I Was There When the Castellano Hit Shook the Mafia

➡ The speaker, Michael Francis, shares his experiences from the mafia era in New York during the 70s, 80s, and 90s. He talks about the influence of money, the role of social media, and the downfall of the mafia. He also recounts a personal story involving Paul Castellano, a mafia boss, over a dispute about bad chickens. Lastly, he reflects on the anniversary of Castellano’s death and its impact on the mafia scene.
➡ The story revolves around a conflict within the mob, where John Gotti and his crew were dealing drugs against the rules. This led to tension with boss Paul Castellano, who found out about their activities. When an indictment came down on Castellano, fueled by a wiretap on one of Gotti’s men, Gotti decided to strike first, leading to Castellano’s murder. Despite not having full permission from all mob bosses, Gotti went ahead with the hit, causing shockwaves and leading to his promotion as the new boss, which intensified FBI scrutiny on the mob.
➡ The text discusses the dynamics within a crime family, focusing on the leadership of Paul Castellano. Castellano was seen as a business-minded leader, not a street guy, and was disliked for his tight-fisted ways and personal issues. His murder was supported by some within the family, including Gotti, who later faced intense scrutiny. The text also hints at upcoming revelations about corruption within the FBI and Department of Justice, which allegedly led to unnecessary deaths and wrongful convictions.
➡ The speaker wishes everyone good health and a joyful Christmas season. They also extend blessings to everyone’s families, communities, and America. They look forward to seeing everyone again soon.

Foreign. Do you believe Paul Castellano drove us crazy over $700 worth of chickens? He said, man, that’s what kind of guy it is when it comes to money. Forget about it with Paul. If we had social media back in the 70s, 80s and 90s, all over social media every single day, you would have seen something about money. Myself, my former associates, my father, Gotti, you name it, I would have dominated social media. Because every day in the newspaper you read about some of us. A lot of times they say that Gotti caused the downfall of, you know, the mafia in New York.

And I disagree with that. It’s gonna make a hair stand on end when I get into this. And I’m telling you this, there’s a lot of influencers out there that create these dynamic things just to get views and clicks. Don’t do that. I’m going to give you facts, I’m going to give you information, and I’m going to dare anybody that I’m talking about to sit with me on it because I’m going to show them the proof. I’m going to accuse them to their face. Very significant day. Forty years ago today, all Castellano was killed. Shockwaves. We’re going to get into it a little bit further.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to another sit down with Michael Francis. Hope everybody is doing well. All is very good, very blessed on this end. I, and as always, my friends, I give all the praise, honor, glory and thanksgiving to our God. For that, especially through this Christmas season, the we’re going to be celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And always a great time of the year. Very, very blessed. I wish all of you tremendous blessings this time of the year. And of course, going into the new year, you know, we celebrate anniversaries all the time.

You know, wedding anniversaries, we celebrate birthdays, kind of an anniversary of our birthday. We celebrate a lot of anniversaries. And today, December 16th is an anniversary, an infamous anniversary. 40 years ago today was the day that Paul Stack Castellano was shot and killed in front of Spark Steakhouse in New York. And it was a big, big deal back then. Certainly was. And you know, I was deeply entrenched in the life. So when that happened, I mean, the shock waves were felt all over New York, so to speak. I remember it. I distinctly remember it. This time was not a good time of the year for me because three days later, I was indicted by the Eastern District of New York on a major racketeering case that I eventually took a plea and did my time on.

So I was, I was very aware of what happened during that time. And I’m sure many of you do. I mean, there’s been movies about it. You know, we’ve heard much about this over the past 40 years. People that follow me, I’m sure of aware of it, are aware of what went down. Everybody that is into the mob genre, I’m sure, is very aware of this. We’ve heard from other people, we’ve seen the movies. One movie that I always recommend that you watch with respect to this is the 1996 HBO Gotti movie where it was just brilliant, brilliant film.

Don’t mix it up with the later one with Travolta. This one was with Armand Assante and Anthony Quinn. Brilliantly done. You know, I’ve been saying that for years and it talks about obviously the Castellano hit with John Gotti and all that stuff back then. So watch it again. You can get it on YouTube for free. And I’m sure if you haven’t seen it, you’re going to say it’s one of the best mob movies you’ve ever seen. And great, great performances by Armand and Anthony Quinn, no doubt. But I want to go back and, and talk about this time because it meant a lot to me back then and it really did.

