So why was Frank Piccolo killed?

[newera_212]

Almost sound like there interpretation of a conversation and they just wrote a script

Yeah some of those Gallo quotes are way too picture perfect, especially him waxing poetic about growing old and "the life" - great stuff but I'm not buying it as it's written. Not too long before this, these guys were sitting around with Carlo Gambino speaking in hieroglyphics ... Carlo dies and all of a sudden they throw caution to the wind and start rattling off monologues? Those transcripts read as if they are one cunt hair away from Gallo saying "ya see Paul, the thing about being in the Mafia is this..."

[DonPeppino386]

Late August 1983.

Armone: Trouble, the Feds will be annoyed. They’ll come asking where he is. They’ll ask me, they’ll ask you, they’ll ask Joe (N. Gallo). If there’s any way they can nail us for aiding or abetting, they’ll jump on it. Money, it depends, you want him to be comfortable, maybe 50.

Paul: Maddon’. That comfortable he don’t need to be.

Armone: Nah. It’s unfortunate but it’s manageable. And in the meantime, everything else is status quo. The boys all send you their best

Paul: They send me anything else?

Armone: Oh yeah. There’s 9,000 in the envelope.

From the book Boss of Bosses

Jesus, Paul was a cheap fuck.

[Nasabeak]

Late August 1983.

Armone: Trouble, the Feds will be annoyed. They’ll come asking where he is. They’ll ask me, they’ll ask you, they’ll ask Joe (N. Gallo). If there’s any way they can nail us for aiding or abetting, they’ll jump on it. Money, it depends, you want him to be comfortable, maybe 50.

Paul: Maddon’. That comfortable he don’t need to be.

Armone: Nah. It’s unfortunate but it’s manageable. And in the meantime, everything else is status quo. The boys all send you their best

Paul: They send me anything else?

Armone: Oh yeah. There’s 9,000 in the envelope.

From the book Boss of Bosses

Jesus, Paul was a cheap fuck.

Arguably his downfall. Clearly a very smart guy, clearly a very wise man. But, greedy. Granny.

I think it was Sal Avellino who was on tape saying that Paul considered 200k he got yearly from a joint construction project to be “a bone.” He considered 200k peanuts. That was Paul’s biggest issue as Boss - he was greedy. It was about feathering the Castellano family nest, not increasing the Gambino borgata treasure trove. A penny pinching Mustache in that way. Which is sad - the man was smart, decisive, tough and effective. He was just used to making money. Go check his files, the man had a small empire all over Brooklyn by the early 60s. He was a small Don in and of himself well before becoming Boss. But too money hungry; too greedy. He learnt that from Carlo.

[Nasabeak]

Grabby * not granny

[Nasabeak]

Almost sound like there interpretation of a conversation and they just wrote a script

Yeah some of those Gallo quotes are way too picture perfect, especially him waxing poetic about growing old and "the life" - great stuff but I'm not buying it as it's written. Not too long before this, these guys were sitting around with Carlo Gambino speaking in hieroglyphics ... Carlo dies and all of a sudden they throw caution to the wind and start rattling off monologues? Those transcripts read as if they are one cunt hair away from Gallo saying "ya see Paul, the thing about being in the Mafia is this..."

Paul was a talker though, have you heard the tapes we DO have? He waxed poetic a lot. It seems he had a fast paced mind and by the 80s he was getting nostalgic

Except from two tapes we do have:

“We had Brooklyn. We had Brooklyn. He always argued the point, and one time he stepped outta line, and I remember, out of respect to your father there. We didn’t stand a good chance of winning that election. Well, I think that at that time we accepted 50. Carlo turned to me, ‘you feel that way about it, go ahead.’ Well, it turned out to be a mistake because, they had 5 percent. In the meantime we had to take all these other precautions” This is Paul all in under just a minute’s excerpt

“We respected him because we figured, it’s our union, he’s gonna advance in our union. We were making him advance in our union. Go up, up, up, up the ladder, what’s gonna happen is, we’re gonna have a president.”

Both audio tape excerpts you can find and hear. He did like to talk and monologue

[Nasabeak]

Another real excerpt from Paul. Used in court.

“ “*They own most all of Waldbaum….They run all Waldbaum’s stores, right? So now they pay me. You know why? Because of my influence. When I sit down, I talk to the man ‘Oh, oh Paul, how ya feel? How’s everything?’ OK. And I say to them, ‘I want my boys to be nice to you. When they don’t do that, you come see me. I straighten it out. Cause listen, while I’m alive this is my business. OK? ‘Paul, don’t worry. Will you do that? We have a lot of respect for you, when we need help, we’ll come to you’ - May 5th 1983

In a conversation intercepted by the FBI at Paul Castellano’s home, Anthony Amodeo and John DeRosa complained to Castellano about the failure of Local 6, and Vito Pitta, to abide by the agreed upon jurisdictional allocation with Local 100

