1998 SPECIAL REPORT: "THE MOST FEARED GANGSTER"

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during his time Anthony Casso was the country's most feared gangster once the boss of New York's Lucchese crime family he ruled by extorting intimidating or murdering not only his mob rivals but legitimate businessmen law enforcement officials and anyone else who got in his way after Casso was arrested in 1993 he cut a deal with the government to testify against the mob in exchange for leniency the deal fell apart but not before caso gave prosecutors a detailed history of how he took control of some of this country's leading industries and how he personally participated in the murders of 36 people that's right 36 people we met caso at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City just before he was shipped out to a maximum-security prison to serve a life sentence not one but 13 life sentences plus 455 years despite a lifetime of violence and treachery caso says nothing beats being a mafia boss it's better than being a Hollywood star no matter where you go with your family they don't know what to do for you two people I mean don't get me wrong they know you're a gangster they know you they know what you are they go all out for you like go to restaurants you don't wait on the line they'll get you a table right away you'll get the best of foods the best of wines so why did these people treat you that way of course they knew I was I was what organized crime I knew I was a mafia member and as a mafia member cassa was an unusually menacing figure with a reputation for being hot-tempered and sadistic take the case of Jimmy Hydell a rival mobster who was tapped to kill Castle hydel botched the job only wounding him and then Casso hunted hydel down took him to a place that I had pre-arranged somebody's house that I could use I brought him in there sat him down I wanted to know why I was shot who told you and who else was involved and who you know and who told you who gave you the orders to shoot after you were finished with it you killed it was just one shot to the head no I didn't shoot him in that and then shoot him when I was in somebody's house you make a mess I shot him a couple of times I died in 98 Orchard occurred I didn't do anything good I didn't do anything like that I shot a couple times the kid died or what's a couple more than a couple is couple like really I don't know the exact amount maybe I shot him ten times twelve times maybe fifteen even he could about fifteen why that's the H word I had four I wanted to beat him with the gun after dad was empty he just tried to kill me he doesn't deserve anything that's the law anyway that was your law as the law burden of his law of the Mafia Kessel learns the law of the mafia as a young boy he was groomed by his late father Michael a mob enforcer in the 1930s and 40s since son was 8 9 years old I grew up in this atmosphere and they use always you know they wanted to dress me like a little gangster put a suit on me a hat go against the wall take a picture for one hand in your pocket you know things like that you know as a teenager caso worked as a longshoreman on the docks in Brooklyn the right place to be he says if you were a thief if I needed a few dollars extra that day I would just take something put it on a truck sold to the truck driver know a bit so if you were unloading the ship isn't there somebody there watching what you're doing ok but they will doing the same thing I'm doing doing the same thing did it ever occur to you to try to earn a legitimate living to have a nine-to-five job I did have a 9:00 to 5:00 job and I was still at different and I was a good deal with exceptional talents as a hitman and a moneymaker caso quickly rose to the top of the Lucchese family in 1990 with law enforcement closing in on him caso became a fugitive which landed him a spot on the FBI's wanted list after a nationwide manhunt caso was finally captured in 1993 he's really really within a world of criminals there are bad people that are killers who were just treacherous deceitful people he stands out Valerie Caproni was the assistant US attorney in charge of casos case she says caso knows no limits he was involved in a conspiracy to murder a federal judge he was involved in a conspiracy to murder a federal prosecutor he murdered and authorized the murder of witnesses I mean these sorts of crimes are beyond the pale Casso ended up pleading guilty to more than a hundred crimes and in hopes of getting out of jail one day he like several other high-ranking mobsters before him turned on his Mafia family and became a government informant good afternoon mr. chairman and members of the subcommittee in 1996 hidden behind a curtain Casso who was in the federal witness protection program testified on Capitol Hill and exposed the Mafia's lucrative partnership with Russian organized crime groups which owned hundreds of gas stations in the New York area tying in and Russian organized crime made large amounts of money by working scams to avoid paying tax on gasoline don't you guys take a blood oath not to talk about the Mafia to anyone outside of the family isn't there a code of silence or omerta isn't that what it's called what happened all of that I guess he did with the handwriting on the wall there was no dude all the old-timers were gone there was nobody honorable left out there and this was my time to depart so let me try to get back you know the few years I got back left foot my life I wanted to try to hit the streets again Castle told the government all about the Mafia's day-to-day operations in places like this New York City's garment center for decades the Mafia's had a stranglehold on business here siphoning off tens of millions of dollars every year in illegal profits from clothing manufacturers who then pass on those costs to consumers Casso says he made five million dollars a year doing business this way his information helped net dozens of arrests and gave prosecutors a rare inside look at how the Mafia controls legitimate industry you can't move a garment in death hello unless we tell you what trucker to use who to deal with and what you have to pay because we control the unions when you say you control the Union what do you mean to organize claims putting their people in it to be to union representatives all right I'm going into business I'm gonna open up Bradley suits I make men's clothing and they're on seventh Avenue but suppose I say look I've got these truckers over here who are going to move my suits these are the people I want to use I don't want to see your people what happens first thing they're gonna do is go grab the trucker and tell him not to pick your work up now you're gonna be sitting with all your work where did you should be shipped out and it's gonna be nobody pick it up they're gonna look to attack you in another way maybe get in your shop destroy your merchandise you know until you come along until you finally join up and sign up with them will they go after me possibility you know they would they would right to make a deal with children do any harm to you when they make the deal and they I agree to make these payments do I make them in cash and checks in cash what we do is what whole money's collected every month Lucchese family gets 50% the Genovese family gets 25% and the Gambino family gets 25% of the money's that's how that's how its divvied up suppose I say to this union representative look I've got hidden tape recorders here I've recorded all of this I'm going to the FBI what happens that they would look to kill you if you did that they would look to paper if you think he's kidding consider what happened to robert kubecka and his brother-in-law Donald Barstow two law-abiding businessmen who stood up to Anthony Casso and the Mafia's control over garbage hauling an industry the mob runs just the way it runs the garment center kubecka and Barstow operated a small private garbage hauling business out on Long Island after refusing repeated demands to pay the mob of fee to stay in business and fed up with death threats and damage to their property in 1982 the two men agreed to work undercover for the government that was more than Anthony Casso and the Mafia were going to put up with once they will mock that they were informing on the Association on the garbage industry we want to protect our interest the next step is you know you get the only way to get rid of them is you would have to kill him and finally that's what it came to early one morning is robert kubecka and Donald Barstow were opening for business two men sent by Anthony Casso quietly walked in and fired 10 shots killing kubecka and Barstow they were legitimate businessman family men they were trying to run a business fair and aboveboard dead wives children they were ordered killed you have any regrets about that I don't know I don't I never knew them I don't know their wife and children but it's just it's just like business for us I don't have any feelings about it one way or the other that's what had to be done despite his involvement in 36 murders Anthony casos cooperation agreement with the government had all but guaranteed that one day he would get to walk out of prison but not anymore prosecutors recently ripped up their agreement with caso saying he repeatedly committed crimes in prison after becoming an informant that he bribed guards to have goods smuggled in that he assaulted another inmate and that he made false accusations against other mob witnesses in all likelihood caso will now spend the rest of his life behind bars do you want to be a gangster be a gangster you want to be a government witness common via government witness you can't straddle the line because we are going to pull the plug on the cooperation agreement if we catch you doing that and with caso that's exactly what happened it was his decision not to come on board 100% not ours caso says he was double-crossed that the government used him for his information and then broke its agreement over what he insists were minor infractions Castle now says he regrets his decision to become an informant a decision he says he made over the strong objections of his immediate family which feared the mob would retaliate against them Oh buddy I can hold the brother he was over there crying like a baby begins how could you do it and what about us look what you're doing to us you wound in our lives you know and then my daughter got on the phone I sister I made a deal with them I gave them my void I'm gonna keep my way and for the government and went against my daughter's wishes and now you think the government hung you out to dry what happened done we're out of them you get emotional about your family yes it's understandable you love them very much you miss them very much what about all the people who've been hurt in the course of your years and this mafia business you pled guilty to more than a hundred crimes participating in some level and 36 murders what about the families of those people I didn't know them so I really personal feelings I gotta I gotta be honest that I didn't I didn't know them you don't have any trouble sleeping at night you don't have a bad conscience about all over the victims families no I don't and if somebody says bribery extortion participation and murder actually killing somebody he deserves to be in prison he doesn't deserve a deal you say I say that right 100% if I had to go to jail for my crimes I should never come out of jail I don't deserve any sympathy for anybody or anything but I deserved that deal that me they should earn it the deal I made citing the government's decision to tear up his cooperation agreement Anthony Casso was appealing his multiple life sentences for now he sits in solitary confinement 23 hours a day gene siskel is here for his regular Wednesday review and this morning the subject is Martin Scorsese's new movie about the Mafia Goodfellows starring Robert De Niro so is it a movie you can't refuse no you can't and you know just even to your phraseology from the good Godfather I'm good this is a picture that stands in criticism if you will of the godfather of the romantic romancing of the mob the we always think that these mobsters you know they're awful but they're so honorable with each other or they only just kill their own this picture puts lie to all of that it is a film that has a real hard moral stance and it comes across these times as really refreshing how hard it comes down on the mob it starts out with some of the romances we see a young mobster played by Ray Liotta takes center stage at a nightclub and impress his girlfriend here's the romance of being a mobster with some cloud [Music] [Music] what do you do what what do you do on construction it'll feel like oh my union delegate a nice jab at the crooked unions there and this picture does come in with some hard reality and practical facts constantly and then the picture very quickly very early in the film not not late in the picture not at the end not as an afterthought but very early on we see the hard side of these guys the animalistic side in fact the animalistic totality that just aside and that's in the character played by Joe Pesci your mobster who just strikes out with violence frankly because he's an animal doesn't know how to behave any other way and here he's being pestered by a nightclub owner to pay his bill this is the way Pesci reacts guys want to come over and give the cheque in audiences the waiter could take care of it yeah it's no problem don't put it on my tier of course that's what I want to talk to you about you know anxious this is certainly one's here 7 G's you owe me $7,000 I mean a peanuts I don't mean to be out or not we call embarrassing me in front of my friends all I call me if that be you know you know Sonny or a real look you know money we depend on come on don't be like that [Laughter] what are you looking at you know when it goes silent in this picture and one of these mobsters glares at somebody it is frightening the silence itself is frightening before the violent act and a Pesci gets much tougher than that shooting a guy who simply makes an insult verbal insult toward him Martin Scorsese is getting all kinds of praise for directing this picture and he deserves every credit but one person who's really an unsung hero of all of this is Nick ecology who interviewed this Henry Hill this real-life mobster played by Ray Liotta who turned informant there are things in Peleg's book wiseguy that our dead lifted right by Scorsese right from the start about little things where you notice pinky rings and how when a mobster gets out of the car this little boy that was the Henry Hill character notice how the car lifts up and all these things that are cinematic are right in the very first pages of the book wiseguy so it is Martin Scorsese's film to be sure but ah the ideas in this picture are truly knick apologies as well and he deserves credit Thank You G pleasure thanks Jean we'll be right back this morning's gene siskel segment was sponsored by pioneer the leader in combination CD laserdisc players and multi play CD changers for the home and car [Music] [Applause] [Music] there are two openings on renamed ray liotta may not be instantly recognizable but you might know him as Melanie Griffith's crazed husband in something wild or as Shoeless Joe Jackson in last year's baseball hit Field of Dreams now Liotta plays a mobster turned government informant in Goodfellas with Robert De Niro whoa whoa what happened was taxed everything all cared about that's all right Jimmy there's feds all over the place so what what they're gonna go you worry too much everything is beautiful is nothing to worry about then you tell him was it like working with the name no it was great it was great I mean what you really you know you see a human being an actor who has to hit his mark and say his lines just like everybody else it just so happens he does it very deep and very full but you know in college when I first started getting into this you know he was someone that I always looked up to so it was great were you intimidated at all no no I was just more excited I was really excited to work with them what was it like though on this set I mean the first day and you go up to meet Robert De Niro at least a little bit of a butterfly yeah her so I you know my palms are sweating a little but luckily I was just so focused on the story that I didn't think about nerves or anything else I mean even you know as far back as rehearsals you know I lived with this for three months and I just really I knew was it you know a great opportunity so I was just working my tail off all the time just to stay focused on that Henry the the the guy you play is in a witness protection program you finally talk to him after the movie was made and What did he say about how you portrayed oh he really liked the movie he was very very nervous he told me I'm going into it seeing that he was gonna come out as a rat which he is he was he did and and I think for some reason that's the only thing that stayed in his mind but he really liked it and he was he was impressed that that we got all the details down without ever having met him which was nice I all around in every area of the movie so I think it was it was it was a big release for him to see his it must be a trip hmm and that's you know because there you he could probably maybe somewhat more objective about it seeing how somebody else looked at it and that's a that was just an intense life that he lived you started doing acting at University of Miami did some soaps for a while went out to LA sort of disappeared off of the face of the earth and have been becoming more and more visible over time are you are you where you want to be uh yeah yeah you know I just really like acting and I take class with this guy Harry Master George in LA and so because I like the acting and just have fun with that I've been able you know the periods where nothing was happening I was at least able to to still do what I like and the reason what I'm in here for is you know to play make-believe it's fun but yeah yeah I am sitting here with you like this but the word star and all that goes with that are you hungry for that or all or would you just assume not even get close to them no I think if I was hungry for it I would have capitalized after the first after something wild I think I you know there was a lot of opportunities but I didn't want to get stuck in a certain thing so I you know I've been taking my time but no I'm not I just really like the acting and sometimes you could take this stuff a little too serious and there's people who do and you know it's a game congratulations oh thanks you great in this movie Thanks when people are gonna be telling you that a lot and I hope supplements I hope so it's five minutes before the hour we'll be right back

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Channel: Hezakya Newz & Films

Views: 798,400

Rating: 4.5845408 out of 5

Keywords: hezakya, hezakya newz, anthony casso, nypd, casso interview, (Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, Mafia kingpin Anthony Casso

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Length: 21min 50sec (1310 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 08 2019

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