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Prosecutors say that the head of the famed Gambino family, Frank Cali, was shot and killed near his home in New York.
UNITED STATES TODAY & # 39; HUI

Gangsters and ex-gangsters – even those who have been exiled to the witness protection program – chatter like schoolgirls. For example, when the head of the Gambino family of criminals, Frank Cali, was shot dead Wednesday night outside his home on Staten Island, the staggering break in decades of relative peace allowed the phones and former members of La Cosa Nostra to to generate speculation about the actors and motivation behind his murder.

"He's buzzing?", Former Gambino captain, Michael "Mikey Scars", questioned DiLeonardo about the current state of the gangster's rumors plant. "He is on fire!"

DiLeonardo, 63, was an influential figure in the crime family who lived in a manse on Staten Island before testifying against former associates, including John A. "Junior" Gotti, and was temporarily placed under protective supervision. of the government. DiLeonardo says that he knew Cali when the future head of the judicial police was only the broken young son of a Brooklyn store owner and "a kid who was hanging around Gambinos".

"I had a habit of killing him every week," DiLeonardo said affectionately, which meant he had been granting him high interest rate loans. He also welcomed the fact that Cali was "straightened" – or "fabricated" – and elevated to the rank of captain as she made her way to the higher echelons of the crime family.

Michael DiLeonardo, right, accused of belonging to the Gambino crime family, on the right, followed by his lawyer, Craig Gillen, left, leaving the federal building in Atlanta, Wednesday, August 1, 2001. Without any explanation from defense lawyers and prosecutors. , the testimony in the Gold Club trial was abruptly annulled on Wednesday and the proceedings were suspended. (AP Photo / Gregory Smith) (Photo: GREGORY SMITH, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

In interviews with USA TODAY, DiLeonardo, confessed Gambo's former killer John Alite and Genovese killer Anthony Arillotta, said they were shocked by the murder of Cali.

The ex-gangsters, each of whom has real-world experience in responding to the crowd's crises, said that although the authorities are trying to solve the murder, the sages associated with Cali are probably conducting their own investigation. The result could be a lasting return to the violence of a more flashy and more cheerful organized crime era.

"If it's still the mafia, that guy has to be killed, that's the one who shot," recalls Alite, 56, who confessed to his involvement in several murders and has since written books including Darkest Hour II, his second popular story. "And everyone who helped them. Anyone who was associated with this murder, whether it is related to the crowd or not, some guys must be killed now.

Arillotta – a Massachusetts gangster who confessed to two murders, testified in gangster trials in New York and spent eight years in prison – echoed Alite's assessment.

"It could be a weird thing, a bad place, a bad house, a bad time," said Arillotta. "They will kill this guy. In any case, there will be more violence. "

Retired FBI supervisor Bruce Mouw said widespread speculation among the gangsters followed every strike and was probably even stronger this time around because the Cali murder was the first man-made murder by Gambino since the death of Louis DiBono in his Cadillac in 1990.

Mouw described the crowd-related killings as "the most difficult cases to investigate," and warned that the public might never know who was behind Cali's death, or only after the revelation of a witness cooperating with him. subject in several years.

"I do not really remember what they've solved in a traditional way in twenty years because nobody sees anything, especially in Staten Island," Mouw said.

He downplayed the idea that revenge was imminent and remembered the advice he once gave: "I've always told my agents, do not speculate – find out."

United States today, ex-gangsters have not followed this discipline. Based on unpublished information published in early reports and on the flow of talkative gangsters, they spoke of the possibility that the blow was a sanctioned murder, a "personal case" that went wrong (as a wrongful case) or even a completely independent driving-rage incident with Cali's organized crime status. They also said that there were rumors that Cali would be involved in the drug trade.

But they acknowledged that each of these reasons was unsatisfactory as they opposed Cali's reputation as a button-gangster who was trying to move the family away from the crime of violence that caught the attention of his former patriarch, former John Gotti.

Cali was reportedly shot six times and the neighbors reportedly saw a van flee. The ex-gangsters relied on their expertise to infer that the number of vehicles involved could reveal whether or not it was a real gang gang.

"Until I know how many cars there were, I will not know it," DiLeonardo said, speculating that a real plot of mafia killings would involve henchmen in several vehicles.

Alite used the same logic: "When you hit a boss, there are three cars – two at each corner and one at the front," said former Gambino shooter. "He's not going away."

Alite stated that the fact that Cali was apparently alone and unattended outside his home on Staten Island was an indication of the crowd had changed. At the time when regular violence required fortified bases and an armed entourage for its bosses was over.

DiLeonardo has partly attributed Cali's own management style to recent peace. He added that Cali had gained a foothold in the family in the 1990s because of a power vacuum created when his leaders, including Gotti, had been imprisoned or dead. After the conviction for murder of Gotti in 1992, DiLeonardo said: "We did not have any sanctioned coup", although "there were some sneaky things" resulting in murders without official authorization.

FBI supervisor Mouw, who claimed to have met Cali for the first time, while the future gangster was a young trafficker involved in an alleged business card project, challenged the post-mortem choir who found him guilty.

"He was a gangster, pure and pure," Mouw said. "He was a very smooth Sicilian, a money lender and a good businessman. He is therefore smarter than your average mobster. But you can dress him up, buy him a nice house in Staten Island, he's still a gangster. "

Mouw attributed the long lull in violence, not to Cali, but to tougher organized crime laws with devastating sentences for those convicted of crowd-related murder. Mouw also said that although several media have described Cali as a well-known family boss, he would have learned that Cali was under patronage and that the most prestigious position belonged to another gambino, Domenico Cefalu.

DiLeonardo suggested that jostling at the top of the criminal family might determine the answer to Cali's murder. He said that Cali's close confidant, Lorenzo Mannino, would probably do the job of what happened to Cali. Mannino, who could not be reached for comment, had already been sentenced to 15 years in a federal prison for racketeering and police agitation in the late 1980s.

"Lorenzo is in the mold of Frank Cali," DiLeonardo said. "Very intelligent, discreet. But Lorenzo is a killer. Where Frank was not a killer, Lorenzo is a killer. "

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