It was kind of, you know, I was in the decision making process at that point in time. I obviously had been a part of that life for quite some time and grew up in it with my dad and saw that the RICO statute was really doing damage. And I said, you know what, this life is in trouble right now. It really is. There’s no doubt about it. You get the Castellano hit, you know, on the 16th of December, and there were shockwaves throughout the whole, you know, mob scene in New York at that point in time.

We all suspected John Gotti of doing it. We knew that there was rumbling on the street and so we all kind of knew that, you know, it wasn’t announced in any way, but we all kind of knew that. And let me give you a little history on Paul Castellano. I had a personal history with Paul Castellano from early on when I was a recruit. I might have told this story before, but I’ll tell it again. The world doesn’t need another wine. It really needs a reason to raise a glass again. A reason that’s real, a reason that means something.

Because most people, they drink to forget. We drink to remember where we came from, what we stand for and who we still Fight to become. We don’t follow trends, we break them. Our bottles don’t look like anyone else’s because our story, it isn’t like anyone else’s. It’s about freedom, about redemption, about family. That’s what’s inside every bottle. So to the ones who think different, who live different, who drink different, Salud. I had a market. I was. I was young. I was a recruit. It was early 1970s, and I had a market out in Long island in Suffolk county, and I called it Sunny’s Market.

And it was a market where we sold fruit and vegetables. We had a meat counter, we had a fish counter, the whole bit. And at that time, I was told to buy my chicken from Paul Castellano. He was in that business, him and his family. And I was buying chickens from Paul Castellano for quite some time. Well, it was a Memorial Day weekend, and that weekend we got some big orders. People are barbecuing. You know, they’re having their three day weekend celebration. And so I ordered a lot of chicken for a woman that wanted to buy it from us, and we sold it to them.

Well, the day after Memorial Day, it was a Tuesday, this woman came back and said, listen, these chickens were bad. There was maggots in the chicken. Whoa. So it was like a big order at that time. 7, $800 that she ordered. She’s had a huge party, right? So I called up Castellano’s guy, it was his. His nephew or something, I don’t remember. Maybe his brother. I don’t remember at the time. And I said, listen, the chickens were bad, so we need a. I’m not going to pay for them. I said, no, you’re going to pay for them.

They were good when we sent them to you. I said, listen, we have a refrigerator here. You only got them on Friday or Saturday. We sold them immediately. And the chickens were bad. I’m not paying you for them. Well, he got a little crazy with me on the phone, and I responded, you know, f you here, F you there. Back then, I wasn’t a Christian. And we went back and forth and I hung up on him. Well, I think it was a day or two later I get called by my captain at the time, Andrew Russo, and he said, I need to see you get into Brooklyn right away.

So I go and I sit down with him and Tom DiBella, who was the acting boss, and he tells me, tell me what happened with these chickens. You gotta be kidding. I said, no, tell me what happened. Andrew said. So I tell him and he said, do you know who that is? That’s Paul Castellano’s nephew. I don’t know what he was, but he was related to Paul, closely related. I said, okay, so you know what? He sold me bad chickens, and I didn’t want to pay for him. He said, well, Paul is very upset. He says that you were very disrespectful to his relative on the phone, who happened to be a made person, by the way.

He’s a made guy, and, you know, you’re not supposed to talk like that. I said, well, you know, what do I know? I didn’t check him out. You know, we’re going back and forth. He started with me first. So we go with the sit down with Paul Castellano over these chickens. It’s me, Andrew Russo, you know, the underboss, acting underboss at the time, the boss, you know, Tom dibella at the time, acting boss for Persico at the time. Paul Castellano was there and his guy. Again, I’m sorry, you know, this is like a long time ago.

I forget. So Paul is very upset with me. How dare you talk to my guy like that? He’s a made guy. I’m back and forth, and they were arguing back and forth, and I said, well, listen, they were bad chickens, and, you know, I didn’t want to pay. I thought that was the right thing. I didn’t mean to be disrespectful, but they told me, you know, just apologize and don’t say anything more. That’s what Andrew told me. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. The resolution was this. I didn’t have to pay for those chickens, but I had to continue using Paul’s company to buy my chickens from.

And it was only there was other stuff, too. I said, okay, no problem. So they kind of scolded me, you know, when we got into the car, they said, you know, you don’t ever talk to somebody that you don’t know. He was a made guy. This could have been very serious. Paul is a boss. He was very mad all bit like that, right? And then they bust out laughing in the car. Do you believe Paul Castellano drove us crazy over $700 worth of chickens? He said, man, that’s what kind of guy it is when it comes to money.

