Anthony Casso

Casso was a violent youth, and member of the infamous 1950s gang, the South Brooklyn Boys.[10] In 1958, he was arrested after a "rumble" against Irish-American gangsters. Casso later told Carlo that his father visited him at the police station and tried in vain to scare his son straight. He soon caught the eye of Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari, a Lucchese family mobster and leader of the "19th Hole Crew" in Brooklyn. Casso started his career in the Mafia as a loan shark. As a protégé of Furnari, he was also involved in gambling and drug dealing. He was arrested for attempted murder in 1961, but was acquitted when the alleged victim refused to identify him.

Lucchese crime family - Chart 1991

In 1974, at age 32, he became a made man, or full member, of the Lucchese family. Casso was assigned to Vincent Foceri's crew that operated from 116th Street in Manhattan and from Fourteenth Avenue in Brooklyn.[11][12] Shortly after becoming made, Casso became close to another rising star in the family, Victor Amuso, and began a partnership that would last for two decades. They committed scores of crimes, including drug trafficking, burglary and the murders of informants.

Casso later began reporting to Christopher Furnari, alias "Christie Tick", the caporegime of "the 19th Hole Crew".

Within Furnari's "19th Hole Crew" both Casso and Amuso led a burglary ring known as "The Bypass Gang", which included expert locksmiths, safe crackers, and experts in security alarm systems.[13] The Bypass Gang is still suspected of committing burglaries in banks and jewelry stores throughout New York City and Long Island.[13] Authorities estimated the Bypass gang stole more than $100 million from safety deposit boxes and vaults during the 1970s and 1980s.[13]

When Furnari was promoted to the Lucchese family's consigliere, he asked Casso to take over the 19th Hole Crew.[13] However, Casso declined, suggesting that Amuso be promoted instead. Casso remained Amuso's aide.[13]

In December 1985, Casso was approached by caporegime Frank DeCicco regarding a planned coup in the Gambino crime family.[14] Gambino captain John Gotti, whose crew had worked with Casso in multiple drug deals, and other captains, were planning to kill crime boss, Paul Castellano. Gotti and DeCicco were looking for support among the other Four Families affected by the Mafia Commission Trial.[15] According to Sammy Gravano, another of Gotti's co-conspirators, DeCicco returned from the meeting saying that Casso had offered the conspirators his unconditional support.[16] According to Casso, DeCicco alleged during their meeting that Castellano's carelessness in allowing his own house to be bugged was reason enough to kill him. Casso later told Carlo, however, that he tried to talk DeCicco out of killing a boss without first asking for The Commission's permission. Otherwise, he said, killing Castellano would be a cardinal violation of the rules and all the participants would have to be murdered by the other Four Families.[14] Castellano's murder went ahead anyway on December 16, 1985.[15] Casso would later denounce Gotti's actions to Carlo as "the beginning of the end of our thing."[14]

As Casso had warned, Lucchese boss Anthony Corallo and Genovese boss Vincent Gigante decided to kill Gotti, DeCicco, and every other conspirator in Castellano's murder. Amuso and Casso were chosen to handle the assassinations, and were instructed to use a car bomb to try and shift suspicion to Sicilian mobsters, or Zips, related to Castellano. While New York City mafiosi had long been (officially) banned from using bombs due to the risk of collateral damage, Sicilian mafiosi and members of the Cleveland crime family were notorious for blowing up their targets. Amuso and Casso made one attempt on the lives of Gotti and DeCicco, planting a bomb in DeCicco's car when the two were scheduled to visit a social club on April 13, 1986. Gotti cancelled at the last minute, however, and the bomb instead only killed DeCicco and injured a passenger they had mistaken for Gotti.[16]

FBI surveillance photograph of Casso (right) with Lucchese family boss Vittorio Amuso

FBI surveillance photograph of Baratta, Casso and Chiodo

FBI surveillance photograph of Casso, Victor Amuso and Frank Lastorino

In November 1986, Lucchese family boss Anthony Corallo sensed that the Commission Trial would result in a guilty verdict that would ensure the entire Lucchese leadership would die in prison.[17] Corallo, wanting to maintain the family's half-century tradition of a seamless transfer of power, called both Casso and Amuso to Furnari's Staten Island home.[17] Casso turned down the promotion to boss and instead suggested that Amuso become the new boss.[17] Amuso formally took over the family in 1987 and Casso succeeded Furnari as consigliere.[17] Casso later took over as Underboss in 1989 after Mariano Macaluso retired.

