Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Police at the scene of the shooting in Staten Island

The reputed head of New York's Gambino crime family, Frank Cali, has been killed outside his home, say the city's police.

Cali, 53, was shot several times in the Todt Hill district of Staten Island on Wednesday evening and died later in hospital.

The unidentified killer fled the scene in a blue car, witnesses said.

New York media say it is the first targeted killing of a mob boss in the city since 1985.

The Gambino operation is said to be one of the five historic Italian-US mafia families in New York.

Police said Cali's killer shot him at least six times and then ran him over before fleeing the scene. Family members were seen to rush into the street and sit crying next to his body.

The motive was not known, according to police.

"There are no arrests and the investigation is ongoing," a statement said.

Image copyright AFP Image caption A 2008 image of Frank Cali given out by Italian police

NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said in a news conference on Thursday that Cali may have been lured outside the home by a car accident before he was attacked.

Detective Shea said his Cadillac SUV, which was parked outside the home, was struck leading to Cali to rush outside.

After a minute-long conversation, the assassin pulled out a gun and opened fire on him, police say.

"Needless to say, with the potential organised crime angle, it gets the utmost importance [of] the NYPD and the entire detective bureau," the detective said, adding that video exists of the attack.

First 'mob hit' since 1985

New York media say it is the first killing of a family boss in the city since the Gambino family's Paul Castellano was shot dead outside a restaurant in 1985 on the orders of John Gotti.

Gotti then ran the Gambino family until he was convicted in 1992 of racketeering and five counts of murder. He died in prison in 2002.

The Gambino family was once considered the biggest organised crime group in the US, but began to decline after Gotti and other senior figures were jailed.

Image copyright CBS

Francesco "Franky Boy" Cali is said to have taken over the running of the organisation from Domenico Cefalu in 2015.

It is believed he only had one criminal conviction, for conspiring to extort money in 2008 for which he served 16 months in prison.

Staten Island's affluent Todt Hill neighbourhood is renowned for its crime connections. It was used as the location for fictional crime boss Don Corleone's compound in the 1972 film The Godfather. Paul Castellano also owned a home there.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption This house in Todt Hill was the setting for the Corleone family residence in the film The Godfather

Neighbours Will and Karen Curitore told CBS News the neighbourhood always seemed safe to them.

"We know there used to be a mob presence here," said Mr Curitore.

"We thought this was one of the safer neighbourhoods on Staten Island."

"I guess unless you're in the mafia," Mrs Curitore added.

The Genovese, Gambino, Lucchese, Colombo and Bonanno mafia families are believed to have controlled organised crime in New York for decades.

Last week, Carmine Persico, the 85-year-old former boss of the Colombo organisation, died after serving 33 years of a 139-year prison sentence.

On Wednesday, two heads of the Bonanno family, Joseph Cammarano Jr and John Zancocchio, were acquitted in a Manhattan court of racketeering and conspiracy to commit extortion.

Last October, 71-year-old Sylvester Zottola, a reputed associate of the Bonanno organisation, was shot dead at a takeaway restaurant in the Bronx, New York. The attack came three months after Zottola's son, Salvatore Zottola, was also shot, but survived.</s>Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, the 53-year-old reputed Gambino crime family boss was reportedly shot dead Wednesday night outside his home in Staten Island, which would mark the highest-ranking believed mob figure to be killed in the city in years.

Cali was shot several times in the torso in the tony Todt Hill section of Staten Island around 9:20 p.m., the New York Post reported. He was rushed to Staten Island University Hospital North, where he was pronounced dead.

No arrests have been made as police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

The 53-year-old became the notorious crime family’s acting boss in 2015, replacing then 68-year-old Domenico Cefalu, according to the New York Daily News.

