Anthony Casso

Casso's grandparents had immigrated to the United States from Campania, Italy in the 1890s.

His godfather was Salvatore Callinbrano, a made man and caporegime in the Genovese crime family, which maintained a powerful influence on the Brooklyn docks.

Casso dropped out of school at 16 and got a job with his father as a longshoreman.

In his youth, he became a crack shot, firing pistols at targets on a rooftop which he and his friends used as a shooting range.

Casso also made money shooting predatory hawks for pigeon keepers.

Anthony Salvatore Casso (May 21, 1942 – December 15, 2020), nicknamed "Gaspipe", was an American mobster and underboss of the Lucchese crime family.

During his career in organized crime, he was regarded as a "homicidal maniac" in the Italian-American Mafia.

Casso is suspected of having committed dozens of murders, and had confessed to involvement in between 15 and 36 murders.

Government witness Anthony Accetturo, the former caporegime of The Jersey Crew, once said of Casso, "all he wanted to do is kill, kill, get what you can, even if you didn't earn it".

In interviews, and on the witness stand, Casso confessed involvement in the murders of Frank DeCicco, Roy DeMeo, and Vladimir Reznikov.

Casso also admitted to several attempts to murder Gambino family boss John Gotti.

Casso was born on May 21, 1942, in South Brooklyn, in New York City, the youngest of the three children to Michael and Margaret Casso, née Cucceullo.

In 1958, he was arrested after a "rumble" against a rival Irish American gang.

Casso later told Carlo that his father visited him at the police station and tried in vain to scare his son straight.

Casso's first arrest, for attempted murder, occurred in 1961, but he was acquitted when the alleged victim refused to identify him as the attacker.

Casso married fellow South Brooklyn native Lillian Delduca on May 4, 1968.

They had a daughter and son.

Prior to his marriage to Lillian, Casso had a serious relationship with fellow South Brooklyn native Rosemarie Billotti, whose parents hoped he would marry.

Without Lillian's knowledge, for decades after their wedding, Casso secretly kept Billotti as his mistress and set her up in a house in Mount Olive, New Jersey.

During his marriage, Casso committed many other infidelities.

In an interview with biographer Philip Carlo, Casso recalled, "Most all men in my life, everyone I know, had girlfriends. It goes with the territory. Women are drawn to us, the power, the money, and we're drawn to them. But only in passing. Some guys treated their mistresses better than their wife, but that's a fuckin' outrage. No class. Only a cafone does that. I never loved any woman but Lillian. She and my family always came first."

Authorities estimated the Bypass gang stole more than $100 million from safety deposit boxes and vaults during the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1974, at age 32, he became a "made man" (full member) of the Lucchese family.

Following his arrest in 1993, Casso became one of the highest-ranking members of the Mafia to turn informant.

After taking a plea agreement, he was placed in the witness protection program.

Following his arrest inside the house in Mount Olive by the FBI in 1993, Lillian Casso "was incensed, and felt betrayed—violated—used" when she learned that her husband had secretly continued his relationship with Rosemarie Billotti.

Even though she eventually agreed to visit her husband in federal prison, for the rest of her life, Lillian Casso, according to Philip Carlo, "could not understand how Anthony could be so deceitful, duplicitous—such a two-faced pig."

Casso was a violent youth, and a member of the infamous South Brooklyn Boys street gang.

In 1998, it was rescinded and Casso was dropped from the program after several infractions.

Later that year, a federal judge sentenced him to 455 years in prison for racketeering, extortion, and murder.

Casso joined Vincent Foceri's crew that operated from 116th Street in Manhattan and from Fourteenth Avenue in Brooklyn.

Shortly after becoming a made, Casso became close to another rising star in the family, Victor Amuso, and began a partnership that lasted for two decades.

The two men committed scores of crimes, including drug trafficking, burglary, the elimination and disposal of police informants, and murder.

Casso and Amuso were noticed for their success, and subsequently moved to the more prominent crew operated by Casso's mentor Furnari.

He soon caught the eye of Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari, a Lucchese family mobster and leader of the "19th Hole Crew" in Brooklyn.

With Furnari's support, Casso started his career in the Mafia running a small loan sharking operation.

Furnari also used Casso as muscle for his gambling and drug dealing rackets.

Within Furnari's "19th Hole Crew" both Casso and Amuso led a burglary ring known as "The Bypass Gang", which included expert locksmiths, safe crackers, and experts in security alarm systems.

The Bypass Gang is still suspected of committing burglaries in banks and jewelry stores throughout New York City and Long Island.

Casso died in prison custody from complications related to COVID-19 on December 15, 2020.