NY - Francesco "Franky Boy" Cali, 53, Gambino Crime Family, Shot Dead, Staten Island Mar 2019 Arrest

New Posts

NYPD: Gunman Lured Mob Boss Out of Home by Fake Car Crash

Gambino crime family boss Francesco Cali was gunned down in front of his Staten Island home on Wednesday night—moments after the suspect deliberately backed a pickup truck into Cali's SUV to get him to come outside, police said.

The triggerman left 16 holes in Cali’s body, and investigators recovered a dozen shell casings at the scene, a senior NYPD official told The Daily Beast.

Police on Thursday were searching for a pickup truck that fled the bloody scene and believe the vehicle has significant damage, NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said during press conference Thursday afternoon, adding that the suspect is believed to around 25-40 years.

No arrests have been made, and it was not clear if authorities had a lead on who might have whacked Cali, who had been boss of the Gambinos since 2015 and who had very close ties to the Sicilian Mafia. The FBI is investigating the murder, according to a federal law enforcement official.

“It remains a very active homicide investigation at this point,” Shea said. Cali’s past investigations with federal investigators are “focal point of the investigation as of right now.”
 
Thursday, March 14th, 2019 1:11PM

The reputed leader of the Gambino crime family, once headed by infamous mobster John Gotti, was gunned down in a "well-thought-out execution" outside his New York City home late Wednesday -- sparking an investigation into whether the hit was sanctioned or the revival of a "mob war," sources told ABC News.

Francesco "Franky Boy" Cali, 53, was found with multiple gunshot wounds to his body outside his home on Staten Island, according to the New York Police Department.


"This was not some fly-by-night thing," a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told ABC News. "This was a well-thought-out execution."

At a news conference Thursday afternoon, NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said the killer fired 12 shots at Cali with what is believed to be a 9mm handgun, striking him six times.

Shea said detectives have obtained video of the shooting, which occurred at 9:17 p.m.

"Mr. Cali was home at his residence ... with members of his family," Shea said. "He exits his house. He has a conversation in front of the residence and that individual ... only about a minute into it pulls a firearm and shoots."

He said Cali appeared to run and attempted to hide under his SUV.

Shea also said that prior to the shooting, there was a vehicle crash in front of the home in which Cali's SUV was backed into by a pickup truck believed to have been driven by the killer. He said detectives are trying to determine if the crash was meant to draw Cali out of his house.

"It appears with what we know at this point in time it's quite possible that was part of the plan," Shea said.

He described the man who shot Cali as being between 25 and 40 years old.

Cali is the first reputed mob boss murdered in New York City in 35 years.
Fatal shooting of reputed mob boss could be start of old-fashioned 'mob war': Source
 
How killer lured Staten Island mob boss Francesco Cali out of home for fatal ambush
BHZTS4BXQBHNRJQGOT4COEHXB4.png

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Moments before reputed Gambino crime boss Francesco (Franky Boy) Cali was gunned down in front of his home on Hilltop Terrace, the suspect backed into Cali’s parked vehicle, prompting the victim to exit his residence, according to police brass who held a press conference Thursday at NYPD headquarters.

“We know that there was a vehicle accident in front of the residence, and we believe the victim’s vehicle was struck,” said NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea. “(Cali) exits his house.. whether it was an altercation or a conversation remains to be seen."

Cali’s car “rocks significantly” from the impact of the other vehicle, Shea said. "So it takes some force to do that.”

Police said video surveillance of the encounter outside 25 Hilltop Terrace shows the suspect pull out a handgun about a minute into the conversation and fire 12 shots, at least six of the bullets striking Cali, 53, who was pronounced dead at Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, authorities said.

“In trying to elude gunfire he fled to rear area of his personal vehicle, and was trying to get underneath the truck,” Shea said.

The suspect is described as a male between 25 and 40 years old, though further details about his description were not provided by police. Police are still searching for a blue pick-up truck seen fleeing the scene.

“We have executed a warrant at the residence, we’ve obtained video surveillance from that scene and we’re placing together witness canvasses and extended video canvasses," Shea said.

Police have not confirmed the homicide to be mob-related, but are keeping an eye on several other developments in the city, including the recent release of Gene Gotti, brother to former Gambino crime-boss John Gotti, Shea said.
 
'They don't bother nobody': the quiet presence of New York's mafia

The murder struck many as a throwback to another era, when mafia families warred for control of lucrative rackets. It’s been more than three decades since the last targeted killing of a mob boss in New York. These days, the bosses are more likely to die of old age, as one did behind bars last week.

But Cali’s death in a hail of bullets on a quiet Staten Island block served as a reminder that, though diminished, the mob in New York has never gone away.

