of the most famous mass murders in American history, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre received national attention, and Capone was glamorized in books and newspapers across the country. Capone was a high class, family oriented and self-made gangster-millionaire who now had the attention of everyone. Many of the local politicians were complaining about Capone and his self proclaimed political stature. The publicity ultimately backfired and attracted the attention of President Herbert Hoover. Having just started his presidential term, Hoover demanded that Capone be brought to justice. Andrew Mellon, the Secretary of the Treasury, was pressured by Hoover to spearhead the government's battle against Capone. Mellon collected harsh evidence against "Big Al" which exploited his gang affiliations, bootlegging, prostitution rings, and flagrant evasion of taxes.
It would take nearly five years and an intensive undercover operation before Capone was finally convicted. On October 17, 1931, Alphonse Capone was sentenced to 11 years, $50,000 in fines, and was forced to pay court fees totaling over $30,000. The judge refused to allow Capone to be released on bail and he was confined at the Cook County Jail until arrangements were made for his transfer to Atlanta. On May 4, 1932, Capone began serving out his federal prison sentence at Altanta. Capone quickly flaunted his power and started to again have the ability to dictate his privileges. He was given unlimited access to the Warden, and was said to maintain large reserves of cash hidden in his cell, often generously "tipping" guards who would assist him by yielding to special requests. His time spent at Atlanta would not be as plush as when he was confined in Cook, but he still had means to manipulate the system.
In 1934, Attorney General Homer Cummings along with Sanford Bates, the head of the Federal Prisons, made arrangements to send Capone to a facility where he would be unable to leverage the system. Alcatraz was the perfect answer to a problem that no one could seem to control. In August of 1934, without any formal notice, Capone was placed on a secure prison railroad car, on a journey along with 52 other inmates to America's Devil Island.
From the first moment of his arrival, Capone worked to manipulate the system. Warden Johnston had a custom of meeting the new "fish" when they first arrived at Alcatraz, and usually participated in their brief orientation. Johnston wrote in a later memoir that he had little trouble recognizing Capone while he stood in the lineup. Capone was grinning, and making quiet smug comments from the side of his mouth to other inmates. When it became his turn to approach Warden Johnston, it appeared that he wanted to show off to the other inmates by asking questions on their behalf in a leader-type role. Johnston quickly provided him his prison AZ number, and made him get back in line with the other convicts. During Capone's time on Alcatraz, he made several attempts to con Johnston into allowing him special privileges, but all were denied. Johnston maintained that Capone would not be given any special rights and would have to follow the rules as would any other inmate.
Capone eventually conceded and one day made the comment to Johnston, "It looks like Alcatraz has got me licked." Capone spent 4 ½ years on Alcatraz and held a variety of jobs. Capone's time on Alcatraz was not easy time. Capone got into a fight with another inmate in the recreation yard and was placed in isolation for eight days. While working in the prison basement, an inmate who was standing in line waiting for a haircut, exchanged words with Capone and stabbed him with a pair of shears. Capone was admitted into the prison hospital and released a few days later with a minor wound. Capone eventually became symptomatic from syphilis, a disease he had evidently been carrying for years. In 1938, he was transferred to Terminal Island Prison in Southern California to serve out the remainder of his sentence, and was released in November of 1939. Capone died on January 25, 1947, in his Palm Beach Mansion from complications of syphilis.
| Back to top |Paul Castellano
Castellano was born in 1915 into one of the older Mafia clans in the U.S. His family, believed to have been part of the Toto D'Aquila organization, was already working the rackets in New York when a wave of Sicilian Mafiosi arrived fleeing from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in the early 1920s.
The Castellanos sponsored new arrival Carlo Gambino in 1921 (and Gambino eventually rose to lead the criminal organization). Paul Castellano grew up as an apprentice to Gambino and took over the powerful Gambino Family - powerful because Gambino didn't adhere to agreements on the limits of Family membership - upon Carlo's death in 1976.
Castellano, who moved into a replica of the White House at 177 Benedict Road on Staten Island, became an important figure on the Commission and is thought to have held the clout of the traditional boss of bosses in the early 1980s. Castellano's rise to power (and his insistence that New York Mafiosi give up direct involvement in drug trafficking) displeased those in the crime group who had hoped Gambino underboss Aniello Dellacroce, a less business-like Mafioso, would lead the family.
John Gotti, later known as the "Dapper Don" and the "Teflon Don," was part of the unhappy faction. While Dellacroce was alive, he was able to keep the Gotti wing loyal to Castellano. But when Dellacroce passed away, Gotti set up the assassination of Paul Castellano and his bodyguard Thomas Bilotti in front of Sparks Steak House in Manhattan in 1985. Gotti then grabbed the leadership of the Gambino Family for himself.
The hit on Castellano, while personally motivated on Gotti's part, also served the interests of the Mafia as a whole. Castellano had inadvertently supplied federal agents with a wealth of information about the inner workings of the Syndicate and the Commission by speaking openly about such things in a room of his house that had been bugged. Mafiosi also reportedly feared that Castellano, who last served time after a 1934 robbery conviction, wouldn't be able to stomach a long haul behind bars.
| Back to top |Carlo Gambino
Carlo Gambino was born on August 24, 1902 in the city of Palermo, Sicily. He moved to the United States at the age of nineteen and started to settle down in Brooklyn with the assistance of relatives already living there. He got involved with the darker side of the city and was soon running bootlegging operations.
