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| Gambino Crime Family |
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2026-05-17 | 2026-10-05 | Organized Crime |
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One of the five New York City La Cosa Nostra families, named in the Commission and Gotti prosecutions and, in Cheri Seymour's account, in FBI wiretaps of MCA and in the Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture allegations. | 1931 | New York City, USA |
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The Gambino crime family is one of the five New York City families of La Cosa Nostra. The Second Circuit, describing the "Commission" prosecution, listed them as the Genovese, Gambino, Colombo, Lucchese and Bonanno families.1
The Commission case
The government's evidence in United States v. Salerno was that from the late 1970s until 1985 the Commission, a body of the bosses of four of the five families (the Bonanno family having been denied a seat), settled leadership disputes, approved the making of new members and set rules. Paul Castellano, described as boss of the Gambino family, was a named defendant but was murdered before trial; the Gambino underboss Aniello Dellacroce was also named and died of natural causes in 1985. One of the three schemes charged was a dispute over a loansharking operation on Staten Island run by the nephew of the Lucchese boss, in what the court called Gambino family "territory," settled at a meeting between Castellano, two other Gambino members and representatives of the Lucchese boss, with the Gambino family "to be kept informed." The court also recorded that a Bonanno member reported to Dellacroce about half an hour after the murders of Carmine Galante and his associates.1
The 1990 racketeering indictment
On December 21, 1990 Judge Israel Leo Glasser of the Eastern District of New York described the charges in No. CR-90-1051 against John Gotti, Frank Locascio, Salvatore Gravano and Thomas Gambino: racketeering and racketeering conspiracy whose predicate acts included the conspiracy to murder and the murder of Castellano, the murder of Thomas Bilotti, the murders of Robert DiBernardo and Louis DiBono, the conspiracy to murder Gaetano Vastola, illegal gambling in New York and Connecticut, loansharking, obstruction of justice and bribery; Gotti was also charged with obstruction in connection with an earlier trial of Thomas Gambino. The opinion concerned public access to the bail hearing, and Thomas Gambino was released on bail while the other three were detained.2
MCA and the Los Angeles strike force
According to Cheri Seymour, FBI wiretaps in the Los Angeles inquiry into Music Corporation of America recorded members of the Gambino family, and led the prosecutors Marvin Rudnick and Richard Stavin and the FBI agent Thomas Gates to believe that MCA had been penetrated by organized crime; she wrote that the wiretaps indicated that Eugene Giaquinto, president of MCA's home entertainment division, enjoyed a special relationship with Gotti. Giaquinto was never prosecuted.3 The Ninth Circuit's opinion in the prosecution of Sal Pisello, whom Seymour describes as an alleged Gambino mobster, records that MCA gave him $30,000 in June 1984 to investigate a "Latin record label" and $50,000 in January 1985, that Sugar Hill Records paid him about $156,109 in 1984 in connection with efforts to have MCA distribute its records and buy its catalog, and that a grand jury indicted him in 1986 on three counts of tax evasion; the district court convicted him on two and sentenced him to four years. The opinion does not mention the Gambino family.4
The Wackenhut-Cabazon allegation
Seymour wrote that Bill Hamilton, president of INSLAW, believed that the joint venture between the Wackenhut Corporation and the Cabazon Indian Reservation was connected to government-sanctioned drug trafficking and to money laundering by organized crime groups such as the Gambino family, with Michael Riconosciuto's role being to help these groups use the NSA's bank-surveillance version of PROMIS to launder drug proceeds. Sole source for the passages so cited; Hamilton's belief is reported by Seymour and the allegation is not repeated in the court records above.5
Footnotes
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United States v. Salerno, 868 F.2d 524 (2d Cir. 1989), statement of the case, paragraphs 5-10. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/868/868.F2d.524.87-1208.87-1215.87-1085.87-1082.87-1075.html ↩︎
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United States v. Gotti, 753 F. Supp. 443 (E.D.N.Y. Dec. 21, 1990) (Glasser, J.), No. CR-90-1051. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1460115/united-states-v-gotti/ ↩︎
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Seymour, Cheri. The Last Circle: Danny Casolaro's Investigation into the Octopus and the PROMIS Software Scandal. TrineDay, 2010. Not re-verified against the book. ↩︎
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United States v. Pisello, 877 F.2d 762 (9th Cir. 1989), paragraphs 2-9. https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/877/877.F2d.762.88-5156.html ↩︎
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Seymour, The Last Circle (see footnote 3). ↩︎