Cali, who had roots in Sicily and ties to the Sicilian Mafia, was the highest-ranking organized crime figure to be murdered in New York City since 1985, when Paul Castellano was assassinated as he arrived as Sparks Steakhouse in Manhattan, according to WPIX-TV.</s>Frank Cali, the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family whose deep ties to the Sicilian Mafia made him a figure of influence and power in both New York and Sicily, was fatally shot Wednesday night outside his home in Staten Island, New York, police told The Washington Post.

At around 9:15 p.m., Cali, 53, was in front of his red-brick colonial style home in the Todt Hill neighborhood when he was approached by a blue pickup truck. Known as “Franky Boy,” the Gambino boss was reportedly shot six times in the chest and run over by the truck, as first reported by the New York Daily News. Police said that a suspect sped off in the truck, WNBC reported.

Cali’s death marks the first time in 33 years that a crime family boss was fatally shot in New York City.

In a statement to The Post, an official with the New York Police Department’s 122nd Precinct, which covers Staten Island, said authorities responded to a 911 call at 9:17 p.m. of an assault involving Cali. The address given on Hilltop Terrace near Four Corners Road, by the Richmond County Country Club, matched Cali’s address, according to public records.

“Upon arrival, officers found a 53-year-old male with multiple gunshot wounds to the torso,” police told The Post. “EMS also responded to the scene and transported the victim to Staten Island University North, where he was pronounced deceased.”

Police told The Post that no arrests have been made and that the investigation is ongoing. An NYPD spokesman told The Post early Thursday that police are obtaining and reviewing any available video surveillance from the scene.

Reports of sobbing, panic and fear from witnesses late Wednesday provided a window into the chaotic, swift violence that unfolded in a quiet neighborhood long known for its mob history.

“There were like six shots, and then there were three more,” one witness told the Daily News. “The man was on the ground face-up. His head was by his SUV, and the truck was open.”

A neighbor told The New York Times that he heard a series of gunshots from what he believed to be a single gun.

“I just heard the pow-pow-pow-pow-pow,” he said to the Times.

In 1985, another Gambino crime boss, Paul Castellano, was assassinated under the orders of John Gotti outside Manhattan’s Sparks Steak House. As the Daily News reported, Cali lived only a half-mile away from Castellano’s home.

Once described as “the rising star of the American mafia,” Cali was an influential figure who surrounded himself with many Italian-born associates. He gained the trust of Jackie “The Nose” D’Amico, an acting boss who promoted him to capo before 40. Cali’s ascension within the Gambino crime family, once considered one of the most significant criminal organizations in the U.S., came years after federal prosecutors sent its top leaders to prison, crippling its national and global reach. One of those prosecutors, Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s attorney, used the 1986 indictment of the heads of the five crime families to help launch his successful campaign for mayor of New York years later.

As a leader, Cali was reportedly considerably less flashy than the ebullient Gotti, another Gambino boss, and was described by the New York Post as “a real quiet old-school boss.” Cali’s influence reportedly stemmed from his family connections with the Inzerillo crime family in Palermo, Sicily.

“Cali is seen as a man of influence and power by organized crime members in Italy,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joey Lipton said during a bail hearing in 2008.

Lipton went on to quote an intercepted conversation from an Italian mobster, who described Cali as “a friend of ours.”

“He is everything over there,” the mobster allegedly said, referring to Cali’s stature in New York, according to the Daily News.

Federal authorities recognized Cali’s sense of stability and attempted to stop his meteoric rise. In what would be his only mob-related criminal conviction, Cali pleaded guilty to conspiring to extort money in 2008, stemming from a failed bid to build a NASCAR track on Staten Island years earlier. He was released after completing a 16-month prison sentence. Upon his release, the Justice Department ordered that Cali not come in contact with his uncle, John Gambino, if it was not approved ahead of time by his probation officer. (Gambino died at 77 of natural causes in 2017.)

In 2015, Cali was reportedly elevated to acting boss of the Gambino crime family, succeeding Domenico Cefalu, according to the Daily News. During his run with the family, Cali was looked at as a unifying leader, concentrating on enhancing the organization’s role in the OxyContin and heroin trade, the New York Post reported.

