- Paolo LiCastri
Paolo LiCastri (
June 5 ,1935 Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily –June 13 ,1979 Flatlands, Brooklyn ) was amade man , or "Man of Honor" who worked underCarlo Gambino andCarmine Galante .Biography
Paolo LiCastri was smuggled into the country by Carlo Gambino's cousin, Paolo. He was named after
St. Paul the Apostle . He settled in an apartment onKnickerbocker Avenue inBushwick, Brooklyn . He worked under John, Rosario and Giuseppe Gambino in the heroin trafficking business. Paolo was an apprentice pizza maker at La Dolce Vita, a pizza parlor inBushwick, Brooklyn . Paolo LiCastri was born inCastellammare del Golfo, Sicily and a Man of Honor in the Palermo Mafia who was a soldier of Enzo Napoli andCarmine Galante . He was a regular habituate ofBonanno crime family consigliere Nicholas Marangello ’sToyland Social Club inLittle Italy, Manhattan . Paolo snuck intoNew York City with a “throwawaypassport ” and his own cunning. LiCastri was all but literate and had no money when he first arrived to the U.S., couldn’t master the English language and couldn’t communicate in anything but an unintelligible Sicilian dialect.Activities In America
He moved into an apartment in
Bushwick, Brooklyn located onKnickerbocker Avenue , a territory run by capoSalvatore Catalano . When LiCastri was not out committing criminal activities for Carmine Galante or Salvatore Catalano he worked at Catalano’s pizzeria on 18th Avenue. He would be with fellow Sicilianillegal immigrant s sifting flour, kneading dough, hauling cartons and swabbing floors, opening the pizzeria early in the morning and closing late at night. As the occasion arose, Paolo worked as an armed burglar, a contract killer and a prodigiousheroin courier. When smuggling heroin LiCastri would use roundabout routes on his delivery runs, made furtive entrances and exits transporting the heroin in cardboard boxes or paper bags. He changed passports regularly and was an obscure figure that blended in anonymously with the community. He was very subterfuge and martially disciplined. ABonanno crime family soldierAnthony Mirra would later tellFBI AgentJoseph Pistone that LiCastri and the otherSicilians were secretive and clannish in nature. Paolo would joke to the members ofRobert’s Lounge that he was in theair conditioner repair business because he "put holes in people". He later worked forCesare Bonventre andBaldassare Amato in 1976. Paolo avoided police persecution because so many illegal aliens were under employment at the pizza parlors. He was unidentifable in the U.S. having no fingerprints or Social Security number. After arriving to the U.S. he became an associate with theGambino crime family . In exchange for theGambino Crime Family ’s blessing involving theLufthansa Heist ,Jimmy Burke was to turn over $200,000 or 10% of the estimated $2.0 million. An additional clause was that the Burke gang would be supplemented with Gambino Family member Paolo LiCastri, who served as an “enforcer of the mob’s interest.” He was brought in byCarmine Galante (laterPhillip Rastelli ) andCarlo Gambino , who were collaborating on setting Paolo and other "zips" in pizza-parlor businesses in the East and Midwest and leaving them there until the bosses needed him to do something. After the Lufthansa heist Paolo took theBMT Myrtle Avenue Line home. He was being used as a heroin courier and hitman. The heroin smuggling operation would later be exposed in The 1987Pizza Connection Trial . Paolo LiCastri was suspected of being hired to executeJoe Manri andRobert McMahon for $50,000 and in himself, killed byJimmy Burke .Deportation and return to United States
After a murder conviction in 1975 he was deported, but during the fall of that year he was smuggled back in. After he was deported in 1976, that October he was brought back into the country through an organized international ring headed by Giuseppe, Paolo and Rosario Gambino. A certain travel agent in Sicily collected $500, sold LiCastri an airline ticket to
Montreal, Quebec and was given a business card for the Laurentian Hotel in Montreal or the Royal Motel inLachine, Quebec . After Paolo checked, in he waited for Paolo Gambino or Giuseppe Gambino who collected another $500 and either brother, took LiCastri over the Canadian-U.S. Border. Henry Hill said he was an illegal Sicilian shooter who use to say he was in the air conditioning business because he put holes in people.Death
LiCastri was a suspect in the
Lufthansa heist . OnJune 13 1979 his bullet-riddled shirtless and shoeless corpse was discovered on a smoldering trash heap in a desertedFlatlands, Brooklyn lot known to locals as "The Pit" and described as a place "where you dump things". His body was burned so badly that forensic scientists couldn't tell the body's age, race, or even sex. He was later identified by dental records.In popular culture
*In the 1990 film "
Goodfellas ", the character of "Frankie Carbone", played byFrank Sivero , is based on LiCastri.
*In the 2001 television movie "The Big Heist " the "Paolo Falcone" character, portrayed by actor Joe Maruzzo, is based on LiCastri.References
*Pileggi, Nicholas, "Wiseguy: Life In A Mafia Family", Corgi (1987) ISBN 055213094X
*Pistone, Joseph D. and Woodley, Richard, "Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia" Random House Value Publishing (February 1990) ISBN 5552531299
*Sterling, Claire, "Octopus: The Long Reach of the International Sicilian Mafia" Touchstone Books (February 1991) ISBN 0671734024
*"Gangsters & Outlaws/Unique Gang Organizations All About the Lufthansa Heist" at www.crimelibrary.com by Allan May
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.