Frank Costello was born in Francesco Castiglia, Italy. When he was four years old him and his family moved the United States of America and lived in Harlem, New York(kefauver 113). He came to America with his two “brothers” Charlie “Lucky” Luciano and Meyer Lansky(Namar 77). when he was young he adopted his name-Frank Costello, but when he was arrested and convicted for carrying a pistol in 1915, he used his mother’s name, “Severio” as an alias(Kefauver 113 ). Not long after Costello got to …show more content…
He had also been a slot machine king in New Orleans and in New York. He was a partner in Swank gambling casinos in New Orleans and Saratoga. For all the muscle that was associated with organized crime, Costello was the brains that smoothed out the police, judges, and politicians. Since he had connections in local government along with his ability to adapt easily to different parts of society, he earned the nickname “The Prime Minister”. Throughout his life, Frank had mixed quasi-legitimate enterprises gambling and bootlegging, and was meddling heavily in politics. Frank Costello had served as an elder statesman of the mafia until he died of a heart attack in New York at the age of 82 on February 18, 1973 (museum 3)