On May 23, 1939, Carlo was arrested for conspiracy to defraud the United States of liquor taxes and given a sentence of nearly two years in prison. After eight months, the conviction was reversed, allowing him to walk free again.
When World War 2 started and ration stamps were issued, Carlo developed an elaborate scheme to steal stamps. Even when the government started hiding the ration stamps in banks, Carlo paid off the officials from the ration office to get massive amounts of stamps. From ration stamps and bootlegging, Carlo made a fortune of millions over the course of World War 2.
Carlo's contacts in Palermo soon allowed him some new opportunities. He set up an operation that imported narcotics from Palermo into the United States, using several different routes. This allowed him to be promoted in 1957 to underboss in the Mangano Family underneath Albert Anastasia. On October 24 of that year, Anastasia was killed in a barbershop, making Carlo the boss of the family. Later, it was found out that Carlo was the man who ordered the hit in order to seize power.
To the outside and legitimate world, Carlo Gambino was a wealthy labor consultant. Carlo was investing massive amounts of his illegal money in legitimate businesses such as restaurants, clubs, and meat markets. The Gambino Family had huge amounts of power and was making unbelievable amounts of money with its massive network of businesses.
Eventually, the United States tried to deport Carlo, but failed every repeated attempt since they had no concrete evidence against him. During the 70s, after his wife died and his health began to deteriorate, Carlo decided to appoint someone to take over his position. He made a surprising move, choosing the unpopular Paul Castellano instead of Neil Dellacroce (his underboss). The resulting rift in the family eventually resulted in the assassination of Castellano and the rise of John Gotti.
Carlo Gambino died on October 15, 1976 in his home in New York. He is remembered today for his ability to avoid prosecution and walking away from organized crime untouchable by the government.
| Back to top |John Gotti
John Gotti, a former truck hijacker from Queens, burst on the scene after his Mafia boss was blown away in midtown Manhattan during the height of the evening rush hour. A few days later, when Gotti showed up dressed to the nines for a previously scheduled court appearance and reporters asked if he was now the boss of the Gambino family, Gotti smiled and said, "I'm the boss of my family - my wife and kids at home." Like a skilled politician on the stump, Gotti pushed his way through a gaggle of reporters, always smiling broadly for the cameras, until he and a woman reporter arrived together at the courtroom door. "I was brought up to hold the door open for ladies," he said with a twinkle in his eye as he grasped the door with his right hand and ushered her in with his left. Gotti was the focus of many Daily News Gang Land columns, including one as his racketeering trial opened in January, 1992, and another as the case drew to a smashing conclusion five months later. Gotti was the antihero of "Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti," by Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci, and is also the main focus of Gotti: Rise and Fall, a book we co-authored that was the basis for GOTTI, an HBO movie.
On June 10, 2002, nearly 10 years after he was sentenced to life in prison and was flown to Marion Federal Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, Gotti died of head and neck cancer at the federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri. He was 61. A few days later, following a two-day wake in Maspeth, Queens, he was laid to rest alongside his father and his son Frank.
| Back to top |Charles "Lucky" Luciano
Charlie Luciano, the son of a sulphur miner, was born in Lercara Friddi, Sicily, on 11th November, 1896. His family moved to the United States in 1906 and they settled in New York. Luciano left school at fourteen and got a job as a shipping clerk. He also sold drugs and in 1915 was arrested in the possession of several kilos of heroin.
After his release from prison, Luciano returned to crime and in 1920 became a member of the gang headed by Joe Masseria. By 1925 Luciano was Masseria's second in command, directing bootlegging, prostitution and drug distribution. In 1929 open warfare broke out between Masseria and a rival gang led by Salvatore Maranzano. Luciano was kidnapped by Maranzano's men and after being stabbed with an ice pick, had his throat cut and was left for dead on Staten Island beach. Luciano actually survived the attack and afterwards was always known as Lucky Luciano.
In April 1931, Luciano and two other gang members, Albert Anastasia and Bugsy Siegel, were involved in the murder of their leader, Joe Masseria. Six months later, with the help of Meyer Lansky, Luciano arranged the killing of Salvatore Maranzano. Luciano was now the most important criminal boss in New York. He also joined with Louis Lepke Buchalter, Abe Reles and Albert Anastasia to form what became known as Murder Incorporated, an organisation that carried out executions for money.
Fiorello La Guardia, the mayor of New York, instructed New York's special prosecutor, Thomas Dewey, to investigate Luciano's business interests. By 1936 he had enough evidence of Luciano's illegal activities and he was arrested and charged with various offences concerning prostitution and extortion. He was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. However, Luciano continued to control his criminal empire from prison, and in 1942, helped the United States government deal with acts of sabotage that were taking place in New York Harbor.
In February, 1946, Thomas Dewey, now governor of New York, decided to commute Luciano's sentence and deport him to Italy. He lived in Rome for a short-period but by 1947 was running his criminal activities from Cuba. The United States government managed to persuade the Cuban authorities to send him back to Italy. Charlie Lucky Luciano died of a heart attack in Naples on 26th January, 1962.
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