Anthony Gaggi

Prison photo by Anthony Gaggi

Anthony "Antonino" "Nino" Frank Gaggi (born August 17, 1925 in Manhattan , New York City , USA ; † April 17, 1988 in Lewisburg (Pennsylvania) ) was an Italian-American mobster and member of the New York mafia clan Gambino family . He held the rank of capo regime and led to the infamous "DeMeo crew," the 75-200 murders allegedly committed.

Life

Antonino Gaggi was born to Angelo and his wife Mary Gaggi. He was the youngest of three children. Next to him there was a sister named Marie and a brother named Rosario, later known as "Roy".

Angelo emigrated from Sicily to the United States and ran a hair salon on the Lower East Side , Manhattan . Gaggi dropped out of school and worked in his father's barber shop. He also drove out flowers and came into contact with gambling and usury business.

Gaggi lived for a time on a farm in New Jersey , who had bought his father. He applied to the US Army when he was 17 , was turned down because he was unfit, then his family moved to Brooklyn , near the beach. Gaggi started delivering peanuts to bars.

Gaggi's father was the cousin of a Mafia member- Frank Scalise ; a senior member of the Gambino family; and Gaggi decided to become a mafioso too. Scalise got him a "no-show job", a bogus job. This enabled Gaggi to maintain a bourgeois facade and to pursue loan shark activities full-time .

Dominick Montiglio

In 1947 the nephew Gaggis - Dominick Montiglio - was born. His father became estranged from the family and Gaggi became a kind of surrogate father for him. He later included him in his criminal activities.

Gaggi was imprisoned for the first time in 1954. He had run a car theft ring. Scalise, who was Gambino underboss at the time, had approved this deal. He married in 1955 and became a father in 1956. In 1957, Scalise was shot standing at a fruit stand in the Bronx. Albert Anastasia , boss of the Gambino family, was shot while sitting on a barber chair in October of the same year. Gaggi's close confidante, Carlo Gambino , became the new head of the family. The Capo Aniello Dellacroce got control of the Manhattan district that was controlled by the Gambinos.

In October 1960, Gaggi committed his first murder for the Gambino family. He was part of a team of assassins ("hit team") who murdered Vincent Squillante , as this is said to have killed Scalise. According to Montiglio's later testimony, Gaggi described the murder to him: "We surprised Squillante in the Bronx, shot him in the head, put him in a truck and disposed of the body in a cellar." By “disposal” he meant the chopping up and then burning of the body. After the murder, Gaggi was accepted as a full member of the Gambino family.

DeMeo crew

In the mid-1960s, Gaggi's loan shark business was doing very well and he was a silent partner in various businesses. To grow his business, Gaggi became a partner of gangster Roy DeMeo , who ran a ring with stolen vehicles.

DeMeo had a good reputation in the Mafia as a reliable and well-paid member. He was closely associated with the Lucchese family and Gaggi tried to get him to join the Gambino family. From 1970 DeMeo worked “officially” for Gaggi and paid this tribute.

Gaggi and DeMeo also worked together to produce illegal films. After investigative authorities were able to convict Paul Rothenberg, who was also involved, he worked with the authorities and was then murdered by the two of them.

The Rothenberg murder was one of the first of many on the DeMeo crew. Other victims included Vincent Governara, a young man who once had a fight with DeMeo. The electrician George Byrum had given burglars a tip about the DeMeo house in Florida . He was shot dead in a hotel room by the crew.

At the end of 1976, the boss Carlo Gambino died . Paul Castellano , who controlled Brooklyn, had been appointed by him as his successor and he took office after Gambino's death. At that time the Gambino was split into a Brooklyn and a Manhattan faction. The Manhattan faction, to which John Gotti belonged, was not enthusiastic about the appointment of Castellano as boss. She had favored Dellacroce. Castellano accepted Dellacroce as the new underboss. Gaggi became the capo of the old Castellano crew. Gaggi proposed DeMeo as a new family member. Castellano thought it was too violent and uncontrollable. After DeMeo had succeeded in arranging a cooperation with the Irish criminal organization “ The Westies ” from Hell's Kitchen , Castellano agreed to take him into the family. In the summer of 1977 DeMeo was accepted as a full member of the Mafia.

Gaggi successfully continued the loan shark business and used Montiglio as a debt collector. This gave Montiglio deep insights into its business.

Eppolito murder

DeMeo has been involved in the loan business, drug trafficking, and stolen vehicle trafficking since 1979. The crew made a lot of money even though the boss Castellano had banned drug deals.

At the end of 1979, the Gambino capo James Eppolito Castellano told that Gaggi was dealing in drugs and that Eppolito's son had cheated on a drug deal. Eppolito's son was " Soldato " in the Gambino family. Eppolito went on to claim that Gaggi was a police spy. Contrary to his own rule, Castellano sympathized with Gaggi and DeMeo and approved the murder of Eppolitus and his son.

On October 1, Gaggi and DeMeo shot the two Eppolitos. A police officer caught Gaggi and shot him in the neck. Gaggi was only sentenced to between 5 and 15 years in federal prison. DeMeo became his “acting” deputy during Gaggi's detention. In 1981 Gaggi succeeded in being released early after bribing a false witness.

Decline

After Gaggi was released, his decline began. Montiglio had become a drug addict and fled New York to avoid being murdered by the Gambino family.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) exposed DeMeo's car theft ring and took two of his crew to jail. In 1980 the crew member Vito Arena was ready to testify. In 1982 Arena testified against Gaggi and the DeMeo crew. Castellano worried that DeMeo might cooperate with the authorities and presumably had him murdered. On January 10, 1983, Roy DeMeo's bullet-riddled body was found in the trunk of his car. The murder was never solved. Montiglio returned to New York shortly after the murder and was arrested. He was ready to testify. His statements led to charges being brought against Gaggi and Castellano.

In October 1985, proceedings began against Gaggi for trafficking in stolen vehicles. In December 1985, Castellano was murdered by a plot backed by John Gotti , and Gotti took over the family.

In March 1986, Gaggi was sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement in the organized trade in stolen vehicles and was sent to Lewisburg Federal Prison. In 1988 he was transferred to the Metropolitan Correctional Center Prison in New York City . There he was to be tried again based on 25 murders using the RICO Act .

death

Gaggi died on April 17, 1988 of complications from a heart attack. He is said to have complained of pain without the turnkey responding. When he was taken to the prison hospital, it was too late. Gaggi's widow successfully sued the prison staff for failure to provide assistance. The criminal trial of Gaggi's widow against prison staff revealed that prison conditions in New York prisons were clearly deficient. After this criminal trial, they were improved.

media

Dominick Montiglio worked with writers Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustaine on their Murder Machine book about the DeMeo Crew and Gaggi.

literature

• Gene Mustain and Jerry Capeci Murder Machine: A True Story of Murder, Madness, and the Mafia . Penguin, 1993. ISBN 0-451-40387-8
• Al DeMeo: For The Sins of My Father: A Mafia Killer, His Son, and the Legacy of a Mob Life , 2003, ISBN 978-0-7679-1129-0
• United States. Congress. Senates. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi: Hearings Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations . For sale by the Supt. Of Docs., Congressional Sales Office, USGPO, 1988. ( Online in Google Book Search)

Web links

• New York Times - The City: New Trial Ordered In Brooklyn Case by United Press International
• Albert Demeo on The Diane Rehm Show (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Gene Mustain & Jerry Capeci, Murder Machine (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1993), pp. 5-10.
2. ^ "The Region: A Defendant Clear In Theater Fraud". (December 14, 1978). The New York Times