Carlo Gambino

Carlo Gambino (1902-1976) was a native of Sicily, Italy who was born to a family that belonged to the Honored Society for centuries. The Honored Society was nothing more than a nickname for what is known today as the mafia, and Gambino began carrying out murder orders for the Society in his teens and in 1921, at the age of 19, he became a made man.

Benito Mussolini was gaining power in Italy at the time, and Gambino came into the United States as an illegal immigrant in a shipping boat. He survived on a diet of anchovies and wine during the trip. He joined his cousins the Castellanos' here. Because he was a political refugee, he never had to obtain an American citizenship.

During the prohibition era, he worked as a bootlegger, driver and outside standing gun man for various families.

He was an associate of Lucky Luciano and he brought in his cousin, Paul Castellano into the organization. Castellano would later become another legendary mafioso.

He married Castellano's sister, the same way that Castellano married Gambino's sister, and after Luciano was deported to Sicily in the 1940s, the mafia in New York went through several changes. By the 1950s, Albert Anastasia, a mafia enforcer himself, had become leader of Gambino's organization, but he was killed in 1957, when he went to shave at a barber shop at a New York hotel, and two gun men came in and shot him in the face as he had a hot towel on. It is said that Gambino orchestrated this murder to become mafia boss.

And he did become mafia boss after that murder. The Gambino crime family, led by Carlo, led the streets in New York for many years, and Gambino opened many business ventures, including gay bars and other types of businesses in the area. During that period, John Gotti also became an associate.

When Carlo became ill in 1976, he appointed Paul Castellano to be his successor, perhaps to prevent a street war for the leadership from breaking out. He died of a heart attack during the course of that year.