Everybody is Gangsta until these top crime lords walk into the room

Everybody is Gangsta until these top crime lords walk into the room

Updated on August 11, 2022 17:14 PM by Andrew Koschiev

What is the crime world

A crime world is a bone-chilling habitat for its members, who form allies for the sake of trading, and a dangerous coup for the outsiders, who are usually the victims of the crime bosses’ criminal activities. 

Gangsters have gone on to rule different eras with their notoriousness and greed to form an empire through dark means. 

Of course, a gangster is not a serial killer, does not work alone, and does not kill for pure pleasure and sheer lunacy.

The crime lord

A crime lord’s biggest greed is power in society; they are not terrorists who hide behind the bushes and keep attacking innocent people for having some ridiculous religious sentiments. 

Various crime lords have come and gone over the decades. But, some of them have kept a lasting impact on society. 

These crime lords have been powerful with their tactics to put on fear and control society on their terms. Their rise to power and ruling over the streets made them celebrities enough to be read in books and adapted into movies.

Even though the most powerful gangsters are long gone, their long-expanded businesses continue to exist. Their notorious black-marketeering business is under the control of their protégés. However, their name still lives on for future generations to reflect.

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The top mafia bosses

Now we will go through the top five mafia bosses of all time who were popular for their crimes and their reach out in such a short time. Negative publicity is also publicity; these mafia lords were emperors of the mafia world of all times.

They were crude authorities which made these criminals exude all forms of negative impacts within the society. Whatsoever, they earned celebrity status for their unspeakable scandalous activities, which made both awe as well as fearful of them.

The illegal activities they are involved in

Usually, these dark lords of the criminal world were involved in all forms of illegal work, which led them to stretch their business more than a hundred folds in the underworld.

There have always been levels in operating a criminal gang. The mafia boss assigns people who report to him with daily developments of their business. 

There are people under these assigned people who take care of the business and engage more people in the activities which can roll in the cash.

However, the people who report to the mafia boss were usually involved with them from when the mafia boss was nothing but pickpocketing around. So, these people turn out to be the mafia boss’s right and left hands, or you can say first-in-command and second-in-command.

The other members work under the instructions of the first-in-command and second-in-command.

Their works grew much more notorious as time passed, including illegal drug trafficking, liquor trafficking, human trafficking, arms and ammunition trafficking, and many more.

As the mafia boss and his people move up in their ranks to the larger illegal ones, the more notorious the whole game becomes; sometimes, going up the ranks may engage in murders to cover their tracks.

Once they have reached power and position as a gangster lord, loads of enemies start cropping up and keeping their hold; they need to send a message to the opposition.

The reason to be at the top

The top mafia bosses in the world have earned the place for their networking power, along with the presence of their brains behind several criminal crises. 

They have been into innumerable murders, card fraudery, creating fake notes, illegal gambling, and various other unethical profitable ventures, including pornography and much more, which have been their successful forte. 

Amongst all the countries in the world, the Italians are notoriously infamous for shaping various organized crime conglomerates. The top mafia bosses were the offspring of Italian immigrants or had some direct family members from Italy.

The Italian mafias who thrived have successfully and dangerously expanded their illegal businesses across countries, including the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Canada. 

They have created a worldwide network and have always been under the black listed ones by the FBI.

Al Capone

Who has been the most feared mafia boss in the world? It had to be Al Capone; he was a mafia boss infamous for his deliberate cruelty and violence when dealing with the enemies of his illegal businesses. 

Not many know, but he was a notorious crime lord and is still considered one of the most notorious gangsters ever born.

Al Capone was a giant Chicago crime lord who was active and at his peak between 1925 and 1931.

He ran a prospering bootlegging business and earned millions back in the mid-twenties. He was always under the radar of the legal authorities, evading time and over.

However, the FBI arrested Al Capone for evading tax in 1931. The legal authorities had enough pieces of evidence to prove him wrong in court.

The United States government and the Chicago state authorities sentenced him to prison. However, due to his strong networking system, he used to carry on with his business from within the jail walls.

However, a heart attack finally ended his life of crime in 1947 in his Palm Mansion, Florida. 

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Bugsy Siegel 

Who is the second most feared gangster in the world? 

