Anthony “Nino” Gaggi rose through the ranks of the Gambino crime family in Brooklyn, but his downfall began with the very man he mentored: Roy DeMeo, the leader of one of the most violent crews in Mafia history. Born in Brooklyn to Italian immigrant parents, Gaggi dropped out of school at a young age and joined his father in the barber shop business before being drawn into gambling and loan sharking. His early life took another turn when his family briefly relocated to New Jersey to run a modest farm, but they returned to Brooklyn in 1943, settling in the Bath Beach area. At 17, Gaggi tried to enlist in the U.
S. Army in 1942 but was rejected because of myopia, or nearsightedness. A later discharge following an injury pushed him toward a business venture selling peanut dispensers to bars, but his path changed dramatically when his cousin Frank Scalise, a founding member of the Gambino family, brought him into the criminal underworld. With Scalise’s help, Gaggi obtained a job at a truck dock and quickly rose to supervisor.
He was later made a “ghost employee,” a position that required no actual work, allowing him to focus fully on loan sharking in Brooklyn’s bars and pool halls. The arrangement also gave him a cover to report legitimate income to the IRS, sidestepping potential tax evasion charges. In 1947, Gaggi’s sister Marie gave birth to Dominic Montiglio. The boy’s father, Anthony Santa Maria, was a boxer and delivery man whose relationship with the family soured.
Gaggi stepped in as a father figure, and Dominic later followed his uncle into a life of crime — before eventually testifying against him in court. Gaggi was arrested for the first time in 1954, charged with orchestrating an international auto theft ring operating out of a used car dealership in Brooklyn. The operation was financed by Scalise, who had become the Gambino consigliere. Over two years, Gaggi and two accomplices forged vehicle registrations for nonexistent Cadillacs, stole matching cars, swapped the vehicle identification numbers, fitted them with new license plates, and shipped them to Florida, Georgia, Texas, and even Mexico.
In 1955, Gaggi married, even as his auto theft trial was ongoing. The trial took an unexpected turn when key witnesses suddenly forgot their testimony and his co-defendants refused to testify against him. In early 1956, Gaggi was acquitted. The following year brought upheaval to the Gambino family.
In June 1957, Scalise was gunned down at a fruit stand in the Bronx. Months later, in October, boss Albert Anastasia was assassinated while sitting in a barber’s chair at a Manhattan hotel. In the turmoil that followed, Carlo Gambino rose to power and named Aniello Dellacroce, an Anastasia loyalist, as his underboss. Gaggi, a close confidant of Gambino, became firmly entrenched in the family’s inner circle.
In October 1960, Gaggi carried out his first murder on behalf of the family. He was part of a hit squad tasked with killing Vincent Squillante, a mobster suspected of betraying the family. According to insider accounts, Gaggi later described the killing: they caught Squillante by surprise in the Bronx, shot him in the head, stuffed him in a trunk, and made sure he would never be found. His body was fed into an industrial trash incinerator and completely destroyed.
The act earned Gaggi a coveted spot as a made member of the Gambino family. By the mid-1960s, Gaggi had built a substantial loan sharking business and invested quietly in legitimate enterprises. His ambition brought him into a partnership with Roy DeMeo, a rising figure in Brooklyn’s underworld who ran a profitable stolen car operation in Flatlands and Canarsie and had ties to the rival Lucchese family. Gaggi convinced DeMeo to sever those connections and work for the Gambinos instead.
Together they began co-financing loans, exponentially increasing their earnings. By 1970, DeMeo was operating directly under Gaggi, paying him weekly tributes as a loyal subordinate. Their ventures later extended into the illicit pornography industry. In 1972, they muscled their way into a partnership with an underground company distributing X-rated films.
When law enforcement raided the operation in 1973, owner Paul Rothenberg chose to cooperate with authorities. Viewing this as an unforgivable betrayal, Gaggi ordered DeMeo to silence Rothenberg permanently. The order was swiftly executed, with Rothenberg’s bullet-riddled body discovered shortly after. The Rothenberg killing was the first of many murders committed by DeMeo’s crew.
While Gaggi was not involved in most of them, he did participate in some. Gaggi and DeMeo shot and killed Vincent Gara, a young man with no mob ties, over a fight between him and Gaggi that had occurred 12 years earlier. In 1976, DeMeo killed George Byam, an electrical contractor who had tipped off thieves who attempted to burglarize Gaggi’s Florida vacation home without knowing Gaggi and his wife were present. Under Gaggi’s direction, DeMeo shot Byam in a Miami hotel room, while Gaggi and another mobster, Tony Plate, attempted to dismember the body.
They were interrupted by a construction crew repairing an air conditioning unit outside the room and fled, leaving Byam’s bloodied corpse to be found by a hotel maid. In the latter months of 1976, the Gambino family underwent a pivotal change with the death of boss Carlo Gambino, who passed away from natural causes. Before his death, Gambino named his brother-in-law Paul Castellano as his successor, a decision that created tension with the Manhattan faction supporting underboss Aniello Dellacroce. A leadership meeting was convened at Gaggi’s home, where a compromise was reached: Castellano would become boss, and Dellacroce would retain his position as underboss.
As part of the reorganization, Gaggi was promoted to capo of Castellano’s former crew. Gaggi proposed that Roy DeMeo be officially inducted into the family, but Castellano hesitated, viewing DeMeo’s violent tendencies as a liability. By the summer of 1977, Castellano relented, allowing DeMeo’s entry. DeMeo’s operations flourished as he forged a powerful alliance between the Gambinos and the Westies, an Irish-American gang that controlled Hell’s Kitchen.
