Gambino capo Gregory DePalma dies in prison
Matthew Kruk
Gambino capo Gregory DePalma dies in prison
By Timothy O'Connor . tpoc...@lohud.com . November 24, 2009
SCARSDALE - The gangster whose loose lips helped sink the leadership of
the Gambino Crime Family has died at a federal prison where he was
serving a nearly--year stretch for racketeering.
Gregory DePalma, 78, an admitted capo in the notorious Mafia crime
family, died Nov. 20 at 5:54 p.m. at Butner Federal Medical Prison in
Butner, N.C., prison public information officer Denise Simmons said.
She declined to release the cause of death, saying it's not public
information. But she did say that authorities do not suspect foul play
in the death of the longtime gangster. DePalma suffered from a host of
ailments dating back more than a decade and has suffered heart attacks,
battled cancer, and struggled with diabetes.
DePalma, a longtime Scarsdale resident, was serving 12 years and seven
months at the prison, a sentence that stemmed from his 2006 federal
racketeering conviction in Manhattan. The trial featured testimony from
the undercover FBI agent who infiltrated DePalma's Westchester crew and
got so close to the aging capo that DePalma said he was going to have
him inducted into the crime family.
Joaquin Garcia, the agent who posed as jewel thief "Fat Jack Falcone,"
has since retired from the FBI. He said Monday that DePalma was a
"hard-core gangster" who lived by the code of the mob.
"The world's a better place without the guy," Garcia said. "Certainly,
Westchester's a better place and people there can breathe a little
easier."
DePalma was inducted into the Gambino Crime Family in'77, the same year
he came to the attention of federal investigators in connection with the
failed Westchester Premier Theatre in Greenburgh. DePalma and his
cohorts would be indicted the next year for skimming money from the
failing theater. But the venture's real legacy is a famous photo of
Frank Sinatra with his arms draped around DePalma and other mobsters
following an appearance at the theater.
In'98, he was charged along with his son Craig DePalma and John "Junior"
Gotti in connection with an alleged attempt to shake down the New York
City strip club "Scores."
Both DePalmas and Gotti eventually pleaded guilty in the case, with the
elder DePalma sentenced while lying in a hospital bed at Westchester
Medical Center.
In 2002, he was released from prison and almost immediately went back to
committing crime. In 2005, federal prosecutors indicted DePalma and more
than 30 other members of the Gambino Crime Family, including the acting
boss Arnold Squitieri. All pleaded guilty except for DePalma, who was
convicted in 2006.