Anthony Casso

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Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso (born May 21, 1940 in Brooklyn , New York City ) is an Italian-American mobster of the American La Cosa Nostra and was consigliere and underboss of the Lucchese mafia family .

During his professional criminal career , he was characterized by US investigative authorities as a " homicidal maniac " . In interviews and in court, he confessed his involvement in the murder of gangsters Frank DeCicco , Roy DeMeo and Vladimir Reznikov . Casso admitted to having tried several times to murder the boss of the Gambinos, John Gotti .

After his arrest in 1993, Casso became a Pentito and testified as a key witness against his former family. This made him an essential factor in fighting the Lucchese family. In 1998 he was removed from the witness protection program . The authorities took away the privilege of impunity and charged him with various offenses. Anthony Casso is serving a sentence of 13 life plus 455 years in federal prison.

Casso's life was described in the biography Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss (2008) by Philip Carlo .

Early years

Casso was born in South Brooklyn, the youngest of three children. His parents were Italian-born Michael and Margaret Casso (née Cucceullo). Their parents immigrated from the Italian region of Campania around 1890 . Casso's godfather was Salvatore Callinbrano , a full member of the Mafia and Caporegime in the Genovese family , who was heavily influenced in the Brooklyn docks. Casso left school at 16 and joined the youth gang "South Brooklyn Boys". He trained how to handle firearms and worked as a debt collector. The capo "Christie Tick" Furnari of the Lucchese family noticed him and became his mentor. Casso began his Mafia career with drug trafficking , gambling and as a debt collector. In 1961 he was arrested for attempted murder, but the alleged victim did not testify against him.

Ascent

In 1974, at the age of 32, Casso was made a made man . That is, he became a full member of the Lucchese family. From then on, Casso was part of the crew around Capo Vincent "Vinnie Beans" Foceri, who worked between 116th Street in Manhattan and Fourteenth Avenue in Brooklyn.

He soon developed a close relationship with Victor Amuso , who made a career within the family. Casso has been involved in a variety of crimes: drug trafficking , burglary and the murder of informants. When Furnari became the consigliere of the Luccheses, he asked Casso to take over his old crew. Casso also became Amuso's “right hand”.

A power struggle had been simmering within the Gambino family for several years and the Capo Gotti was planning the murder of his own boss. This was dangerous in that the Commission , the highest executive council of the US Mafia, viewed the murder of a boss as a violation of its own rules.

In late 1985, shortly before John Gotti murdered his own boss, Paul Castellano , Casso was informed of the impending attack by Frank DeCicco (Gotti's associate). Casso warned DeCicco, telling him that anyone involved in the attack would be murdered. Casso later told his biographer Philip Carlo,

"What John Gotti did was the beginning of the end of our thing ."

"What Gotti did was the beginning of the end of" our cause "([it. Cosa Nostra])"

- Anthony Casso

On December 16, 1985, Gotti had Paul Castellano and his underboss Thomas Bilotti murdered and appointed as the new boss. The Lucchese family and the Genovese family wanted to punish Gotti's violation of the rules with death. Casso and Amuso were supposed to enforce the sentence, but only his deputy Frank DeCicco was killed in an attempted bomb attack on Gotti .

In the fall of 1986, Anthony Corallo , the boss of the Luccheses, feared that the Mafia Commission Trial could bring the entire leadership of the Luccheses behind bars. He proposed Casso as his successor. The latter refused, however, and asked that Amuso be allowed to take over the leadership role if convicted.

In 1987 Amuso became the acting boss of the family, Casso became its consigliere. Amuso appeared to the outside world - especially in meetings of the commission as boss - while Casso essentially took care of the management of the family.

Casso had a lavish lifestyle. He got a stake in all the family members' businesses, squeezed money out of Long Island businesses , made illegal gambling, and was occasionally involved in crimes committed by the Colombo family .

Casso allowed the Greek-born gangster George Kalikatas to operate in Astoria, Queens and became involved in his business.