The death in Todt Hill came on the same day that Bonanno crime family boss Joseph Cammarano Jr., and his consigliere, John Zancocchio, were acquitted in federal court of charges of racketeering and conspiracy to commit extortion.</s>Frank Cali, the reputed boss of the Gambino mafia crime family, has been shot and killed on Staten Island on the evening of March 13, 2019 in what appears to be a brutal gangland hit, according to police and multiple New York news reports. An initial report said that Cali was gravely wounded, but multiple news outlets now say the purported mob boss, who helmed John Gotti’s former empire, is dead.

Cali, described as a quiet “old-school boss,” was 53. His nickname was “Franky Boy.”

Authorities have now confirmed the shooting death. According to CBS, police said they responded to a 911 call of an assault in progress in front of 25 Hilltop Terrace and found Cali with “multiple gunshot wounds to the torso.” EMS responded and Cali was transported to Staten Island University North where he was pronounced deceased. He was identified by police as “Francesco Cali.”

The New York Daily News initially reported that the mobster “was gunned down and run over Wednesday night in a gory mob hit.” Frank Cali’s cause of death? According to the Daily News, Frank Cali was shot six times in the chest and run over by a blue pickup. The hit occurred outside his home and he died at the hospital, Daily News reported. However, the newspaper later hedged that account and said that, although a family member reported that Cali was run down as well as shot, authorities are still investigating that detail.

The New York Post reports that, although a 911 caller heard six to seven shots, it was unclear how many times Cali was struck. Cali was “whacked,” the Post reported.

It’s been a long time since a major New York Mafia family boss was shot to death. According to PIX11, you have to go back to 1985, when Paul Castellano, a notorious Gambino boss, famously met his end in an assassination orchestrated by Gotti. The Gambino family is one of the Five Families of New York Mafia legend.

There is no word on a suspect or arrests.

Here’s what you need to know:

Cali Was Shot Outside His SUV in an Upscale Neighborhood on Staten Island, Reports Say

Michael George, a WNBC reporter, wrote on Twitter: “A law enforcement source confirms to me Gambino crime boss Frank Cali was murdered outside his Staten Island home.”

A witness told the Daily News: “The man was on the ground face-up. His head was by his SUV, and the truck was open.”

Pix11 reports that the New York Fire Department received the call around 9:18 p.m. and responded to a home listed under the name of Rosaria Inzerillo “in the upscale Todt Hill section of Staten Island.” Rosaria Inzerillo is Frank Cali’s wife, according to multiple published reports. Daily News reports that she is related to the Inzerillo crime family of Sicily, which was trying to rebuild inroads in the U.S.

Initial reports said that Cali was gravely wounded.

“#BREAKING: Source tells ⁦@PIX11News⁩ reputed #Gambino crime family boss Francesco #FrankCali was shot and gravely wounded on Staten Island after 9 pm tonight. Cali at SI University No. Hospital after shooting in Todt Hill. He has ties to Sicilian mob,” Mary Murphy, Pix11 investigative reporter, wrote on Twitter in one of the first accounts of the shooting. However, she later updated her story to say he was fatally shot.

Frank Cali Was Born in New York & Was Far Less Flashy Than John Gotti

Frank Cali’s roots in the Italian mob ran very deep and all the way back to Sicily. According to About the Mafia, Frank Cali was born Francesco Paolo Augusto Calì in New York. His parents were Sicilian, and he’s related to John Gambino and Vito and Giovanni Bonventre of the Bonnano crime family, the site reports.

Daily Beast reports that his wife “is the niece of Gambino capo John Gambino, and his brother Joseph and brother-in-law Peter Inzerillo are well-known Gambino soldiers.” Cali was initially a capo in the family.

The site notes that the Gambino crime family’s most famous member – John Gotti – was a flashier boss than Frank Cali, who was described “as being unassuming and low key the polar opposite of the Dapper Don.”

You can see a timeline of Gambino family leadership here. NationalCrimeSyndicate.com says that the Gambino mob family was founded in 1910 by Salvatore D’Aquila, a member of the Morello Crime Family in New York. It began a bloody era; D’Aquila was shot dead 15 years later, the site reports.

A new era of mobsters learned anew that being too high-profile in the media and otherwise brought down the heat in an era with RICO as a law enforcement tool. Better to stay under the radar, the thought went.

In September 2018, The New York Post reported that the new mob learned from the mistakes of Gotti and opted more for privacy than flash. The Post reported that Gotti’s brother Peter ran the Gambino family until 2015, when Domenico Cefalu and then Frank Cali allegedly took over. The Post reported then that Frank Cali “lives in Staten Island and has deep ties to Sicilian wiseguys.” According to the Post, he also allegedly “bulked up its heroin and OxyContin business.”

His only conviction was an old extortion charge, the Post reports, likely due to his low profile.

This post is being updated as more information is learned about Frank Cali’s fate.</s>For the first time since 1985, a New York City Mafia boss has been assassinated, in what may be signs of the city's first big mob war in decades.

For the first time since 1985, the reputed boss of a major New York City mafia crime family has been assassinated, as 53-year-old Francesco Cali was gunned down outside his home on Staten Island on Wednesday night, The New York Times reported. Cali, believed by law enforcement authorities to have been the boss of the Gambino Mafia family, was shot six times at about 9:20 p.m. outside his house at 25 Hilltop Terrace in Staten Island’s Todt Hill neighborhood.

Todt Hill was also home to a previous Gambino family boss, Paul Castellano, who was the last New York City “La Cosa Nostra” boss to be killed. Castellano was shot dead outside the Sparks Steak House restaurant on East 46th Street in Manhattan on December 16, 1985, on the orders of one of his top underlings, John Gotti, according to a New York Times account. Gotti then took over the Gambino family as boss until he was convicted of the murder in 1992.

Once known as “The Teflon Don” for his habit of winning acquittals in several previous trials, Gotti died of cancer in prison 10 years after being convicted.

Though police as of Wednesday night had not publicly identified any suspects in the murder of Cali, the slaying sparked fears of a new mafia inter-family war, coming on the same day that the reputed acting boss of the rival Bonnano organized crime family, Joseph “Joe C” Cammarano Jr., was acquitted after a trial on racketeering and extortion charges, according to The New York Post.

The assassination of the alleged Gambino family boss also came just two days after the death in prison at age 85 of Carmine “The Snake” Persico, according to CNN. Persico was the longtime boss of New York’s Colombo crime family who in his heyday had risen to become one of the most powerful mobsters in the United States. The mobster was convicted in the 1980s in a prosecution led by Rudy Giuliani, when the future New York City mayor was United States attorney in Manhattan.

Persico reportedly ordered a “hit” on Giuliani in retalition, an order which was never carried out. The mob boss was serving a 139-year sentence when he died on Monday.

Cali, a native of Sicily, rose to become Gambino family boss in 2015, according to a New York Post account. Unlike the flamboyant Gotti, Cali was known as an intensely private figure, and “a real quiet old-school boss,” according a Post police source.

For decades, the Gambino family was the most powerful of New York’s “Five Families,” and has origins dating back to a New York street gang run by Sicilian immigrant Salvatore “Toto” D’Aquila in the late 19th century, according to American Mafia History. The family’s current name came from legendary boss Carlo Gambino, who took over the family from Albert Anastasia in 1957, after Anastasia was gunned down while sitting in a barber’s chair in Manhattan’s Park Sheraton Hotel.</s>The Latest: Gunman in mob boss slaying may have staged crash

NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the fatal shooting of reputed Gambino crime boss Francesco Cali (all times local):

New York City police say the man who fatally shot the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family may have staged a car accident to lure him out of his home.

Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said Thursday police are reviewing surveillance footage that captured the events surrounding Frank Cali's death Wednesday night in Staten Island.

She described the shooter as an adult male who sped off in a pickup truck.

No arrests have been made.

Shea says Cali emerged from his home around 9:15 p.m. after the suspect backed his pickup truck into Cali's Cadillac SUV.

Video shows the suspect pulling a 9 mm handgun and opening fire on Cali about a minute after they started talking.

At least 12 shots were fired.

A man with reported ties to organized crime has been shot and killed in New York City.

Police say 53-year-old Francesco Cali was found with multiple gunshot wounds to his body at his home in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island just after 9 p.m. Wednesday.

Cali was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. There have been no arrests.

No other information was provided by police.

The last crime family boss to be shot in New York City was Paul Castellano. The Gambino crime boss was assassinated outside Sparks Steakhouse in Manhattan in 1985.</s>A Mafia heir and a close friend of slain Gambino crime boss Frank Cali has paid tribute to the mobster after he was gunned down outside his family home.

Giovanni Gambino told DailyMail.com that 53-year-old 'Franky Boy' was a constant feature in the New York charity scene and was someone he looked up to growing up.

The head of the notorious family was shot and killed in a hail of bullets in Staten Island, New York, on Wednesday night in a slaying that shattered a 30-year peace between the Five Families in the Big Apple and could lead to more bloodshed.

'He was the good wise guy that went after bad wise guys', he said. 'The wise guy that showed class. He was the one that had the "it" factor, growing up with my friends. We all looked up to him. He gave a great impression.'

'Nobody gets away with anything . Especially killing a good man,' he added.

Giovanni's cousin Carlo founded the Gambino crime family in 1957 when he immigrated from Italy and his father Francesco 'Ciccio' Gambino was a leading captain in the syndicate.

Francesco died in federal prison in 2012 while serving a 30-year sentence for racketeering and trafficking heroin from Sicily to the United States. Giovanni was raised by his mother and other members of the crime family while they were under leaders like John Gotti and Domenico Cefalu.

Cali maintained a 'low-key' lifestyle, was a good friend to his family and always supported his passion to become a writer, Giovanni says. Cali is the basis for the protagonist in his novel, The Prince of Omerta.

Cali's murder on Wednesday night was the first hit on a Mafia boss since John Gotti arranged the assassination of then-Gambino head Paul Castellano in 1985.

Cali was shot six times and run over by a blue pickup truck outside his redbrick house in the upmarket Todt Hill neigborhood of Staten Island. Police are now hunting the killer.

The New York Post has also reported that he may have been lured outside his home when the killer smashed the pickup into his car in the driveway.

Neighbors have described the terrifying hail of bullets they heard from inside their homes.

It is understood Cali's distraught family members ran outside after the shots were fired.

One man collapsed in front of the home crying: 'Papa! Papa!' as a woman shouted into her phone: 'Why doesn’t the ambulance come? He’s not breathing!'

No arrests have been made and an investigation is ongoing as police search for a blue pickup truck that fled the gruesome scene after it is believed to have run Cali over.

A police source told DailyMail.com: 'Cali was home having dinner with his family when this truck pulled up. He was shot outside the home.'

A witness told The New York Daily News: 'There were like six shots, and then there were three more.

'The man was on the ground face-up. His head was by his SUV, and the truck was open.'

One of Cali's neighbors, 58-old-year Salvatore, told the New York Times he heard a burst of about seven gunshots. 'I just heard the pow-pow-pow-pow-pow,' he said, adding, 'You never know who your neighbors are'.

And one resident, Prashant Ranyal, 39, who lives blocks from the scene, told the New York Post: 'I’ve seen the [mob] movies . . . but I’ve never seen any activity that we feel at all that there's something strange about this area.'

The Sicily native, who is married to John Gambino's niece, served on the family's ruling panel for several years before being promoted to acting boss in 2015, replacing the previous leader Domenico Cefalu, also known as 'Greaseball'.

The organization reportedly focused its efforts on heroin and Oxycontin trafficking under his leadership.

