The grisly murder of Gambino crime family boss Frank Cali has stoked fears that the Mafia may be returning to the streets of New York City after more than three decades of peace.
Cali, 53, was shot six times and run over by a pickup truck outside his redbrick house in the upscale Todt Hill neigborhood of Staten Island just after 9.15pm on Wednesday evening, sending shockwaves throughout the community.
Authorities, including the FBI, are looking into whether the hit was authorized by one of New York's five Mafia families, or whether it was carried out by a 'cowboy' gunman.
One former NYPD detective who investigated the mafia for years, Tommy Hyland, told Inside Edition that this murder feels personal.
Cali's murder is the first hit on a Mafia boss since John Gotti arranged the assassination of then-Gambino head Paul Castellano in 1985.
'We thought those days were over,' Mayor Bill de Blasio said of the slaying. 'Very surprising, but I guess old habits die hard.'
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The murder of Gambino crime family boss Frank Cali has stoked fears that the Mafia may be returning to New York City after more than three decades of peace. Cali, 53, was shot six times and run over by a pickup truck outside his house in the upscale Todt Hill neigborhood of Staten Island just after 9.15pm on Wednesday evening, sending shockwaves through the community
Authorities, including the FBI, are looking into whether the hit was authorized by one of New York's five Mafia families, or whether it was carried out by a 'cowboy' gunman
Cali's murder is the first hit on a Mafia boss since John Gotti arranged the assassination of then-Gambino head Paul Castellano outside a Manhattan steakhouse in 1985
Aggressive federal prosecutions in the past 25 years decimated the ranks of New York's five Mafia families.
The cases resulted in long prison terms for their bosses - Gotti included - and encouraged their successors to keep a lower profile.
But the new generation still engages in old-school crimes - loansharking, gambling, extortion - that can make enemies and spark violence.
This week, prosecutors in Brooklyn announced a case against a long-time Gambino associate accused of killing a suspected loanshark affiliated with the Lucchese crime family.
The Gambino crime family is one of what is widely referred to as 'The Five Families' of Italian organized crime operations in New York City and other parts of the United States.
The Gambinos' rise to become one of the most powerful mafia families in America started in 1957, when the family's namesake, Carlos Gambino - an Italian immigrant - orchestrated the murder of Albert Anastasia, who had organized a collection of Italian gangs into what now would be considered a 'crime family.'
Gambino headed the organization until 1976, when he handed power over to his brother-in-law Paul Castellano.
Like other mafia families, the Gambinos took their methods from the crime families in Italy - La Cosa Nostra - and were involved in illegal activities like loan-sharking, extortion, prostitution, gambling and money laundering - as well as the frequent assaults and murders associated with those types of business ventures.
In 1985, Gambino 'capo' John Gotti orchestrated the murder of Castellano to become the most publicized boss of the family.
Gotti's reign came to an end when his underboss, Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano agreed to testify against him and other members of the family in a 1992 RICO trial.
Since Gotti's downfall, the Gambinos - and other mafia families - have lost much of the power they once had over politicians, judges and labor unions.
The family was headed by Domenico Cefalu until 2015, when Frank Cali took over as capo.
Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said on Thursday there has been a slight uptick in alleged mob-related violence in New York within the last year. But he said it is too soon to say whether that had anything to do with Cali's slaying.
Shea said the mob boss emerged from his home around 9.15pm after the gunman backed his pickup into Cali's Cadillac SUV, damaging it. 'With what we know at this point in time, it's quite possible that was part of a plan,' Shea said.
Video showed the assailant pulling a 9mm handgun and opening fire on Cali about a minute after they started talking, according to Shea. At least 12 shots were fired. After getting shot several times, Cali tried to crawl under his SUV to hide, Shea said.
Federal prosecutors referred to Cali in court filings in recent years as the quiet underboss of the Mafia's Gambino family, once one of the most powerful and feared crime organizations in the country. News accounts since 2015 said he had ascended to the top spot.
Among law enforcement officials, Cali was known as a 'real quiet old-school boss' - one police source told the New York Post.
He was considered to be a foil of his former boss John Gotti because 'no one ever sees him'.
The organization reportedly focused its efforts on heroin and Oxycontin trafficking under his leadership.
Cali only had one criminal conviction, having spent 16 months for a 2008 federal extortion charge in connection with a failed bit to build a NASCAR race track in Staten Island.
The hit on Cali comes just six months after
