About The MOB
C
Alphonse Capone
1899 to Jan. 25, 1947.
"Snorky", "Scarface"
Capone was a brutal Neapolitan mobster who became a powerful force in the American Mafia.
Though he served as one of the architects of the nationwide criminal Syndicate, Capone never earned full acceptance by his Sicilian associates and, as a result, never completely controlled the underworld of his adopted Chicago.
Capone grew up in the Five Points Gang, which in the 1900s stretched from its original Manhattan domain into Capone's Brooklyn neighborhood. He was a fearsome enforcer for Five Points leader Johnny Torrio.
When Torrio later established himself in Jim Colosimo's Chicago vice rackets, Torrio and Frank Yale of Brooklyn arranged for Capone to make the move west in 1919.
Capone quickly rose to the top of the Colosimo-Torrio crime empire, which thanks to Torrio and Capone, included bootleg liquor among its enterprises. Torrio narrowly escaped death on Jan. 24, 1925, and retired, leaving the gang to Capone.
Al Capone's desire to control all of Chicago, including the local branch of the exclusively Sicilian Unione Siciliane, and his utter brutality ensured that the city's underworld was in a near constant state of warfare from 1925 to 1930.
His tinkering with the Unione appears to have caused a falling out with his old mentor, Yale. (Some believe Yale - a non-Sicilian - was nevertheless the national president of the Unione.) Yale also began hijacking his own shipments of imported liquor bound for Capone.
When Yale was murdered in 1928, Capone was initially not suspected. But weapons on the scene were linked to some subsequent hits set up by the Chicago gangster.
Capone is widely believed to have been responsible for the St. Valentine's Day Massacre (FBI file) of rival gangsters in February 1929 and a horrific triple-murder in May of that year which put an end to a rebellious Sicilian conspiracy within his organization.
The bloodletting drew the attention of New York Mafiosi (who were likely far more upset by Capone's dispatching of prominent Sicilians and his meddling in the business of the Unione than they were for the Valentine's Day murders). At a mid-May conference of the nation's larger bootleggers in Atlantic City, Capone was scolded. He was reportedly ordered to allow himself to be arrested in Pennsylvania on a weapons charge. He remained in prison until the public outcry over his actions had died down.
When he emerged from prison, Capone found the nation's Mafia groups preparing for war and aligned himself with the faction led by New York's Giuseppe Masseria. As his part in the Castellammarese War, Capone sent regular financial contributions to Masseria and eliminated Castellammarese ally Joe Aiello in September of 1930.
Capone saw his New York ally destroyed by Charlie Luciano's treachery in April of 1931. But the Chicago gang leader hosted the crowning of opposing Mafia general Salvatore Maranzano as the new boss of bosses in order to heal the old wounds.
Luciano then disposed of Maranzano in September 1931. Capone quickly arranged another underworld convention. But Luciano refused the boss of bosses title and instead welcomed Capone and other Americanized Mafiosi into a new national Syndicate.
Capone would have only about a month to enjoy the new underworld order. His trial for tax evasion began in October. On Nov. 24, 1931, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison, in addition to more than a quarter million dollars in taxes, interest and fines. In jail, an existing case of syphilis began to eat away at his mind and body. He served about seven and a half years of his sentence.
He emerged from prison on Nov. 16, 1939, virtually incapacitated and was never again involved in underworld affairs. He retired to Palm Island, Florida, and died on Jan. 25, 1947. The causes of death were listed as stroke and pneumonia.
Anthony Carfano
1897 to Sept. 25, 1959.
"Li'l Augie", "Augie Pisano"
Carfano was a noteworthy associate of Charlie Luciano and Joe Adonis.
Carfano came to power in the Masseria organization of the late 1920s. He became caretaker of Masseria's Brooklyn interests after the death of Frank Yale. After the reorganization of the Mafia in 1931, Carfano established gambling interests in Florida, smoothing the ruffled feathers of the Tampa Mafia organization.
Carfano was murdered on Sept. 25, 1959. He and a female companion - Mrs. Janice Drake - were in a car in a Queens neighborhood when they were both shot, likely by gunmen hiding in the car's back seat. Carfano and Drake had been dining at a Manhattan restaurant when they were called away.
Authorities speculated that Meyer Lansky ordered the hit to protect his interests in Cuban casinos.