It is none other than Bugsy Siegel. The notorious gangster was known for his wild activities and his dangerous outreach in the black market.

The real name of Bugsy Siegel is Benjamin Siegel; however, his notoriety lies in the unpredictability of his temperance. 

Nobody knew when they would step on the wrong side of his temper. His terrible temper and unpredictable reactions earned him the name "Bugsy." 

Unfortunately, his unpredictability didn’t make him organized enough to save his life from his opposition. It was his rival mafia bosses who planned together and murdered him. 

When he was alive, his reign included various illegal activities; he was called the Marshall of illegal gambling.

However, even though he died in the hands of the rival mafia gang lords, the system he created is still in place, and his descendants continue to run his business to date.

In short, Bugsy not only created the gang but trained them enough to be able to keep up with his legacy posthumously.

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Lucky Luciano 

Who was the third most notorious gangster in the world?

It has to be Lucky Luciano. Well, it can be said he was lucky enough to get his time in the top five most feared mafia bosses of all time.

People feared him because Lucky Luciano had a chronic love for the life of crime.

Nobody has ever loved crime; all they wanted to do was crime to earn some cash and get some power. But, it was different for Lucky Luciano. 

He passionately loved the crime world and used to consider himself destined to be a part of the underworld.

His passion for crime got him to higher ranks in the crime world, and he became the first boss of a criminal gang.

Today the crime gang is known as the Genovese crime family. He was involved in numerous notorious activities and destroyed many families with many people's deaths. 

He loved to murder and found his way to the top through his tricks and way of terrible intolerance.

However, a heart attack in 1962 put him to eternal rest. Nevertheless, his reputation and name still live on even after his death. 

In the FBI list of all the notorious gangsters, his name comes in the top lists. The legal authorities of his time have kept a record of his heinous crimes, which are dreadful and appalling in equal measures.

John Gotti 

Who is the most aristocratic mafia boss of all time?

Well, it has to be John Gotti; he was known for his classic suits and ties; it was more like guns and roses with him.

As he was classy looking, he broke the stereotype of the criminals' appearances. He was classy; he was sassy, but, most importantly, he was racy.

He proved that not all criminals look scary, and John Gotti, he was so classic with his dapper suit and tie that he earned himself the name "Dapper Don." 

He was fondly called Dapper Don by his allies, to whom he proved his aristocracy with his lovely and expensive suits. He was notorious and feared, but his looks gave in to the criminal work he was involved in back in his time.

He started as a young bully by terrorizing people by forming a street gang, climbed up the ladder of the crime world, and planned and executed the murder of the head of the Gambino crime family.

He overthrew the then Gambino mafia boss, took the throne, and controlled the mob under the Gambino crime family.

He became the most notorious and feared mafia gangster of his time. The FBI was always on a watch and tapped his second-in-command.

Nevertheless, his second-in-command betrayed him and became a double agent. He started working with the FBI and later helped the American government to capture Dapper Don.

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Tony Accardo

Who is the most feared yet hated mafia boss of all time?

It has been Tony Accardo; he proves that not all mafia bosses start from scratch.

Anthony Accardo plunged into a life of crime as he was the most trusted bodyguard of the mafia king Al Capone.

Once during Prohibition, some of the mobsters displeased Capone by backing out of a deal, which made Tony Accardo beat them to death with a baseball bat. Seeing this incident, Al Capone was impressed and nicknamed him Joe Batters. 

Tony Accardo was the right hand of Al Capone and learned the basics of running an illegal business. 

Tony was brilliant and cold-hearted, so even though he began his criminal career as a bodyguard for Capone, he ended up as a mob boss.

He was the only person from the innermost ring of Al Capone who took forward Al Capone's legacy by following his ways and means. Eventually, with time he became one of America's top five most wanted mafia bosses.

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Vito Genovese 

Who is the most atrocious mafia boss of all time?

It goes to Vito Genovese; he is known for his criminal activities as it is dangerous and atrocious.

When the FBI caught him, he had a long list of criminal charges against him by the legal authorities. But, as if he cared! Vito was known for his devil-may-care attitude.

He is more like a malignant narcissist. His actions were so devilish that even the Devil would turn up and say, “Jesus! What the hell!”

He is more of seeing a thing, liking it, and then having it in his way. He was called Don Vito, as he was infamously nicknamed. 

