Frank Costello earned the nickname "the prime minister of the underworld" because of his political connections and his preference for peace over war within the Mafia. He is considered one of the most respected and influential mobsters in mafia history.
He had a slew of politicians under his thumb, using them to benefit the entire New York underworld. He alone represented the most powerful political force in New York in the 1940s and 1950s.
No one could become a judge, a high-ranking official, or even mayor of the city without Frank's approval. His creed was always to avoid trouble, and he avoided it like the plague.
While other gangsters were killing each other in bloody turf wars, he calmly counted his stacks of bills in his luxurious office. In the 1940s, Frank Costello became the new godfather of the Luciano family after his friend Lucky Luciano was expelled from the United States.
It was his ingenuity, determination, and developed business sense that propelled him to the highest echelons of the Mafia. His crimes and his businesses were far more calculated and brutal than the fictionalized versions described in movies.
The character of Vito Corleone in "The Godfather" saga is fictional, but he was inspired by real mafia godfathers active in New York during the 1940s and 1950s. Don Vito's discreet lifestyle, designed to stay under the authorities' radar, nods to the life of godfather Carlo Gambino.
His achievement of a leadership position in the underworld at a young age, and later instructing his son not to follow the same path, brings to mind the story of Joseph Bonanno. The olive oil business used to cover the family's illegal dealings is a reference to the importation business Joe Pace opened in the 1920s.
But the most striking connection is with another godfather, one whom actor Marlon Brando imitated by adopting a voice and gestures almost identical. Like Don Corleone, this godfather had strong relational influence through numerous political contacts.
He categorically refused to let his men get involved in drug trafficking, just like Don Vito, and had a life relatively similar to the well-known fictional character. That man was Frank Costello.
Frank Costello was born Francesco Castiglia on January 26, 1891, in the Calabria region of Italy. He was the sixth child of Luigi and Maria Castiglia, and his birth was a rather unexpected event for his parents.
The family was already very poor, and the arrival of a sixth child was not going to improve their situation. Around 1893, the Castiglia family split into two.
Don Luigi decided to go to America in hopes of escaping the poverty of the Italian countryside. The meager resources at his disposal did not allow him to take his entire family, so he was forced to leave his wife, two of his daughters, and his son Francesco in Calabria.
Don Luigi was certain he would earn more money in America and that the rest of his family would join him soon. However, the disappointment would be significant.
Upon arriving in America, he struggled to save money. Life there turned out to be just as tough as in the Calabrian countryside.
He told his wife to sell everything, even the bed sheets if necessary, but to come to America. After two years had passed, the last tickets were purchased, and the rest of the family could finally join the United States.
In 1895, Francesco Castiglia set off for the new world. He later recalled that it was just the three of them, his mother, his sister, and him.
All they took from the old country was a huge iron pot his mother liked to cook in. They fixed up the pot like a bed by lining it with a blanket, and that is where he slept for the entire crossing.
The Castiglia family settled into a precarious apartment in the Italian ghetto of East Harlem in New York. They did not feel too out of place, as the lively neighborhood was predominantly composed of people from Calabria.
To provide for his family, Luigi Castiglia opened a grocery store on 108th Street. However, the business brought in little income, just enough to cover housing and food.
Despite help from Maria and the children, the growing offspring never had enough to satisfy their hunger. At dinner, Francesco never failed to compare the contents of his plate with those of his siblings to ensure he received his fair share.
One of his friends would later recount that when you dined regularly with Frank, you quickly learned not to touch the contents of his plate. This phobia traced back to his impoverished childhood.
At the age of nine, Francesco began attending school. It was during this period that his name first appeared in its English form.
For young Frank, learning the language of Shakespeare was a challenge. In general, school was not his forte.
He despised attending classes and preferred roaming the streets, where he could earn a bit of money. His older brother, Eduardo, taught him how to improve his lifestyle by stealing fruit from local merchants.
This enabled Frank to gradually but steadily tread the path of delinquency. His father would tell him to go to school, and Frank would insist he went every day.
His mother warned him that she did not like the friends he had, saying they were no good and would amount to nothing. Frank replied that he would amount to something, something better than spending his life in a grocery store.
Frank would loathe and disdain his father throughout his life. The reason was that he regarded him as too soft, too humble, and content with his lot.
He simply could not comprehend why his father had accepted such a poor and mediocre life. Frank permanently left school at the age of 13.
From then on, he seamlessly blended into the petty delinquency of his neighborhood. The school of crime is where Frank had chosen to educate himself, a school that in the early 20th century would shape some of the greatest gangsters in the history of the United States.