Sam Carolla
June 17, 1896, to July 1972
"Silver Dollar Sam"
Carolla was born in Terrasini, Sicily, in 1896 and came to the United States as a six-year-old boy. In his youth, he became affiliated with the Mafia organization run by Charles Matranga.
He reportedly succeeded Matranga as boss of the organization upon Matranga's retirement in the 1920s.
Carolla is believed to have participated in bootlegging and narcotics trafficking enterprises as well as the fishing, shrimping and dock work rackets New Orleans is known for.
He was convicted of bootlegging in 1921 and did a year and a day in Atlanta federal prison. He served two years in prison beginning in 1931 on a narcotics charge. For the 1933 attempted killing of a narcotics agent, he received another eight to 15-year sentence. That was ended after one year by a governor's full pardon.
Just two years after the pardon, Carolla was once again a resident of Atlanta prison, having been sentenced to five years for another narcotics crime.
The federal government sought to deport Carolla in the early 1940s. Despite roadblock legislation introduced by Congressman James Morrison of Louisiana in order to keep Carolla in the U.S., officials succeeded in sending him back to Sicily in spring of 1947.
Louisiana and New York racketeers entered into lucrative agreements relating to casino and slot machine gambling during Carolla's reign.
Carolla's immediate successor in the New Orleans mob is uncertain. The government believed Carlos Marcello was in control of the family from about 1950 on, but some sources believe another boss worked behind the scenes until Marcello took the helm in the early 1960s.
The Carolla and Marcello families were joined through the marriage of Carolla's son Anthony and Marcello's niece Maria Zaniatta.
Carolla did not remain in Sicily. He was observed in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1949. He might have been attempting to run the New Orleans rackets from that location. Some believe he was stationed there by Charlie Luciano as part of the worldwide drug trade. Carolla was also allegedly seen back in New Orleans as early as July 4, 1950.
(According to some sources, a rivalry developed between Carolla's son and Marcello's younger brother over who would succeed Marcello as New Orleans boss. Carolla was reportedly called out of retirement to mediate the dispute.)
Press accounts indicate that Carolla was briefly hospitalized in New Orleans after a heart attack in February of 1970. After the hospital, he is believed to have stayed with family in Louisiana until his death.
Vito Cascio-Ferro
1862 to 1943
Cascio-Ferro, once the boss of all bosses of the Mafia in Sicily, appears to have made efforts to transplant his organization to the United States before and during the Italian reign of Fascist Benito Mussolini.
There is evidence to suggest that Cascio-Ferro spent some of his younger years in New York and New Orleans before returning home as an important Mafioso in Sicily. He kept in close touch with Mafiosi in both American cities through the 1900s and apparently worked with the transplanted criminals on a counterfeiting racket.
Sources indicate a number of visits by Cascio-Ferro to those cities. When in New York, he reportedly stayed with members of the Lupo-Morello Mob. During the visits, he is credited with helping American mobsters refine their practices for extorting protection money from businesses. Cascio-Ferro showed the gangs they could maximize profits by extorting sums that were not financially damaging to the businesses - a practice called "wetting the beak."
He is thought to have organized and participated in the assassination of gangbuster Lt. Joseph Petrosino of the New York Police during Petrosino's official visit to Sicily in 1909. Legend says Cascio-Ferro excused himself from a dinner party at the home of a Sicilian government official, borrowed his host's vehicle and went to deliver the coup de grace shot to the head of Petrosino. Then, of course, he returned to complete his friendly visit with the official. Cascio-Ferro never denied involvement in the Petrosino murder.
The Sicilian Mafia's supreme boss would never make his final planned trip to the U.S. In 1929, he went on trial - on probably trumped-up charges - just as the Castellammarese War was breaking out in the U.S. He was convicted and imprisoned, dying behind bars.
The date of his death is generally given as 1945, but author Arrigo Petacco ("Joe Petrosino," 1974) found evidence of Cascio Ferro's demise in summer of 1943. Petacco says the Mafia leader was left behind in his cell when other inmates of Pozzuoli prison were evacuated in advance of the Allied invasion. The author says Cascio Ferro died of thirst.
Paul Castellano
1915 to Dec. 16, 1985.
"Big Paul"
Castellano was born in 1915 into one of the older Mafia clans in the U.S. His family, believed to have been part of the Toto D'Aquila organization, was already working the rackets in New York when a wave of Sicilian Mafiosi arrived fleeing from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in the early 1920s.