Among law enforcement officials, Cali was known as a 'real quiet old-school boss' - one police source told the New York Post.

He was considered to be a foil of his former boss John Gotti because 'no one ever sees him'.

Cali only had one criminal conviction, having spent 16 months for a 2008 federal extortion charge in connection with a failed bit to build a NASCAR race track in Staten Island.

The hit on Cali comes as New York has seen a resurgence in mob activity recently.

In October, Sylvester Zottola, 71 - an associate of the Bonnano crime family - was gunned down at a Bronx McDonald’s drive-thru.

And John Gotti’s brother Gene, 71, was recently released after spending 29 years in prison for dealing heroin.

Giovanni's cousin Carlos, the head of the Cosa Nostra during the 1970s, was arrested for orchestrating a multi-million dollar bank heist before he died of a heart attack in 1976.

Giovanni thinks the FBI has a long history of corruption, especially when it comes to members of his Italian community, and their strategies should be under more of a microscope.

He recently called President Trump to pardon his father Francesco, claiming fired FBI Director James Comey, who was responsible for taking down his father, treated his family unfairly.

Giovanni decided to shun the mafioso lifestyle and instead went into the pizzeria business.

First Mafia boss hit since the day Big Paul Castellano was whacked outside a steakhouse

Cali's murder is the first hit on a Mafia boss since John Gotti arranged the assassination of then-Gambino head 'Big Paul' Castellano - outside Sparks Steakhouse - in 1985.

The notorious assasination saw Castellano, 70, and his underboss Thomas Bilotti, 47, both shot in the face by a three-man hit squad just after the two victims had stepped out of their car.

Castellano's reign as kingpin had begun in 1976 after the death of Carlo Gambino.

The Gambinos were the most powerful of the five families of the New York City mafia and worth an estimated $500 million a year

Big Paul was made boss instead of the likely heir, the then-underboss Aniello Dellacroce - a decision which annoyed those loyal to Dellacroce.

They were further enraged by Castellano's insistence on living as a recluse in his mansion in Todt Hill, Staten Island, which earned him the moniker, 'the Howard Huges of the Mob'.

When Dellacroce died of cancer in 1985, Castellano disrepected the Family by not attending the funeral.

The final nail in his coffin was when he made Capo Thomas Bilotti his underboss.

John Gotti, who had been loyal to Dellacroce and didn't think Castellano was worthy of being the Don, and the irate Gambinos then decided to whack Castellano.

At the time, Castellano had been on trial in Manhattan federal court on racketeering charges involving three murders and an international stolen car ring but the trial was in recess.

On December 15, 1985 Gotti and the Dellacroce devised a plan to assassinate Castellano and Bilotti - by luring the boss to a meeting at Sparks Steakhouse on 210 E. 46th St., between Second and Third Avenues.

At around 5.30pm, Gotti and Salvatore 'Sammy the Bull' Gravano were driving in Gotti's Lincoln Town Car when they spotted the boss in his Black Lincoln Town Car.

Gotti drove on ahead and parked at a vantage point across the street from the restaurant.

At around 6pm, Castellano and his Underboss Thomas Bilotti pulled up at Sparks Steakhouse to attend a sit down with Frank DeCicco to apologize for missing Dellacroce's funeral.

Just as they exited the car, the assassin shot Castellano six times. He fell to the pavement and died. Bilotti, who was in the driver's seat was also shot dead.

Gotti then drove past the scene, while Gravano looked at Bilotti's body, saying 'he's gone'.

Soon after, John Gotti became Boss, Frank DeCicco became Underboss, and Gravano became Consigliere in 1986.