In East Harlem, the neighborhood where Frank Costello lived, a Sicilian mob boss named Ignazio Lupo dominated the area in the early 1900s. Lupo the Wolf, as he was nicknamed, had managed to gain control of the city by merging his organization with Giuseppe Morello's family.
Originally, the Mafia was a secret society created by Sicilians for Sicilians, eventually becoming a true state within a state. Once imported to the United States, however, the Mafia bosses decided to forget what had been the very essence of their organization and began extorting their fellow Italians.
Ignazio Lupo was one of these racketeers. His men would knock on the doors of merchants demanding payment of a tax in exchange for protection.
If you were the merchant, you had better pay the tax, or they would beat you mercilessly. And if that was not enough, they would simply burn down your shop.
Before they harmed you, the Mafia generally warned you by sending a letter marked with a black hand, the emblem of their extortion method. This sinister seal terrified all those unlucky enough to receive it.
These extortion gangs, known as the Black Hand, were not as organized as the modern Mafia that would emerge in the 1930s. However, there was one rule that everyone scrupulously respected: omerta, the law of silence.
Frank Costello, who continued his apprenticeship in the streets of East Harlem during this time, conscientiously adhered to it. He had clearly observed that in his neighborhood, informants were not well received.
Spilling the beans at a police station equated to being scorned in the streets, and in the worst cases it simply meant signing one's death warrant. Frank understood this well, so much so that he would not betray a single person in his life.
Then one day he was caught red-handed by a patrolling police officer. Suddenly a city councilor, recognizing him, intervened.
"I'll take care of that little rascal," he said. The officer, not bothering, left it to the politician to deal with Frank.
The politician told Frank he had just done him a favor and to remember it when he needed one. Frank was stunned.
Why had this man done him this favor by releasing him from the hands of the police? Finally, he grasped it.
He had just understood the importance of doing favors for others. It was a bit like depositing money in the bank.
You could withdraw from the account when you needed it, and the bigger it was, the more comfortable you were. It is a lesson he would not fail to put into practice later, developing one of the biggest influence trafficking operations in the history of organized crime in America.
It was during this period that Frank Castiglia changed his name. Henceforth, he went by Frank Costello.
The exact reason is not clear. Perhaps he changed it to prevent the police from tracing it back to his parents, or maybe it was better to integrate into society.
Costello, surprisingly, is an Irish surname. According to the memoirs of Charlie Luciano, better known as Lucky Luciano, an Italian immigrant who, like Frank, was making a name for himself on the streets of the east side, the two became acquainted at a movie theater in Times Square.
It was a Saturday night, Lucky recalled. They liked to go to the movies because silent pictures had titles and they helped them learn English.
This particular night, the manager threw them out and at the same time threw out some other guys. One of the guys was a little bit older than them and had an outfit called the 104th Street Gang.
They got together and it turned out that this older guy was not from Sicily. His name was Francesco Castiglia.
Later on, though, he got famous under the name of Frank Costello. Frank Costello and Lucky Luciano would later become very good friends.
Both young men aspired to the same ambitions in life. They were both insightful, resourceful, and willing to do whatever it took to carve out a place for themselves in the underworld.
Later on, they would meet two other gangsters, two Jews also hailing from the east side. Meyer Lansky was a small and cunning tough guy, and Benjamin Siegel, nicknamed Benny or Bugsy, was a tall, handsome guy whose appearance could be deceiving because he had an itchy trigger finger.
The four of them formed a gang, an association. Luciano finally recalled that they were the best team that ever got put together.
They knew their jobs better than any other guys on the street. According to Lucky, this is how Costello got his name.
During their first heist together, Meyer Lansky objected to the Jews always taking the risks. Lucky responded by asking what he meant by two Italians, saying they were one Italian, one Irish, and two Jews.
Meyer asked where the Irish was. Lucky pointed to Frank, saying he was Irish, you know, Frank Costello.
That is how Costello got his name. Lucky remembered that when they got up to their ears in New York politics, it did not hurt at all that they had an Italian guy with them with an Irish name.
To play with fire is to eventually get burned, and Frank Costello was about to face the justice system. His first arrest occurred on April 25, 1908.
Frank, accompanied by two other young thugs, was arrested in the Bronx after beating up and robbing a coal merchant. In front of the judge, he pleaded not guilty and was granted a dismissal.
For this first one, he got lucky. Then there was another on October 16, 1912, on 108th Street, this time for armed robbery.
Frank, again with two acquaintances, stole nearly $3,600 in cash and $220 worth of jewelry from a housewife. On the day of judgment, he pleaded not guilty again and miraculously escaped with a dismissal.
Perhaps he had threatened the plaintiff to drop the charges. No one knows.
