Frank Costello

In February 1973, he was admitted to a Manhattan hospital after a heart attack. On February 18, 1973, he died in the hospital. He was buried at St. Michael’s Cemetery in Queens.

Frank Costello was born Francesco Castiglia on January 26, 1891, at Cassano allo lonio in Cosenza, Calabria region of Italy. His father, Luigi Castiglia, later migrated to America and settled in the East Harlem part of New York, and ran an Italian grocery store. Young Costello, along with his mother, Maria, and elder brother Edward, joined him in 1895.

He got involved into petty criminal activities quite early, along with his elder brother. As he grew up, he became a part of the neighborhood Italian gang called ‘104th Street Gang’ and soon became its leader. He dealt in liquor to earn some quick money. He and his gang members were involved in theft, assault, and robberies.

From 1908 to 1917, he was arrested several times for various crimes. In 1916, he changed his name to Frank Costello. Later that year, he was jailed for carrying a concealed weapon. Thereafter, he decided not to carry gun and turned towards organized crime.

After his marriage in 1918, he began working for the Morello crime family’s boss, Ciro Terranova. Around this time, he met and befriended a Sicilian Charlie ‘Lucky’ Luciano. The other members of the Luciano family did not approve of Lucky’s association with a non-Sicilian like Costello.

Luciano and Costello formed a group with other Italian-Americans and some Jewish partners, namely Bugsy Siegel, Vito Genovese, Meyer Lansky, and Gaetano Lucchese. Together they started running crime operations, such as extortion, gambling, theft, and narcotics. During the ‘Prohibition Period’ of 1920, they earned money by illegally selling liquor. These operations were financed by Arnold Rothstein.

In 1922, Costello, along with Luciano and others, joined the Mafia family of the Sicilian underworld boss, Joe Masseria. In 1924, he got involved with the rum-running operations, ‘The Combine,’ with Irish mafia don, Dwyer.

During the 1920s, Costello became a powerful figure in the crime world. He ran many gambling operations, including punch cards, bookmaking, casinos, and slot machines. He befriended many politicians and formed an important connection between the underworld and the Democratic Party’s organization, ‘Tammany Hall.’ This proved really beneficial for the crime world, as they could bribe or make a deal with the government officials, police, politicians, and judges. Between 1927 and 1929, Costello, Luciano and associates brought together other crime leaders from across the country and initiated the formation of a ‘National Crime Syndicate.’