Whitney Kaltenbaugh
Period 3
Background
- Born in Palemo, Sicily in 1902
- Family belonged to the Honored Society (the Honored Society “was a
highly disorganized version of the European Mafia)
- Began carrying out murder older from mob bosses in his early teens
- At 19 Gambino became a “made man” (a “made man” was a fully initiated
member of the American Mafia)
- Inducted into Cosa Nostra (Cosa Nostra was the Sicilian Mafia)
- Entered US as an illegal immigrant on a shipping boat; went to NYC
- Joined crime family headed by Salvatore “Totò” D’Aquila
- Joined the “Young Turks”- a group of Americanized Italian and
Jewish mobsters in NYC
Crimes Committed
- Robbery, thefts, and illegal gambling
- With partner, Arnold “the Brain” Rothenstien, turned to bootlegging
during the Prohibition
- During WWII bribed Office of Price Administration officials for ration
stamps which he then sold on the Black Market
- Suspected to have killed Tomy Eboli and Carmine “Mimi” Scialo
Crimes Cont.
- Gambino was only convicted 1 time during 50 years of crime
- He was charged with illegal possession of liquor and an unregistered
distillery during the Prohibition
- Distillery and liquor found was used as evidence against Gambino
- Sentenced to 22 months in prison but only served 30 days in 1937-1938
Crimes Cont.
- Indicted in 1970 for hijacking
- US Supreme Court in 1970 upheld an order of deportation, sending back
to the country of one’s birth place, but it was never acted out due to
Gambino’s poor health
Applied Theory
I think the applied theory for Gambino’s behavior and actions is the
differential- association theory. Differential- association theory occurs when
one hangs around people and/or grows up around certain types of people.
Gambino grew up in a family that belonged to the Mafia and eventually
started to participate in mob violence. He joined mobs, mafias, and gangs
starting in his teenage years because that was how he grew up. Everyone
whom he was around was in one gang or another. Since he started out so
young in the mobs he had older people to flow and gain knowledge of what
they do. This, I believe, led him to becoming the head of the Gambino crime
family and get the name “The Boss of Bosses.” All his actions that occurred
later in his life are somehow linked back to him as a teenage boy in the
Sicilian Mafia and many other mobs.