Mob boss slain by assassin in a bakkie
As he strolled out of his red-brick mansion on Staten Island, Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, the reputed boss of the infamous Gambino crime family, probably felt safe.
After all, it had been 34 years since a Mafia don like him had been murdered on the streets of New York.
But in a stunningly brazen Godfather-style hit, Cali, 53, was knocked down by a pick-up truck and shot six times in the chest, leaving him dead on the sidewalk.
“I just heard pow-pow-pow-pow-pow,” one witness in the quiet suburb said. A young man ran out of the house crying “Papa! Papa!” before collapsing on the ground.
Cali had once been described as “the rising star of the American Mafia”. He was a captain, a “capo”, before the age of 40. He went on, according to prosecutors, to ascend to the summit of one of New York’s “Five Families” of Italian-American mobsters. He was related through marriage to the Inzerillo clan in the Sicilian Mafia.
Nascar racetrack
Cali had never been charged with being a Mafia boss. His only mob-related conviction came a decade ago when he pleaded guilty in an extortion case involving a failed attempt to build a Nascar racetrack on Staten Island.
He was among 62 people arrested, and was sentenced to 16 months, being released in 2009.
His assassination recalled the events surrounding the last crime boss to be gunned down in New York, an event that had also centred on the Gambinos.
In December 1985, Gambino family head Paul Castellano, known as “Big Paulie”, was shot outside Sparks Steakhouse in Manhattan. The murder was ordered by John Gotti, who took over as boss of the crime operation.
The Gambino family was once among the most powerful criminal organisations in the US but prosecutions in the ’80s and ’90s sent its leaders to prison and diminished its reach. Charges included murder, loan sharking, gambling and drug distribution.
One of the prosecutors then was Rudy Giuliani, whose successful pursuit of crime lords helped propel him to office as mayor of New York, and currently as a Donald Trump lawyer.
Connections in Italy
There is no known motive for the shooting of Cali, who was less flamboyant than Gotti. Described as “old school”, much of his authority stemmed from his connections in Italy. He had reportedly been concentrating on profiting from the trade in heroin and illicit prescription drugs.
The murder took place almost a kilometre from where former boss Castellano lived before his assassination.
A police spokesperson said: “Officers found a 53-year-old male with multiple gunshot wounds to the torso.
“The victim was transported to Staten Island University North, where he was pronounced deceased. There are no arrests and the investigation is ongoing.”