Paul Castellano's house

This is Paul Castellano's former house.

It is located at 177 Benedict Road on Staten Island, New York.

Castellano built this 10,000-square-foot mansion in Todt Hill in 1980. He lived here during the height of his power.

Longtime crime boss Carlo Gambino named "Big Paul" as his successor shortly before he passed away in October 1976. Castellano officially took control of the family one month later.

However, his succession came as an unwelcome surprise to some of the other members. At the time, many of them expected the current underboss, Aniello Dellacroce, to step up and take the reins.

As a result, two factions formed inside the family.

On one side, there were Castellano and his loyalists. On the other side were Dellacroce and his protege, John Gotti.

When Dellacroce died of cancer in 1985, Castellano did not go to his wake. This angered Gotti and the rest of Dellacroce's followers. In their eyes, his refusal to attend was a slap in the face.

By that point, tensions between the two sides had been simmering for some time.

Castellano had recently learned that Gotti and his crew were disobeying his orders by selling heroin. There was also an ongoing dispute between the two parties over money.

During his reign as boss, Castellano seldom left his luxury mansion in Todt Hill. Instead, he would summon his capos to the house and give them orders.

Eventually, his reclusive nature started to isolate him from the rest of the family. As time went on, the other members started to view him as greedy and out of touch.

While they were out making money on the street, he was walking around his mansion in expensive dressing gowns and velvet slippers. Due to his lavish lifestyle, he also started demanding more money from his capos.

Following Dellacroce's death, Castellano made the unpopular decision to promote his own bodyguard, Thomas Bilotti, to the position of underboss. He also started making plans to break up Gotti's crew.

However, Gotti caught wind of these plans and decided to strike first. Roughly two weeks later, Castellano and his new underboss were gunned down outside of Sparks Steak House in Manhattan.