Amodeo: *”He’s bit supposed to into another….in fact, that’s part of their agreement. When they made the merger, from what I understand, they stay in whatever they’ve been in. They have the hotels and the restaurants and so forth. Now, 2 months ago, we sat down. Vito, me, and Charlie, right? Sat down. He says about if I go organize on Long Island?…You stay with yours. Long Island is ours. Hotels, restaurants, whatever.’”*

Castellano: “*They’re supposed to stay.”*

Amodeo: “*Right. I know.”*

Castellano: “*….You had the locals and somebody else had the international….This is what I was trying to tell Vito of. I said, Vito, take it easy. You know, I gotta, I gotta watch, like someone else owns the international. See, I don’t like these doing….something that they have a right to do. In the meantime, the only reason why they’re doing it, because Vito is setting up something in my…..I don’t do that…

….I was happy with the international union elections, you know? They were happy about it, but Pitta wasn’t…..I tell you what, what brought them down over there. This is my local and I don’t want anybody to touch it.”* - June 3rd, 1983

“In an electronically intercepted conversation between Paul Castellano, Thomas Bilotti, and Thomas Gambino, Castellano reminisced that ‘*In my first year, the longshoremen’s union was theirs (The Genovese Family)….we had Brooklyn.”*

Carlo Gambino once suggested to Castellano to “*Give the international presidency to Anthony Scotto*”

Bilotti then raised the issue of *”The beef with….Metro Marine.*” And the following conversation ensued:

Bilotti: *”They Made a split at that time. With the Metro. But everything in Jersey and New York moved over to Staten Island.”*

Castellano: “*Because I made this….made this law. But all of the sudden that gave…they split it up….so finally I marked it up. Half’s for me and half they (The Genovese Family) took over there…Anthony (Scotto) took it for himself.”*

[DonPeppino386]

Late August 1983.

Armone: Trouble, the Feds will be annoyed. They’ll come asking where he is. They’ll ask me, they’ll ask you, they’ll ask Joe (N. Gallo). If there’s any way they can nail us for aiding or abetting, they’ll jump on it. Money, it depends, you want him to be comfortable, maybe 50.

Paul: Maddon’. That comfortable he don’t need to be.

Armone: Nah. It’s unfortunate but it’s manageable. And in the meantime, everything else is status quo. The boys all send you their best

Paul: They send me anything else?

Armone: Oh yeah. There’s 9,000 in the envelope.

From the book Boss of Bosses

Jesus, Paul was a cheap fuck.

Arguably his downfall. Clearly a very smart guy, clearly a very wise man. But, greedy. Granny.

I think it was Sal Avellino who was on tape saying that Paul considered 200k he got yearly from a joint construction project to be “a bone.” He considered 200k peanuts. That was Paul’s biggest issue as Boss - he was greedy. It was about feathering the Castellano family nest, not increasing the Gambino borgata treasure trove. A penny pinching Mustache in that way. Which is sad - the man was smart, decisive, tough and effective. He was just used to making money. Go check his files, the man had a small empire all over Brooklyn by the early 60s. He was a small Don in and of himself well before becoming Boss. But too money hungry; too greedy. He learnt that from Carlo.

Man 200K is peanuts meanwhile he wouldn't give a soldier who was loyal to him 50K. That why I love reading this wiretap transcriptions (whether or not O'Brian and Kurins doctored them), you get to hear how they were unfiltered and without being told by anyone who most likely has or had an agenda. Thanks for posting them. I have the book but forgot all about this conversation.

[Pogo The Clown]

Big Paul was a Sicilian candy ass.


Pogo

[Wiseguy]

I think it was Sal Avellino who was on tape saying that Paul considered 200k he got yearly from a joint construction project to be “a bone.” He considered 200k peanuts.

That was Tony Ducks who made that comment, complaining to Avellino about Paul considering that amount of money "a bone." If I remember right, it was about one of the companies in the club (Certified Concrete) who paid $200,000 to Castellano every year. This was separate from kickbacks on individual construction projects that concrete club members had to pay the mob.

[Nasabeak]

Big Paul was a Sicilian candy ass.


Pogo

I disagree. He was greedy, but he didn’t get as powerful as he was without a combination of brains and balls. Would he have become Boss without knowing Carlo? Difficult to say, but something to consider is the man was already Acting Capo under Anastasia. Also, consider that he was elected as Boss by the Captains - elected by his peers as such two months after Carlo died. Some of the Capos attending that meeting were elderly retired guys that went back to the 20s. To be elected by such a body indicates competence.
He was the preferred guy. Informers as early as 1967 were saying it was “doubtless” he’d be the next Boss. He came up in the 1940s, was probably made by the end of the 40s. He wasn’t a guy who bought his button. He paid his dues. The man also had no issues without issuing marching orders to murder.

His downfall was greed. But, he lasted nearly 20 years running a Family, as Acting Boss from 1967 and then official Boss from 1976. Successfully running 200 guys for 20 years is an accomplishment that speaks for itself.

[Pogo The Clown]

I was quoting Armand Assante as Gotti.


Pogo