Francis "Frank" Costello (1937-2006) was an Irish-American mob boss who led the Costello Mob of Boston for several decades. Costello was killed in a police shootout at the Sheffield Warehouse in 2006.
Biography[]
Rise to power[]
Costello during the 1980s
Francis Costello was born in South Boston, Boston, Massachusetts in 1937. He grew up in a working-class Irish Catholic family that supported John F. Kennedy, and he had a dislike of Italian-Americans and African-Americans. Costello was a good student, but he turned to crime to rise out of poverty, and he came to own his own chop shop. Costello later built up his own Irish Mob organization with the help of his right-hand man Arnold French, and it was unheard of for drug dealers to deal close to Costello's Worcester turf due to Costello's brutality towards his rivals. His worst enemy was the Patriarca crime family of the American Mafia, and he often had their members executed whenever they tried to move into Boston.
Police investigation[]
Costello in 2006
Costello, known for his brutality, his various lovers and mistresses, and his perverse sense of humor, became the most powerful mob boss in Boston, and he also became an FBI informant to protect him from being arrested. Costello even had moles in the Massachusetts State Police, namely Colin Sullivan (who saw Costello as a father figure) and James Barrigan. In 2006, the Special Investigations Unit of the state police investigated Costello's involvement in the murder of Myles Kennefick and the theft of 20 microtransmitters, each worth $100,000 each; he sold fake microtransmitters to the Chinese Triads, who sought to sell them to the Chinese government for use as missile chips.
Downfall[]
Costello's body
The police investigation initially stalled due to Sullivan's mole status, even as undercover cop Billy Costigan was sent to infiltrate the Costello Mob; police captain Charles Queenan was among the casualties. However, Sullivan read Queenan's diary and discovered that Costello was an FBI informant, causing Sullivan to worry about his true identity being discovered. He deecided to work with Costigan, alerting the police to Costello's participation in a cocaine pickup at the Sheffield Warehouse.
Costello and his crew were ambushed by special operations policemen after they made the pickup that night, and most of Costello's crew members were killed. Costello himself was cornered by Sullivan in front of a bulldozer's lift, and Costello confessed that he was, indeed, an FBI informant. However, he secretly reached for his gun as he talked to Sullivan, who noticed Costello's deception. Sullivan proceeded to shoot Costello dead, and his body fell onto the blade of the truck.