He was born Constantino Paul Castellano, in Brooklyn, on June 20, 1915. Paul was the youngest of three and was the only boy. As most children did, Paul dropped out of school in the eighth grade and started selling lottery tickets for his father's rackettering business. At the same time he was learning the trade of meat cutting. Paul started his life of crime by bieng arrested in 1934 for armed robbery. He was sentenced to a year in Hartford County jail but would only serve 3 months and 4 days. When he returned home, he was hailed a hero for never ratting out the other boys that got away from the police. This would be the begining of Paul reputation for bieng a "stand up guy". This was Paul's first run-in with the law and would be his last one for almost twenty-three years. After the armed robbery incident he set himself up in the meat business and by the early 1950's, Paul was running a extremely successful wholesale operation known as Blue Ribbon Meats. While running his legitimate meat bussiness, Castellano continued to do jobs to consolidate his position within the Brooklyn Mob. In 1937 he married his childhood sweatheart Nina manno, who was already a sister in law to Carlo Gambino.
Inbreeding ran deep through the Gambino family
he is how: Nina was Carlo's sisiter in law, Carlo was Paul's cousin. Gambino was married to Paul's sister Katherine. And Carlo Gambino's parents were 1st cousins.
The key to Paul's rise to Mafia stardom was his cousin Carlo. Gambino became boss of his own family and ruled masterfully for many years. When Carlo was at his death bed he declared that his cousin Paul would take over as boss. This decision was not to popular with the rest of the family. Especially with Carlo's underboss, Neil Dellacroce. By the rules, Neil should have taken over as boss but he was in jail at the time and had no say in the matter. In order for peace to be insured, a small meeting was held between Paul and Neil. At this meeting Paul gave Neil more power and territory and Neil agreed to keep the peace. Little did Paul know that it would be Dellacroce's crew that would be Castellon's doom. Paul's reign as boss would be plauged be F.B.I harrasment, health problems, and a lack of respect by his soldiers. The F.B.I saw Casellano as the big fish in a sea of mafia figures. They went after him expertly, even managing to bug his mansion. Paul's soldiers felt that he had grown out of touch with them, and maybe he even looked down at them. Paul saw himself as a businessman and seemed to forget that while running a family was a business it also involved some dirty work. Pauls legal problems and his failure to stay in touch with the streets ultimately killed him. On December 16, 1985, as Paul's underboss opened the backseat door for Catellano, three men in trench coats pulled from under their coats semiautomatic weapons and put six bullets each in Paul and his underboss. The men then causally jogged down the block and into their getaway car. Paul's murder was carried out by a young soldier in Dellacroce's crew named, John Gotti. The hit on Castellano was in return for his lack of leadership and for his continual legal problems which brought the spotlight on the entire mafia.
