Anthony Casso Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

Casso died in prison custody from complications related to COVID-19 on December 15, 2020.

Casso began serving his sentence at the supermax prison ADX Florence in Florence, Colorado. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Casso was transferred to the Federal Medical Center (FMC) at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina, for the treatment of prostate cancer in March 2009. He was returned to ADX Florence in July 2009. By 2013, Casso had been transferred to the Federal Residential Reentry Management Office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is not a prison facility, but rather an administrative designation for inmates assigned to home confinement, “halfway houses”, or state and county correctional facilities. As of May 2018, he had been transferred to the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, an administrative security/medical prison in Springfield, Missouri. He was later transferred to USP Terre Haute. From March 25, 2020, he was serving his sentence at USP Tucson, a high security prison in Arizona. In his later years, Casso had developed complications related to prostate cancer, coronary artery disease, kidney disease, hypertension, bladder disease and lung issues from years of smoking.

On November 5, 2020, Casso tested positive for COVID-19, amid its pandemic in Arizona, while incarcerated; he was placed in medical isolation USP Tucson. On November 9, he was transported to a local hospital due to respiratory distress, and on November 17, 2020, was put on a ventilator. His lawyers requested compassionate release, but that motion was rejected on November 28. Casso died from complications related to COVID-19 on December 15, 2020, at the age of 78.

Casso later began reporting to Christopher Furnari, alias “Christie Tick”, the caporegime of “the 19th Hole Crew”.

When Furnari was promoted to the Lucchese family’s consigliere, he asked Casso to take over the 19th Hole Crew. However, Casso declined, suggesting that Amuso be promoted instead. Casso remained Amuso’s aide.

Casso had a close alliance with Russian boss Marat Balagula, who operated a multibillion-dollar gasoline bootlegging scam in Brighton Beach. Balagula, a Soviet Jewish refugee from Odessa, had arrived in the US under the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. After Colombo capo Michael Franzese began shaking down his crew, Balagula approached Christopher Furnari, consigliere for the Lucchese crime family, and asked for a sit-down at the 19th Hole Crew’s social club in Brooklyn. According to Casso, Furnari declared,

According to Carlo, when Casso revealed that he also had an FBI Agent on the payroll, prosecutors ordered him to keep quiet. Casso alleges that he further enraged the US government by accusing Gambino turncoat Sammy Gravano, who had denied ever having dealt in drugs, of buying large amounts of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana from Casso over two decades. However, Casso was vindicated to some extent when Gravano pleaded guilty in 2000 to operating a massive narcotics ring, which included selling ecstasy to adolescents. He was the second confessed underboss of a New York crime family to break his blood oath and turn informer, after Gambino underboss Gravano.

In 1998, Casso was removed from the witness protection program after prosecutors alleged numerous infractions, in 1997, including bribing guards, assaulting other inmates and making “false statements” about Gravano and D’Arco. Casso’s attorney tried to get Judge Frederic Block to overrule federal prosecutors in July 1998, but Block refused to do so. Shortly afterward, Judge Block sentenced Casso to 455 years in prison without possibility of parole—the maximum sentence permitted under sentencing guidelines. Casso later told The New York Times’ organized-crime reporter Selwyn Raab that, before turning informer, he was seriously considering a deal that would have allowed him the possibility of parole after 22 years. “I help them and I get life without parole,” he said. “This is really a fuckin’ joke”. Casso lost two subsequent appeals to get his sentence reduced.

Casso finalized a plea agreement at a hearing on March 1, 1994, where he pleaded guilty to 70 crimes, including racketeering, extortion and 15 murders. The two lead prosecutors on the case, Charles Rose and Gregory O’Connell, later said they’d feared Casso could be acquitted at trial, since they did not have any taped conversations as evidence. However, with Casso’s guilty plea, O’Connell said they had Casso “tied up six ways to Sunday.” While remaining in prison, Casso was placed in the witness protection program.

