On this day in 1940 a ruthless and cold-blooded mobster would be born. Anthony Casso would work his way up the mob ladder with a reputation as a violent and terrifying figure in the New York underworld, eventually confessing to involvement in Frank DeCicco’s death, Roy DeMeo’s death, and several attempts at John Gotti. Even though Amuso was the boss of the family, it was clear that Casso pulled the strings. Being at the top of a major crime family just fuelled Casso’s aggression which in the end would be the downfall of him.

On this day in 1940, one of the most feared and ferocious figures in the history of organised crime was born. Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso would go on to become a central and deeply sinister force within the Lucchese crime family, one of New York's notorious Five Families whose roots stretched back to the era of Lucky Luciano and the formation of the American Mafia Commission in 1931. From the streets of South Brooklyn, where he came of age surrounded by mob culture, Casso absorbed the violent traditions of La Cosa Nostra and made them very much his own.

Casso's rise through the ranks of the Lucchese family was built on a reputation for ruthlessness that few could match. He became a trusted earner and enforcer, demonstrating a willingness to use extreme violence that both impressed and terrified those around him. By the late 1980s, he had ascended to the position of underboss under boss Vittorio "Vic" Amuso, and though Amuso held the official title, it was widely understood within mob circles that Casso was the true driving force behind the family's operations and its increasingly paranoid purges.

His criminal ambitions extended far beyond the Lucchese family's own affairs. Casso later confessed to involvement in the 1986 car bombing that killed Gambino underboss Frank DeCicco, a deadly act carried out with the assistance of Genovese family figures using a remote-controlled device. He also admitted foreknowledge of the murder of Roy DeMeo, the notoriously violent Gambino associate, and claimed involvement in multiple attempts on the life of John Gotti, the flamboyant Gambino boss whose rise Casso viewed as a direct threat to his own ambitions and alliances.

Perhaps most remarkably, Casso became a government informant after his 1993 arrest, offering investigators a sweeping account of corruption, murder, and conspiracy that reached into the highest levels of law enforcement itself. He famously exposed two NYPD detectives, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, who had been operating as paid assassins for the mob, a scandal that shocked the public and the law enforcement community alike. However, Casso's credibility as a witness was ultimately destroyed by his compulsive lying, and he died in prison in 2020 having never received the cooperation deal he so desperately sought.

Anthony Casso's life stands as a stark testament to the corrosive and self-destructive nature of mob power. His legacy is one of breathtaking violence, institutional corruption, and a cautionary tale about the inevitable consequences of a life built entirely on betrayal.