Frank Costello born Francesco Castiglia in Lauropoli, in the province of Cosenza (January 26, 1891 – February 18, 1973) was an Italian-American mobster from New York who rose to the top of the Cosa Nostra hierarchy in the United States , capo di tutti capi. He was the godfather of the Luciano Family. He was nicknamed the Prime Minister of Crime because of his desire to preserve peace in the face of war and also because of his political connections. He is unquestionably one of the most respected and influential mobsters in the entire history of the Mafia. He is also known to have strongly inspired the character of Vito Corleone, the Don of the Corleone family in The Godfather trilogy.
Young years
Costello was born in Lauropoli, Calabria, Italy in 1891. In 1895 his mother took him and his brother Edoardo to the United States, joining Costello's father. He had opened a small grocery store in Harlem several years ago. When Costello was still a young boy, his brother introduced him to gangs. At 13, Francesco Castaglia was part of a street gang under the name:Frank Costello, his anglicized name. Costello continued to commit petty crimes, and went to prison for theft in 1908, 1912, and 1917. In 1918, Costello married Lauretta Giegerman, a Jewish girl, sister of a close friend. That same year, Costello spent ten months in prison for illegal possession of a weapon. After his release from prison, Costello decided to use his intelligence and no longer use violence to enrich himself as a criminal. Costello later said he never carried a gun again. He never went back to prison.
Meeting and alliance with Lucky Luciano
It was in 1918 that Costello met Salvatore Lucana better known as Lucky Luciano. Associated with friends such as Tommy Lucchese, Vito Genovese, Meyer Lansky or Bugsy Siegel, they get involved in extortion, theft, gambling and narcotics. But it was during Prohibition that they made the most money under the wing of their master:Arnold Rothstein. Their successes lead them to enter into business with Jewish gangsters like Dutch Schultz and Irish. Rothstein became a true mentor for Siegel, Costello, Luciano and Lansky. In 1922, Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese joined the family of the powerful Sicilian godfather:Joe Masseria. Despite the gang wars, Costello maintained very good relations with his friends and associates Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. In 1929 he participated in the Atlantic City Summit.
Castellammarese War
Costello, Lucky Luciano, Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia, Joe Adonis, Tommy Lucchese, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Siegel have decided to end the Castellammarese War and form a new crime syndicate. On April 15, 1931, Joe Masseria was invited by Lucky Luciano to a Coney Island restaurant, Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis and Bugsy Siegel. Salvatore Maranzano therefore proclaimed himself capo di tutti capi until September 10, 1931, when he was killed on the orders of Lucky Luciano by Bugsy Siegel's men.
Years as Consigliere
In 1931, after the assassination of Joe Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, Lucky Luciano became capo di tutti capi and godfather of the Luciano Family, with Vito Genovese as underboss and Frank Costello as consigliere. Costello quickly becomes one of the most profitable members of the Family. Costello primarily ran slot machine operations and placed approximately 25,000 in bars, restaurants, cafes, drugstores, gas stations, and bus stops in New York City. Frank Costello also quickly acquired (like Arnold Rothstein, of whom he was a "disciple"), a solid reputation as an adviser forming a link between the underworld and the authorities (police officers, judges and politicians, in particular those of Tammany Hall, the organization of the Democratic Party in New York). A man of useful contacts, he was thus one of the most influential figures in American organized crime and became a permanent member of the Commission (great council of the American mafia).
After the election in 1933, as mayor of New York, of the Republican (but supporter of the New Deal of Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt) Fiorello LaGuardia, he was however driven out of the city and took refuge in New Orleans, where the populist Huey Long had invited him to share the income from underground gambling halls.