The Castellanos sponsored new arrival Carlo Gambino in 1921 (and Gambino eventually rose to lead the criminal organization). Paul Castellano grew up as an apprentice to Gambino and took over the powerful Gambino Family - powerful because Gambino didn't adhere to agreements on the limits of Family membership - upon Carlo's death in 1976.
Castellano, who moved into a replica of the White House at 177 Benedict Road on Staten Island, became an important figure on the Commission and is thought to have held the clout of the traditional boss of bosses in the early 1980s. Castellano's rise to power (and his insistence that New York Mafiosi give up direct involvement in drug trafficking) displeased those in the crime group who had hoped Gambino underboss Aniello Dellacroce, a less business-like Mafioso, would lead the family.
John Gotti, later known as the "Dapper Don" and the "Teflon Don," was part of the unhappy faction. While Dellacroce was alive, he was able to keep the Gotti wing loyal to Castellano. But when Dellacroce passed away, Gotti set up the assassination of Paul Castellano and his bodyguard Thomas Bilotti in front of Sparks Steak House in Manhattan in 1985. Gotti then grabbed the leadership of the Gambino Family for himself.
The hit on Castellano, while personally motivated on Gotti's part, also served the interests of the Mafia as a whole. Castellano had inadvertently supplied federal agents with a wealth of information about the inner workings of the Syndicate and the Commission by speaking openly about such things in a room of his house that had been bugged. Mafiosi also reportedly feared that Castellano, who last served time after a 1934 robbery conviction, wouldn't be able to stomach a long haul behind bars.
Joe Catania the Elder
c.1862 to July 22, 1902.
"Joe the Grocer"
"Grocer" Catania of Brooklyn is remembered inaccurately as the father of younger Mafioso "Joe Baker." No documentary evidence proves the two Catanias were at all related.
The elder Joe Catania, a green grocer by day, was among the earlier members of the Lupo-Morello gang. Catania was involved in a transatlantic counterfeiting operation overseen by Sicilian boss of bosses Vito Cascio-Ferro and locally by Lupo.
Catania home and grocery store on Brooklyn's Columbia Street
The popularly accepted story of his demise: Catania, 40, became drunk one night and began talking too much about the counterfeiting racket. He was eliminated as a Mafia disciplinary measure. Unaware of his link to Lupo's gang, police decided that Catania's murder was the result of an old-country feud, ended by imported killers.
Oft-repeated and erroneous legend says his corpse was discovered packed with sawdust inside a barrel at 73rd Street at the bay on July 23, 1902. That legend is the result of the confused memories of some 1900s New York journalists and the mixing of the Catania story with that of Benedetto Madonia (who was found in a barrel). A muddled 1909 news report referred to a murder victim named "Benedetto Catania."
News accounts of the discovery of Catania's body by four boys heading to the bay for an early evening swim do not mention a barrel. According to New York Times and Brooklyn Eagle articles, Catania was discovered within a potato sack lined with floor mats sewn into the shape of a large bag. His throat had been cut. His right thumb and forefinger were missing, authorities said, apparently the result of an earlier accident.
Police arrested Sicilian immigrant Vincenzo Troia for the killing of Catania, since the two men recently had quarreled over a debt. But Troia was let go when the old-country feud theory emerged.
Joe Catania the Younger
1901 to Feb. 3, 1931.
"Joe Baker"
This Joe Catania rose to prominence within the Morello Mob in the 1920s and appears to have been technically a part of Ciro Terranova's well-connected Bronx-Harlem organization. He might also have worked with Dutch Schultz, as some of Terranova's more important men - like Danny Iamascia - were shared with Schultz.
Catania was arrested numerous times for assault, burglary and disorderly conduct in the mid-1920s, but the charges were repeatedly dropped. In 1928, Catania was one of seven known criminals in attendance at a Bronx banquet held in honor of Magistrate Vitale. The presence of the hoodlums led to Vitale's downfall and helped bring an end to the Jimmy Walker Administration in New York City.
By the outbreak of the Castellammarese War, around 1930, Catania was a major player. Evidence of his importance: When peace feelers were sent by Morello-backed mob boss Joe Masseria to Castellammarese field marshal Salvatore Maranzano, Maranzano stated that he could not end the war yet because Joe Baker still lived. (Catania had repeatedly disrespected Maranzano by brazenly hijacking the mob leader's liquor shipments.)
