60 Minutes archives: The Most Feared Gangster

60 Minutes Rewind During his time, Anthony Caso was the

most

feared

gangster

in the country, as we first reported in September. He was once the boss of New York's Lucasie crime family. He ruled by extorting, intimidating or murdering not only his mafia rivals but also legitimate businessmen and law enforcement officials. and anyone else who stood in his way after Caso was arrested in 1993, he made 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 story of how he took control of some. of this country's major industries and has now personally participated in the murders of 36 people - that's right, 36 people we met at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, just before he was sent to a maximum security prison for serve a life sentence, not one. but 13 life sentences plus 455 years despite a life of violence and betrayal the case says that there is nothing better than being a mafia boss, it is better than being a Hollywood star, no matter where you go with your family, They don't know what to do for you with people.

I mean, don't get me wrong, they know you're a

gangster

, they know you, they know what you are, they do everything they can for you, like going to restaurants, you don't wait in line, they'll get your table right away. the best food the best wine so why did these people treat you that way? Of course they knew I was in organized crime. They knew he was a member of the mafia and, as a member of the mafia, Case was an unusually menacing figure with a reputation for being irascible and sadistic, take the case of Jimmy Heidel, a rival mobster who was chosen to kill Kesso Heidel, he failed the job, only wounded him and then pursued heidel.

I took him to a place I had previously arranged, the house of someone I could use. I brought him there and sat him down. I wanted to know why I was shot and who told you and who else was involved and who you know and who told you who gave the orders to shoot me after you were done with this. you killed him well it was just a shot in the head no, I didn't shoot him in that I didn't shoot him he was in someone's house you made a mess I shot him a couple of times I didn't do it I didn't do it I tortured the kid I didn't do anything I didn't do anything of that I shot him a couple of times the child died what is a couple I am one of the couple it is a couple I uh I really don't know exactly how much maybe I shot him uh 10 times 12 times maybe 15 it could even have been 15.

Why What is the hate he had? She wanted to hit him with the gun after he was empty. He just tried to kill me. He does not deserve it. whatever the law is anyway that was your law there is the law with the there is the law of the mafia castle he learned mafia law as a child was prepared by his late father michael, a mafia thug in the 1930s and 40s since I was eight nine years old I grew up in this environment and they used to always you know they wanted to dress me like a little gangster put on a suit a hat go against the wall take a picture put a hand in the pocket you know things as you know when he was a teenager casso worked as a longshoreman on the brooklyn docks the right place to be he says if you were a thief if i needed food i was extra that day i would just take some i would put it on a truck i would sell it to the truck driver and that would be it, so if you were unloading the ship, isn't there someone there watching what you're doing?

Good, but everyone is doing the same thing. I am doing the same. Did it ever happen? to you to try to make a legitimate living to have a nine to five job I had a nine to five job and I was still a thief and I was a good thief with exceptional talents as a hitman and money maker case he quickly rose to the top of the lucasy family in 1990 when the police approached him. case he became a fugitive, earning him a place on the FBI's wanted list after a nationwide manhunt case was finally caught in 1993.

He really is inside a world of criminals who are bad people who are murderers who are simply treacherous and deceitful people he stands out valerie caproni was the deputy prosecutor in charge of the case of the case she says the case knows no limits he was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate a federal judge in which he was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate a federal prosecutor, he murdered and authorized the murder of witnesses, I mean, these types of crimes are beyond the pale castle, he ended up pleading guilty to over a hundred crimes and hoping to get out of prison one day, he I like several.

Other high-ranking mobsters before him turned against his mafia family and became government informants. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee in 1996, hidden behind a curtain, a case that was in the federal witness protection program testified on Capitol Hill and exposed the mafia's lucrative businesses. association with Russian organized crime groups that owned hundreds of gas stations in the New York area and Russian organized crime made large amounts of money by running scams to avoid paying taxes on gasoline, don't you take a blood oath not to speak? the mafia for anyone outside the family there is no code of silence or omerta that's not what it's called what happened to everything I could see there with the writing on the wall there weren't all the old people He left, there was no one honorable left and This was my time to leave, so let me try to come back.

