1. Carlo Gambino *Honored society: the wealthy mafia society Born in Sicily, Italy on August 24, 1902 He was born into a prosperous and well connected family Grew up sheltered by the mafia in a neighborhood so dominated by the honored society * it was off limits to the police and the military. At the time Don Vito was the most powerful man in Sicily

2. Growing Up Gambino looked up and respected the upper level mafia men but Carlo really admired Don Vito Don Vito was charismatic and fearless but what made an impact on Gambino was his criminal intuition As a teenager Gambino dropped out of school He got a job as an enforcer for Don Vito His cunning and ruthless personality made him successful and envied by many At age 19 he joined the honored society, a big step towards his future Gambino was known for being as smart as a fox and as strong as a lion

3. Conflicts in Sicily In the early 1900’s Mussolini, Italian governor, began to spread fascism and planned to destroy the mafia This was the reason Gambino was then sent to America Since his mother had relatives in New York, they found a cargo ship to smuggle him on As years went by Gambino began rising to power in the mafia He got his own crew at age 29 and only trusted his blood relatives His wife, Catherine Castellano, was his first cousin but he only married her because her family had a lot of power so he got some of that power passed on to him

4. Power Gambino was the toughest and most intelligent mafia man His old man appearance made him look incapable of hurting anyone, and was a benefit to fool the feds He was a leader in a way that he was the boss of a mafia crime family and the members would follow him and look up to him Gambino would always find ways to make a profit off of an event For example, during World War II they would issue ration stamps so he developed an elaborate scheme to steal the stamps The banks hid the stamps but he paid corrupt officials to steal them for him

5. Gambino’s end Gambino led for 20 years with not even a day in prison He had heart complications in his old age and his health started to deteriorate after his wife passed away in 1971 On October 15, 1976 Gambino passed away in his summer house in Long Island watching a Yankees game His cause of death: a heart attack He was one of the mafias wealthiest bosses in New York and impacted many other lives in different ways