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It would be a long-awaited accession for Gambino, a softspoken, courtly man who came to the U.S. in 1921 as a stowaway from Palermo, Sicily. In a brotherhood where "respect" is achieved by assassination, there is a strong caste system. For years the Gambinos were disdained by the other Mafia families. Gangsters called them "the degenerates" because Carlo married his first cousin and his brother Paul married another cousin. There were a number of stories that neither Carlo nor Paul had ever killed anyone—which is ample reason for them to be held in contempt—and both were suspected of sitting out the Castellammarese war, tending their bootleg stills instead of shooting their enemies.
But the Gambinos emerged almost unscathed from the post-Apalachin investigations and gang wars that drained the strength of the other clans. More important, a new strongman arose in the Gambino family to function as Carlo's underboss: Aniello Dellacroce (literally, "little lamb of the cross"). A throwback to the Syndicate's more flamboyant days, Dellacroce, 58, keeps a hunting lodge in Canada, a beach house in Miami, and several mistresses. He also possesses a fund of brutal expertise learned when he was one of Albert Anastasia's principal hired assassins.
One report has it that it was the Gambinos, not the Gallos, who ordered Colombo hit last summer. (Gambino was said to have been angered by the embarrassing publicity Colombo was arousing with his civil rights league.) At the same time, the Gambinos had a "contract" out on Gallo—although it is not clear yet who finally killed him. (A contract, which may or may not involve a fee, is a boss's official sanction for an execution.) Now, to complete a Machiavellian circle, the Gambinos are supplying both the Colombos and the Gallos with new guns and ammunition to escalate their war.
"Going to the mattresses" is a tradition of Mafia warfare, a tactic like lifting the drawbridge in a medieval Italian castle town. Last week about 20 members of the Gallo mob were dug in near Joey's old headquarters, a store front on Brooklyn's President Street, just across the street from the redoubt they occupied during the 1961-62 Gallo-Profaci war. If they have followed their practice from those days, they have nailed chicken wire over the windows, to prevent hand grenades from being lobbed in. In such campaigns, security is tight. Sentries are posted on nearby streets to watch for strangers in the neighborhood. The food brought in to feed the garrison is checked for poison.
The commander now is the sole surviving Gallo brother, Albert. Says an acquaintance of the family: "They are all scared to death." Even though their position is now mainly defensive, the Gallos have put out contracts for the deaths of three enemies: 1) Alphonse ("Alley Boy") Persico, the Colombo war chieftain; 2) Nick Bianco, a New England gangster whom the Gallos want killed because he arranged the treaty that ended the Gallo-Profaci war ten years ago while Joey was in jail; and 3) Joe Yacovelli, a Colombo capo. The Gallos believe that Yacovelli had a hand in Joey's murder.