Paul Castellano's house

This is the former home of Gambino crime boss Paul Castellano.

It is located at 177 Benedict Road in the Todt Hill neighborhood of Staten Island, New York.

Castellano commissioned the 10,436-square-foot mansion in 1976. It took four years to complete.

The house has 8 bedrooms, 17 bathrooms, and a 13-car garage. It sits on a 0.72-acre lot that contains a large garden and swimming pool.

The current owner is Salmar Properties CEO Sal Rusi, who purchased it in 2000 for $3.1 million. In June 2023, Rusi put the mansion up for sale for $16.8 million.

He took it off the market in December 2025 after failing to find a buyer.

Boss

Shortly before his death in October 1976, longtime crime boss Carlo Gambino named "Big Paul" as his successor. Castellano officially assumed control of the family one month later.

His succession was unwelcome to some members. At the time, many of them wanted the then-underboss, Aniello Dellacroce, to assume command.

As a result, two factions formed within the family.

One side comprised Castellano and his loyalists, while the other supported Dellacroce and his protégé, John Gotti.

Murder

When Dellacroce died of cancer in 1985, Castellano did not go to his wake. This angered Gotti and the rest of Dellacroce's followers, as they viewed his refusal to attend as an insult.

By that point, tensions between the two factions had been mounting 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.

Castellano rarely left his mansion. Instead, he would summon his capos to Todt Hill and give them orders.

Eventually, his reclusive nature alienated him from the rest of the family. Over time, the other members began to view him as greedy and out of touch.

While they were out making money on the streets, he roamed his mansion in expensive dressing gowns and velvet slippers. To fund his lavish lifestyle, he also started demanding more money from his capos.

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

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

Surveillance

The Netflix documentary Fear City: New York vs The Mafia described how the FBI put the mansion under surveillance after they learned that Castellano regularly held meetings in his dining room.

The agents interfered with his cable TV connection so that he would call the customer helpline for a repair.

When their plan worked, an undercover agent posed as a technician and showed up at the house to "fix" the problem.

Once inside, he opened the television and pretended to diagnose the issue. While the agent was working, he asked Castellano's bodyguard, Thomas Bilotti, to assist him by holding a flashlight.

Bilotti pointed the flashlight into the back of the TV, unaware that the "technician" was installing a listening device right in front of him.