The Gambino crime family is one of what is widely referred to as 'The Five Families' of Italian organized crime operations in New York City and other parts of the United States. The Gambinos' rise to become one of the most powerful mafia families in America started in 1957, when the family's namesake, Carlos Gambino - an Italian immigrant - orchestrated the murder of Albert Anastasia, who had organized a collection of Italian gangs into what now would be considered a 'crime family.' Gambino headed the organization until 1976, when he handed power over to his brother-in-law Paul Castellano. Like other mafia families, the Gambinos took their methods from the crime families in Italy - La Cosa Nostra - and were involved in illegal activities like loan-sharking, extortion, prostitution, gambling and money laundering - as well as the frequent assaults and murders associated with those types of business ventures. In 1985, Gambino 'capo' John Gotti orchestrated the murder of Castellano to become the most publicized boss of the family. Gotti's reign came to an end when his underboss, Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano agreed to testify against him and other members of the family in a 1992 RICO trial. Since Gotti's downfall, the Gambinos - and other mafia families - have lost much of the power they once had over politicians, judges and labor unions. The family was headed by Domenico Cefalu until 2015, when Frank Cali took over as capo.</s>(NEW YORK) — A man said by federal prosecutors to have been a top leader of New York’s notorious Gambino crime family was shot and killed Wednesday on Staten Island.

Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, 53, was found with multiple gunshot wounds to his body at his home in the borough’s Todt Hill section just after 9 p.m.

Cali was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. There have been no arrests.

No other information was provided by police.

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 the Inzerillo clan in the Sicilian Mafia.

Multiple press accounts since 2015 said Cali had ascended to the top spot in the gang, although he never faced a criminal charge saying so.

His only mob-related criminal conviction came a decade ago, when Cali pleaded guilty in an extortion conspiracy involving a failed attempt to build a NASCAR track on Staten Island. He was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison and was released in 2009.

The last crime family boss to be shot in New York City was Paul Castellano. The Gambino crime boss was assassinated outside Sparks Steakhouse in Manhattan in 1985.

The Gambino Family was once among the most powerful criminal organizations in the U.S., but federal prosecutions in the 1980s and 1990s sent its top leaders to prison and diminished its reach.</s>March 14 (UPI) -- Francesco Cali, the reputed boss of the crime family once led by John J. Gotti, was shot dead outside his New York City home late Wednesday, authorities said.

Police said Cali was the boss of the Gambino crime family, which at one point was believed to be the largest and most influential mob in the country. The shooting occurred at Cali's home in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island, police said.

Cali, 53, known as "Franky Boy," was shot six times and died later at Staten Island University Hospital.

Authorities said they're looking for a pickup truck witnesses saw racing from the scene after the gunfire.

Experts say Cali, a native of the Italian island Sicily, rose quickly in the Gambino family -- serving in the organization's ruling panel for years before replacing Domenico Cefalu in 2015. His wife is the niece of purported mobster John Gambino. His brother and brother-in-law are both believed to be involved in organized crime, as well. Cali was convicted in an extortion scheme in the late 2000s and served 16 months in federal prison.

Wednesday night's shooting continues the crime family's violent history. Gotti took over the Gambino family in 1985 after prosecutors say he set up the infamous shooting death of mob leader Paul Castellano at a steakhouse in Manhattan -- which was the last time an accused mob boss was killed before Cali.

Gotti was convicted of murder and racketeering in 1992 and died of cancer in prison nine years later at the age of 61. His son and former crime boss John A. Gotti was stabbed in the stomach in 2013 but survived.</s>NEW YORK — A man with reported ties to organized crime has been shot and killed in New York City.

Police say 53-year-old Francesco Cali was found with multiple gunshot wounds to his body at his home in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island just after 9 p.m. Wednesday.

 Cali was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. There have been no arrests.

No other information was provided by police.

The last crime family boss to be shot in New York City was Paul Castellano. The Gambino crime boss was assassinated outside Sparks Steakhouse in Manhattan in 1985.
Frank Cali, the reputed head of the Gambino crime family, is shot dead by an unknown assailant outside his home in Todt Hill, Staten Island, New York City. It is the first targeted killing of a mob boss in New York City since Paul Castellano was assassinated in 1985.