Angelo Ruggiero

Angelo Salvatore Ruggiero Sr. (; July 29, 1940 – December 4, 1989), also known as "Quack Quack", was an American mobster who rose to the position of caporegime in the Gambino crime family. He is best known for his fraternal friendship with John Gotti and was instrumental in the assassination of incumbent boss Paul Castellano which led to the rise of Gotti to boss of the Gambino family.

Family and early years

Angelo Salvatore Ruggiero was born at Lutheran Hospital and raised in the East New York section of Brooklyn. Ruggiero's father was a first-generation immigrant from Naples, Italy who was not involved in organized crime. Ruggiero's mother was Mary Dellacroce. Ruggiero's brothers were Gambino associate Salvatore Ruggiero Sr., John Ruggiero (born June 9, 1946), and Francis A. "Little Frankie" Ruggiero (born ). Ruggiero's nephew is mob associate Salvatore Ruggiero Jr. Ruggiero's cousins include Gambino underboss Aniello Dellacroce, and Sean and Shannon Connelly.

Ruggiero grew up with future Gambino boss John Gotti and underboss Sammy Gravano. A high school dropout, Ruggiero was arrested in the 1950s for street fighting, public intoxication, car theft, bookmaking, possession of an illegal firearm, and burglary. Some of these arrests were made while in the company of Gotti.

Crimes

In 1966, Ruggiero and Gotti were arrested together for attempting to steal a cement mixer truck.

On May 22, 1973, Ruggiero, Gotti, and a Gambino gunman, Ralph Galione, killed mobster James McBratney in a Staten Island bar. McBratney had recently tried to kidnap a Gambino loanshark for ransom, which led the Gambino leadership to order his assassination. Gotti and Ruggiero were convicted of manslaughter and sent to prison. After their release on parole in July 1977, Ruggiero and Gotti were inducted into the Gambino family as made men in a ceremony officiated by the family boss Paul Castellano, consigliere Joseph N. Gallo, and underboss Dellacroce. Law enforcement later speculated that Dellacroce’s personal affection for Ruggiero and Gotti played a crucial role in their elevation within the organization.

To comply with his parole conditions, Ruggiero was employed from 1977 to 1984 in a no-show job as a salesman for Arc Plumbing and Heating Corporation, which was owned by Gambino associates Anthony and Caesar Gurino.

Ruggiero was suspected in the 1980 disappearance of John Favara, a neighbor of Gotti's who had killed Gotti's 12-year-old son Frank in a car accident. Ruggiero participated in the 1985 slaying of Castellano.

Ruggiero was later the subject of a government undercover investigation. Mobster turned government informant Wilfred Johnson provided investigators with the layout of Ruggerio's home so that they could install four bugs and wire taps. Investigators monitored Ruggiero's activities in narcotics. Investigators later recorded conversations between Ruggiero and Gene Gotti that implicated the two men in Castellano's murder.

Ruggiero and Dellacroce Ruggiero's uncle, Aniello Dellacroce, was an original supporter of Gambino boss Albert Anastasia's who became underboss under Anastasia's successor, Carlo Gambino. Before Gambino died, he named Paul Castellano as boss with Dellacroce remaining as underboss. Although Dellacroce was unhappy with Gambino's decision, he supported Castellano in the name of family unity.

Although Dellacroce helped Ruggiero during his early years with the family, many observers felt that Dellacroce was actually much closer to Gotti. Dellacroce's relationship with Ruggiero was tested when Peter Tambone, a Ruggiero associate, was arrested for narcotics trafficking. Dellacroce made it clear that he would kill Ruggiero, Gotti, or anyone else he discovered dealing in narcotics. To save Tambone's life, Ruggiero instructed Tambone to claim that he was never involved with the heroin, only the laundering of the drug money.

Sammy Gravano later said:

I don't think if he lived (Dellacroce), he would've let Angelo get murdered. He would have probably put him on a shelf somewhere and appease Paul that way. If he let Paul kill him, there would have been a war. I think he felt, Paul's the boss, so let's 'fess up, this is the truth, this is what happened, here are the tapes. Then, if Paul followed up and said, "Well, I want him dead", Neil would have fought tooth and nail to save him. And if he couldn't, who knows what the fuck would've happened?

Gravano also later stated:

I don't think John (Gotti) gave a fuck about Angelo or the tapes. I think he was looking to create a situation to capitalize on our other grievances about Paul. There was tension between Aniello Dellacroce and his followers and Paul Castellano, and Frank DeCicco enjoyed their mutual respect. But when Ruggiero tried to convince DeCicco that Dellacroce had real disputes against Castellano, he did not believe him. To Ruggiero's unhappiness, DeCicco said that as far as he was concerned, [Ruggiero's] uncle was a faithful underboss to Paul Castellano. Angelo would also listen to his uncle's protege and childhood friend, John Gotti, insult Dellacroce about his "La Cosa Nostra bullshit".

