A case against reputed Mafia members revealed their conversations when their boss was killed. Francesco Cali, the reputed underboss of the Gambino crime family, was fatally shot in March outside his home, the brick building on the right, in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island.
Credit...Stephanie Keith for The New York Times
By Nicole Hong
On a quiet night in March, a mob leader was executed in New York City for the first time since 1985. The body of Francesco Cali, a reputed boss of the Gambino crime family, lay crumpled outside his Staten Island home, pierced by at least six bullets.Hours later, two soldiers in the Gambino family talked on the phone. One of them, Vincent Fiore, said he had just read a “short article” about the “news,” according to prosecutors.No tears were shed for their fallen leader. The murder was “a good thing,” Mr. Fiore, 57, said on the call. The vacuum at the top meant that Andrew Campos, described by the authorities as the Gambino captain who ran Mr. Fiore’s crew, was poised to gain more power.Mr. Cali’s death was just the beginning of surprises to come for the Gambino family.Last week, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged Mr. Fiore and 11 others in a sprawling racketeering scheme linked to the Gambinos, once the country’s pre-eminent organized crime dynasty. The charges stemmed from a yearslong investigation involving wiretapped calls, physical surveillance and even listening devices installed inside an office where mob associates worked.As part of the case, the government released a court filing that offered an extremely rare glimpse at the reactions inside a Mafia family to the murder — a curious mix of mourning and jockeying for power. The case showed that life in the mob can be just as petty as life in a corporate cubicle.“Mob guys are the biggest gossips in the world,” said James J. Hunt, the former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s office in New York. “You think they’re tough guys, but they’re all looking out for themselves. The only way they get promoted is by a guy dying or going to jail.” Francesco Cali in a mug shot taken in 2008 by the Italian police.
Francesco Cali, the reputed underboss of the Gambino crime family, was fatally shot in March outside his home, the brick building on the right, in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island.
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