You know, the few years I came back I was left with my life. I wanted to try to go out on the streets again. Caso I told the government all about the For decades, the mafia has had a stranglehold on business here, siphoning tens of millions of dollars each year in illegal profits from clothing manufacturers, who then pass those costs on to consumers. case says he made $5 million a year doing business this way his information helped make dozens of arrests and gave prosecutors a rare inside look at how the mafia controls legitimate industries, you can't move a piece of clothing there unless that we tell which trucker he uses who to deal with and how much you have to pay because we control the unions when you say you control the union, what do you mean by organized crime that puts its people there to be the union representatives?

Okay, I'm going to do business. I'm going to open Bradley suits. I make men's clothing there on 7th Avenue, but suppose I say look, I have these truckers here that are going to move my suits. These are the people I want to use. I don't want to. Look at your people, what's happening, the first thing they'll do is grab the trucker and tell them not to pick up your work. Now you will be sitting with all your work ready to be submitted and no one will be there. Pick it up, they'll look to attack you in another way, maybe break into your store, destroy your merchandise, you know, until you get there, until you finally join and register with them, will they come after me?

Chances are you know they would. I would rather make a deal with you than harm you when you make the deal and I agree to make these payments. I do them in cash and checks and cash. What we do is all the money is raised every month. Well, the family gets 50, Genevieve's family gets 25, and the Gambino family gets 25 percent of the money. This is how it is divided, suppose I tell this union representative. Look, I have recorders hidden here. I have recorded all of this. I'm going to the FBI. What's happening? Do you think it's going to happen?

They would seek to kill you if you did. They'd look for Peyton if you think she's joking. Consider what happened to Robert Kubecka and his brother-in-law Donald. Barstow, two law-abiding businessmen who took on Anthony Caso and the mafia's control over garbage hauling, an industry the mafia runs just as it runs the Cubeca textile center, and Barstow operated a small private garbage hauling business on Long Island after rejecting repeated lawsuits. to pay the mafia a 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, which was more than Anthony Caso and the mafia were going to endure once. they were flagged that they were informing the association about the gaba industry, we want to protect our interests and the next step is you know, the only way to get rid of it is you would have to kill it and ultimately that's what happened early.

One morning, while Robert Kubeca and Donald Barstow were opening businesses, two men sent by Anthony Caso quietly entered and fired ten shots, killing Kubeca and Barstow. They were legitimate businessmen, family men. They were trying to organize a business fair. and, without a doubt, their wives, their children. They were ordered to be killed, do you regret that? I don't know when we'll get to that. Don't know. I never met them. I don't know his wife or his children. But it's like doing business with us. I don't have any feelings about it one way or another that's what had to be done the story will continue after this despite his involvement in 36 murders anthony casso's cooperation agreement with the government had practically guaranteed that he would one day get out of prison but Prosecutors recently broke their deal with the case saying he repeatedly committed crimes in prison after becoming an informant, that he bribed guards to smuggle goods, that he assaulted another inmate and that he made false accusations against other mob witnesses. , in all probability the case will.

Now he spends the rest of his life behind bars if you want to be a gangster be a gangster if you want to be a government witness come be a government witness you can't cross the line because we're going to pull the plug on the cooperation agreement if we catch him doing that and in case that's exactly what happened was his decision not to come on board 100 percent not hours case says he was betrayed because the government used him for their information and then broke their agreement over what he insists were minor infractions Casso now says he regrets his decision to become an informant, a decision he says he made despite strong objections from his immediate family who

feared

the mob would retaliate against them. big brother, he was there crying like a baby and how could he do it and what about us look what you're doing to us you're ruining our lives you know so my daughter spoke on the phone I sister made a deal with them I gave them my word I'm going to keep my word and for the government I went against my daughter's wishes and now you think the government left you without a garbage can you get emotional with your family yes, it's understandable you love them a lot you miss them a lot what about all the people who ?

You've been hurt over the course of your years in this mafia business. You pleaded guilty to more than a hundred crimes. You participated at some level in 36 murders. What happens to the families of those people? Look, I didn't know them, so I'm really personal. feelings I have I have to be honest I didn't know them you don't have any problem sleeping at night you don't have a bad conscience because of all that about the victims' families no I don't know if someone says bribery extortion participation and murder actually killing someone He deserves to be in prison, he doesn't deserve treatment, what do you say?

I say it 100 percent right if I had to go to jail for my crimes. He should never get out of jail. I don't deserve any sympathy from anything or anyone, but I deserve the deal I made. They should honor the deal I made by citing the government's decision to break their cooperation agreement. Anthony Caso is appealing his multiple life sentences because he is now in solitary confinement for 23 hours. one day