The Godfather's Prosperous Reign
When Lucky Luciano was incarcerated in Dannemora in 1936, the acting boss should have been Vito Genovese who was at the time the underboss of the Luciano Family, but he had to leave the United States to escape an indictment for murder, it was Costello who became the acting boss (executive sponsor) of his family (about 500 soldiers). His reign is considered the most peaceful and prosperous period for the New York Mafia. The family's various rackets extended as far as Los Angeles (with Bugsy Siegel) and Florida (with Meyer Lansky) and its bookmaking (betting) business, managed by Frank Erikson, covered the entire national territory. Costello expanded the family's business to casinos in Cuba and Las Vegas and invested in real estate on Wall Street. To consolidate his power, he could count on the alliance of Willie Moretti, kingpin of New Jersey, who was assassinated in 1951.
After World War II, Lucky Luciano was released from prison for the war effort but deported to Italy, thus making Frank Costello the official Godfather of the Luciano Family.
The target of the Kefauver commission
Costello had to go see a psychiatrist because he suffered from depression and panic attacks during the 1950s. The latter advised him to get away from his old associates, such as Vito Genovese, and to spend more time with politicians than he did. 'with criminals.
But it was precisely at this time that Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver and his commission decided to investigate the role of organized crime in the United States. Costello was brought to appear on numerous occasions. Costello agreed to testify in public and not to hide behind the Fifth Amendment as all the mobsters who had not agreed to testify had done before. The Special Committee and the televisions present agreed not to film Costello's face, only his hands. During his audition, Costello nervously refused to answer some questions and dodged others. When the Committee asked, "What are you doing for your country, Mr. Costello?" Costello replied, "I pay my taxes." Then Costello walked out of the audition. Placed in the spotlight of television, he became the most famous mobster of his time.
But faithful to the omerta (law of silence of the mafia), during the following convocations to the court he will invoke to do this the Fifth amendment of the Constitution of the United States, he was found guilty of contempt before the senate in 1953 and spent 14 months in prison. In 1954 and 1956, he was convicted of tax evasion but managed to have these sentences overturned.
Genovese's ambition
Meanwhile, Vito Genovese, underboss (second in command) of the family, was eager to take Costello's place. To avoid a conviction for murder, he had gone into exile in Italy between 1937 and 1946 and upon his return he found sourly that Costello's power, as well as his alliance with the powerful Albert Anastasia, had grown during his absence. The balance of power being unfavorable to Genovese, he waited for the favorable moment, rather than starting a gang war. In April 1957, a killer in the pay of Genovese, Vincent Gigante who would later be the godfather of the Genovese Family, attempted to assassinate Costello in a New York street. Legend has it that Gigante would have, while pointing his gun, alerted Costello by shouting:“Frank, this is for you! ". He escaped with a head injury.
Retirement
After this attack, Costello decided to retire leaving his place to Genovese in exchange for his slot machines, he was demoted to the rank of soldier, but the other members continued to respect him as one of the greatest godfathers of Cosa nostra . He later retaliated by participating with Luciano in the heroin booby-trap deal that sent the new boss to prison. During his retirement, Frank Costello was known as the "Prime Minister of the Underworld". Until his death he retained power and influence within the Five Families of New York. Certain Five Families godfathers as well as his old associates and friends such as Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese would visit him at his apartment in the Waldorf Astoria, in order to obtain his opinion on important Mafia cases. His old friend, Meyer Lansky also kept in touch. Frank Costello died on February 18, 1973 at the age of 82. Costello was one of the most intelligent and respected godfathers in the history of cosa nostra.
Popular culture
In 1999, the film "Mafia Blues" by Harold Ramis depicts an important mafioso suffering from anxiety attacks like Frank Costello
In 2006, Martin Scorsese was directly inspired by the character for his film The Departed.
Frank Costello had panic attacks, just like Tony Soprano in the television series The Sopranos.
In the film The Untamed, the role of Frank Costello is held by Costas Mandylor.
In 1991, Carmine Caridi plays the role of the mobster in Barry Levinson's Bugsy
In the film Seven Psychopaths, one of the characters bears the surname of Costello in a nod to the gangster