Jump To Carlo Gambino's Stats
Some people think vanity plates are a moderately recent development aimed at fixing a state budget, but we'll have you know that Carlos Gambino knew otherwise in 1931. The New York City crime boss had few extravagances, but his license plate read CG1. It was a fatal mistake to chip his paint.
Gambino managed to die of a heart attack. And manage he did because his tenure from the early 1921 and his arrival on American soil is not the case for those who became his adversary, his opponent, his tormentor or his problem. Carlos usually through his intermediaries - always provided them an early out courtesy of lead mining.
For nearly 20 years, Gambino who never became a U.S. Citizen became the Boss of Bosses of all the crime families in New York. His demeanor set the tone but he had a tenacious ability to out maneuver the like of Albert Anastasia and Paul Castellano. His small eyes and small nose didn't resemble the impact or the respect paid to him.
Gambino played the Mafia game as if was chest. He always stayed two moves ahead of his competitors. He used that tactic to trap an equal adversary in Vito Genovese, who attempted to exploit the growing market in drug. Although Genovese would have never suspected Gambino of complicity in an Atlanta distribution drug arrest, Carlos made a move.
Even though Gambino was thinking in advance, he could not think for his eventual heirs. Soon after he passed, his hold on stability faded as if a spaghetti noodle being sucked up in pleasure. Two camps immediately split and a new war was on.
A substantial change in the fabric of organized crime had arisen. No longer were the main players from the old country. The bloodlines had been thinned through incorporation of non-Italians in both family and business. It was inevitable. Similarly, the Department of Justice's stepped up attention although a decade and a half away from fruition were making inroads enough to fester paranoia within. The era of the Gambino crime boss had ended with his heart attack.