Frank Cali, Reputed Gambino Crime Family Boss, Is Killed In N.Y. Attack
Francesco "Frank" Cali, the reputed leader of the Gambino crime family, was shot to death outside his house in Staten Island on Wednesday night, in a killing that echoes Mafia murders of the 1980s.
The New York Police Department says that at 9:17 p.m. ET, officers received a 911 call reporting an assault in progress in front of Cali's house.
"Upon arrival, officers found a 53-year-old male with multiple gunshot wounds to the torso," the police said in a statement sent to NPR. Cali was taken to Staten Island University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
No arrests have been made in the shooting, police said.
Photos from the scene showed officers working around Cali's SUV on Wednesday night, with shell casings marked by overturned plastic cups. Witnesses told New York media outlets that they heard a number of shots before a blue pickup truck fled the area.
Cali was commonly known as either Frank or "Franky Boy." He was believed to have had deep ties to the Mafia in Italy: As Staten Island Live reports, Cali "was born in Brooklyn and married into the Inzerillo family of Palermo and cultivated close ties with members of the Siderno cartel in Italy."
Cali was first reported to be in charge of the Gambino family in 2015.
The Gambino family had previously gained a high profile under the leadership of John Gotti — who orchestrated the last public killing of a Gambino crime boss in 1985, when Paul Castellano was gunned down outside of Sparks Steak House in Manhattan.
Cali lived in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island, on a leafy street near the private Richmond County Country Club golf course — and not far from where Castellano lived in a mansion when he ran the Gambino family. Two miles away, at 110 Longfellow Ave., sits the house that portrayed the Corleone estate in The Godfather.
In 2008, Cali and dozens of Mafia figures were arrested on federal racketeering charges. He pleaded guilty to extortion, serving 16 months in prison for his part in a scheme related to a proposal to build a NASCAR track in Staten Island.
The Gambino family is one of five Mafia families that have long been seen as running Italian-American organized crime syndicates in New York. The others are the Bonanno, Colombo, Genovese and Lucchese families.
"The assassination of Mr. Cali came on the same day that Joseph Cammarano Jr., the reputed acting boss of the Bonanno crime family, was acquitted at trial," The New York Times reports, "and about a week after Carmine J. Persico, a longtime boss of the Colombo crime family, died in prison at age 85."
Gambino Crime Family Boss Frank Cali Murdered Outside Staten Island Home
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Gambino crime boss Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali was gunned down outside his Staten Island home bringing to mind some of the most famous mob hits of yesteryear.
Cali was not only shot several times, his killers even ran over him with their vehicle, according to the New York Post.
The gunmen pulled up in a blue pickup truck outside Cali’s home at about 9:20 p.m. on Wednesday evening and opened fire as the victim stood outside his Todt Hill home, police reported.
Cali becomes the first Mafia boss murdered in New York since Paul Castellano was gunned down outside Sparks steakhouse in Midtown in 1985.
A caller to 911 said that as many as seven shots were heard, but police have not reported how many times Cali was hit.
Cali was thought of as a quiet mob leader, remaining under the radar and keeping a firm hand on his underlings. He “was a real quiet old-school boss,” one police source told the paper.
The dead crime boss had only one criminal conviction which he incurred in 2008 when he was convicted of shaking down a trucker. Cali served a 16-month prison sentence for the crime.
Cali reportedly became the Gambino godfather in 2015 and is said to have brought a new crop of Italians to New York straight from Sicily. He focused his criminal talents on the heroin and OxyContin trades, police said.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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