New York’s former ‘Mafia prince’ Thomas Gambino dies aged 94 after surviving one of the bloodiest crime sprees in history in which he earned more than $75 million
- New York’s former ‘Mafia prince’ Thomas Gambino has died aged 94
- He survived one of the bloodiest crime eras in which he earned more than $75 million
- The Gambino brothers are the sons of the late ‘boss of bosses’, Carlo Gambino
Thomas ‘Tommy’ Gambino, a man once known as New York’s ‘Mafia Prince’, has died.
He was 94 years old.
Gambino, who was the eldest son of crime boss Carlo, died of natural causes.
While he survived one of the bloodiest crime eras in history, he earned more than $75 million in cash bonds and blue-chip stocks, according to the New York Times.
In 1992, he and his brother took a plea deal after being charged with corporate corruption, agreeing to pay $12 million in restitution and fines.
New York’s former ‘Mafia prince’ Thomas Gambino has died aged 94
The Gambino crime family was named after their father who was the head of the organization in 1963 (pictured is Thomas)
He had a younger brother, Joseph, who died in 2020, aged 83.
Together they ran a series of trucking companies in Manhattan’s, dominating any competition they believed would find themselves with flat tires – or worse – if they ever parked vehicles on the West Side streets.
While Thomas followed his father into the Gambino crime organization and became a ‘made man’, Joseph continued to run the business after dropping out of New York University in the 1950s.
The empire collapsed in October 1990, when state authorities charged the Gambino brothers with racketeering.
New York authorities used covert police and surveillance technology to gather evidence in the investigation that produced numerous criminal charges, including corporate corruption, theft, extortion, coercion and restraint of trade.
Gambino and his brother had a monopoly on truck deliveries in Manhattan’s Garment District
During the trial, the prosecution presented evidence that included tapes of secretly recorded conversations with Mafia traitor Salvatore Gravano, the New York Post reports.
One of the prosecutors who worked the case was then-Assistant District Attorney Eliot Spitzer.
Spitzer hatched a plan to set up a rival sweatshop in the Garment District that churned out shirts, pants and sweaters.
The store manager, who hired 30 employees to work in the factory, managed to get close enough to the Gambino brothers that he planted a hidden microphone in the ceiling of their office.
For decades, they intimidated competitors until New York State investigated
After the brothers were charged, they agreed to a plea deal in which they paid $12 million in fines and agreed to leave the trucking business.
Spitzer, who would go on to become attorney general and then governor of New York, although he eventually resigned when it was revealed that he visited prostitutes.
“I send my condolences to his family,” Spitzer told The Post.
Gambino was later convicted on racketeering charges related to loan shark operations in Connecticut. He was sent to prison for four years in 1996 – 2000.
The Gambino crime family was named after their father, Carlo Gambino, who headed the organization in 1963, when crime syndicates began to gain national attention due to federal government investigations.
During more than 50 years in organized crime, Carlo Gambino, who was known as ‘boss of bosses’, served only 22 months in prison for tax evasion.
He survived one of the bloodiest crime eras in which he earned more than $75 million