The 29-year-old Baker was shot six times in the head and body by a Maranzano hit squad at 11:45 a.m. on Feb. 3, 1931, in front of 647 Crescent Avenue in the Bronx. He was rushed to Fordham Hospital, where he died.
With Terranova and his allies picking up much of the tab, Catania was given perhaps the most elaborate gangland funeral in New York history. The cost was estimated at $40,000, including a $15,000 solid bronze coffin (the cost of the coffin is obviously overstated). Forty cars were needed to carry the floral displays, the largest of which - a 13-foot-high creation bearing the words "Our Pal" - was purchased by Terranova.
Terranova was apparently deeply affected by the loss of Catania, who was his nephew (through his wife) as well as a trusted aide and friend. At the funeral home, Terranova reportedly put his hand on Catania's coffin and swore to avenge his death. Maranzano spies learned of this and attempted unsuccessfully to corner and eliminate Terranova at that site.
Anthony Celantano
Celantano was accused by police in 1917 of leading an interstate illegal lottery syndicate. Detective Amedeo Polignano posed as an illiterate, immigrant bootblack in New York's Little Italy for three years to accumulate evidence against Celantano and his organization. He linked 21 murders to the group, including that of East Harlem racket king Giosue Gallucci in 1916.
For several years, Celantano operated a shoeshine stand at Kenmare Street as he ventured secretly into the policy racket. Det. Polignano reported that Celantano's group received the winning daily lottery numbers by cable from Italy and then forwarded the numbers to agents in New York and other U.S. cities. The police arrested Celantano and 20 members of his gang March 3, 1917.
Anthony Thomas Civella
Feb. 17, 1930, to Feb. 16, 2006.
"Ripe Tony"
Anthony Civella began to move into the KC leadership as authorities moved his father Carl (below) into a long prison stay late in 1984. Anthony was also convicted in the same casino skimming case, but he was sentenced to just five years. During his imprisonment, some believe he worked through acting boss William Cammisano.
Like his father and his uncle Nick (below), Anthony Civella was at home in gambling rackets and kept the Kansas City family a key player in nationwide illegal gaming. But, in 1991, three years after his early release from prison, he strayed from the "family business" and involved himself in the reselling of fraudulently obtained prescription drugs on the West Coast. The endeavor resulted in an extended jail term beginning in summer of 1992.
During Civella's imprisonment, his father passed away. Civella was released from prison in 1997. Due to a criminal history that dated back to 1952, he was placed on the Exclusion List of the Nevada Gaming Commission in February of 1997. He was similarly prohibited from involvement in any Missouri gaming.
Civella died in mid-February 2006.
Carl Civella
Jan. 28, 1910, to Oct. 2, 1994.
"Cork"
Nick Civella's brother and Anthony Civella's father, Carl took over day to day activities of the Kansas City underworld as his brother Nick faced increased scrutiny from law enforcement in the mid-1970s.
Carl became full boss upon his brother Nick's death. He did not last long in the post, as he was sent off to a 10 to 30-year sentence in prison in September of 1984. Another 10-year sentence was immediately added through another matter.
Carl died in 1994, while his son Anthony was behind bars.
Nick Civella
March 19, 1912, to March 1983.
During Nick Civella's reign, from 1953 to about 1977, the KC mob moved aggressively into Las Vegas casinos and reportedly had large interests in the Stardust (opened in 1955), the Fremont (opened in 1956) and later the Landmark Hotel (opened in 1969). The move west was done in concert with Mafia families from Cleveland and Chicago.
Kansas City-born Civella was closely tied to the Teamsters Union during Jimmy Hoffa's presidency and the later presidency of Roy Williams (1915-1988) and appears to have had access to the Teamster pension fund. (After the mob boss's death, Roy Williams told authorities that he was intimidated into doing Civella's bidding.)
Thanks to his skimming from the Stardust, Civella earned an early place on the Nevada Gaming Commission's Exclusion List. He, his brother Carl and nine others were the first to be named on the list in 1960.
Nick Civella is believed to have been an attendee at the 1957 Apalachin, NY, crime convention, though he was able to escape Joseph Barbara's estate without being noticed by authorities.
