Carlo Gambino (1902-1976)

Gambino was born in Palermo, Italy and upon moving to the United States as an illegal immigrant he became a “made man” by the age of 19. When Luciano became the head of the newly founded commission, Gambino was made the caporegime of the Mangano crime family. 1951 Philip Managno was murdered and Albert Anastasia was promoted to the new boss of the family with Gambino as his underboss. Gambino also became the boss of his own family in 1957 when Anastasia was assassinated.

In 1957 Gambino became the “Boss of Bosses” where he was head of the commission. During this tenure he expanded his operations to all over the country and is supposed to have controlled a $500,000,000 a year operation. During this span he ran one of the most successful mob operations of his time. He ran it a different way than many other crime leaders of his time. He was very quiet, operating from behind the scenes, which kept him out of prison for much of his life. Gambino died in 1976 from a heart attack while watching a Yankees game on tv at his summer house in Long Island.