Crime Leader Buried in Unconsecrated Ground in New York
NEW YORK — Slain Mafia leader Paul (Big Paul) Castellano was buried Thursday in unconsecrated ground during a funeral shrouded by secrecy.
Castellano, 70, head of the largest and most powerful crime family in the nation, was buried at the Moravian Cemetery on Staten Island three days after he was killed, police said.
Archbishop John J. O’Connor refused to allow a public funeral Mass for Castellano or let him be buried in consecrated ground in a Catholic cemetery. The Gambino crime family kingpin and his bodyguard were shot to death Monday on a busy mid-Manhattan street.
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