Caught on Video: Mob Associate Botches Hit, Is Offed by Police

The son of a high-profile Luchese mobster bungled a hit on another mob associate and was then himself shot to death in what is likely a case of “suicide by cop.”

Dramatic surveillance footage was released today showing the botched hit Tuesday when Carl Lastorino, 45, who sources say is affiliated with a Luchese crew, fired a .38 caliber at connected merchant Peter Argentina, 49, at his tire shop on Linden Blvd. in East New York.

Lastorino was the son of Frank Lastorino Sr., a murderous, high-profile capo and consigliere with the Lucheses who killed at least one rival mobster, planned the murders of several others, and even attempted a takeover of his own crime family.

He was locked up by the feds in the 1990s, sources said. Specifically, he was sent to federal prison in 1993 for conspiracy to commit murder, sources said in a New York Daily News report.

Although his brother is also a Luchese wiseguy, Carl Lastorino was not a made member of the mob, and police do not believe the shooting was rooted in organized crime, according to the Daily News. But what else could it have been rooted in? There is deep animosity between the Lastorinos and the Gambinos, the family the New York Post reports that Argentina was associated with. (The Daily News reports he was affiliated with the Lucheses. Anybody out there know the truth?)

The gunman, who had been unemployed for the last three years, left suicide notes for his mother and sister, police said in the Daily News report.



The video shows him entering the tire shop about 4:40 p.m. armed with two .38-caliber pistols.


"Are you Pete?" he asked, according to NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.


"Yeah, I'm Pete," Argentina responded.

"This is for you, Pete," Lastorino responded as he squeezed the trigger. (He obviously didn't even know who the guy was -- so how could it have been personal?)

Lastorino fired off shots while Argentina darted around the tire shot, running for his life. Argentina suffered non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.

Lastorino fled the tire shop and was already inside a cab when an NYPD sergeant and his partner spotted him while rushing to the shooting.

Witnesses also pointed him out, Browne said.

The officers approached the cab from the rear, guns drawn. They ordered Lastorino to drop his weapon. Browne said that Lastorino got out, aimed one of his pistols at them and yelled: "You are not going to take me alive!"

Each cop fired a single round; both shots hit Lastorino in the chest. He later died at Brookdale University Hospital.

The notes Lastorino left behind indicate he was in a “suicide solution” state of mind.

In the note to his sister, Lastorino wrote: "I can no longer live as a failure."

One has to wonder if he was trying to live up to his father’s standards.

Frank "Big Frank" Lastorino (April 9, 1939) is a New York City mobster and former consigliere of the Luchese crime family.

Raised in Canarsie, Brooklyn, Lastorino joined the Lucheses under the steady hand of Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo and was involved in extortion, loansharking and illegal gambling operations during the 1970s, and was recognized as one of the most notorious hitmen from the Brooklyn faction of the crime family.

He was formally inducted into the crime family in 1987. Lastorino reportedly was good friends, in addition to crime parners, with Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso and Vittorio "Vic" Amuso during the mid 1980s, as the family leadership was turning in another direction.

In 1985, the entire administration of the Luchese crime family – Boss Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo, Underboss Salvatore "Tom Mix" Santoro and then Consigliere Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari – received life imprisonment due to a string of RICO crimes.

This led to Amuso and Casso assuming leadership of the Lucchese family.

Due to his close relationship with both Amuso and Casso, Lastorino was rewarded with the position of Caporegime of the Brooklyn faction of the Luchese crime family. Under Amuso's leadership, Lastorino rose to become one of the most feared and most powerful mobsters in the family, who would serve on a ruling panel when the Luchese bosses again were imprisoned.

On April 13, 1991, Gambino crime family soldier Bartholomew "Bobby" Boriello was shot to death outside his Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, home. Boriello had been a top bodyguard for John Gotti during his heyday in the 1980s, and was also a great friend and associate before Gotti was incarcerated.

Apparently, Gotti believed the murder was ordered by Genovese crime family boss Vincent "Chin" Gigante, but US law enforcement knew the order had come from Anthony Casso, in retaliation for the murder of their own member Patrick Testa.

Reportedly, the Boriello murder was carried out by the fierce Lastorino, allegedly with assistance of New York Police Department detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa. It is reported by US law enforcement that Lastorino allegedly carried out the murder to get the promotion to consigliere.

In 1993, with the captures of Amuso and Casso and the elevation of Steven Crea as the new underboss of the Lucchese crime family, Lastorino hatched a plot to seize the control of the family completely. Since his promotion, Crea had shifted the family's power center away from the Brooklyn faction and back to the Manhattan and Bronx factions that had been dominating the family for decades, which wasn't approved by most of the Amuso/Casso loyalists.

Lastorino reportedly organized the plot to kill Crea and gain control of the Luchese crime family, and then go after the Gambino crime family by murdering John Gotti's son John "Junior" Gotti and Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo. After these murders, Lastorino, George Zappola, Frank Papagni and Frank Gioia, Jr. were to rise to the top of the Lucheses.

In 1994, massive indictments of labor and construction racketeering, extortion, loansharking, illegal gambling and murder charges hit dozens of Luchese members, including Lastorino, who was charged with the murder of Bartholomew Boriello and the attempted murder conspiracies on Steven Crea, John A. Gotti and Nicholas Corozzo, as well as additional racketeering charges, according to Wikipedia.org.

Lastorino was sentenced to 20 years in prison and placed at the Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Frank Lastorino was released from federal prison on Dec. 23, 2008, after serving 14 years on racketeering, extortion and conspiracy to commit murder.

That's some legacy... huh?

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