Joe Colombo
June 16, 1923, to May 22, 1978.
Colombo was among the more outspoken of the New World Mafia chieftains. After rising to power in what was previously the Profaci Family in the mid-1960s, he founded the Italian-American Civil Rights League in 1970 and actively sought publicity. Claiming that reports and rumors of the Mafia were designed to damage the reputation of Italian-Americans, he conducted public rallies, spoke frequently with the press and used his League to picket the FBI offices.
It is believed that Colombo came to power through the influence of Carlo Gambino after Colombo informed on a plot by then-Profaci Family boss Joseph Magliocco and Joseph Bonanno to assassinate bosses Gambino Tommy Lucchese.
The Commission, particularly Carlo Gambino, quickly grew tired of the media attention Colombo and the rest of organized crime were getting as a result of Italian-American Civil Rights League activities. It is believed that the Gambino-controlled Commission ordered Colombo's death in 1971. The rebellious Gallo element in Colombo's family (Joey Gallo had recently been released from prison) or a more conservative faction which wanted to take a harder line against the Gallo group are also possible accomplices in the murder.
Colombo's murder
Colombo was mortally wounded during a League Italian Unity Day rally on June 28, 1971. A man named Jerome Johnson, disguised as a news photographer, approached Colombo and shot him three times in the head and neck with an automatic pistol. Johnson was wrestled to the ground, and a second unknown gunman shot him to death with a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson. The second gunman escaped.
Colombo lapsed into a coma and remained unconscious until his death on May 22, 1978.
Joe Bonanno considered Colombo one of the instigators of trouble within the Bonanno Family in the early 1960s. Bonanno claimed that Colombo was working directly with Buffalo's Stefano Magaddino (a relative of Bonanno's) and indirectly with Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese to take over Bonanno's organization.
Colombo, born June 16, 1923, was raised in south Brooklyn. His father, Anthony Colombo, was a member of the Profaci crime family. In 1938, when Joseph was a teenager, Anthony Colombo and girlfriend Christine Oliveri were found strangled to death in Colombo's car.
Joseph Colombo had a brief and unsuccessful career in the Coast Guard, from which he was discharged due to emotional problems. He worked as a longshoreman and a real estate agent, and, for a time, as a salesman for a meat company run by the Gambino and Castellano families.
Jim Colosimo
? to May 11, 1920.
"Big Jim", "Diamond Jim"
Colosimo was a vice racketeer in Chicago just after the turn of the 20th Century. His primary illicit business enterprises appear to have been gambling rackets and the management of a string of social clubs and brothels.
Without the benefit of a gang of his own, Colosimo was repeatedly victimized by Black Hand extortion and sent to New York for aid. He called for his relative Johnny Torrio, who partnered in a Brooklyn-Manhattan gang leadership with Frankie Yale, to move west. Torrio settled in Chicago around 1909 and immediately put an end to Colosimo's Black Hand troubles.
In 1919, Five Points Gang enforcer Al Capone, who was wanted on murder charges in New York, decided to follow in Torrio's footsteps and joined Colosimo's Chicago organization.
With the arrival of Prohibition, Torrio and Capone wished to expand their illicit enterprises into bootlegging. Colosimo reportedly refused, possibly because he foresaw conflicts erupting with other criminal organizations in the city.
At the time, the operation of home breweries in Chicago's Sicilian-Italian communities and liquor smuggling operations were being coordinated by rival gangs. While Colosimo was reportedly Sicilian by birth (coming to America in 1872 when just one year old, or, according to other sources in 1881 when nine), he generally functioned outside of the Mafia establishment (one reason he was targeted by Black Handers).
Colosimo was assassinated May 11, 1920. It is widely believed the hit was performed by Uale at the request of Torrio and/or Capone. However, the Colosimo-Torrio-Capone group was not a Mafia organization, and, in fact, was presenting growing problems for the true Mafiosi in town - the Gennas and later the Aiellos. The Gennas might have been partly responsible for Colosimo's death. Colosimo also went through an ugly divorce just before his death, and his former brother-in-law was apparently suspected by police.
Whoever the responsible parties were, Torrio and Capone were the main beneficiaries. They took over Colosimo's businesses and formed a full-fledged gang.