“It will always exist, and New York will probably always be ground zero for the mob,” said organized crime historian Christian Cipollini.

Cali, 53, lived in the hilly Todt Hill section of Staten Island, a neighborhood with a history of mafia ties.

“He was a discreet man,” said one neighbor, who declined to give his name. “He stays home everyday with his family, with his wife and children.”

The neighbor said he heard shots Wednesday night and then saw a blue car peel away. “I hear boom, boom, boom,” he said, declining to give more details. “It is dangerous for me.”

The alleged mob boss was shot at least six times after coming out of his home and exchanging words with his assailant, police say. A pickup truck had crashed into Cali’s Cadillac SUV, a collision that may have been staged to lure him out of the house
[...]
There have been no arrests, but Cali’s organized crime ties are a “focal point” of the investigation, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea.
[...]
“Nobody was expecting that because it’s a safe neighborhood,” Thomas said.

“There’s so many mob members out here ... They’ve been here for over 40 years, before I was even born,” he said. “They don’t bother nobody. They do what they do and we do what we do. So for this to happen yesterday was crazy.”

Another woman said she was not surprised to hear about the mob murder.

“They all live up there,” she said of Todt Hill, recalling that she was the last person to wait on Castellano before his own murder more than three decades ago. “Please, I got subpoenaed to court and everything. I stay out of this,” she said before climbing in a car and driving off.

A number of mafia members moved to the wider open spaces of Staten Island from the crowded neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn starting in the 1950s and ’60s, said Cipollini, not unlike middle class families who made the same upwardly mobile move.

“The upper management bosses never live where they work,” he said. “These guys are human, so they’re raising families and want to keep them away from that work.”

These days, Staten Island has been trying to combat its reputation as a hotbed for mob activity, which leaders say is outdated.
[...]
Cali was believed to have a hand in the food service business, he said, one of the ways New York mobsters have found to stay in business long past their heyday.

They have largely been pushed out of the waste hauling and concrete industries they once dominated, and Latin American cartels have more control in the drug trade, while Russian gangsters control cyber crime. Still, the mafia has persisted.

“They’re always going to have a hand in narcotics, and there is still evidence that there are industrial rackets they try to strong arm into. And they’ll always control the illegal gambling,” Cipollini said. “There will always be the basic shakedown.”
 
So I guess there is a slim chance this was just some random road rage encounter. The fact that they had a one minute conversation first seems a little strange for a hit, but my mob knowledge is largely from TV and movies.
 
Tighthead said:
So I guess there is a slim chance this was just some random road rage encounter. The fact that they had a one minute conversation first seems a little strange for a hit, but my mob knowledge is largely from TV and movies.
Click to expand...

I'd say no chance- he was shot and then run over with the truck. Like an exclamation point.
 
meanmaryjean said:
I'd say no chance- he was shot and then run over with the truck. Like an exclamation point.
Click to expand...

It’s actually the running over that seems more consistent with road rage to me. It just doesn’t seem clean, like a hit (and now I’m thinking of Phil Leotardo’s head popping like a grape. And of the scene where Vito plugs the New Englander, and I don’t mean Johnnycakes).

I admit it is 99 per cent chance a hit. But we could all get popped by some random hothead on any given day.
 
Gambino boss Frank Cali shook hands with killer before shooting, investigators say

TODT HILL, Staten Island (WABC) -- Details continue to emerge as the investigation advances in the murder of a reputed Gambino family mob boss outside his Staten Island home, the first such incident in New York in three decades.

Multiple police sources say that whoever shot Francesco "Frankie Boy" Cali drove up to the mobster's Hilltop Terrace home in the Todt Hill section, came to a stop, and then gunned the engine in reverse, crashing into Cali's parked Cadillac SUV.


The force of the impact knocked the license plate off the SUV and seemed to investigators to have been done intentionally in order to get Cali's attention.

Once Cali came outside the home, sources said, video showed the two men talking and then shaking hands. Apparently Cali sensed no danger, because he turned his back on his killer to put the license plate inside the rear of the SUV.

That's when the gunman took out a 9mm handgun, held it with two hands -- as if he was trained, the sources said -- and opened fire.

The video is said to be grainy and has not been released because the suspect's face cannot be seen. The NYPD is continuing to canvass the neighborhood in search of clearer video.

Cali's wife and child were in the home at the time, which sources say is a highly unusual circumstance in the lore of organized crime -- which, in its heyday, followed certain rules that kept targets from getting whacked in front of their families.
 
Tighthead said:
Okay that doesn’t sound like a road rage incident.
Click to expand...

Hmmm...a soldier Franky recognized?