While at the top of the Lucchese family, Amuso and Casso shared huge profits from their family's illegal activities. These profits included: $15,000 to $20,000 a month from extorting Long Island carting companies; $75,000 a month in kickbacks from eight air freight carriers that guaranteed them labor peace and no union benefits for their workers; $20,000 a week in profits from illegal video game machines; and $245,000 annually from a major concrete supplier.[18] Amuso and Casso also split more than $200,000 per year from the Garment District rackets, as well as a cut of all the crimes committed by the family's soldiers.

In one instance, Casso and Amuso split $800,000 from the Colombo family for Casso's aid in helping them rob steel from a construction site at the West Side Highway in Manhattan. In another instance, the two bosses received $600,000 from the Gambino family for allowing it to take over a Lucchese-protected contractor for a housing complex project on Coney Island. Casso also controlled Greek-American crime boss George Kalikatas, who gave Casso $683,000 protection money in 1990 alone to operate a loan sharking, extortion, and illegal gambling organization in Astoria, Queens.[19]

FBI surveillance photograph of Amuso, Casso, Gotti and Gravano

FBI surveillance photograph of Casso and Sammy Gravano

Casso had a close alliance with Russian boss Marat Balagula, who operated a multibillion-dollar gasoline bootlegging scam in Brighton Beach. Balagula, a Soviet Jewish refugee from Odessa, had arrived in the US under the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. After Colombo capo Michael Franzese began shaking down his crew, Balagula approached Christopher Furnari, consigliere for the Lucchese crime family, and asked for a sit-down at the 19th Hole Crew's social club in Brooklyn. According to Casso, Furnari declared,

Here there's enough for everybody to be happy...to leave the table satisfied. What we must avoid is trouble between us and the other families. I propose to make a deal with the others so there's no bad blood...Meanwhile, we will send word out that from now on you and your people are with the Lucchese family. No one will bother you. If anyone does bother you, come to us and Anthony will take care of it.[20]

Street tax from Balagula's organization was not only strategically shared, but also became the Five Families' biggest moneymaker after drug trafficking. According to Carlo,

It didn't take long for word on the street to reach the Russian underworld: Marat Balagula was paying off the Italians; Balagula was a punk; Balagula had no balls. Balagula's days were numbered. This, of course, was the beginning of serious trouble. Balagula did in fact have balls—he was a ruthless killer when necessary—but he also was a smart diplomatic administrator and he knew that the combined, concerted force of the Italian crime families would quickly wipe the newly arrived Russian competition off the proverbial map.[21]

Shortly afterward, Balagula's rival, a fellow Russian immigrant named Vladimir Reznikov, drove up to the former's office building in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. Sitting in his car, Reznikov opened fire on the building with an AK-47. One of Balagula's close associates was killed and several secretaries were wounded.[21] Then, on June 12, 1986, Reznikov entered the Rasputin nightclub in Brighton Beach and placed a 9mm Beretta against Balagula's head, demanding $600,000 in exchange for not pulling the trigger. He also demanded a percentage of everything Balagula was involved in. After Balagula promised to get the money, Reznikov threatened him and his family.[22]

Shortly after Reznikov left, Balagula suffered a massive heart attack. He insisted on being treated at his home in Brighton Beach, where he felt it would be harder for Reznikov to kill him. When Casso arrived, he listened to Balagula's story and seethed with fury. Casso later told Carlo that, to his mind, Reznikov had just spat in the face of the entire Cosa Nostra.[23] Casso told Balagula, "Send word to Vladimir that you have his money, that he should come to the club tomorrow. We'll take care of the rest."[24] Balagula responded, "You're sure? This is an animal. It was him that used a machine gun in the office."[22] Casso responded, "Don't concern yourself. I promise we'll take care of him...Okay?" Casso then requested a photograph of Reznikov and a description of his car.[24]

Following the meeting, Casso and Amuso received Furnari's permission to have Reznikov killed.[23] The following day, Reznikov returned to the nightclub, expecting to pick up his money. Upon realizing that Balagula wasn't there, Reznikov launched into a barrage of profanity and stormed back to the parking lot. There, DeMeo crew veteran Joseph Testa walked up behind Reznikov and shot him dead. Testa then jumped into a car driven by Anthony Senter and left Brighton Beach. According to Casso, "After that, Marat didn't have any problems with other Russians."[25]

FBI surveillance photograph of Casso and Al D'Arco

In 1988, Caporegime Paul Vario died in Federal Prison, and Amuso promoted Alphonse D'Arco to capo of The Vario Crew. In 1990, Amuso selected D'Arco to organize a "Lucchese construction panel". A committee of Lucchese family members, the panel would oversee the Lucchese-controlled unions and construction companies and co-ordinate joint business ventures with the other Five Families of the New York City Cosa Nostra.