He became a feared name among his members when he killed one of his trusted associates just because he was in love with the associate’s wife.

He married the man’s widow; now, he previously liked the woman and openly coveted her, but things were not working as she was married to his associate. So, what to do? Kill the man!

He married the widow just two weeks after killing her husband, which was later in the early spring of 1932. 

Nevertheless, his crime rates were so high that the FBI was taping him for a long time. He was convicted in 1959 on various counts of crime and was sentenced to fifteen years in federal prison.

However, he died of a heart attack in 1969 and just went into eternal rest.  

However, his legacy of atrocity still lives on and is still feared and talked about in the list of most notorious mafia gangsters of all time.

Frank Costello 

Who is the most dominating mafia boss of all time?

It has to be Frank Costello, who has always been known as the most dominating mafia boss.

Frank Costello is someone whose reputation precedes him till now. He was the terrifying gang lord of his time. 

Costello was one of the world's most influential and powerful gangsters during a life of active crime. His political agenda was something that saved him from being under the radar of the then-legal government.

The then Prime Minister was always scheming to take over other mafias' business back then. However, with Frank Costello, it was not so easy.

He liked power, so he preferred tagging his name into the good list under the Prime Minister’s eyes. So, he was receiving protection from the police rather than having to escape from them.

Frank Costello was one of the top mafia bosses who used to be revered by his opposition mobsters.

The Prime Minister wanted to control Frank Costello for running the legal system. However, he was clever enough to maintain a sophisticated relationship with the then-political government. 

Even now, people talk about Frank Costello and the terror he put up with the people. 

No wonder he was considered a top Mafia boss and the most feared one, too, even though he could freely walk up the streets of the United States.

He commanded respect from Mob capos, who actually looked up to him and would even seek advice from him until he died in 1973. 

Many young gangsters in his time learned various ways of running their illegal businesses in the crime world from him.

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Vincent Louis Gigante 

Who is the most wicked gangster of all time?

Vincent Louis Gigante is known as the chameleon in the crime world. He was infamously named the Odd Father.

The don was known for his fabulous acting; he pretended to be mentally ill, while on the other hand, he was running one of the most scandalous organized criminal syndicates. 

However, his show-off was not long before the FBI caught him for his illegal work. He was convicted of the crimes he had committed for over two decades. 

Vincent Louis Gigante died in prison at the age of 77. However, he was serving a twelve-year sentence imposed in 1997 after he was caught. He was later convicted with the racketeer and involved in the conspiracy to kill other mobsters.

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Sam Giancana 

Who is the most grotesque yet horrendous mafia boss of all time?

Sam Giancana has to be the name; he is not only grotesque but known to have his claws wrapped up at the necks of the Kennedys.

Sam was a notorious bully in his school life; rules were never his cup of joe. He always had that kingly vibes, which quickly made him the bad boy of the institution.

Sam was expelled from elementary school at age 10 for his unacceptable behavior.

However, that was just the start; school expulsion didn’t bother him, as he turned out to be something which nothing could be compared to the boys his age.

He would become one of the most powerful mobsters of his time. 

Sam Giancana is scandalously connected to the infamous assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Things have always been pretty tricky with him; he was the most hated person in the United States of America. 

Being involved in the killing of President John F. Kennedy made him one of the most notorious public enemies. Conspiracy to kill Sam was already going on in the back-end. 

He was preparing to appear before the Church's committee on the 19th of June, 1975. However, his enemies killed Sam Giancana in his home. 

Paul Castellano 

Who was Macbeth drama’s Duncan in the world of crime and notoriety?

It was Paul Castellano; he was King Duncan, whom John Gotti murdered. 

However, Paul Castellano was also known as Big Paul. He was the leader of the Gambino crime family.

In the world of crime and power and kingship, emotions never work, they make you weak, and this weakness gives the enemies the chance to conspire against you. 

The same thing happened with Big Paul; he used to repent as part of the crime world, and his conscience mind used to bite him to the core.

This repentance became his biggest weakness. He started sharing his regrets with his close confidants.

At some point in his memorable last days, he said: “I probably did more damage than I did well. I presumably did, and that’s a fact. At that time, I wasn’t mindful of what I was doing. All I knew is that I was making big dollars.”