Following his arrest in 1993, Casso became one of the highest-ranking members of the Mafia to turn informant. After taking a plea agreement, he was placed in the witness protection program, however, in 1998, it was rescinded and Casso was dropped from the program after several infractions. Later that year, a federal judge sentenced him to 455 years in prison for racketeering, extortion, and murder.

In reality, following his arrest inside the house in Mount Olive by the FBI in 1993, Lillian Casso, “was incensed, and felt betrayed – violated – used”, when she learned that her husband had secretly continued his relationship with Rosemarie Billotti. Even though she eventually agreed to visit her husband in Federal prison, for the rest of her life, Lillian Casso, according to Philip Carlo, “could not understand how Anthony could be so deceitful, duplicitous, – such a two faced pig.”

Also in 1993, Casso ordered George Zappola, Frank “Bones” Papagni, and Lucchese consigliere Frank Lastorino, to murder the Lucchese family’s Bronx capo, Steven Crea.

Meanwhile, investigators from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office were using new technology to trace the location of cell phones. Frank Lastorino, they found, was regularly calling a cell phone near Budd Lake, New Jersey. The DA’s Office informed FBI Agent Richard Rudolph, who arranged for a Federal warrant allowing Lastorino’s phone to be tapped. As FBI Agents listened in, they recognized Casso’s voice. On January 19, 1993, Casso was arrested while coming out of the shower at the house he shared with his mistress, Rosemarie Billotti, in Mount Olive, New Jersey.

On February 2, 1993, the body of Frank Signorino, Peter Chiodo’s uncle, was found frozen solid in the trunk of a car in East New York. Signorino had been slain by multiple gunshot wounds to the head, which was wrapped in a black plastic bag.

On February 12, 1993, the Lucchese family burned down the garage of Annette Signorino, Peter Chiodo’s 95-year-old grandmother, in Gravesend, Brooklyn. Chiodo later told the FBI, that he, “couldn’t believe someone would try to harm an old woman.”

In a further violation of the Mafia’s code, Chiodo’s extended family in Brooklyn soon suffered retaliation from Amuso and Casso. On March 10, 1992, Vario Crew enforcer Michael Spinelli shot Chiodo’s sister, Patricia Capozallo, while she was driving in Bensonhurst. Capozallo sustained bullet wounds in the arm, back and neck but survived.

In January 1991, Casso received an early warning, from a secret law enforcement source he referred to as his, “crystal ball”, about an upcoming federal indictment. Shortly before he and Amuso both went into hiding, Casso summoned Alphonse D’Arco, the caporegime of The Vario Crew, to a meeting at the Rodman gun at John Paul Jones Park, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Casso gave D’Arco a list of phone booth numbers and secret addresses and informed D’Arco that he was in charge of the Lucchese crime family until further notice.

In early 1991, Amuso and Casso ordered the murder of made man and caporegime Peter Chiodo, a fellow Windows Case defendant who had pleaded guilty without asking their permission. Casso assigned the murder to acting boss Alphonse ‘Little Al’ D’Arco. The order shocked D’Arco, who knew that Chiodo had been a close friend and confidant of Casso for years.

On May 8, 1991, two Lucchese shooters ambushed Chiodo while he was working on a car at a gas station in Staten Island. Chiodo received 12 bullet wounds in the arms, legs, and torso, but survived the attack. Doctors credited Chiodo’s obesity with saving his life, as none of the slugs penetrated a vital organ or artery. However, he sustained several abdominal wounds and permanent damage to his right arm.

Meanwhile, Alphonse D’Arco knew that Amuso and Casso blamed him for having failed to murder Peter Chiodo and grew certain that they were planning to kill him. In July 1991, in a Staten Island meeting, Amuso and Casso replaced D’Arco as acting boss with a four-man panel of capos. While D’Arco was named to this panel, he remained certain that Amuso and Casso no longer trusted him.

