The Gambino Crime Family

The Gambino mafia family was organized in the 1920’s under boss Joe Masseria, who was murdered in the 1930’s. After several changes in leadership caused by orders to assassinate, Carlo Gambino became the boss of the family from 1957 to 1976. For 20 years, Gambino ran organized crimes dealing in rackets such as narcotics, car theft, union corruption, loan sharking, gambling and extortion. After he died in 1976, John Gotti took over leadership of the Gambino crime family by a murderous coup and brought it to its peak of notoriety in the 1980’s.

Law enforcers eventually loosened the power of the mafia family by enforcing racketeering laws and through the defection of Gotti’s underboss, Salvadore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano. Gotti was convicted in 1992 of murder and sent to prison. His son, John Gotti Jr., became the acting boss until 1998, when he was indicted for racketeering and sent to prison as well. Peter Gotti took over, and when John Gotti Sr. died of cancer in prison in June of 2002, he became the official Capo di tutti capi, or boss of all bosses.

In February of 2008, the Gambino family was hit hard and dozens of its administration and lower members were indicted on racketeering charges. Most only served sentences of a few years in prison due to plea bargains. Today, John D’ Amico serves as the current boss of the Gambinos, who is richest and most powerful crime organization in the United States. It has over 800 criminal members whose jobs include racketeering in New York, gambling in Atlanta and Las Vegas, collecting heroin in Sicily and Asia, and going to Kuwait to buy stolen cars.