Forget about it. With Paul, that was my early recognition of who Paul was and that he was all about the money. You know, back then. I’m sorry. I learned it early on as a recruit. So now we get into what happened on December 16. The undercurrent of that, I think you know, but I’ll tell it again. John Gotti had his crew, his brother Jeannie, Angelo Ruggiero. And according to what we know, they were dealing drugs. We weren’t allowed to deal with drugs. I’ve said this time and time again, Carlo Gambino put that order in place. No drugs for the Gambino family.

Persico did the same thing. And we weren’t supposed to be involved with drugs. That was it. They said if you get involved in drugs, you die or you get. You get your position taken away from you. It could have been very, very serious. Well, they’re dealing in drugs, allegedly on the street, let’s put it that way. Paul Castellano finds this out. Okay, that wasn’t a good thing. That wasn’t an immediate cause of problems. But he didn’t like Gotti and Gotti’s crew for that reason. From what we were told. Then it goes a little bit further. There’s an indictment that comes down on Paul Castellano.

And allegedly that indictment was fueled by a wiretap on Angelo Ruggiero’s phone. Angelo Ruggiero was a captain. I’m sorry, was a soldier under John Gotti. And they called him Quack Quack, remember? Because he talked, talk, talk, talk. I knew Angelo. Well, I’ll tell you a little story about Angelo, too. And so now the indictment comes down and Paul Castellano is asking Neil Delacroix, who Gotti was very close with, for the tapes that Angela Ruggiero had, know the wiretaps because he had to get him in discovery. Well, they don’t want to give him to Paul because the tapes were very damaging.

John and Angelo, they were talking very negatively about Paul Castellano. Could have got him in real trouble, could have got him killed. So they’re trying not to give up the tapes. I think John was honest with Neil and told him, neil, look, we’re going to be in trouble if he hears these tapes. You know, quack, quack. He talks, he talks, he talks. And we weren’t saying good things about Castellano. Paul keeps pushing him for some reason, you know, Neil was able to hold Paul Castellano up in giving up those tapes. He was able to hold him up until we got closer to the trial or they got closer to the trial.

But he had to give him up at some point. Paul was going to know about it, and that would have been really dangerous. So John realizing this, we got to strike first. That’s what happens in that life. If you know somebody’s out to get you, you got to make the move first, okay? So I will say that. But what happens is, according to what we knew on the street, Gotti did not get. He’s taken out a boss. You got to get, okay from the commission from all five families. You just can’t do it. You got to get permission.

He wasn’t able to get the permission from. Chin was a very powerful figure, you know, from Fat Tony Salerno, the Genovese. He wasn’t able to get permission. From what I was told, Persigo didn’t give him permission either. He didn’t like it. You don’t take out a boss like that. So he didn’t get everybody’s permission, but he went together. He went on with the hit anyway. I don’t have to lay this out again. You know the story. Sammy Gravano, you know, he told the whole story of how it happened, because he was intimately involved in that. Okay? They set it up at Sparks, the steakhouse in Manhattan.

Bellotti and. And Castellano. Bellotti was the underboss. Remember? Castellano passed over Neil Delacroix to be his underboss. And Gotti was very upset with that. Very, very upset with that. Well, what happened? Neil dies in early December. Now, when Neil dies, John knew he was in trouble because he had to give up those tapes. And once he gave up those tapes, it was over for him and his crew. He knew that, so he acted first. But again, he didn’t get permission from all of the bosses in New York. So some people didn’t like what he did, especially Chin.

He was upset, and so was Persico. I remember him because I talked about it with him when we were in MDC together shortly after this happened. He wasn’t a fan of Gotti’s, quite honestly. So now they do the hit in front of Sparks. You’ve seen it a thousand times. Don’t have to go over it. And boom, shockwaves. Castellano’s hit all over the news, everywhere. That’s all you heard. You know, I have to tell you something. They got to interject. If we had social media back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, all over social media every single day, you would have seen something about myself, my former associates, my father, Gotti, you name it, it would have been all.

It would have dominated social media. Because every day in the newspaper, you read about some of us every single day. New York Post, New York Daily News, Long Island Press. Newsday, you know, all the papers every single day. There was something about one of us, one of the fan, who knows? If there was social media back then, mob stuff would have dominated social media, guaranteed. Now, we wouldn’t have been on it, no question, but other people would have capitalized on it the way they capitalize on things today. People outside of the mob, maybe, you know, the Jerry Capecis of the world, the reporters, they would have been all over talking about it, because we dominated, you know, the.

