Anthony Gaggi

Anthony Frank Gaggi (born Antonino Frank Gaggi; August 7, 1925 – April 17, 1988), better known as Nino Gaggi, was an American mobster who was a caporegime in the Gambino crime family.

Based in Canarsie, Gaggi was a criminal mentor to Roy DeMeo and a longtime partner of the infamous DeMeo crew.

Gaggi was born to Angelo and Mary Gaggi, Gaggi was the youngest of three children.

Gaggi had a sister Marie, and a brother known as "Roy".

Angelo emigrated to the United States from Palermo, Sicily, Italy and ran a barbershop on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Mary worked as a seamstress until Gaggi's birth.

Gaggi dropped out of school during the eighth grade and followed his father into the barber business.

He also earned extra money delivering flowers, which he used for gambling.

It was at this age that Gaggi learned the profitability of loan sharking to gamblers.

When Gaggi was a young teenager, his family moved to New Jersey after purchasing a small farm.

When Gaggi turned 17 in 1942, he attempted to join the United States Army, but was rejected due to myopia.

In 1943, Gaggi's family left the farm and moved to the Bath Beach area of Brooklyn.

Angelo resumed work as a barber while his mother and sister worked in a dress factory.

Discharged from the Army due to injury, Roy sold peanut dispensers to bars.

After returning to New York, Gaggi decided to pursue criminal activities.

His father's cousin was mobster Frank Scalise, a founding member of the Gambino crime family.

Scalise helped Gaggi obtain a job at a truck dock, where he quickly became a supervisor.

Scalise eventually allowed Gaggi to become a "ghost employee", someone who did not have to work.

Gaggi could devote all his time to loan sharking in Brooklyn bars and pool halls.

This "no show" job also allowed him to report legitimate, taxable income to the IRS and avoid prosecution for tax evasion.

In 1947, Gaggi's sister Marie gave birth to Dominick Montiglio.

Her husband, and Montiglio's father, was boxer and deliveryman Anthony Santamaria.

However, Gaggi was the dominant personality in the household, eventually leading to Santamaria's estrangement from his family.

Gaggi soon became Montiglio's surrogate father.

When he became older, Montiglio joined his uncle in criminal activities and eventually testified in court about them.

In 1954, after his first arrest, Gaggi was charged with running an international auto theft ring.

Operating out of a used car lot in Brooklyn, the ring was backed by Scalise, now the Gambino Consigliere.

For two years, Gaggi and two associates fabricated false vehicle registrations for nonexistent Cadillacs.

The gang stole cars that matched the phony vehicle descriptions and replaced their original Vehicle Identification Numbers with new fake numbers.

They also gave the vehicles new license plates that matched the falsified registrations.

The ring then sold the stolen vehicles in Florida, Georgia, Texas and Mexico.

Gaggi married in 1955 while his auto theft trial was underway.

During his trial, witnesses "forgot" their testimony on the witness stand and Gaggi's co-defendants refused to testify against him.

In early 1956, Gaggi was acquitted.

Later that year, Gaggi became a father.

His wife and child now lived on the first floor of the three-story Gaggi house.

In 1957, the Gambino family underwent a dramatic change in leadership.

In June, Scalise was shot and killed at a fruit stand in the Bronx.

In October, Gambino boss Albert Anastasia was shot to death in a barber's chair at a Manhattan hotel.

Immediately after the Anastasia murder, Gaggi ordered his family to stay home for a few days.