New York – A man said by federal prosecutors to have been a top leader of New York’s notorious Gambino crime family was shot and killed Wednesday on Staten Island.
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Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, 53, was found with multiple gunshot wounds to his body at his home in the borough’s Todt Hill section just after 9 p.m.
Cali was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. There have been no arrests.
No other information was provided by police.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn had referred to Cali in court filings in recent years as the underboss of the Gambino organization, related through marriage to the Inzerillo clan in the Sicilian Mafia.
Multiple press accounts since 2015 said Cali had ascended to the top spot in the gang, although he never faced a criminal charge saying so.
His only mob-related criminal conviction came a decade ago, when Cali pleaded guilty in an extortion conspiracy involving a failed attempt to build a NASCAR track on Staten Island. He was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison and was released in 2009.
The last crime family boss to be shot in New York City was Paul Castellano. The Gambino crime boss was assassinated outside Sparks Steakhouse in Manhattan in 1985.
The Gambino Family was once among the most powerful criminal organizations in the U.S., but federal prosecutions in the 1980s and 1990s sent its top leaders to prison and diminished its reach.
He died from what his fellow gang members refer to as lead poisoning.
There will be a huge funeral procession with flower filled cars after a wake in which made men pay their respects.
Not as dramatic as previous mafia boss shootings and the mob is so much weaker now this may not lead to revenge shooting or a battle for the position as head of the Gambinos
I remember back in the late 1960’s, when a Mafia hit man, in attempting to kill four people at a bar, killed an innocent bystander. At that time, Mayor Lindsay stated that he would drive the Mafia out of NYC. Essentially, that has been the case, as these types of mafia hits in NYC is very rare these days.
in 1981 and 1982 I was on a special grand jury investigating the Gambino family of which John Gotti had recently been made the boss succeeding Aniello Delacroce . No one had heard of Gotti at that time. Raymond Dearie was the US Attorney for the Eastern District at the time. Guiliani was the Southern District.
Although weakened by the convictions of Gotti and others the Gambino family, although reduced in strength has continued its criminal operations.
Dinkins and Deblasio. Drive by shootings are back.