Anthony Casso
Anthony Salvatore Casso, nicknamed "Gaspipe", was an American mobster and underboss in the Lucchese crime family of the Italian-American Mafia. Regarded as a "homicidal maniac," Casso confessed to involvement in between fifteen and thirty-six murders. In interviews, and in court testimony, he confessed involvement in the killings of Frank DeCicco, Roy DeMeo and Vladimir Reznikov. He also admitted to several attempts to murder Gambino family boss John Gotti.
Following his arrest in 1993, Casso became one of the highest-ranking members of the Mafia to turn informant. After taking a plea agreement, he was placed in the witness protection program. In 1998, Casso was dropped from the program after several infractions. Later that year, a federal judge sentenced him to 455 years in prison for racketeering, extortion and murder.
Casso died in prison custody from complications related to COVID-19 on December 15, 2020.
Early life
Anthony Casso was born on May 21, 1942, in South Brooklyn, New York City, the youngest of the three children to Michael and Margaret Casso. His grandparents had immigrated to the United States from the Italian region of Campania in the 1890s. Casso's godfather was Salvatore Callinbrano, a "made man" and caporegime in the Genovese crime family, which maintained a powerful influence on the Brooklyn docks during the mid-20th century. Casso dropped out of school at age 16 and got a job with his father as a longshoreman. In his youth, he became a crack shot, firing pistols at targets on a rooftop which he and his friends used as a shooting range. He also made money shooting predatory hawks for pigeon keepers.Lucchese crime family
Early criminal career
A violent youth, Casso was a member of the infamous South Brooklyn Boys street gang. In 1958 he was arrested after a "rumble" against a rival Irish American gang. Casso later told biographer Philip Carlo that his father visited him at the police station and tried in vain to scare him straight. Casso soon caught the eye of Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari, a mobster in the Lucchese crime family and the caporegime of the "19th Hole Crew" in Brooklyn. With Furnari's support, Casso started running a small loan sharking operation. Furnari also used Casso as muscle for his gambling and drug dealing rackets. Casso's second arrest, for attempted murder, occurred in 1961, but he was acquitted when the alleged victim refused to identify him.19th Hole Crew
In 1974, at age 32, Casso was inducted a "made man" in the Lucchese family and joined Vincent Foceri's crew, which operated from 116th Street in Manhattan and from Fourteenth Avenue in Brooklyn. Shortly after his induction, Casso became close to another rising star in the family, Victor Amuso, and began a partnership that lasted for two decades. The two men committed scores of crimes, including drug trafficking, burglary and murder. Casso and Amuso were noted within the family for their success and subsequently moved to the more prominent 19th Hole Crew operated by Furnari.Within the 19th Hole Crew, Casso and Amuso led a burglary ring known as "The Bypass Gang," which included expert locksmiths, safe crackers and experts in security alarm systems. Authorities estimated that the Bypass gang stole more than $100 million from safety deposit boxes and vaults across New York City and Long Island during the 1970s and 1980s. When Furnari was promoted to act as the Lucchese family's consigliere, he considered promoting Casso to succeed him as caporegime of the 19th Hole Crew. Casso declined, suggesting that Amuso be promoted instead; he subsequently became Amuso's trusted right hand.
In December 1985, Casso was approached by caporegime Frank DeCicco regarding a planned coup within the Gambino crime family. Gambino caporegime John Gotti, whose crew had worked with Casso to conduct drug deals, as well as other Gambino captains, were planning to kill boss Paul Castellano, believing that he was too weak to lead them. Gotti and DeCicco were looking for support among New York's other crime families affected by the ongoing Mafia Commission Trial. 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.
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 that he tried to talk DeCicco out of killing a boss without first asking for permission from The Commission, the Mafia's governing body. Otherwise, he said, killing Castellano would be a cardinal violation of Mafia rules and all the participants would be murdered by the other families. Castellano's murder went ahead anyway on December 16, 1985. Casso later denounced Gotti's actions to Carlo as "the beginning of the end of our thing."
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 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 using such devices. 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, and the bomb instead only killed DeCicco and injured a passenger the pair had mistaken for Gotti.
Taking over the family with Amuso
By November 1986, Corallo was sensing that the Commission Trial would result in a guilty verdict that would ensure the entire Lucchese leadership would die in prison. Wanting to maintain the family's half-century tradition of a seamless transfer of power, Corallo called both Casso and Amuso to Furnari's Staten Island home. Casso turned down the promotion to boss and instead suggested that Amuso be given the position. Amuso formally took over the family in 1987 and Casso succeeded Furnari as consigliere. Casso later took over the role of underboss in 1989 after Mariano Macaluso retired.In their new positions, Amuso and Casso shared huge profits from the Lucchese family's illegal activities. These profits included: $15,000 to $20,000 a month from extorting Long Island delivery and carting companies; $75,000 a month in kickbacks from eight air freight carriers operating in the New York area in exchange for no labor action from workers over their low benefits; $20,000 a week in profits from unlicensed video game machines set up in businesses with connections to the family; and $245,000 annually from a major family-owned concrete supplier. Amuso and Casso also split more than $200,000 per year from the Garment District protection 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 crime 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 them 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 in protection money in 1990 alone to operate a loan sharking, extortion and gambling organization in Astoria, Queens.
Eastern European connections
Casso had a close alliance with Russian Mafia boss Marat Balagula, who operated a multi-billion dollar gasoline bootlegging scam in Brighton Beach. After Colombo caporegime Michael Franzese began shaking down his crew, Balagula approached Funari and asked for a sit-down at the 19th Hole Crew's headquarters 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.
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.
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. 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.
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 became enraged, later telling Carlo that in his mind, Reznikov had just spat in the face of the entire Mafia. 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." Balagula responded, "You're sure? This is an animal. It was him that used a machine gun in the office." 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.
Following the meeting, Casso and Amuso received Furnari's permission to have Reznikov killed. 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 the scene. According to Casso, "After that, Marat didn't have any problems with other Russians."