'Franky Boy' Cali Of The Gambino Crime Family Fatally Shot Outside His Staten Island Mansion

Outside Cali's home

Frank Cali, the Gambino crime family's reputed leader, was killed outside of his Staten Island home on Wednesday night. A witness told the Daily News, "There were like six shots, and then there were three more. The man was on the ground face-up. His head was by his SUV, and the truck was open."

Another neighbor thought the shots were just "fireworks."No arrests have been made, and the investigation is ongoing.

Cali, 53, was apparently shot around 9:15 p.m. on the street in front of 25 Hilltop Terrace. "[H]e was ambushed by a driver in a blue pick-up truck. He was shot six times before being run over," according to PIX 11. Cali was taken to Staten Island University North hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The Gambinos are one of the original "Five Families" of organized crime in New York City (the others are the Bonanno, Colombo, Lucchese, and Genovese). However, their power has declined after federal prosecutions, led by Rudy Giuliani in the 1980s. According to PIX 11, "Cali had been considered a unifying figure in the crime family, in the years after John Gotti was convicted and sent to prison by cooperating mob witnesses."

The Staten Island Advance has more details about Cali's standing:

According to a 2008 Advance report, Cali -- who also went by “Franky Boy,” -- was born in Brooklyn and married into the Inzerillo family of Palermo and cultivated close ties with members of the Siderno cartel in Italy.

In January 1997, an FBI agent reportedly notified Italian police of Cali’s distinctive standing as a member of crime families on both sides of the ocean, after he was “combined” into the Gambino family.

Two years later, reputed Gambino soldier Frank Fappiano of Tottenville was nabbed by the feds, then gave up Cali’s name as a “wiseguy,” an Italian media outlet reported at the time.

Cali was ultimately caught up in a massive mob bust nearly a decade later.

Cali was charged in a massive 80-count racketeering indictment involving 62 alleged mob bosses, underlings and associates of the Gambino, Bonanno and Genovese crime families.

Cali was eventually convicted of extortion in 2008, related to a plan to bring NASCAR to Staten Island.

Notably, alleged acting Bonanno crime family boss John Cammarano Jr. was acquitted of racketeering on Wednesday after claiming ethnic profiling.

The Post reports that Cali is the first mob boss to be killed in NYC "since a fresh-faced John Gotti ordered the murder of then-Gambino boss Paul Castellano in 1985 at Sparks steakhouse in Midtown. 'Even Gotti had more respect,' one police source told The Post. 'He did it out in Manhattan.'"

Listen to WNYC's Richard Hake talk with NY Daily News reporter Larry McShane about Cali's murder: