The King of New York, Boss of All Bosses

Don Carlo's mugshot. Source: Google
The King of New York. The undisputed capo di tutti capi (boss of all bosses) of all time. Carlo Gambino is undoubtedly the most successful mob boss in L Cosa Nostra history. Gambino did not look like your average mafioso. Short and bulb-nosed, he enjoyed playing the humble fruit-market shopper on expeditions to the old neighborhood, much like Mario Puzo's Don Vito Corleone from The Godfatherwho was modeled after Gambino. Don Carlo bore more resemblance to a grandfather from a Werther's Originals advert than a cold and calculating mobster who murdered his way to the top of the Mafia. 

He rose to family in the crime family that would later bear his name, and played a part in disposing of three of New York's most infamous gangsters: Vincent Mangano, Albert Anastasia, and Vito Genovese.

Mangano was mysteriously disappeared and his body was never found. Anastasia was murdered while he was being groomed in a barbershop chair, and Genovese was removed with the aid of the federal government in a narcotics case. Gambino then took up his position as the most powerful mob boss in the country.

He continued solidifying his position by gorging alliances and carrying out killings; few dared to challenge him. When he died of a heart attack in October 1976, Gambino went out in true Godfather style. Reporters and onlookers were cordoned off from the hundreds of mourners at his funeral, and the hard-faced guards discouraged any would-be intruders. Things were handled with the decorum that Carlo Gambino would've demanded.
Wanted by the FBI. Source: Google




       Left to right: Paul Castellano, Gregory DePalma, Sinatra, Tommy Marson, Carlo Gambino, Aladena Fratianno,                             Salvatore Spatola, Seated: Joseph Gambino, Richard Fusco. Source: Google


Age 74, died of a heart attack in bed, 1976. Source: Google





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