As a youth growing up in Palermo, Carlo grew up in an area dominated by the Mafia. Gambino worshipped Don Vito Cascio Ferro, and dreamed of becoming a member of the Honor Society. As a teenager Carlo was brought to the attention of members of the Honor Society by relatives. At the age of of 20 Carlo was initiated into the Honor Society. Then on November 1921, Gambino was smuggled aboard the SS
Vincenzo Florio bound for
New York. He arrived on December 23 1921, and was met at the dock by a Castellano relative. Carlo was moved into a small apartment on Navy street near the Brooklyn Waterfront. Once he was settled in , Carlo was setup with a job in
Joe Masseria's outfit. Masseria quickly put Carlo to work in every aspect of the liquor trade. During the Castellemarse War Gambino, sensing Masseria's doom, joined forces with
Salvatore Maranzano. Following the war and
Lucky Luciano's rise to power, Gambino was placed in the family ran by
Vincent Mangano. In little time Mangano made Gambino a
caporegime. By the mid-1930's Carlo owned a monopoly on illegal alcohol and was on his way to making his first fortune. Around this time Gambino married his first cousin Kathryn Castellano, who a sister to
Paul Castellano. Carlo was beginning to build a reputation for himself as a great moneymaker. Perhaps his greatest scheme was to obtain
wartime ration stamps.
He reportedly made $1 million dollars on one stamp deal. With his profits, Gambino started to invest in a variety of bussinesses. By the time he was forty-five Carlo Gambino was a multimillionare(and all without ever becoming a U.S. citizen.). Carlo's major move up the Mafia ladder was when with the blessing of Vito Genovese and the Commision, He had
Albert Anastasia killed. This eliminated any competition for the top spot of his family. So at the age of forty-seven, Carlo was made the boss of his family. Carlo's first move as Don was to have two Anastasia loyalists killed. Then he setup up Genovese on drugsmuggling charges that sent Vito to jail where he died. Now Gambino was the most powerfull man in New York. In the sixties Gambino took control of the waterfront and had a hand in many J.F.K. airprot robberies. By 1965 Gambino had gained control of all private garbage disposal in New York. Carlo then benifited from two deaths in the Mafia. When Luciano died of a heart attack, Gambino was made head of the Comission. When Tommy Lucchese died Carlo inherited control of Teamsters Local 295 and the unions involved with trucking 70% clothing sold in the U.S. By 1970 Don Carlo virtually controlled two of the five families in New York. In March 1970, the police approached Carlo as he was walking down a street with his wife. They handcuffed him, and charged him masterminding a plot to steal $30 million in cash from an armored truck. A grand jury later indicted him, but the case was thrown out. The following year the Justice Department renewed their effort to have Gambino deported. On the day the government planned to deport him, Carlo suffered one of his heart attacks. In 1974, the government discovered that Carlo had been involved with a huge alien smuggling operation. He reportedly was responsible for bringing several thousand Sicilians into the country. On October 15, 1976, in his summer home at Massapequa, Long Island, Carlo Gambino suffered his final heart attack. The don died in his sleep and in his bed.
