Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce

Dellacroce was underboss of the Gambino family for twenty years and was twice passed over for the job above him. The family held together anyway, because the arrangement that kept him in second place was the arrangement that kept the crews in line.

He ran his end from the Ravenite Social Club on Mulberry Street, in Little Italy, at a time when the family's boss preferred a house on Staten Island and a meeting schedule. The two men divided the organisation between them without ever quite dividing it.

The other half of the family

Carlo Gambino made Dellacroce underboss in the 1960s and left him the traditional rackets — loansharking, hijacking, gambling, the airport — while the boss moved towards construction, unions and meat.

When Gambino died in 1976 the succession went to Paul Castellano, his cousin and brother-in-law. Dellacroce accepted it publicly and kept the crews that had always answered to him.

Ozone Park

The Queens crew that ran out of the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club reported through Dellacroce, and it contained John Gotti.

That line of authority is why a capo in Ozone Park had standing far beyond his rank. It is also why Gotti could not act while Dellacroce lived: moving on the boss would have required the underboss's approval, and the underboss was not going to give it.

He was convicted of tax evasion in 1972 and served time. In 1985 he was indicted alongside Gotti in a federal racketeering case and did not live to be tried.

December

Dellacroce died of lung cancer on 2 December 1985. Castellano did not attend the wake.

Fourteen days later Castellano was shot outside Sparks Steak House. Both halves of the arrangement had ended inside a fortnight, and only one of the two men had died of natural causes.