Benjamin 'The Claw' Castellazzo caged 15 months - flashback

A year ago aging mob boss Benjamin 'The Claw' Castellazzo drew a paultry 15 months after the feds indicted him and 13 other Colombo mobsters in a scheme to take over a labor union. The underboss's lawyer claimed a new conviction would see him lose his subsidized apartment and leave him homeless. Castellazzo, is known as 'the Claw' because he gets his hands on everything.

The Claw's career in organized crime started in the 1950s when he was convicted for hijacking a carpeting truck. When he appeared before a federal judge in 2013 to be sentenced for racketeering he was a changed man. “I have reflected on my life during the last two years I have been in jail since my arrest. I can tell your honor without hesitation, I am not proud of the life I have led,” Castellazzo wrote “ ... I can tell your honor in all sincerity that you will never see me before this or any court of law again.”

He was released from federal prison in 2015, but the feds came calling for the Claw again. Castellazzo was the man in charge of the union racket.

He had been denied bail and housed at the unfriendly Metropolitan Detention Center.