Frank costello biography gangster

Born: January 26, 1891, Lauripoli, Calabria, Italy
Died: February 18, 1973, New York, New York
Nicknames: The Prime Minister, Uncle Frank
Associations: Lucky Luciano, Genovese crime family, the Commission, Joe “The Boss” Masseria, Johnny Torrio, Bugsy Siegel, Arnold Rothstein, Meyer Lansky

Frank Costello was an influential mobster who survived several Mob wars, government scrutiny and an assassination attempt to control the powerful national Commission of Mafia bosses founded by Lucky Luciano.

Born Francesco Castiglia in Italy, Costello came to the United States in 1895 to settle in Manhattan.

Costello, along with other future mobsters, was active as a youth with the Five Points Gang in Lower Manhattan, and was jailed for assault, robbery and weapons possession at least four times from 1908 through 1918. In 1918, he married and vowed never again to carry a gun.

He would not go to jail again for almost 40 years.

Costello worked with a “who’s who” of ea