The mafia didn’t kill Gambino boss Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali — a twentysomething Staten Island hothead with a personal beef did, police and sources said Saturday.
Anthony Comello, 24, a non-mobster who works odd construction jobs, was in custody in a New Jersey jail and expected to face murder charges in connection to the killing of Cali, 53, who was blasted at least 10 times outside his Todt Hill mansion on Wednesday, police said at a news conference at NYPD headquarters.
“Everything is on the table at this point,” said Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea. “The investigation continues.”
Comello will be extradited to Staten Island in the next few days to face murder charges, Shea said.
Shea said police recovered the blue pickup truck that witnesses said slammed into Cali’s parked car, luring him outside to his demise.
The stunning hit was the first assassination of a New York City mob boss since an upstart John Gotti had Gambino boss Paul Castellano whacked outside Sparks Steak House in 1985.
Investigators quickly feared a mob war in the making.
But they now believe a personal dispute was to blame — over a woman in Cali’s family, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
The nature of the dispute was not immediately clear.
But sources said Cali — who helmed a family notorious for gambling, loan sharking, and its deadly trade in heroin and oxycodone — thought Comello was trouble, sources said.
Cali didn’t think Comello was worthy of associating with a woman in his family, the sources added.
Additional reporting by Laura Italiano
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