Francesco Cali, the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family, was fatally shot outside his home on Staten Island on Wednesday night. Cali, 53, was shot six times, a police official has said, and there was a report of a blue pickup leaving the scene around the time of shooting.
Cali’s sudden, violent death potentially places him in a long line of mafia leaders who, have been targeted for assassination. Past mob figures have often been shot in moments of vulnerability — while eating out or relaxing at the barber. Their killers were rarely brought to justice. In fact, the slayings often led to more violence and, in some cases, the killers ended up being killed themselves.
Here’s a look at some other high-profile mob hits in New York.
Paul Castellano, 1985
Paul Castellano led the Gambino crime family for years, conducting business from a mansion in Todt Hill — the same Staten Island neighborhood where Cali was killed Wednesday.
In December 1985, Castellano, 70, and an associate stepped out of a limousine outside Sparks Steak House in midtown Manhattan when three men approached. The assassins drew semi-automatic weapons from under their trench coats and opened up a barrage of gunfire at close range, striking Castellano and his associate about six times. Bystanders were sent screaming and diving into doorways. The gunmen fled on foot and jumped into a waiting dark car that sped away.
Castellano and the associate fell dead beside the open doors of their black Lincoln limousine. Castellano was face up, his head slouched against the seat of the limousine, his feet sprawled on the pavement.
Carmine Galante, 1979
Carmine Galante, who had been described by police as the head of a 200‐member crime “family,” was considered to be one of the most powerful organized crime figures in the nation. He had been a target for a year or more because of his supposed aspirations to succeed Carlo Gambino as head of the Gambino crime family — the job given to Castellano instead.
In July 1979, Galante, 69, was slain in a hail of bullets fired by three ski‐masked gunmen, apparently on the orders of a rival crime family. He had been dining on the patio of a small Italian restaurant in Brooklyn.
Two other men — a bodyguard for Galante and the owner of the restaurant — also were killed. The owner’s 17‐year‐old son was seriously wounded in the attack.
All three of the slain men were unarmed and caught by surprise when they were shot at point‐blank range by the killers, who escaped the scene. A cigar Galante had been puffing was still clenched in his teeth when the police arrived.
Joseph Gallo, 1972
In April 1972, Joseph Gallo, a Mafia figure known as Crazy Joe, was assassinated as he celebrated his 43rd birthday at a restaurant in Manhattan’s Little Italy neighborhood.
Almost immediately, some sources said his slaying was a result of the wars between the Colombo and Gallo families. No one was convicted in his death.
As the story goes, Gallo and his associates were sitting in the back of the restaurant, drinking soda and eating Italian delicacies, when his assassin strode silently through the door.
As gunfire broke out, there were screams and customers hit the floor. Gallo, mortally wounded, staggered out of the front door and collapsed in the street. His killer hopped into a waiting car and escaped into the darkness. No one was convicted in the slaying.
Joseph A. Colombo Sr., 1971
In 1971, Joseph A. Colombo Sr., who was believed to be the head of a Brooklyn Mafia family, was shot three times in the head while he stood in Columbus Circle in Manhattan waiting for a rally of the Italian-American Civil Rights League, which he founded.
Seconds later, the man who the authorities said shot him, Jerome A. Johnson, was mysteriously shot to death with a stolen weapon.
The perplexing case led the police to believe that “rivals of Colombo” in the “Italian underworld community” had hired Johnson as an assassin, a police official said at the time, and then ordered the execution of Johnson to silence him.
No one was ever charged in Johnson’s death, and no one was indicted in Colombo’s shooting. But some believed that Gallo was involved and that his assassination the next year was retribution for the attack on Colombo.
Colombo, 48 at the time, did not die immediately but fell into a coma and was left almost totally paralyzed. The once robust leader, who dressed expensively and was known for seeking the spotlight, spent his remaining years incapacitated at his estate. He died seven years later, in 1978, from a condition stemming from his gunshot wounds.
Albert Anastasia, 1957
Albert Anastasia, a feared mob boss who was known as the head of Murder Inc., an execution squad accused of dozens of murders in the early 20th century, had managed to escape death by the electric chair.
But death found him in a barber’s chair, as he relaxed under a pile of hot towels.
Anastasia had been convicted of murder in 1921 and sentenced to death but was freed in a retrial. He was killed Oct. 25, 1957, when two men walked into the barbershop of the Park Sheraton Hotel and drew their guns. The men, wearing scarves to hide their faces, shot Anastasia five times.
No arrests were made. But the authorities believed that Carmine J. Persico, a mob boss who died this month in prison, had a strong hand in his and other killings. In a sentencing memorandum about Persico in 1986, federal prosecutors said he had admitted to a relative, “I killed Anastasia.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.