Purported New York crime boss shot dead

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Emergency responders near the home of Francesco Cali on Wednesday night on New York’s Staten Island Associated Press/Photo by Joseph Ostapiuk/Staten Island Advance

A man federal prosecutors say was a top leader of New York’s notorious Gambino crime family was shot and killed Wednesday on Staten Island. Francesco Cali, 53, was found with multiple gunshot wounds at his home just after 9 p.m. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn had referred to Cali in court filings in recent years as the underboss of the Gambino organization, related through marriage to members of the Sicilian Mafia. Police have not arrested anyone in connection with his death.

The Gambino family was once among the most powerful criminal organizations in the United States, but federal prosecutions in the 1980s and 1990s sent its top leaders to prison and diminished its reach.

Lynde Langdon

Lynde is WORLD’s executive editor for news. She is a graduate of World Journalism Institute, the Missouri School of Journalism, and the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Lynde resides with her family in Wichita, Kan.

@lmlangdon