Now things didn’t go down well with his enemy lines. Of course, he had many enemies who would like to take his place, which was what happened.

Before his death, he was constantly expressing his regret for his criminal life, and one of his enemies planned to hit him when he was at his weak point in life.

John Gotti staged Paul Castellano’s slaying in 1985 in a horrendous yet violent power struggle. John Gotti took over the Gambino crime family throne and went on to rule as one of the top mafia dons.

However, people have not forgotten the notorious legacy of Big Paul and the sheer cunningness of his usurper John Gotti.

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Frank Lucas 

Who was the first black man to be the notorious crime lord?

Frank Lucas typically gets the crown for being not only notorious but equally popular.

Frank Lucas was so popular in crime, and his business thrived during the active crime period that he made at least one million dollars daily.

Frank Lucas was tricky, and he knew ways and means to get his work done through illegal methods. He earned big money from selling drugs from his New York base, where he worked in his gang during his prime time.

He was the crime lord and ran his business with full power and networking. He was the king of trading drugs in the whole of Southeast Asia. 

In his lifetime, he cut out the mediators and developed a direct pipeline from the so-called Golden Triangle area of the southeast Asia drug market. 

He directly dealt with the main men in producing drugs in Southeast Asia. His rapport as a dealer was very good in the illegal narcotics world. He never failed a deal and was always up to the mark with his payments, the reasons why he used his commitment to acquiring large amounts of heroin. 

He proved to the notorious drug manufacturers in Southeast Asia that he was a wholesaler and a retailer. He was new in the business, and gaining the trust of the manufacturers was very difficult. It was a tough call usually.

But, he gained that place and became one of the biggest drug lords of his time. He died at 88, so he had seven decades to run his business.

People said Frank Lucas never missed his payment and was always serious about his deal commitments.

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Bernardo Provenzano 

Who is the most pathetic mafia boss of all time?

It has to be the dirty Bernardo Provenzano; he was mean and a brute. If he did not like someone, he would murder them in the most brutal way possible.

Other mobsters nicknamed Bernardo ‘The Tractor’ because of the brutal way he mowed people to death. 

He didn’t care about the people or the type of previous dealings he might have had with them. If somebody has broken a deal or displeased him, they should be brutally mowed down by Bernado.

He was a terror for not only the commoners but also for the mobsters and other gangsters. 

Everybody knew they had to be careful with Bernardo and displease him at any cost.

He was known as one of the most prominent Italian mafia bosses. His tales of brutality and notoriety are still present in the police archives.

Bernado was caught by the FBI and was serving jail time. However, before his death, Provenzano reportedly had bladder cancer and severe cognitive impairment. 

However, he died in a hospital while serving his jail time. Nevertheless, people do not forget to take his name whenever they mow their lawns.

Roy DeMeo 

Who is the most pathetic and depraved mafia boss of all time?

It was none other than Roy DeMeo; the man was a mafia boss, but loads of people would get confused with his way of murdering being closely related to a serial killer.

Usually, serial killers operate alone, but Roy DeMeo operated with his crew with his heinous way of strategic killing and disposing of the bodies.

Previously DeMeo was a notorious hitman for the Gambino family. He made loads of money through his grisly style of murdering people.

He was a man with no remorse or even feelings, making him one of the most powerful and popular assassins in the Gambino family. He was not even an assassin because his way of destroying the body after killing the person reflected the mental pervertedness within him.

Killing is one thing, but Roy DeMeo enjoyed murdering and playing with the dead bodies.

He formed a crew called the DeMeo crew, whose job was to do drug dealing, loansharking, and killing people who failed to follow his commitments.

Boy, he needed a toy to play with, which would be humans for Roy DeMeo.

Roy DeMeo was associated with over two hundred Gemini-styled murders. 

Now, the style was unique; there was a Gemini lounge in DeMeo’s chosen apartment.

It was the job of his crew members to lure the victim inside the lounge, and then DeMeo would shoot the guy in the head and wrap a towel to stop the mess of bleeding.

Another crew member would stab the victim multiple times in the heart to stop the blood from flowing out of the gunshot wound. Thus resulting in making the blood mess less.