On July 29, 1991, due to a tipoff from an unidentified Lucchese insider, Amuso was arrested and Casso was secured the de facto boss of the family. It has been speculated that Casso himself was the source for the leak, as only a few people were privy to Amuso’s location. This theory is contradicted, however, by Carlo, who states that Casso was not only determined to find out who betrayed Amuso and kill them, but that Casso also immediately sent the $250,000 that was due to Amuso to his wife in a shoe box. Casso, according to Carlo, had no desire to be boss of the Lucchese family and attempted to arrange for Amuso’s escape from federal custody after his arrest. To the disappointment of Casso and the Lucchese capos, Amuso refused to leave prison out of fear for his life. As a result, the Lucchese capos asked Casso to take over as acting boss. Casso reluctantly accepted.

By September 21, 1991, Alphonse D’Arco was certain that Amuso and Casso had marked him and his family for death. That afternoon, D’Arco telephoned the suburban Connecticut home of FBI Agent Robert Marston. D’Arco explained that his life was in danger and that the Lucchese family had started killing the entire families of suspected informers, which had never previously been allowed. After some hesitation, D’Arco finally told Agent Marston that he and his family were in hiding at his mother’s house in Long Island. Later that night, D’Arco and his family entered WITSEC.

In one instance, Casso and Amuso split $800,000 from the Colombo family for Casso’s aid in helping them rob steel from a construction site at the West Side Highway in Manhattan. In another instance, the two bosses received $600,000 from the Gambino family for allowing it to take over a Lucchese-protected contractor for a housing complex project on Coney Island. Casso also controlled Greek-American crime boss George Kalikatas, who gave Casso $683,000 protection money in 1990 alone to operate a loan sharking, extortion, and illegal gambling organization in Astoria, Queens.

In 1988, Caporegime Paul Vario died in Federal Prison, and Amuso promoted Alphonse D’Arco to capo of The Vario Crew. In 1990, Amuso selected D’Arco to organize a “Lucchese construction panel”. A committee of Lucchese family members, the panel would oversee the Lucchese-controlled unions and construction companies and co-ordinate joint business ventures with the other Five Families of the New York City Cosa Nostra.

As Casso had warned, Lucchese boss Anthony Corallo and Genovese boss Vincent Gigante decided to kill Gotti, DeCicco, and every other conspirator in Castellano’s murder. Amuso and Casso were chosen to handle the assassinations, and were instructed to use a car bomb to try and shift suspicion to Sicilian mobsters, or Zips, related to Castellano. While New York City mafiosi had long been (officially) banned from using bombs due to the risk of collateral damage, Sicilian mafiosi and members of the Cleveland crime family were notorious for blowing up their targets. Amuso and Casso made one attempt on the lives of Gotti and DeCicco, planting a bomb in DeCicco’s car when the two were scheduled to visit a social club on April 13, 1986. Gotti cancelled at the last minute, however, and the bomb instead only killed DeCicco and injured a passenger they had mistaken for Gotti.

In November 1986, Lucchese family boss Anthony Corallo sensed that the Commission Trial would result in a guilty verdict that would ensure the entire Lucchese leadership would die in prison. Corallo wanting to maintain the family’s half-century tradition of a seamless transfer of power called both Casso and Amuso to Furnari’s Staten Island home. Casso turned down the promotion to boss and instead suggested that Amuso become the new boss. Amuso formally took over the family in 1987 and Casso succeeded Furnari as consigliere. Casso later took over as Underboss in 1989 after Mariano Macaluso retired.

Shortly afterward, Balagula’s rival, a fellow Russian immigrant named Vladimir Reznikov, drove up to the former’s office building in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. Sitting in his car, Reznikov opened fire on the building with an AK-47. One of Balagula’s close associates was killed and several secretaries were wounded. Then, on June 12, 1986, Reznikov entered the Rasputin nightclub in Brighton Beach and placed a 9mm Beretta against Balagula’s head, demanding $600,000 in exchange for not pulling the trigger. He also demanded a percentage of everything Balagula was involved in. After Balagula promised to get the money, Reznikov threatened him and his family.

