Author: Daniel Victor / Source: New York Times
Paul Taggart for The New York Times
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Cloaked in green, perched high above the city and offering the kind of privacy that would appeal to mob bosses, Todt Hill on Staten Island would in many ways be a fitting location for an old-fashioned Mafia hit.
It has the history. Paul Castellano, who led the Gambino crime family until he was murdered in Manhattan in 1985, conducted business from his Benedict Road mansion. It has also been the home of many other reputed mobsters, including Salvatore Gravano, known as Sammy the Bull, a onetime hit man who informed on his boss, John Gotti.
It also has the look. A Tudor-style house on Longfellow Avenue famously served as the setting of Vito Corleone’s home in “The Godfather,” where the Mafia don greeted guests during his daughter’s wedding in the opening scenes of the movie.
On Wednesday night, Francesco Cali, the reputed boss of the Gambino family, was fatally shot outside his home on Hilltop Terrace, opening a new chapter of Mafia folklore for a typically peaceful neighborhood with some of New York’s City’s finest views and homes. Mr. Cali was shot six times and pronounced dead at Staten Island University Hospital.
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