Once they confirmed that the victim was dead, they would carry the body to the bathroom to clean off the extra blood and wrap the wound up to conceal the blood.

The crew made sure to get the body dried off any flowing blood before they took the body and unclothed it, and placed it in plastic on a table.

Then they would dismember the body parts by decapitating and putting the head in a small cardboard box. Then put the arms in other boxes, cut the legs, and put them in another box. 

Finally, they would divide the other leftover body parts like the torso and other parts into other card boxes. The box with the head would go to the cardboard grinding machines, and the crew would dump the other body parts in the dump yard in a disarrayed manner.

No wonder two hundred bodies disposed of in this pattern in the dump yard made the police and FBI crazy to find and detect the bodies.

In addition, DeMeo oversaw the group referred to as the DeMeo crew and ensured his crew members did their work in the most organized way possible.

The DeMeo crew became infamous for the massive murders they committed, especially for the gruesome way they did it.

It was very difficult for the forensic department to identify the victims from the disposed body parts. Roy DeMeo gave a hard time to the legal authorities during his active crime duration.

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Giovanni Brusca 

Who is the most horrendous mafia boss of all time?

Giovanni Brusca - the man with no consciousness. He used to run a mafia business but was a person who could kill for any reason possible.

He was infamously nicknamed the People Slayer for his random killing spree.

He had no sympathy and was almost considered a sociopath. The only reason he was a crime lord is that he never forgave or forgot a betrayal.

He was ready to do anything and everything to avenge his cause. He even killed kids to avenge perceived wrongdoing towards him. He never bothered about innocent lives when he fulfilled his wants and desires.

However, due to his mass killing, he was always under the top most wanted list of gang lords.

He was arrested in 1996, but as a cunning chameleon and a master manipulator, he became a state witness.

Whatever serves him best, he is ready to take the step at the cost of others' lives.

Giovanni Brusca was more like he would take everybody down if he went down.

He wanted to reduce his sentence, so he willingly assisted the then-investigators in giving information and rounding up the mafia mobsters responsible for Mafia attacks in the 1980s and 1990s. 

Since he was a popular mafia gangster, he had almost all the information of other mobsters and the addresses of the wolves’ lairs; he did help the government and got a reduced sentence in return.

He later got out of jail after serving about twenty-five years in prison.

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Richard Kuklinski 

One of the top mafia gang lords, he had his first taste of warm blood in his early teens. Richard Kuklinski was not a man to be messed with by anyone. 

He would look calm and quiet during his school days, so guys found a way to treat him badly. But, little did they know that Richard was not a person to take anything lightly.

Kuklinski had his first kill at the age of 13 after he beat his bully to death. It made every boy of his age or at least closer to his age scared of him. Nobody dared mess with him, let alone bully him.

Soon he became a popular street gang member and fell in the eyes of the Gambino crime family members. 

The Gambinos were impressed with his skills of killing people and his utmost pleasure in tasting human blood as wine, so they hired him to work for them.

Since then, he has worked as one of the most ruthless executioners for the Gambino crime family for years.

He had no feelings and did not think twice before killing someone brutally and discarding them wherever he felt like doing it.

As he became older, he became more experienced with organized murder.

Anybody who displeased the Gambinos, Richard Kuklinski was sent to finish the job.

He shot, stabbed, and even bludgeoned men to death who did not meet the criteria of the Gambino crime family. It was easy for Gambino to work with him as he did not bother about whom he was killing. 

Richard would dump the bodies he killed in the Hudson River or sometimes leave them where they died. It depended upon him; whether he wanted to clean off the mess or send a message to the opposition.

However, he was arrested and supposedly ready to testify against a mobster on trial for murder to get his sentence reduced.

Eventually, he was murdered by the mobster’s gang members on the 5th of March, 2006, so his death was labeled suspicious by the legal authorities.

James Burke 

Who is the most handsome yet dangerous mafia boss of all time?

It had to be James Burke; there was something with him, and looking nice in front of everyone. He loved the attention and wanted attention more and more.

His dressing sense made it difficult for others to determine whether he was a criminal or an aristocratic elite from the upper class.

His dressing sense earned him popularity amongst other mobsters. He was popularly known amongst the other mobsters and the dealers as Jimmy the Gent.