His illegal ventures funneled substantial profits to Gaggi, who used the funds to expand his loan sharking enterprise. On June 7, 1978, following a year-long federal investigation into the suspicious bankruptcy of a New York theater, authorities brought charges against Gaggi and nine other individuals, including racketeering, conspiracy, and fraud. The case was built largely on wiretapped conversations, but Gaggi, ever cautious, avoided saying anything directly incriminating. By December of that year, he was acquitted of all charges.
By the following year, DeMeo had expanded into loan sharking, contract killings, and an auto theft ring that exported stolen vehicles to the Middle East. The duo also profited from large-scale drug trafficking, distributing cocaine, marijuana, and pills — despite the Gambino family’s public ban on narcotics. Tensions escalated when Gambino capo James Eppolito accused DeMeo of swindling his son in a drug deal. Eppolito went further, claiming Gaggi was working as a police informant, an allegation that could spell death in mob circles.
Eppolito approached Castellano requesting permission to eliminate both Gaggi and DeMeo. In a surprising move, Castellano sided with Gaggi and DeMeo, granting them permission to kill Eppolito and his son instead. On October 1, 1979, Gaggi and DeMeo executed both Eppolitos in a calculated hit. Their crime did not go unnoticed: an observant witness alerted an off-duty police officer, who approached the scene and discovered Gaggi attempting to walk away.
DeMeo had slipped away in another direction. A confrontation unfolded when Gaggi opened fire, but the officer responded with precision, wounding Gaggi in the neck and apprehending him. Initially charged with murder, Gaggi was convicted only of assault and received a federal prison sentence of five to 15 years. During Gaggi’s incarceration, DeMeo stepped up to take control, becoming the acting capo of their crew.
By 1981, however, Gaggi’s conviction was overturned on appeal, revealing a startling twist: he had successfully bribed a juror to fabricate accusations of misconduct against the government during his trial. During Gaggi’s absence, Anthony “Gaspipe” Montiglio, a crew member, had descended into drug addiction and fled New York, fearing retribution from the family. Meanwhile, law enforcement intensified its efforts against DeMeo’s operations. By 1980, two members of his auto theft ring were imprisoned, and a third, Vito Arena, turned state’s witness.
Arena’s testimony in 1982 exposed the web of crimes committed by both Gaggi and the DeMeo crew. As the investigation closed in, whispers of betrayal spread. Castellano grew increasingly wary that DeMeo might cooperate with authorities if cornered. On January 20, 1983, DeMeo’s body was discovered in the trunk of his car, frozen and lifeless.
The murder remains shrouded in mystery, but many believe Castellano orchestrated the hit, possibly carried out by Gaggi or loyal remnants of DeMeo’s crew. Following DeMeo’s murder, Anthony Montiglio returned to New York to collect an outstanding loan shark debt but was arrested in the process. Facing potential prosecution, he chose to cooperate with federal authorities, offering critical insights into the criminal activities of Gaggi and the DeMeo crew. His cooperation proved pivotal, leading to the indictments of Gaggi and Castellano.
By early 1984, several DeMeo crew members had been apprehended. Among them was Richard DiNome, who was murdered on February 4, 1984, under mysterious circumstances. Although the perpetrators were never officially identified, law enforcement suspected remaining DeMeo crew members were involved. Richard’s brother Frederick DiNome blamed the crew for his sibling’s death and subsequently turned state’s witness.
On February 25, 1984, Gaggi faced indictment on multiple racketeering and murder charges, with Castellano’s indictment following soon after. The court divided the charges into two separate trials. The first, focused on the auto theft ring and five associated murders, began in October 1985. Key testimony came from former associates including Montiglio and Frederick DiNome.
The trial was interrupted in December 1985 when Castellano was assassinated outside Sparks Steakhouse in Manhattan, a hit orchestrated by John Gotti, who swiftly seized control of the family. With Castellano dead, Gaggi became the lead defendant. In March 1986, he was convicted of conspiracy to sell stolen cars and sentenced to five years in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. As he served his sentence, preparations began for a second trial centered on racketeering and the 25 murders linked to the DeMeo crew.
In 1988, Gaggi was transferred to the Metropolitan Correctional Center to stand trial. On April 17, 1988, Gaggi met an untimely end while awaiting trial, succumbing to a heart attack under questionable circumstances. Moments before his death, he reportedly alerted a prison guard about severe chest pains, but the guard allegedly dismissed his complaints. The inaction fueled speculation that Gaggi’s life might have been saved had prison staff responded promptly.
His grieving wife filed a lawsuit against the prison system for negligence, bolstered by testimony from fellow inmates who corroborated claims of neglect. She ultimately triumphed in court, spotlighting the medical conditions within New York City prisons and pushing for improvements in health care for incarcerated individuals. Gaggi’s criminal enterprises included loan sharking, extortion, gambling, and racketeering, as well as organizing and profiting from large-scale robberies and thefts. He is perhaps best remembered for mentoring DeMeo, under whose guidance the DeMeo crew was involved in over 100 murders, many carried out to protect the Gambino family’s interests.
Despite his violent behavior, Gaggi maintained strict adherence to the Mafia’s code of conduct, including omertà, the vow of silence, which earned him respect and fear within the organization. His legacy is one of power, fear, and controversy, and his violent methods remain a cautionary tale within Mafia history.