Anthony Casso had a close business relationship with the Ukrainian gangster boss Marat Balagula , who gave Casso a share of profits and received protection for it. When the competitor Balagulas, the Russian Vladimir Reznikov, threatened him, Casso had him murdered in 1986.

In July 1991, Amuso was arrested following a tip from an informant. Casso was de facto in control of the family.

In the following years, Casso is said to have commanded the murder of eleven people. He is said to have tried in vain to pursue the murder of John Gotti and Stephen "Wonderboy" Creas . Then in 1993 he was arrested.

Pentito

Casso was imprisoned in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York City , planned to escape, but was expelled from the family by Amuso. He therefore made a deal with the prosecutor and became a Pentito .

Casso outed two New York police officers - Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa - who worked for the Lucchese crime family and had worked. He himself commissioned the two with eleven murders, eight of which were carried out. Caracappa and Eppolito had also given Casso the names of police informants. On the basis of Casso's testimony, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were sentenced to life imprisonment. When Casso also referred to FBI agent Doug MacCane as a Mafia worker, federal authorities urged him to keep it quiet.

Casso further claimed to have sold high-ranking Gambino member Sammy Gravano large quantities of cocaine , heroin and marijuana over the course of two decades . He accused Gravano of setting the killer Richard Kuklinski on the police officer Peter Calabro. Here, too, the authorities did not want to investigate further; later Kuklinski was to confirm this statement by Casso.

In 1997, Casso was released from the witness protection program on charges of further offenses; such as attacks on other inmates, false statements, attempted bribery of law enforcement officers. Casso was subsequently sentenced to thirteen life plus 455 years in federal prison. Casso has since resided at the Supermax ADX Florence in Florence, Colorado .

In 2009 it was announced that Casso was receiving temporary medical treatment at the Federal Correctional Complex, Butner , North Carolina .

family

He married Lillian Delduca, who like him was from South Brooklyn, on May 4, 1968. They had a daughter and a son. Lillian Casso died in February 2005.

Cultural reception

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dan Ackman: Dispatches From a Mob Trial . In: Dispatches . Slate. March 17, 2006. Retrieved September 27, 2011.
  2. ↑ Selwyn Raab: Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. (P. 470)
  3. ↑ The Brotherhoods: The True Story of Two Cops Who Murdered for the Mafia by Guy Lawson, (p. 147)
  4. ^ P. Carlo: Gaspipe. HarperCollins, 2009, ISBN 0-061-83578-1 , pp. 85-86. limited preview in Google Book search
  5. ↑ National Council on Crime and Delinquency - 1969 Volume 44. (p. 147) see Vincent Foceri
  6. ^ Philip Carlo , Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss , 2008. p. 134.
  7. ↑ Carlo (2008), p. 152.
  8. ^ Robert I. Friedman, Rad Mafiya; How the Russian Mob has Invaded America , 200 p. 55.
  9. ↑ John McQuiston: Fugitive In Mob Case Is Arrested . In: The New York Times , July 30, 1991. Retrieved August 26, 2012. 
  10. ↑ Selwyn Raab: Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. Pp. 499-501
  11. ↑ Selwyn Raab: Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. P. 511
  12. ↑ Selwyn Raab: Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. Pp. 513-514.
  13. ↑ Helen Peterson: Wiseguy Won't Get Fed Aid On Sentence . In: New York Daily News , July 1, 1998. Retrieved August 7, 2011. 
  14. ↑ Plea Deal Rescinded, Informer May Face Life by Selwyn Raab (July 1, 1998) New York Times
  15. ↑ Selwyn Raab: Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. P. 522
  16. ↑ Can Mobster Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso Answer a Mystery Around the French Connection Case?
  17. ^ Philip Carlo, Gaspipe , p. 46.
predecessor Office successor
Ettore Coco Consigliere of the " Lucchese family " of La Cosa Nostra
1987–1989 		Frank Lastorino
Mariano Macaluso Underboss of the " Lucchese family " of La Cosa Nostra
1989–1989 		Steven Crea
personal data
SURNAME Casso, Anthony
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gas pipe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Mafioso of the Lucchese family
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York City , United States of America