Mike Coppola
"Trigger Mike"
Coppola became a major figure in the New York Mafia upon the death of Joe Masseria in April of 1931. A highly regarded gunman to that point, Coppola was given control of many of the Bronx and Harlem rackets formerly controlled by Ciro Terranova, who slipped into retirement.
Coppola is believed to have taken part in the armed robbery of Magistrate Vitale's Bronx banquet in 1928 - a banquet some say was hosted by Terranova. That robbery and the subsequent recovery of all items taken exposed city government connections with the mob.
Antonio Corallo
Feb. 12, 1913, to Aug. 23, 2000.
"Tony Ducks"
Corallo served some jail time for trafficking narcotics as a kid and then became a big shot in the Gagliano-Lucchese Family in New York. Some believe he directly succeeded Tommy Lucchese as boss of the Family in 1967, but it appears he served for at least several years under Carmine Tramunti.
Under Tramunti and Corallo, the Lucchese Family positioned itself as subordinate to the Gambino organization.
The FBI identified the 71-year-old Corallo as long-time leader of the Lucchese Family in 1985, as authorities moved against the Mafia Commission members in New York. Police agencies had bugged a car, which was owned by a Corallo confidant and often used by Corallo, and then followed that car around for four months, picking up pieces of conversations.
Corallo is believed to have been a key participant in bid-rigging and bribery schemes involving New York City government contracts. He was tied to former Tammany boss Carmine DeSapio in a 1969 case.
Frank Costello
1891 to Feb. 18, 1973.
Francesco Castiglia
"Prime Minister"
Costello was born in Cosenza, Italy, in 1891 and was taken to New York by his family at age 4.
Though his family settled in Italian Harlem (108th Street), within the territory of the Terranova clan, Costello involved himself in the Five Points Gang on the Lower East Side.
He was eventually initiated into the Mafia but often worked independent criminal enterprises with non-Italian partners. He was jailed for a year after a concealed weapon conviction in 1915.
Costello moved wholeheartedly into illegal alcohol distribution during Prohibition Days and coordinated bootlegging activities across the country. He cultivated contacts among elected government officials and bureacrats and could provide insurance that law enforcement would leave alone the enterprises he sponsored.
During an Atlantic City underworld convention in spring 1929, he helped establish relationships that would guide the post-Prohibition activities of the Mafia and the multi-ethnic Syndicate founded in 1931.
During the Castellammarese War, Costello nominally served Joe Masseria's New York organization. But he and the other more Americanized Mafiosi - Charlie Luciano, Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis and others - were setting their sights on the future.
He busied himself with gambling ventures in the 1930s, obtaining official government OKs to place slot machines everywhere in New York. That brought him into direct conflict with reform Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who, despite court protection of the slots, collected all the machines in 1934 and personally destroyed them with a sledge hammer.
When Charlie Luciano was jailed in 1936, Costello was named to head the main Manhattan crime Family and to guide the Mafia Commission that oversaw the work of the nationwide Syndicate. Friction began between Costello and Vito Genovese, who had been Luciano's underboss. Conflict was avoided when Genovese fled to Italy to avoid prosecution in the U.S.
By 1945, Genovese had returned to New York and had been acquitted of murder charges. Luciano was in Italy after a compulsory prostitution conviction and deportation, and there was little, aside from the reputation of Costello's ruthless and rabidly loyal ally Albert Anastasia, to prevent a confrontation between Costello and Genovese.
Costello found hosts for his slot machines in Louisiana, where they were looked after by "Dandy Phil" Kastel. In the 1950s, Kastel and Costello opened the Beverly Club casino in Jefferson Parish, just outside of New Orleans.
It took a decade for the long-simmering Costello-Genovese feud to boil over. During that decade, Costello was hounded both by Genovese allies and by government agencies. He was called to testify before the Kefauver Committee and generated some of the more interesting moments in the televised proceedings when he insisted that cameras focus on his hands rather than his face.
In 1957, Costello was shot in the head by a would-be assassin's bullet. The bullet, however, only grazed the mob boss. He bled a bit but survived. Anastasia was not so fortunate. He was murdered later in the year.
Costello announced his retirement from active Mafia life and turned the Luciano Family over to his rival Genovese. In later years, when Costello was jailed for tax evasion and Genovese for narcotics, the two men met in Atlanta's penitentiary and reconciled.
Costello returned to a private life in New York after his prison sentence and died in 1973.
