Victor Amuso

Vittorio "Little Vic" Amuso (born November 4, 1934) is an American mobster and the boss of the Lucchese crime family.

He was described as "The Deadly Don" by Assistant United States Attorney Charles Rose.

Vittorio Amuso was born November 4, 1934, and grew up in Canarsie, Brooklyn.

In the late 1940s, he was introduced to Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo, a prominent caporegime in the Gagliano crime family, a forerunner of the Lucchese crime family.

Amuso acted as a bodyguard and chauffeur for Carmine Tramunti.

Vic Amuso was married to Barbara, and the couple had one daughter, Victoria.

They live in Howard Beach, Queens.

He later became an enforcer for Profaci crime family mobster, Joseph "Crazy Joe" Gallo, in Brooklyn.

In the early 1960s, the Gallo brothers declared war against longtime crime boss, Giuseppe "Joe" Profaci and the old Profaci faction of the family, because Profaci cut into Gallo's profits.

Amuso would allegedly kill several members of the Profaci faction, but was sent to prison sometime in the early 1960s, along with Joey Gallo and a dozen others, for extortion charges.

After Joe Gallo's release from prison in early 1971, he continued his war against the family on June 28, 1971, when boss Joseph Colombo was shot.

Months later on April 7, 1972, Joe Gallo was shot to death in Little Italy Manhattan, New York, while he was celebrating his 43rd birthday.

Many Colombo crime family members, especially those from the old Gallo crew, defected to other crime families.

On December 21, 1972, Amuso was arrested by police outside the "House on Morgan Avenue," a front for the "Bronx Connection" kickback scheme, selling prison paroles for as high as $20,000 to prison inmates.

Presumably to meet with the building owner, Richard Curro, a city corrections officer and Lucchese family associate, who acted as liaison between inmates and the Luccheses, Amuso was in possession of a switchblade and a file folder of parole documents at the time of his arrest.

In 1977, Amuso became a made man in the Lucchese family.

On May 30, 1977, Amuso was arrested with Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, for their involvement in a drug trafficking ring smuggling heroin from Bangkok, Thailand.

At the time of the Brooklyn mobsters' arrest, he had been found with three pounds of heroin in his possession.

Reportedly, the heroin operation was headed by Amuso, his cooperator Casso, and two other associates of the Lucchese crime family.

They were all sent to prison.

Amuso's reign is considered one of the bloodiest periods in American Mafia history during the late 1980s and early 1990s, alongside his former underboss and close protégé Anthony Casso, who turned informer against him in 1994.

Furnari was promoted to consigliere in 1980, and Amuso succeeded him as capo.

Furnari wanted Casso to succeed him, but Casso preferred to become Furnari's aide-de-camp; a consigliere is allowed to have one soldier work for him directly.

On February 15, 1985, Corallo, Furnari and underboss Salvatore "Tom Mix" Santoro were indicted in the Mafia Commission Trial, along with the top major heads of the Five Families.

On April 13, 1986, the underboss of the Gambino crime family, Frank DeCicco, was killed when a bomb placed under his car went off.

The bomb had been planted by Herbert Pate, while Amuso, Casso, and Vic's brother Robert watched from a parked car.

The target was allegedly Gambino boss John Gotti, who earlier, with DeCicco, had organized the murder of former boss Paul Castellano, without the permission of the Commission.

Reportedly, Amuso and Casso, along with Genovese crime family boss Vincent "Chin" Gigante, had planned Gotti's execution, but killed DeCicco by mistake.

Although Casso later testified that both he and Amuso had conspired with Gigante, this was never raised at the trial, because Casso was dropped from the Witness Protection Program many years later.

To replace him, Corallo put his protégé Anthony "Buddy" Luongo as acting boss sometime in early 1986.

However, around December of that same year, Luongo disappeared.

It was rumored that Amuso, then Luongo's driver and bodyguard, killed him to remove his last major opponent, with the assistance of Casso.

By late 1986, Corallo realized that he, Santoro and Furnari were headed for convictions that would send them to prison for life.

To avoid internal war and keep up the family's tradition of a peaceful transfer of power, Corallo summoned Amuso and Casso to a meeting at Furnari's house, and decided that one of them would succeed him as boss.

Furnari then met with his two protègés and told them to decide which one would take the mantle.

They ultimately decided that it should be Amuso.

Amuso has been serving a life sentence since 1992 and is currently located at the Federal Correctional Complex, Butner, in North Carolina, on murder and racketeering charges.

Since the death of Colombo crime family boss Carmine Persico in March 2019, Amuso is currently the longest-serving crime family boss of the Five Families and American Mafia, dating back to 1987.

Amuso went to the Lucchese family sometime during that year, as an associate in the "19th Hole Crew," whose capo was Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari.

Amuso became of one of Furnari's top protégés along with Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso.