On this day in 2000 the former boss of the Lucchese Crime Family, Tony Corallo passed away at the Federal Medical Center for prisoners in Missouri.

At the time of his death Corallo had been in prison for 13 years. On January 13, 1987, he was sentenced to 100 years in federal prison when he was convicted under the Mafia Commission Trial of the 1980’s.

In his early criminal days, during the mid 1930’s, Corallo teamed up with Johnny Dio and worked for underboss Tommy Lucchese to help control the garment district. By 1943 he was in control of his own crew and was earning millions of dollars through racketeering projects for the Gagliano family.

In 1967 Tommy Lucchese died and Corallo was the man who was set to take over from him, however during this same period Coralla was facing indictment, and would later be charged to 3 years in prison. Upon leaving prison Corallo took over the reigns from acting boss Carmine Tramunti and then lead the Lucchese family through the next decade.

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He got his nickname “Ducks” for his ability to avoid subpoenas and convictions in a criminal career that spanned nearly 7 decades.

He was 87 years old at the time of his death.

On this day in 2000, Tony "Ducks" Corallo, one of the most formidable and enduring figures in American organised crime, passed away at the Federal Medical Center for prisoners in Missouri. He was 87 years old, and had spent the final thirteen years of his life behind bars — a fitting, if belated, conclusion to a criminal career that had stretched across nearly seven decades.

Corallo earned his famous nickname through a remarkable talent for evading law enforcement. Throughout the 1940s, 50s and 60s, he demonstrated an almost supernatural ability to duck subpoenas, slip through legal nets and avoid the convictions that brought down so many of his contemporaries. It was a reputation that served him well for years, though ultimately even "Ducks" could not outrun the law forever.

His rise through the ranks of New York's underworld began in the mid-1930s, when he allied himself with the notorious labour racketeer Johnny Dio and went to work for Tommy Lucchese, then serving as underboss of what would eventually become the Lucchese Crime Family — one of the city's powerful Five Families, whose foundations had been laid during Lucky Luciano's reorganisation of American organised crime in the early 1930s. Corallo proved himself a capable and ruthless operator, and by 1943 he was running his own crew, generating millions through racketeering schemes for the Gagliano family, as it was then known.

When Tommy Lucchese died in 1967, Corallo was widely regarded as the natural successor. However, a looming indictment complicated his ascension, and he was ultimately sentenced to three years in prison. During his absence, Carmine Tramunti served as acting boss. Upon his release, Corallo wasted little time in seizing control of the family, guiding the Luccheses through the 1970s with a firm and calculating hand, cementing his reputation as one of the sharpest criminal minds in New York.

His downfall came through the landmark Mafia Commission Trial of the 1980s, a sweeping federal prosecution that targeted the leadership of all Five Families simultaneously. On 13th January 1987, Corallo was sentenced to 100 years in federal prison, a sentence that effectively meant he would die behind bars — which is precisely what happened on 23rd August 2000.

Tony Corallo's legacy is that of a consummate mob strategist who helped shape the Lucchese family into a major criminal power across several generations. His story remains a defining chapter in the long, brutal history of the American Mafia.