As a mob boss, there's always the possibility some rival will shoot you dead. Yet in 2019, it had actually been decades since this had happened. The last mob boss of any kind to die by assassination was Paul Castellano, who happened to be the head of the Gambinos, killed so John Gotti could take control. Then on March 13, 2019, Frank Cali was indeed shot outside his home. This wasn't a hit by someone else in the mafia, though. The murderer was Anthony Comello, a New Jersey guy who thought Cali was a member of the Deep State.Â
Comello's a QAnon guy, and he came to believe that President Trump had personally entrusted him with the task of arresting Cali. And so Comello carried handcuffs when he approached the man, but then he panicked and shot him. At least, this is the explanation of his that makes the most sense, based on what else we know of him. Comello had previously, on two separate occasions, attempted citizen arrests of Mayor Bill De Blasio, and had contacted authorities for help arresting multiple Democrat House members.Â
At other times, Comello gave alternative stories. He claimed that he was actually visiting Cali to warn him about a hit the mafia were planning on him (a bullet would have made for an ineffective warning in this particular circumstance) and separately claimed that he was being blackmailed into the deed, by people threatening to reveal he'd got HIV from a stripper. He also mumbled something about the CIA controlling the media, and about Australia. In the end, the court found him unfit for trial and sent him to a mental health facility. That's just as well, as prison would be especially not great for him.