Who is Frank Cali? New York's Gambino mafia crime boss who was shot dead
Cali is the first high-ranking mobster to be "taken out" in the city since 1985. Here's what you need to know.
Who is Frank Cali?
Francesco 'Franky Boy' Cali was born on March 26 1965 to Sicilian parents in New York City.
In 1980, he got his foot in mob doors when he moved with his parents to Brooklyn.
There he launched the fruit store, Arcobaleno, which is Italian for rainbow. But FBI said it was used as a front for criminal activities.
It helped him fast become the Gambino "ambassador to the Sicilian Mafia".
He "made his bones" working under former boss 'Dapper Don' John Gotti in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey.
Cali soon married into mob royalty when he wed the daughter of one of the Inzerillos, who are known as one of the Mafia powerhouses in Italy.
Cali’s wife is the niece of Gambino 'capo' John Gambino, and his brother Joseph and brother-in-law Peter Inzerillo are reputedly mob “made men”.
In 2015, Cali became the de facto 'Godfather' of the Gambinos in 2015 and was said to be the opposite of his flashy former boss Gotti, because “no one ever sees him."
A police source told NY Post, Cali was "a real quiet old school boss".
Where did he die?
Cali was shot multiple times in front of his home in Staten Island late on March 13.
He lived in the affluent Todt Hill neighbourhood which is well known for its crime connections.
The area was used as the location for fictional crime boss Don Corleone's compound in the 1972 film 'The Godfather'.
The New York Post reported he sustained at least six or seven gun wounds, before he was run over by a pick up truck.
Family members were seen rushing into the street and sitting crying next to the mobster's lifeless body.
One man reportedly collapsed crying: "Papa! Papa!" as a woman shouted into her phone: "Why doesn’t the ambulance come? He’s not breathing!"
Cops say the gunman sped off in a blue 4×4 after running him down and opening fire in a hit which one officer described as “disrespectful”.
Cali's murder occurred just hours after Joseph 'Joe C' Cammarano Jr., the reputed acting boss of the Bonanno family, was acquitted at trial along with his reputed consigliere John 'Porky' Zancocchio.
Investigators, including the FBI, are now probing whether the outrageous hit was sanctioned by the commission of New York’s five families or whether it was carried out by a rogue gunman.
The Gambino Crime Family
The Gambino crime operation is one of the five historic Italian-American Mafia families in New York, Reuters has previously reported, and it makes money through violence and extortion.
Charges against members of Mafia operations, including Gambino family operatives, have included murder, loan sharking, gambling and illegal drug distribution.
The family was gathered by then leader Salvartore D'Aquia in the early 1900s.
Carlo Gambino, deemed one of the most successful mafia bosses of all time, lead the group from 1957
He strengthened the unit, increased their money pockets and he managed to avoid spending a single day in prison.
When he died in 1976, control when to his brother-in-law, Paul Castellano.
Family members were said to hate the way he led the group as he acted more like a businessman than a 'don'.
But he was assassinated by his top guy, John Gotti.
Although it's been decades since a mafia boss was assassinated, lower level members have been killed.
Source: Read Full Article