THE REPUTED HEAD of New York’s notorious Gambino crime family has been shot and killed in New York.
Frank Cali (53) was found with multiple gunshot wounds to his body at his home on Staten Island shortly after 9pm last night.
Cali was taken to a hospital where he later died from his injuries. There have been no arrests.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn had referred to Cali in court filings in recent years as the underboss of the Gambino organisation, related through marriage to the Inzerillo clan in the Sicilian Mafia.
Since 2015, US press has reported that Cali had ascended to the top spot in the gang, although he never faced a criminal charge saying he had.
Cali’s only mob-related criminal conviction was 10 years ago when he 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 organisations in the US, but federal prosecutions in the 1980s and 1990s sent its top leaders to prison and diminished its reach.
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