Aniello Dellacroce - Career

Career

In the late 1930s, Dellacroce joined the Mangano crime family, forerunner of the Gambino family. He soon became a protégé of underboss Albert Anastasia. After the disappearance and presumed murder of longtime boss Vincent Mangano, Anastasia became family boss and appointed Dellacroce as a caporegime with his own crew. Dellacroce bought the Ravenite Social Club in Little Italy, which soon became a popular Gambino social club and Dellacroce's headquarters. On October 25, 1957, gunmen murdered Anastasia in a Manhattan hotel barbershop. Underboss Carlo Gambino took over the family.

Gambino was suspected of plotting Anastasia's murder with Lucchese crime family boss Tommy Lucchese and Luciano crime family caporegime Vito Genovese. Dellacroce was a strong Anastasia supporter. However, he was an old-school mobster who believed in loyalty to the family and its boss, and chose to pledge loyalty to Gambino. In 1965, Gambino removed the aging Joseph Biondo from his underboss position and appointed Dellacroce to replace him.

In 1971, Dellacroce was sentenced to one year in state prison on contempt charges for refusing to answer grand jury questions about organized crime.

On May 2, 1972, Dellacroce was indicted on federal tax evasion charges. In return for peace with its labor force, the Yankee Plastics Company of New York gave Dellacroce 22,500 stock shares worth $112,500. He was indicted on a failure to pay federal income tax on these stocks. In March 1973, Dellacroce was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to five years in prison.

It was widely presumed that Dellacroce was Gambino's heir apparent. However, on his deathbed in 1976, Gambino announced to the family that his cousin and brother-in-law, Paul Castellano, would be the new family boss. Dellacroce and many of his supporters were angered with Gambino's choice; although Castellano had been a major earner for the family for many years, Dellacroce and others saw him as a businessman rather than a gangster. To appease Dellacroce, Gambino persuaded Castellano to agree to keep Dellacroce as underboss. In addition, Gambino gave Dellacroce control of the traditional criminal activities, such as robbery, hijacking and extortion, in Manhattan.

In 1976, Gambino died and Castellano became boss. Always the loyal family man, Dellacroce pledged his loyalty to Castellano. Castellano soon banned drug dealing in the family. This ban created immense dissatisfaction within the family, especially with younger caporegimes such as John Gotti. However, Dellacroce refused to even consider a move against Castellano, and his underlings did not rebel; Gotti in particular idolized Dellacroce.