Dominick Montiglio - Early Life

Early Life

He was born Dominick Angelo Santamaria in 1947 Brooklyn, New York. From childhood to early adolescene, he grew up in the same three-story red-brick home as his uncle Anthony Gaggi, who served as his father figure and who Montiglio would end up working for as an adult. During these early years, Montiglio was witness to a number of incidents that would cause him to realize that his uncle's occupation was different than the other adults in the household. He was a second cousin to Frank Scalish.

Dominick claims that, as early as he can remember, his uncle Nino's way of life was pressed on him. When he was in 1st grade, Dominick told his uncle that he wanted to be a cop. Nino's response was that he hated cops and no one in the Gaggi family had ever been, or would ever be, a police officer. Later, during the outbreak of the Vietnam War, young Dominick expressed interest in becoming a soldier. Gaggi's response was that people were fools to die for anyone or anything but their family.

Years later at age 10, Dominick had been selected to become the class president. Upon telling his uncle about his newly acquired duties, which included writing down the names of troublemakers when the teacher was out of class, Nino allegedly ordered the boy to go back to his teacher and tell her that he could not accept the position. Montiglio claims his uncle told him, “No one in our family can be a rat”.

In 1954, 7-year old Dominick was present at the house when Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents forced their way in and arrested Gaggi. It was the first FBI arrest for Nino, and like his final arrest by the FBI in 1984, it accused him of being part of an auto-theft ring. In the case of this first arrest however, he was acquitted of his role and served no jail time for the alleged crime. Despite this incident, Dominick claims he still had not grasped the truth about Nino's occupation.

Dominick’s relationship with his uncle continued throughout his adolescence, culminating at his confirmation ceremony in May 1957, when Anthony Gaggi became Dominick’s religious Godfather.

Shortly after, in June 1957, Gaggi's mentor in the Gambino family, Frank Scalise, was murdered in the Bronx by an unknown assassin. The Gaggi family, including 10-year old Dominick, attended the wake, where Frank’s brother Joseph was allegedly heard swearing revenge for his brother’s murder. Joseph Scalise disappeared shortly after, and the Gaggi family found themselves at another Scalise wake. Montiglio recalls seeing his uncle Nino huddling with a group of associates for most of the duration of the wake, describing the men as a group of very "grave-looking individuals".

A couple of months later on October 25, 1957, Gambino family boss Albert Anastasia was shot to death as he sat in a barber’s chair at a Manhattan hotel. It was the resulting publicity on both television and radio, as well as the reactions of his own family members to the murder, that Dominick Montiglio claims had finally made him realize what kind of people his uncle was involved with, as well as what kind of person Anthony Gaggi was himself. The entire Gaggi family all stayed within their house, termed “the bunker” by Montiglio, for a number of days after Anastasia’s murder in case any further violence were to occur in retaliation to Anastasia's slaying.

After the events immediately proceeding the murder of Albert Anastasia, Dominick claims his life reverted to that of a normal adolescent, absent of any further views into the lifestyle of his uncle. He got involved with typical teenage activities such as playing baseball on a Bath Beach-Bensonhurst team, and also joined a singing group dubbed "The Tuneups".

In 1959, at age 12, Dominick Santamaria became Dominick Montiglio when his mother married an Army Air Corps veteran by the name of Anthony Montiglio. After the wedding, in the summer of 1960, Dominick and his family then moved out of the Gaggi's Brooklyn home and east of Long Island to Levittown, which during the 1950s had become one of the first suburbs for post-World War II families.