Many years later, D'Arco explained his role under Amuso and Casso's leadership of the Lucchese family, "When a job needed to be done, whenever they needed to do something unpleasant to someone, I was the prick chosen by them."[26]

For example, in the infamous "whack Jersey order", Amuso and Casso ordered Al D'Arco and the Vario Crew to murder the Lucchese family's entire Jersey Crew, after caporegime Anthony Accetturo refused a direct order to increase the family's share of their profits.[27] Acceturo was particularly enraged that Casso and Amuso also had ordered the assassination of his wife. Casso alleged during interviews with Philip Carlo that Accetturo had involved his wife in the running of the Jersey Crew and that therefore Accetturo alone was responsible for the contract put on her. Accetturo, however, considered the contract on his wife a violation of the American Mafia's longstanding rule against killing mobsters' relatives who are not involved in the life and he chose accordingly to break his blood oath and cooperate with the Feds.[28]

The Civil War-era Rodman Gun at John Paul Jones Park, near Verrazano Bridge in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

In January 1991, Casso received an early warning, from a secret law enforcement source he referred to as his "crystal ball", about an upcoming federal indictment.[29] Shortly before he and Amuso both went into hiding, Casso summoned Alphonse D'Arco, the caporegime of The Vario Crew, to a meeting at the Rodman gun at John Paul Jones Park, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Casso gave D'Arco a list of phone booth numbers and secret addresses and informed D'Arco that he was in charge of the Lucchese crime family until further notice.[30]

D'Arco would meet with Casso and Amuso twice in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and several times at safe houses in Brooklyn.[31]

In early 1991, Amuso and Casso ordered the murder of made man and caporegime Peter Chiodo, a fellow Windows Case defendant who had pleaded guilty without asking their permission. Casso assigned the murder to acting boss Alphonse 'Little Al' D'Arco. The order shocked D'Arco, who knew that Chiodo had been a close friend and confidant of Casso for years.

On May 8, 1991, two Lucchese shooters ambushed Chiodo while he was working on a car at a gas station in Staten Island. Chiodo received 12 bullet wounds in the arms, legs, and torso, but survived the attack.[32] Doctors credited Chiodo's obesity with saving his life, as none of the slugs penetrated a vital organ or artery.[33] However, he sustained several abdominal wounds and permanent damage to his right arm.[34]

Following the unsuccessful assassination attempt, Casso delivered a blunt threat through Chiodo's lawyer that, if Chiodo testified, his wife would be murdered. Despite being common practice in the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, Casso's threat was a violation of a longstanding American Mafia rule against killing mobsters' relatives who are not involved in, "The Life". While Chiodo had angrily refused every previous offer to flip, Casso's threat to kill his wife was the last straw. He broke his blood oath and become a government witness, by his own account, to protect his family.[35] [36]

Meanwhile, Alphonse D'Arco knew that Amuso and Casso blamed him for having failed to murder Peter Chiodo and grew certain that they were planning to kill him. In July 1991, in a Staten Island meeting, Amuso and Casso replaced D'Arco as acting boss with a four-man panel of capos. While D'Arco was named to this panel, he remained certain that Amuso and Casso no longer trusted him.[37]

On July 29, 1991, due to a tipoff from an unidentified Lucchese insider, Amuso was arrested and Casso became the de facto boss of the family.[38][39] It has been speculated that Casso himself was the source of the leak, as only a few people were privy to Amuso's location.[40] This theory is contradicted, however, by Carlo, who states that Casso was not only determined to find out who betrayed Amuso and kill them, but that Casso also immediately sent the $250,000 that was due to Amuso to his wife in a shoe box.[41] Casso, according to Carlo, had no desire to be boss of the Lucchese family and attempted to arrange for Amuso's escape from federal custody after his arrest. To the disappointment of Casso and the Lucchese capos, Amuso refused to leave prison out of fear for his life. As a result, the Lucchese capos asked Casso to take over as acting boss. Casso reluctantly accepted.[42]