When Dellacroce was dying, Ruggiero was a constant visitor to his bedside until Dellacroce's death on December2, 1985.

Ruggiero and Castellano Following the diagnosis of Dellacroce's terminal cancer, Paul Castellano issued an edict on narcotics, ruling that any member of the family made after 1962 was strictly prohibited from any involvement in narcotics under penalty of death. He followed up by pressuring the American Mafia Commission to issue a firm Mafia-wide ban that would also carry an instant death penalty. This new edict was aimed directly at John Gotti, Ruggiero, and Dellacroce, whom Castellano began to suspect had been secretly sanctioning (and profiting from) Gotti's narcotics operation. Castellano hoped that these and a number of other politically motivated moves in the crime family would break the sudden, ambitious ascent of Ruggiero and John Gotti.

Ruggiero frequently complained about the lack of money that he was earning through his illicit criminal enterprises. Authorities later commented that, judging by appearances, however, both Ruggiero and John Gotti seemed blithely unconcerned by a second consequence of the Ravenite Social Club wire tapping ‌a grand jury subpoena calling forth Ruggiero, John Gotti, and ten other habitués of the Ravenite to discuss certain aspects of organized crime, as revealed by the successful Operation Acorn.

Gambino crime family capo John Carneglia often complained about Ruggiero to fellow criminals stating, "Dial any seven numbers, and there's a fifty-fifty chance that Angelo will answer the phone." Every other Sunday, Ruggiero drove to Castellano's house in Todt Hill, Staten Island to report to Castellano about the activities of the Bergin crew and the profits he could expect from the crew's hijacking and gambling operations. At home, Ruggiero would complain about Castellano's high-handed manner. He sneered that Castellano was a "milk drinker" and a "pansy". He put down Castellano's two sons, who were running Dial Poultry, as "the chicken men", and called business advisers that Castellano had around him as "the Jew club." He referred to Thomas Gambino, who oversaw the family's interests in the garment center as a "sissy dressmaker". He also conjured up images of Castellano and Bilotti spending evenings together at Todt Hill, "whacking off."

On December 16, 1985, two weeks after Dellacroce's death, Castellano and his new underboss Thomas Bilotti were murdered outside Sparks Steak House in Manhattan, and John Gotti assumed the role of Gambino family boss.Ruggiero was invol;ved in the planning of the murders. Ruggiero suggested the attire of the hit crew, among other things. When Ruggiero, also under indictment, had his bail revoked for his abrasive behavior in preliminary hearings, a frustrated Gotti instead promoted Armone to underboss.

After the first heroin-trafficking case against Ruggiero, Gene Gotti, and John Carneglia ended in a mistrial because of jury tampering, Ruggiero remained in federal detention, his bail still revoked, for the second trial. This also resulted in a mistrial, again for suspected jury tampering. For the third trial, in 1989, Ruggiero was finally released on bail and served as a defendant in the case. He had terminal lung cancer. Later, his drug-trafficking partners Gene Gotti and John Carneglia were both convicted and sentenced to 50 years. Sammy Gravano then heard that John wanted to have Ruggiero murdered for allowing himself to be recorded by the FBI. Gravano convinced Gotti that because Ruggiero was dying of cancer that it was not even worth it to carry out the execution. Instead, John stripped Ruggiero of his rank as caporegime of the Bergin crew and shelved him as a member of the Gambino family.

After turning state's evidence to avoid prosecution, former underboss Gravano reported that during the last months of Ruggiero's life, both he and Gene Gotti urged John to visit his near-death childhood friend. Gotti refused to see his once loyal soldier and friend because he was still angry over Ruggiero's criminal activities being recorded on wire taps.

On Monday, December 4, 1989, Angelo Ruggiero died of cancer in Howard Beach, Queens, at the age of 49 years.

His son and namesake, Angelo Ruggiero Jr., and Ruggiero Sr.'s paternal nephew Salvatore Ruggiero Jr., would later follow their fathers into an organized crime "career". Angelo Jr. was convicted of grand larceny in May 1998 and sent to prison for one to three years. He was arrested on October 23, 2025 for getting money from illegal poker games in New York City. Ruggiero Jr.was involved in an NBA-tied card game con. The con involved using NBA alumni such as Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones, Jr. to lure gamblers to a rigged game.