Mainly other mobsters gave this name to him because he always loved looking nice. He was always into expensive clothes and attires and costly cigars and gold bracelets.

He was mainly indicted in the 5.8 million dollars Lufthansa heist in 1968. The FBI took him in for his heist, but things got messy later.

In 1982, James Burke was arrested on a parole violation; that was his end, and he never saw the outside of prison again.

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Matteo Messina Denaro 

Who is the most dangerous mafia alive?

Matteo Messina Denaro is one of the most dangerous celebrity mafia alive who got his name on the cover page of Forbes magazine in 2021.

The Italian mafia emperor is the boss of all bosses. He is still a fugitive, and the Italian government has started a search to capture him, but he is still not locatable. 

Matteo Messina Denaro is nicknamed Diabolik after his capability to kill the maximum number of victims in a day.

Diabolik once boasted that a cemetery alone could be filled with the body of his victim. As a result, he is the most wanted mafia right now in the world.

His network expanded not only in the European countries but also in the United States and Canada.

He is on the American FBI list of the most dangerous mafia alive. But, none of them can trace his present location; he is that clever.

The legal authorities of various countries have claimed him to be more notorious than any other mafia gangsters the previous government bodies have dealt with getting captured.

So, exactly where is Matteo Messina Denaro today? No one can say because no one knows what he recently looks like; his last photo was from some decades back.

So, where he is now or what he is up to, nobody knows, but legal authorities believe that he lives near his hometown in Sicily. But, no authentic information is available as it is not possible to say where exactly he is staying and who is there with him right now.

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Arthur Simon Flegenheimer 

Who was the most notorious mafia boss other than Al Capone?

Arthur Simon Flegenheimer was one of the most notorious crime lords nicknamed the Dutch Schultz.

Well, Dutch Schultz enters the notorious crime lord list after Al Capone. He was also a prominent bootlegger between 1920 and 1933. 

Of course, his name comes after Al Capone because almost at that time, Capone was also running his business through bootlegging. 

Unfortunately, he did not have a political hold like Al Capone, nor was he interested in putting up a facade of Robin Hood-like Al Capone.

However, he was also involved with many other illegal money-making procedures. He made black money from illegal horse betting, card fraudery, human trafficking, and drug trafficking, among other illegal activities. 

Arthur Simon Flegenheimer was arrested and received several criminal charges against him. He reportedly had become a believing Catholic during his trial and was on his way to repentance and reformation.

But, it looked like his enemies were unhappy with his sudden change and found him risky to keep alive. The mafioso was shot dead in 1935 by one of the opposition mobster gangs. 

However, before Arthur Simon Flegenheimer died, he confessed to his crimes and asked for forgiveness from the Lord.

Before his death, he turned to Christianity and found peace; consequently, he received a Catholic funeral with the presence of a priest legally assigned for him.

Arthur Simon Flegenheimer’s mother arranged for him to be buried in a tallit.

Don Carlo Gambino 

Which most powerful mafia boss is known as the Godfather? 

Don Carlo Gambino was the mafia boss of all bosses until Matteo Messina Denaro stepped into the rank. However, Matteo is feared, and people feel terror around him.

Don Carlo was well-loved and well-respected and not feared. He was involved in the illegal bootlegging business and was the first face that gave the Gambino family the fame, name, and legacy still alive amongst the people of the United States.

Don Carlo was the most dangerous yet most revered mafia of all times. He was the answer to all illegal problems during his active life of crime. 

Carlo Gambino inspired the movie Godfather. His power, way of running his business, and reaching out to the commoners made him a celebrity and a household favorite.

He walked into a restaurant or a hotel, and people did not run away from him. His crime was so organized that there was more peace than a mess.

He always smiled sweetly in front of the camera for his friends and enemies.

He loved his wife Catherine Castellano and was loyal to her all his life. His passion was making money through bootlegging, and he had four children to whom he had left his legacy of the Gamino crime family.

Ironically he had a very humble start but became the criminal Godfather.

He was renowned for his criminal ingeniousness and his way of dealing with his business and running the crime business by making millions of dollars in the 60s.

Carlo Gambino was a mere teenage executioner in Italy to the mafia boss of the Gambino crime family. However, he went over to become the boss himself and run the crime syndicates earning him celebrity status.

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