Paul Castellano

Paul Castellano, born Constantino Paul Castellano in Brooklyn in 1915, succeeded Carlo Gambino in 1976 as head of the Gambino crime family and ran it until his murder in 1985. He recast the organisation in a colder, more corporate mould, pushing it toward white-collar rackets and control of legitimate industries: construction, trucking and real estate, all bent to criminal ends. That business-first approach generated wealth while distancing him from the street, but it alienated the traditionalist, more violent factions beneath him. The resentment culminated on 16 December 1985, when he was gunned down outside Sparks Steak House in Manhattan in an unsanctioned hit engineered by John Gotti.

His chart carries a Cancer Sun, the archetype of the guarded protector who shields family and builds a shell, paired with a Sagittarius Moon that seeks scope, expansion and the long view. Read analytically, this pairing describes a temperament drawn to shelter its own while reaching for reach and control. It describes temperament only. It offers no excuse for a life built on extortion, corruption and the coercion of others, and it neither elevates nor absolves the enterprise he led.