FBI/NYPD Wanted poster of Anthony Casso

By September 21, 1991, Alphonse D'Arco was certain that Amuso and Casso had marked him and his family for death. That afternoon, D'Arco telephoned the suburban Connecticut home of FBI Agent Robert Marston. D'Arco explained that his life was in danger and that the Lucchese family had started killing the entire families of suspected informers, which had never previously been allowed. After some hesitation, D'Arco finally told Agent Marston that he and his family were in hiding at his mother's house in Long Island. Later that night, D'Arco and his family entered WITSEC.[43]

The defections of both D'Arco and Chiodo opened the door for new murder indictments against Amuso and Casso.[39]

In a further violation of the Mafia's code, Chiodo's extended family in Brooklyn soon suffered retaliation from Amuso and Casso. On March 10, 1992, Vario Crew enforcer Michael Spinelli shot Chiodo's sister, Patricia Capozallo, while she was driving in Bensonhurst. Capozallo sustained bullet wounds in the arm, back and neck but survived.[44][45][46]

Also in 1993, Casso ordered George Zappola, Frank "Bones" Papagni, and Lucchese consigliere Frank Lastorino, to murder the Lucchese family's Bronx capo, Steven Crea.

Meanwhile, investigators from the Brooklyn District Attorney's office were using new technology to trace the location of cell phones. Frank Lastorino, they found, was regularly calling a cell phone near Budd Lake, New Jersey. The DA's Office informed FBI Agent Richard Rudolph, who arranged for a Federal warrant allowing Lastorino's phone to be tapped. As FBI Agents listened in, they recognized Casso's voice.[47] On January 19, 1993, Casso was arrested while coming out of the shower at the house he shared with his mistress, Rosemarie Billotti, in Mount Olive, New Jersey.[48][49]

As FBI Agents searched the house, they found a rifle, $340,000 in cash, a stack of FBI reports that had been provided to Amuso's defense attorneys, and meticulous paperwork about the inner workings of the Lucchese family.[50]

The paperwork included monthly tabulations of how much money Casso and Amuso had received from each of their criminal operations. Casso had also written down a detailed list of the Christmas tribute money he and Amuso had received from each Lucchese crew. There was also a neatly typed list of proposed made men, which was disguised as a list of wedding guests.[51]

Casso was held at New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center pending trial. Facing charges that would have all but assured he would die in prison, he continued ordering hits outside, but also began making escape plans.[52] One plan almost succeeded when a bribed guard cleared him through security; Casso nearly walked out of jail, but was spotted by another guard and thwarted at the last minute.[53] Afterwards, Casso began making plans for Lucchese members to find out what prison buses would be transporting him and arrange an ambush,[54] as well as assassinating the presiding judge, Eugene Nickerson, to buy himself more time.[53]

On February 2, 1993, the body of Frank Signorino, Peter Chiodo's uncle, was found frozen solid in the trunk of a car in East New York. Signorino had been slain by multiple gunshot wounds to the head, which was wrapped in a black plastic bag.[55][51]

On February 12, 1993, the Lucchese family burned down the garage of Annette Signorino, Peter Chiodo's 95-year-old grandmother, in Gravesend, Brooklyn. Chiodo later told the FBI, that he "couldn't believe someone would try to harm an old woman".[51]

However, Casso's power came undone when Amuso not only stripped Casso of his title of underboss, but declared that all Lucchese mafiosi should consider him a pariah—in effect, banishing Casso from the family.[56] Amuso had long been suspicious of Casso's failure to use his law enforcement contacts to find out who had betrayed him,[57] and finally concluded Casso did it himself to take control of the family.[53]

The two lead prosecutors on the case, Charles Rose and Gregory O'Connell, later told Jerry Capeci that they had hoped to use Sammy Gravano as a witness against Casso. Gravano, however, refused, as he reportedly feared that Casso would start killing members of his extended family.[58]

Alphonse D'Arco, however, was reportedly very eager to testify against his former friend. According to FBI Agent Lucien Gandolfo, "He thought he was standing for what was right, but also for the old values that had been abandoned by the mob."[58]