Early Life
Gambino was born in the town of Caccamo, near Palermo, Sicily. He was born to a family that belonged to the Honored Society. The Honored Society was slightly more complicated than the Black Hand of America, which was often confused with the American Mafia. The Black Hand, much like the pre-1920s Mafia, was a highly disorganized version of the real European Mafia. Once Benito Mussolini chased a great deal of real mafiosi out of Italy, Italian-Americans such as Gambino benefited from the new, better-organized Mafia. Gambino began carrying out murder orders for new Mob bosses in his teens. In 1921, at the age of 19, he became a "made man" and was inducted into Cosa Nostra. He was later known as an "original." He was the brother-in-law of Sicilian Gambino crime family mobster Paul Castellano.
Read more about this topic: Carlo Gambino
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