Anthony Casso

Casso was a violent youth, and member of the infamous 1950s gang, the South Brooklyn Boys.[8] In 1958, he was arrested after a "rumble" against Irish-American gangsters. Casso later told biographer Philip Carlo that his father visited him at the police station and tried in vain to scare his son straight. He soon caught the eye of Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari, the capo of the "19th Hole Crew" in the Lucchese family. Casso started his career in the Mafia as a loanshark. As a protégé of Furnari, he was also involved in gambling and drug dealing. He was arrested for attempted murder in 1961, but was acquitted when the alleged victim refused to identify him.

During the 1970s, Casso was one of a string of Mafia associates who were suspected of turning informant for the US government.

In 1974, at age 32, he became a made man, or full member, of the Lucchese family. Casso was assigned to Vincent "Vinnie Beans" Foceri's crew that operated from 116th Street in Manhattan and from Fourteenth Avenue in Brooklyn.[9][10] Shortly after becoming made, Casso became close to another rising star in the family, Victor Amuso, and began a partnership that would last for two decades. They committed scores of crimes, including drug trafficking, burglary and the murders of informants.

Casso later began reporting to Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari, the caporegime of "the 19th Hole Crew".

Within Furnari's "the 19th Hole Crew" both Casso and Amuso joined a of burglary ring known as "the Bypass Gang", which included expert locksmiths, safe crackers, and experts in security alarm systems.[11] The members of the Bypass gang are suspected of committing burglaries in banks and jewelry stores throughout New York and Long Island.[11] Authorities estimated the Bypass gang stole more than $100 million from safety deposit boxes and vaults during the 1970s and 1980s.[11]

When Furnari became the Lucchese consigliere, he asked Casso to take over the 19th Hole Crew.[11] However, Casso declined, suggesting that Amuso be promoted instead. Casso opted to become Furnari's aide.[11]

In December 1985, Casso was approached by Gambino family capo Frank DeCicco regarding a planned coup in his own family.[12] John Gotti, another Gambino capo whose crew had been implicated in drug deals, was planning to kill his boss, Paul Castellano, and take over the Gambinos, and was looking for support among the acting bosses-in-waiting of the crime families affected by the Mafia Commission Trial.[13] According to Sammy Gravano, another of Gotti's co-conspirators who would later turn state's evidence, Casso offered the conspirators his support.[14] Casso himself would claim he tried to talk DeCicco out of participating in the coup, warning him that without official sanction from the Commission, all the participants would be murdered in revenge.[12] The hit went ahead regardless on December 16;[13] Casso would later denounce Gotti's actions to Carlo as "the beginning of the end of our thing."[12]

As Casso had warned, Lucchese boss Anthony Corallo and Genovese boss Vincent Gigante decided to kill Gotti and DeCicco, his new underboss, in revenge. Amuso and Casso were chosen to handle the assassinations, and were instructed to use a bomb to try and shift suspicion to Sicilian mobsters or Zips based in the US. While American mafiosi have long been (officially) banned from using bombs due to the risk of collateral damage, Sicilian mafiosi were notorious for blowing up their targets. 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, however, and the bomb instead only killed DeCicco and injured a passenger they had mistaken for Gotti.[14]

FBI surveillance photograph of Casso (right) with Lucchese family boss Vittorio Amuso

FBI surveillance photograph of Baratta, Casso and Chiodo

FBI surveillance photograph of Casso, Vic Amuso and Frank Lastorino

In the November 1986, Lucchese family boss Anthony Corallo sensed that the Commission Trial would result in a guilty verdict that would ensure the entire Lucchese leadership would die in prison.[15] Corallo wanting to maintain the family's half-century tradition of a seamless transfer of power called both Casso and Amuso to Furnari's Staten Island home.[15] Casso turned down the promotion to boss and instead suggested that Amuso become the new boss.[15] Amuso formally took over the family in 1987 and Casso succeeded Furnari as consigliere.[15] Casso later took over as Underboss in 1989 after Mariano Macaluso retired.

While at the top of the Lucchese family, Amuso and Casso shared huge profits from their family's illegal activities. These profits included: $15,000 to $20,000 a month from extorting Long Island carting companies; $75,000 a month in kickbacks from eight air freight carriers that guaranteed them labor peace and no union benefits for their workers; $20,000 a week in profits from illegal video game machines; and $245,000 annually from a major concrete supplier.[16] Amuso and Casso also split more than $200,000 per year from the Garment District 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 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 gangster George Kalikatas, who gave Casso $683,000 in 1990 to operate a loan sharking and gambling operation in Astoria, Queens.

FBI surveillance photograph of Amuso, Casso, Gotti and Gravano

FBI surveillance photograph of Casso and Sammy Gravano

Casso had a close alliance with Russian boss Marat Balagula, who operated a multibillion-dollar gasoline bootlegging scam in Brighton Beach. Balagula, a Soviet Jewish refugee from Odessa, had arrived in the US under the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. After Colombo capo Michael Franzese began shaking down his crew, Balagula approached Christopher Furnari, consigliere for the Lucchese crime family, and asked for a sit-down at the 19th Hole Crew's social club 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.[17]

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.[18]

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.[18] 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.[19]

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 seethed with fury. Casso later told Carlo that, to his mind, Reznikov had just spat in the face of the entire Cosa Nostra. Casso and Amuso got Funari's permission to have Reznikov killed.[20] 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."[21] Balagula responded, "You're sure? This is an animal. It was him that used a machine gun in the office."[19] 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.[21]

The following day, Reznikov returned to the nightclub 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, he was shot dead by DeMeo crew veteran Joseph Testa, who jumped into a car driven by Anthony Senter and left Brighton Beach. According to Casso, "After that, Marat didn't have any problems with other Russians."[22]

FBI surveillance photograph of Casso and Al D'Arco

Lucchese crime family - Chart 1991

FBI/NYPD poster of Casso

On July 29, 1991, due to a tipoff from an unidentified Lucchese insider, Amuso was arrested and Casso was secured the de facto boss of the family.[23][24] It has been speculated that Casso himself was the source for the leak, as only a few people were privy to Amuso's location.[25] This theory is contradicted, however, by Carlo, who states that Casso had no desire to be boss of the Lucchese family and attempted to arrange for Amuso's escape from federal custody after his arrest. To the disappointment of Casso and the Lucchese capos, Amuso refused to leave prison out of fear for his life. As a result, the Lucchese capos asked Casso to take over as acting boss. Casso reluctantly accepted.

In early 1991, Amuso and Casso ordered the murder of capo Peter Chiodo, a fellow Windows Case defendant who had pleaded guilty without the family's approval. Chiodo barely survived an assassination attempt and subsequently agreed to turn state's evidence.[26] In September that year, acting boss Alphonse "Little Al" D'Arco, convinced Casso had marked him for death following his failure to kill Chiodo, also surrendered and agreed to testify. Both of these defections opened the door for new murder indictments against Amuso and Casso.[24] In another incident in 1993, Casso used Brooklyn faction-leaders George Zappola and Frank "Bones" Papagni, as well as Lucchese consigliere Frank "Big Frank" Lastorino, to kill former underboss and Bronx faction leader Stephen "Wonderboy" Crea. However, due to the massive indictments at the time, all members of the plot, including Casso, were eventually incarcerated on various charges. Casso was arrested at a mistress's home in Mount Olive, New Jersey, on January 19, 1993.[27]