But then he committed one offense too many. The arrest took place in Manhattan on March 2, 1915, just a few months after Frank married a lovely brunette.
By that time, Frank had made it a habit not to go out without his revolver. Unfortunately, on that day, he was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon.
Initially, he told investigators his name was Frank Saverio, a reference to his mother's maiden name, but eventually claimed his real name was Costello. Clearly this was an attempt to confuse the authorities and prevent them from discovering his true identity.
However, Frank realized that this time it would not be as easy to get away with it. Pleading not guilty would not result in a dismissal, and the bail for temporary release was too high.
With no other option, he had to accept it. He would have to languish behind bars before his trial.
As time passed, the weight of prison gradually took its toll on him. He decided he would plead guilty.
The judge asked for his real name, and Frank answered, "Costello." The judge noted that in 1908, seven years earlier, he had been arrested for assault and robbery and was discharged.
He found that in 1912 Frank was again arrested for assault and robbery and was discharged in that case. In those cases he gave the name Frank Costello.
In this case he gave his name as Frank Saverio. The judge said he had looked him up and found his reputation was not good, but on the contrary, it was bad.
Frank pleaded for another chance. The judge told him he had had chances for the last six years, and those chances had to cease sometime.
Frank said he took the plea just because he was in prison for one month and wanted to avoid trouble. He was a married man, but the revolver was not found on him.
It was found 100 feet away from him. The judge confirmed that was right, and that the officers followed him and saw him throw the gun away.
They first captured him and then took him back and got the gun. In other words, his actions were those of a guilty man in every particular.
The judge sentenced him to the penitentiary for one year. Frank served 11 out of the 12 months, his good behavior earning him a reduction in sentence.
Released in April 1916, he then returned to wandering the streets of East Harlem. While in prison, he had thought long and hard about his future.
He was determined not to end up back behind bars. Running through the streets with a firearm and the prospect of going back to prison, or worse, losing his life, was not part of his plans.
He later said that was when he realized he was stupid. Carrying a gun was like carrying a label that said, "I'm dangerous. I'm a criminal. Get me off the street."
He made up his mind he would never pack a gun again, and he never did. Clearly Costello needed a break away from petty crime.
What he needed was serious business opportunities. At that moment, the most beautiful gift a small-time gangster like him could dream of arrived to change his criminal dimension.
A major event would soon transform his life and the lives of many other delinquents in the working-class neighborhoods of New York. That event was Prohibition.
On January 16, 1920, at midnight, the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified a year earlier, came into effect. It was now illegal to manufacture, transport, import, export, or sell alcoholic beverages.
Prohibition had been inaugurated. That night, a new era was about to begin in America, an era of fantastic disorder where the law would be constantly flouted.
These years of Prohibition would turn out to be lucrative for a number of gangsters seeking prosperity, like Frank Costello and his associates, who were determined to seize the great opportunity that lay before them. When Prohibition began, Costello, Luciano, Lansky, and Siegel were determined to play a significant role in this new market.
They were ambitious, there was no doubt. What they lacked at the moment was experience.
The four were barely adults and knew it would be challenging to compete with the bigwigs of the Italian mob in New York. Among these bigwigs were Joe Masseria and Salvatore D'Aquila, old-school Sicilians with a deep distrust of all non-Italians, especially non-Sicilians.
This perspective was completely opposed to the new generation of gangsters like Costello, Luciano, or Lansky, who saw racketeering as strictly a business affair where origin was not a prerequisite for doing business. Collaboration instead of bloodshed was their approach.
There was no time to waste. Prohibition was here, and Americans were eager for their thirst to be quenched.
Their entry into the clandestine alcohol market began with Joe Adonis, a young man as ambitious as they were. One day, Adonis was in Little Italy enjoying an ice cream with Charlie Lucky Luciano when he made him a proposition.
He told Charlie he knew they had never done business together, but he needed $10,000 to make a whiskey buy down in Philly, and he would cut him in for half. The day before, Adonis had met Waxey Gordon, a bootlegger from Philadelphia.
Waxey had offered him a shipment of guaranteed authentic Scottish whiskey, but Adonis did not have enough funds to seal the deal. That is why he turned to Lucky Luciano.
Lucky recalled that he put his arm around Adonis's shoulder and told him to keep his money, that he had just found himself a partner who would put up all the dough. He called Costello, Lansky, and Siegel, and they got together an hour later.
The four of them put up $35,000 in cash. The deal was sealed, the first of many business ventures.
Luciano himself recounted the beginning of their involvement in the alcohol trade. The profits were far greater than could ever have been realized by crimes against innocent persons and their property, and the penalties were far less.
