Trial of Gambino ‘Family’ Ends With Murder, Theft Convictions

Two reputed mobsters were convicted of murder Wednesday as members of a powerful gang once reportedly headed by Paul Castellano, who was gunned down on a Manhattan street during the trial.

A U.S. District Court jury also convicted four other reputed members of the Gambino crime family of involvement in an international auto-theft ring.

The jury, which deliberated 16 days, was deadlocked on murder charges against two other defendants, and Judge Kevin T. Duffy declared a mistrial in their cases.

Jurors said that the Dec. 16 slaying of Castellano, 70, in front of a steak house in Manhattan had no effect on their deliberations, but one did say, “You’re sitting across from a man for two or three months . . . then you turn on the television and see him lying on the floor.”

Stole Cars to Order

The trial centered on the Gambino organization’s auto theft ring, which took cars off the streets of Brooklyn and shipped them to “clients” elsewhere in the United States and around the world, especially in the Middle East.

Law enforcement officials consider the Gambino group to be the most powerful of New York City’s Mafia families, and the trial was the first of several that the government contends will “break the back of organized crime.”

Henry Borelli and Ronald Ustica were found guilty in the 1979 killing of two auto wholesalers they suspected of cooperating with law enforcement.

A mistrial was declared in the cases of Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter, who also were charged with the murder.

Conspiracy Convictions

Anthony Gaggi was found guilty of conspiracy to ship stolen cars, as were Peter LaFroscia, Ustica, Ronald Turekian and Edward Rendini. Testa and Senter were found innocent on that charge.

Ustica and Rendini were convicted on 16 counts of auto theft and Borelli was convicted of 15 auto-theft counts. Five other defendants, including Testa and Senter, were acquitted of auto theft.

The jury also found Turekian guilty on four counts of mail fraud, for mailing false documents for stolen cars and filing false insurance claims. He was the only one charged with mail fraud.

Those convicted are to be sentenced April 2.