What was Carlo Gambino’s Net Worth?
Carlo Gambino was a Sicilian-born American mob boss who had a net worth of $70 million at the time of his death. That’s the same as around $400 million in today’s dollars, after adjusting for inflation. Carlo Gambino led the Gambino crime family in New York City. By the 1960s he had more than 500 soldiers and the family was generating an astonishing $500 million a year in illicit revenue. In the late 1950s, he took over the Commission of the American Mafia and continued to play a central role in organized crime until he died from a heart attack in 1976. In his over 50 years as a mobster, Gambino served only 22 months in prison. He was convicted on charges of tax evasion.
Early Life
Carlo Gambino was born on August 24, 1902 in Palermo, Italy into a family associated with the Sicilian Mafia. His parents were Felice and Tommaso, and he had two brothers named Gaspare and Paolo. In late 1921, Gambino came to the United States as a stowaway on the USS Vincenzo Florio. Making his way to New York City, he joined his cousins the Castellanos and worked for a trucking company owned by their family.
Castellammarese War and Aftermath
In New York City, Gambino joined a criminal organization run by fellow Sicilian-born mobster Joe Masseria. He had a number of run-ins with the law after that, but managed to get away clean. By the early 1930s, Masseria had gotten into an acrimonious rivalry with head of the Castellammarese crime family Salvatore Maranzano. The feud culminated in the violent Castellammarese War, which ended with Masseria’s murder in 1931. Subsequently, Maranzano organized the Five Families of the American Mafia in New York; they were headed by himself, Joe Profaci, Tommy Gagliano, Charles Luciano, and Vincent Mangano. Gambino joined the family headed by Mangano. Toward the end of 1931, Maranzano was killed and a governing body for organized crime was established. That body later became known as the Commission.
(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Imprisonment
In 1937, Gambino was arrested and imprisoned for tax evasion. He served 22 months behind bars in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, marking the only period in his criminal career in which he was incarcerated.
Gambino Crime Family
In 1951, Vincent Mangano was murdered on the orders of Albert Anastasia. Later, in 1957, Gambino allegedly ordered Anastasia’s murder. He subsequently took over the Mangano crime family, renaming it the Gambino crime family. After that, mob boss Vito Genovese organized the Apalachin meeting, a historic summit of the American Mafia held at the home of mobster Joseph Barbara. Authorities caught wind of the meeting and descended on the area, resulting in the detention of over 60 mafiosi. The incident helped confirm to the public the existence of massive organized crime in the United States. Not long after the bungled Apalachin meeting, Gambino and Charles Luciano allegedly paid a Puerto Rican drug dealer to falsely implicate Genovese in a drug deal. Genovese was consequently sentenced to 15 years in prison, and died in custody in early 1959. At this time, Gambino took over the Commission, and grew his crime family considerably. Under his leadership, he had 500 soldiers and more than 1,000 associates. In 1962, following the marriage of Gambino’s son and Tommy Lucchese’s daughter, Lucchese gave Gambino some control of his rackets at New York’s Idlewild Airport. Together, the pair controlled the majority of organized crime in New York.
In 1963, mob boss Joseph Bonanno attempted to assassinate several of his rivals on the Commission, including Gambino and Lucchese. With the assistance of Joseph Magliocco, he enlisted hitman Joseph Colombo to do the deed. However, Colombo ended up revealing the plot to his targets, foiling the plan. The other mob bosses realized Bonanno and Magliocco were colluding, causing Bonanno to flee to Canada while Magliocco was forced to answer for himself to the Commission. Colombo ended up taking over Magliocco’s family. Gambino continued his criminal exploits throughout the 1960s, and partnered with Meyer Lansky to control gambling interests in Cuba.
Carlo Gambino arrested in 1970 (Getty Images)
In 1970, he was arrested and indicted on charges of conspiring to hijack an armored car; however, he was released on bail and never brought to trial due to his ill health. There were also deportation proceedings brought against Gambino that were scuttled on account of his health. After Gambino died in 1976, he was succeeded as head of his family by his brother-in-law Paul Castellano.
Personal Life and Death
Gambino was married to his cousin Catherine Castellano from 1932 until her death in 1971. They had four children together: Thomas, Joseph, Carlo, and Phyllis.
On October 15, 1976, Gambino died from a heart attack at his home in Massapequa, New York. He was 74 years of age.
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