Franky trusted him in that he turned his back on him -- not suspicious of him.

He also was not alarmed that this person/shooter was in his neighborhood and/or near his home at 9 pm.

I don't think wacking boss in front of his home sanctioned by other families.

Yup, look at Gene Gotti. He went away for almost 30 years and didn't find respect or retribution for doing his time the old fashion way (silence, no deal, no rat), when he came home.

MOO
 
Seattle1 said:
Hmmm...a soldier Franky recognized?

Franky trusted him in that he turned his back on him -- not suspicious of him.

He also was not alarmed that this person/shooter was in his neighborhood and/or near his home at 9 pm.

I don't think wacking boss in front of his home sanctioned by other families.

Yup, look at Gene Gotti. He went away for almost 30 years and didn't find respect or retribution for doing his time the old fashion way (silence, no deal, no rat), when he came home.

MOO
Click to expand...

Could be someone he didn’t recognize. Smash up his car. He comes out, apologize, give your (fake name) and say I’ll get you my registration and insurance, and then plug him when he turns his back.
 
Gambino murder sparks Mafia rumor mill: ‘A couple of guys got to get killed now’

Mobsters and ex-mobsters — even those who have been exiled to the Witness Protection Program — gossip like schoolgirls. So when Gambino crime family boss Frank Cali was shot dead Wednesday night in front of his Staten Island home, the stunning break in decades of relative mob peace set phones of members and alumni of La Cosa Nostra alight with speculation as to the actors and motive behind his murder.

“Is it buzzing?” former Gambino captain Michael “Mikey Scars” DiLeonardo asked rhetorically about the current state of the mobster rumor mill. “It’s on fire!”

DiLeonardo, 63, was a powerful figure in the crime family who lived in a Staten Island manse of his own before he testified against former associates, including John A. "Junior" Gotti, and temporarily entered government protection. DiLeonardo says he knew Cali when the future crime boss was only the broke young son of a Brooklyn storeowner and “a kid who hung around the Gambinos.”

“I used to shylock him every week,” DiLeonardo said fondly, meaning he gave him high-interest loans. He also took credit for Cali getting “straightened out” — or “made” — and elevated to captain status on his way to the crime family’s highest rungs. .............

more at link
 
Last edited:
Assassinated Gambino crime boss' family 'refuse to share surveillance video with cops' | Daily Mail Online

The family of the reputed New York City mobster who was gunned down outside his Staten Island home on Wednesday has reportedly refused to cooperate with detectives by denying them access to their home security system.

Investigators with the NYPD were forced to obtain a warrant to review the surveillance video purportedly showing the execution-style killing of Francisco 'Franky Boy' Cali, 53, who was shot six times in the chest outside the colonial-style house, in what some fear could be the prelude to a bloody Mafia war.

New York Daily News first reported on the victim's relatives' alleged unwillingness to comply with the police officers' request seeking to review the recording.
 
https://nypost.com/2019/03/15/gambino-crime-boss-shook-hitmans-hand-before-murder/

Cali, 53, exited his home shortly before 9:20 p.m. Wednesday after a motorist in a blue pickup truck reversed the vehicle into the mobster’s parked Cadillac Escalade, causing it to “rock significantly,” Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea has said.

Footage from the property, which authorities obtained using a search warrant, shows Cali and the man having a conversation and shaking hands before the man passes Cali the license plate that fell off the Cadillac during the crash that lured the Gambino don outside, sources said.

The hit man — approximately 25 to 40 years of age — opened fire with a 9 mm weapon as Cali turned his back and was putting the license plate in the trunk of the Escalade, according to sources.

“It’s not like they came out, started a fistfight,” the high-ranking source said. “The importance of that is — it’s almost as if proof of the concept that hitting the car was contrived.”

“It doesn’t look like there was any rage,” said the source.

The gunman fired 12 rounds, shooting Cali at least six times.
 
Franky boy's body was transferred from the Kings County Hospital morgue on Friday to the Scarpaci Funeral Home on Staten Island where a wake will be held for him. (heard on radio tonight).
 
I wonder what cemetery he will be buried in. When I visited a friend of mine who teaches on Staten Island I walked by a beautiful cemetery near the ocean. When I returned back to his place after the walk, I was telling him how beautiful it is and he told me that many "storied" mob family members were buried and entombed in various Mausoleums on the grounds. Didn't think much of it at the time.

JMO
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is Escambia County John Doe (1989)?

Members online

... and 268 more.
Total: 3,890 (members: 269, guests: 3,621)

Online statistics

Members online
269
Guests online
3,621
Total visitors
3,890
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
591,552
Messages
17,954,721
Members
228,532
Latest member
GravityHurts
Back
Top