In December 1985, Casso was approached by caporegime Frank DeCicco regarding a planned coup in the Gambino crime family. Gambino captain John Gotti, whose crew had worked with Casso in multiple drug deals, and other captains, were planning to kill crime boss, Paul Castellano. Gotti and DeCicco were looking for support among the other Four Families affected by the Mafia Commission Trial. According to Sammy Gravano, another of Gotti’s co-conspirators, DeCicco returned from the meeting saying that Casso had offered the conspirators his unconditional support. According to Casso, DeCicco alleged during their meeting that Castellano’s carelessness in allowing his own house to be bugged was reason enough to kill him. Casso later told Carlo, however, that he tried to talk DeCicco out of killing a boss without first asking for The Commission’s permission. Otherwise, he said, killing Castellano would be a cardinal violation of the rules and all the participants would have to be murdered by the other Four Families. Castellano’s murder went ahead anyway on December 16, 1985. Casso would later denounce Gotti’s actions to Carlo as “the beginning of the end of our thing.”

In 1974, at age 32, he became a made man, or full member, of the Lucchese family. Casso was assigned to Vincent Foceri’s crew that operated from 116th Street in Manhattan and from Fourteenth Avenue in Brooklyn. Shortly after becoming made, Casso became close to another rising star in the family, Victor Amuso, and began a partnership that would last for two decades. They committed scores of crimes, including drug trafficking, burglary and the murders of informants.

Within Furnari’s “19th Hole Crew” both Casso and Amuso led a burglary ring known as “The Bypass Gang”, which included expert locksmiths, safe crackers, and experts in security alarm systems. The Bypass Gang is still suspected of committing burglaries in banks and jewelry stores throughout New York City and Long Island. Authorities estimated the Bypass gang stole more than $100 million from safety deposit boxes and vaults during the 1970s and 1980s.

Casso married fellow South Brooklyn native Lillian Delduca on May 4, 1968. They had a daughter and son.

Casso was a violent youth, and member of the infamous 1950s gang, the South Brooklyn Boys. In 1958, he was arrested after a “rumble” against Irish-American gangsters. Casso later told Carlo that his father visited him at the police station and tried in vain to scare his son straight. He soon caught the eye of Christopher “Christie Tick” Furnari, the capo of the “19th Hole Crew” in the Lucchese family. Casso started his career in the Mafia as a loan shark. As a protégé of Furnari, he was also involved in gambling and drug dealing. He was arrested for attempted murder in 1961, but was acquitted when the alleged victim refused to identify him.

Anthony Salvatore Casso (May 21, 1942 – December 15, 2020), nicknamed “Gaspipe”, was an American mobster and underboss of the Lucchese crime family. During his career in organized crime, Casso was regarded as a “homicidal maniac” in the Italian-American Mafia. He is suspected of having committed dozens of murders, and had confessed to involvement in between 15 and 36 murders. Government witness Anthony Accetturo, the former caporegime of The Jersey Crew, once said of Casso, “all he wanted to do is kill, kill, get what you can, even if you didn’t earn it”. In interviews, and on the witness stand, Casso confessed involvement in the murders of Frank DeCicco, Roy DeMeo, and Vladimir Reznikov. Casso also admitted to several attempts to murder Gambino family boss John Gotti.

Casso was born on May 21, 1942, in South Brooklyn, in New York City, the youngest of the three children to Michael and Margaret Casso (née Cucceullo). Casso’s grandparents had immigrated to the United States from Campania, Italy in the 1890s. His godfather was Salvatore Callinbrano, a made man and caporegime in the Genovese crime family, which maintained a powerful influence on the Brooklyn docks. Casso dropped out of school at 16 and got a job with his father as a longshoreman. In his youth, he became a crack shot, firing pistols at targets on a rooftop which he and his friends used as a shooting range. Casso also made money shooting predatory hawks for pigeon keepers.