The group, which went through five bosses between and , is named after Carlo Gambino , boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in , when the structure of organized crime first gained public attention. The group's operations extend from New York and the eastern seaboard to California. Its illicit activities include labor and construction racketeering , gambling , loansharking , extortion , money laundering , prostitution , [ 14 ] fraud , hijacking , and fencing.
The family was one of the five families that were founded in New York after the Castellammarese War of For most of the next quarter-century, it was a minor player in organized crime. Its most prominent member during this time was its underboss Albert Anastasia , who rose to infamy as the operating head of the underworld's enforcement arm, Murder, Inc. He remained in power even after Murder, Inc. The rise of what was the most powerful crime family in America for a time began in , when Anastasia was assassinated while sitting in a barber chair at the Park Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan, New York City.
Some historians believe that Albert Anastasia's underboss Carlo Gambino helped orchestrate the hit to take over the family. Gambino partnered with Meyer Lansky to control gambling interests in Cuba and a few other places. The family's fortunes grew through , when Gambino appointed his brother-in-law Paul Castellano as boss upon his death. Castellano infuriated upstart capo John Gotti , who orchestrated Castellano's murder in Gravano's cooperation with the U.
Following the Gotti regime, the control of the Gambino family was assumed by the organization's Sicilian faction. The origins of the Gambino crime family can be traced back to the faction of newly transplanted mafiosi from Palermo , Sicily who were originally led by Ignazio Lupo. When he and his partner by business and marriage, Giuseppe Morello , were sent to prison for counterfeiting in , Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila , one of Lupo's chief captains, took over.
As other gangs formed in New York, they acknowledged Morello as their boss of bosses. In , Giuseppe Morello and Ignazio Lupo were sentenced to 30 years in prison for counterfeiting. With the Morello family weakened, D'Aquila used the opportunity to establish the dominance of what was now his own Palermitani family in East Harlem.