Protection could be purchased at all levels. Ever since they were kids, they always knew that people could be bought.
It was only a question of who did the buying and for how much. It was Frank Costello a little bit later who really opened the door to the whole business of buying influence and protection.
He had the style and the class of a guy twice his age. With that Irish-Italian name they hung on him, he was able to move into all circles.
That is when they set up a private bank. Not a real bank, but what they called their buy money bank.
It started with $5,000, and the pot was turned over to Costello to use any way he saw fit. They greased the police and the politicians.
It was all part of the overhead, just like any other business. Thanks to Frank Costello, the gang had an entire network of politicians and cops on their payroll throughout Manhattan.
This meant they could trade booze in peace. In addition to his activities with Luciano, Lansky, and Siegel, Costello also partnered with one of the biggest alcohol traffickers during Prohibition, William Vincent Dwyer, an Irish gangster known as Big Bill.
He was not called that because of his imposing physique, but due to his hefty bank account and significant political influence. Dwyer and Costello joined forces in 1923.
At that time, Dwyer was already well established in alcohol trafficking. He reportedly received a proposition from Costello that guaranteed him complete protection against increasingly frequent raids.
For a bootlegger, enduring such attacks meant losing a lot of money. So William Dwyer likely had no other choice but to accept Frank's proposal, risking major trouble otherwise.
The Costello-Dwyer partnership became one of the most effective and lucrative in Prohibition history. Every year they imported an average of $40 million worth of alcohol.
They were the only bootleggers during Prohibition who never lost a single truck. As money flowed in more and more, Frank started to gradually change his criminal dimension.
Prohibition made him wealthy more than just a bit, allowing him to invest in other ventures like real estate. As the uncompromising businessman he was, he watched every dollar invested.
This success opened the doors to high society for him. In this world, Frank felt like a fish in water.
He was friendly, naturally gained trust, and had the appearance of someone not remotely threatening. These qualities allowed him to mingle with whoever he pleased without arousing suspicion.
Frank then used this apparent credibility to expand his influence and contacts among high-profile individuals. He got acquainted with politicians, judges, journalists, city councilors, and even movie stars.
He corrupted all these people, and in return, they protected his and his associates' underworld businesses. If you were a Prohibition-era alcohol smuggler with a problem, you would go see Frank Costello and he would solve it in a snap.
The year 1929 is a significant year in the history of the underworld. From May 13 to May 16 of that year, the first organized crime summit took place.
The idea for organizing this conference came from Johnny Torrio, the former head of the Chicago Mafia, who was Al Capone's mentor. Torrio aimed to establish a national crime syndicate, a kind of confederation where all American criminal organizations would be united.
He envisioned dividing the United States into slices so that each criminal group would be allocated its fair share. Within this national crime syndicate, everyone would be welcome.
Not only Italian-American mobsters, but also Jewish and Irish gangsters, as well as African-American criminals. This convention aimed to lay the foundations for a new, more modern Mafia, a visionary project that captivated Costello, Luciano, and Lansky, who shared Torrio's vision.
They decided to help organize this conference. The location chosen was Atlantic City.
Frank Costello took charge of the invitations. Thus, the New York delegation, the largest at the meeting, arrived in Atlantic City, including Johnny Torrio, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Joe Adonis, Vito Genovese, and Dutch Schultz.
Chicago was represented by Al "Scarface" Capone, Frank Nitti, and Jake Guzik. In short, the biggest names in the underworld were present.
The conference lasted four days. During this time, the mobsters discussed how to organize their operations, divide territories, and resolve disputes peacefully.
The goal was to avoid the kind of violence that brings unwanted attention from law enforcement. Frank Costello played a key role in these discussions.
His political connections and diplomatic skills made him an invaluable asset. The other bosses recognized that his approach of buying influence rather than shooting rivals was the smarter path forward.
The Atlantic City Conference marked a turning point. From this moment on, the American Mafia became a more structured, business-oriented organization.
Violence did not disappear, but it became a tool of last resort rather than the first option. Frank Costello emerged from Atlantic City with enhanced prestige.
He was now recognized as one of the most powerful and sophisticated gangsters in America. His transformation from a street punk in East Harlem to the prime minister of the underworld was nearly complete.
The lessons he learned on those same streets would serve him well in the decades to come. The importance of favors, the value of political connections, the wisdom of avoiding violence when possible—these principles would guide him through the turbulent years ahead.
As Prohibition ended in 1933, many bootleggers found themselves scrambling for new sources of income. But not Frank Costello.
He had already diversified his operations, invested his profits wisely, and built a network of influence that would sustain him for years to come. The real Godfather was just getting started.