Former Mobster Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso has died from Covid-19 complications
Former underboss for the Lucchese Family Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso has passed away from COVID-19 complications on Tuesday just two weeks after contracting the virus.
The 78-year-old mobster, who was being held at a Tucson, Arizona prison, became a rat after he pleaded guilty in a substantial racketeering case in 1994. The feds managed to drop him from the Witness Protection Program after he broke multiple cooperation agreements. Casso was then sentenced to a whopping 455 years in prison.
His numerous crimes as one of the mob’s most feared members were deemed so heinous by the Feds, that the thought of granting him compassionate release was considered ludicrous. Brooklyn Federal Judge Fredrick Block had decided last Saturday in a brief ruling that Anthony Casso would not be eligible compassionate release.
“The Court has carefully considered the gravity of defendant Antony Casso’s medical condition. But even assuming it presents an extraordinary and compelling circumstance, the Court finds, in light of the nature and extent of defendant’s criminal history, that he remains a danger to the community,” Block wrote.
Casso was confined to a wheelchair to get around, was awaiting heart surgery, had prostate cancer, and had lung problems because of his past history with smoking, his lawyers wrote before his death.
“Just days ago, he tested positive for COVID-19. He is currently hospitalized due to severe respiratory problems,” wrote Casso’s lawyers last Wednesday in a filing that was initially under seal. “His COVID-19 infection and rapidly deteriorating health require better medical care than [Bureau of Prisons] can provide.”
Casso had been back and forth between the local hospital and the prison three separate times.
There was little sympathy for Casso at the courthouse with the feds claiming he had tried to have a Federal Judge and a prosecutor handling his case whacked in the 90’s, although neither of the killings came to pass.
“All defendants sentenced to life in prison will, at some point, begin to succumb to one disease or another, or suffer from failing health due to old age,” wrote federal prosecutors in response to Casso’s application for release.
“My father was a very good man to his family and children and that’s all that matters to me, not what anyone else has to say about him,” stated Casso’s daughter.
source(s): nydailynews.com