The media during that time. But so front page of every paper, Castellano was hit and so on and so forth. I’ll never forget, three days later, I’m in mdc. A lot of guys were locked up during that time, you know, and Paul was on trial during that time. So this stuff was coming out, or he was about to go on trial, something like that. But, man, it said shockwaves, and a lot of things changed. We know what happened. Gotti gets promoted to be the boss of the family, and what happens there, you know, he was immediately targeted because everybody, the FBI, and they had this.

They knew that it was Gotti right off the bat. So now the quest was proving that Gotti was involved in the Castellano hit. Now, you know, a lot of times they say that Gotti caused the downfall of, you know, the Mafia in New York. And I disagree with that. It was Rico that caused the downfall. Rico did the damage, and Giuliani led that charge, no doubt about it. But Gotti didn’t help, because after the Castellano hit, I mean, the. The intensity on Gotti was. Forget it. It was off the charts because they knew. And when the intensity came on Gotti, well, it stimulated all of the FBI, of course, to go after everybody.

It re. Awoke, I would say, not that they weren’t on top of it, because, remember, back then, I believe there were 1412 to 1400 agents that worked all five families. And among the five families, we had about 750 made guys. So you had almost two agents for every family member. And of course, we had a lot of associates, but that’s how intense the FBI was and the Department of Justice on the mob back then. So the Castellano hit just. Just made it even more intense. No question about it. And of course, Gotti and his crew suffered the most damage as a result of that, but it was widespread among all of New York families.

Now, let me do it. Let me say this about Castellano. I don’t believe he was well liked. You know, Andrew Russo, again, the acting Underboss and Tom DiBella were pretty close with Castellano. Now, how do I know this? Because oftentimes as I was a recruit and then later on when I got made, I would drive them to meet Paul Castellano. Quite often. I was their driver and I would take them around. They met with them a lot and I think they had a pretty good relationship. I do at that time, as a matter of fact. I know they do.

They did. But he wasn’t. Well, like Paul, he was seen more as a business guy, that he wasn’t really a street guy. If you watch Gotti 1996 HBO, he you’ll see that that comes out Neil Delacroix, played by Anthony Quinn. He says it in a sit down that they’re having. You’re not a street guy. Come on, you’re a business guy. And he was very tight with money. Very, very tight. I think at one point in time they said that, you know, he was taxing his crew. 10% of all the money that he made on the street had to be delivered to him at his Staten Highland home, which they called the White House at that time.

People were even insulted, I remember, because a lot of people said that he wouldn’t even invite them into the house. Just leave the envelope and go. And they resented that. And then I believe he raised his tax, if you want to call it to 15%. And a lot of the men were upset about it. So Gotti, within the family, did have support for killing Castellano. He did within his family. Not all outside of the family, but within his family, he did have support. So, you know, when he was shot, a lot of people were happy about it.

Hey, who cares? You know, he wasn’t a street guy. It was this or that. And, you know, another thing happened, an incident happened. You know, it was found out that he had to get. He had erectile problems and he had to get that fixed. And it became news on the street. When that happened, people lost respect for him even more. He was having a relationship with his housekeeper at that time. He was married, having a relationship with his housekeeper that people didn’t like. So there was things about him that, hey, you know what? Nobody’s going to miss him kind of a thing.

I think a lot of people were upset, Gotti, especially when Neil Delacroz was passed over by Carlo Gambino and when he put his brother in law, you know, Paul Castellano, as head of the family instead of, you know, promoting Neil de La Croix. And he did it for a reason. I think Carlo wanted to take the family more in the business direction than the street direction. Neil De la Croix, he was a street guy, he was a tough guy. That was it. He wasn’t a business guy. And Carlo wanted to take the family in a different direction.

That’s why he put his brother in law in there. So there wasn’t a lot of love lost. You know, when Castellano was hit, I remember when we were in mdc, like I said, three days later, I got locked up and they gave me no bail. So I was in there for several months at that time. And there was a lot of talk about it. A lot of people resented the fact that Gotti acted. A lot of people did. But other people said, hey, Castellano’s not gonna be missed. You know, he was cheap, he was this, he was that.

And then the word started to, you know, people started to. To not be hesitant to talk about him. But he wasn’t well liked, so. But it was a big deal during our time that he was hit. You know, what followed after that. Gotti is under constant scrutiny and he decided to play it up. You know, Teflon Don goes to trial a couple of times, beat a couple of cases. And by the way, I think he beat three cases, I beat five. So I had him beat by two. But I wasn’t a Teflon Michael. He was a Teflon Don.

But intense scrutiny on him and the whole Gambino family and all five families in New York, we really got it. You know, the RICO statute came down on so many people. And people, I want to tell you something. I have some information and evidence that I’m going to be releasing fairly soon. Couple of things. Very dear friend of mine, Michael Cessa, he was a Columbo guy, along with me. Very, very dear friend, good guy, Vicarina. Vic and I always didn’t get along. I knew him since I was a kid. He was around my father, you know, but he was a prominent figure in that life.

Well, I’m going to tell you this. They got railroaded, the both of them. And I’m going to be talking about this very soon. As a matter of fact, I want you to tune in this coming Thursday and Friday. I am going to make some revelations that are going to blow your mind. It’s going to continue how corrupt the FBI could be, how corrupt prosecutors could be. Horrible. It’s going to blow you. It’s going to make your hair stand on end. When I get into this, and I’m telling you this, I’m going to say it straight out.

There’s a lot of influencers out there that create these dynamic things just to get views and clicks. I don’t do that. I’m going to give you facts, I’m going to give you information, and I’m going to dare anybody that I’m talking about to sit with me on it because I’m going to show them the proof. I going to accuse them to their face. Exactly. And I’m talking about prosecutors and ex FBI agents and maybe current FBI agents, Comey being one of them, couple of them that are still around that caused some tremendous damage during their time as a prosecutor, as an FBI agent.

As a matter of fact, the whole Colombo war that started afterwards was a result of FBI instigating that war through somebody I knew very well, a government informant didn’t know it at the time. Greg Scarpa Senior it’s going to blow your mind, people, I’m telling you. It’s unbelievable. And I’ve just come across this information and it just really hit me because for a while I didn’t believe it. I said no. But then the evidence started coming out and I’m going to be sitting down with somebody very soon who’s going to tell you the story and it’s going to blow your mind.

The FBI had information that could have saved lives and they sat on it because they didn’t want to destroy some of the cases that they had brought forward because the information would destroy their cases, because their cases were built on lies and they didn’t want to ruin that and they allowed people to die as a result of that. That was back then. Not talking about the current FBI, that was back then. So when people say to me, Michael, you know, you may not believe this thing about government, are you kidding me? I wrote the book Mafia Democracy.

I know what these people are capable of. I know what the Department of Justice is capable of. When they have corrupt people in their leadership. I understand it more than anybody. My family was victimized by that. So I get it. But I bring facts and I bring evidence. I don’t bring hearsay, I don’t bring innuendo. I bring facts and I bring evidence. So one of the very significant days. Stay tuned. I want you to stay tuned. This Thursday, it’s coming out, and Friday, two very, very important videos that I’m bringing forward and there’s going to be a follow up to all of it.

And yes, it’s all mob related for all you people, but, but it goes beyond that. It goes beyond that. It’s going to go beyond how innocent people were killed as a result of corruption in the highest levels of our government, our Department of Justice, I should say. Terrible people. Terrible. And the only way to stop this by holding people accountable. And I said this. I’m going to say it again. You know what? The Mafia, we were amateurs compared to what goes on when there’s a corrupt Department of Justice official. Amateurs because they destroy lives. We might have destroyed our own lives.

That’s up to us. We. We fed on each other. Yeah, okay. But innocent lives are being destroyed as a result of corruption in the Department of Justice, in different agencies under the control of the Department of Justice. It’s disgusting. Some of these people are scum of the earth. And I’m saying it. I’m sorry, but when you hear what. What happened, you’ll understand that. And I guess, you know, very significant day 40 years ago today. All Castellano was killed. Shockwaves. We’re going to get into it a little bit further. So again, you know, an anniversary, an infamous anniversary, but a day that so many people that are into the mom genre and understand it are aware of.

But I made some very, very definitive declarations right now. And I’m going to back it up, people. I’m going to absolutely back it up. And I’ve done my homework, I’ve done my research, I’ve got my evidence, and there’s going to be more to this, more to it coming up. All right, my friends, how do I always leave you? Same way. Never going to change. Be safe. Please be safe. You know, watch your surroundings. Be healthy. I think we’re. It’s great that more people are talking about being healthy than ever before. At least that’s what I am seeing.

That’s what I’m witnessing. Be safe. Be healthy. God bless each and every one of you. Enjoy the Christmas season. Enjoy it. It’s a blessed time of the year, hopefully for most. And yeah, I’ll see you next time. Oh, wait a minute. I forgot. God bless you, your families, your loved ones, your neighborhoods and your communities. God bless America. And yes, I’ll see you next time. Take care. Sa.
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