Lucchese mobster Anthony 'Gaspipe' Casso - who murdered at least three dozen people - dies behind bars at 78 while serving a life sentence, a month after contracting COVID-19

A former Lucchese crime family gangster who was said to have personally executed at least three dozen people in the service of the mob has died of COVID-19 complications while serving a life sentence in federal prison.

Anthony 'Gaspipe' Casso, passed away in Arizona on Tuesday, more than a month after being diagnosed with the coronavirus. He was 78 years old. 

Casso was one of two inmates at United States Penitentiary Tuscon who succumbed to the virus at the high-security prison on the same day, the other being a 73-year-old man serving a 25-year sentence on child sex trafficking and weapons charges. 

Former Lucchese crime family underboss Anthony Casso died on Tuesday while in federal custody after spending a month on the ventilator due to COVID-19

Casso, who was serving a 455-year sentence, was 78 years old at the time of his death

At the time of his death, Casso was about 22 years into his 455-year prison sentence stemming from convictions on a slew of counts, including racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder, murder, and charges related to bribery, extortion and tax evasion.

Casso, previously considered one of New York's most ruthless gangsters, was diagnosed with COVID-19 on November 5, reported KOLD.

He was placed in isolation at the prison and offered treatment for his symptoms, before being transferred to a local hospital four days later after experiencing breathing problems.

A week later, Casso's condition took a turn for the worse and he was placed on a ventilator.

As the ailing crime boss clung to life, his attorneys filed a motion seeking a compassionate release for their client, who they said had multiple pre-exiting conditions, including prostate cancer and problems with his heart and lungs, reported New York Daily News.

Federal prosecutors opposed to the request for a release, writing in their response: 'all defendants sentenced to life in prison will, at some point, begin to succumb to one disease or another, or suffer from failing health due to old age,' federal prosecutors wrote in response to Casso’s application for release.

A judge sided with the prosecution and refused to free the mobster.

Casso was diagnosed with COVID on November 5 at United State Penitentiary Tuscon , a high-security federal prison in Arizona 

Casso died after spending a month on the ventilator. He is survived by his two grown children.

Casso grew up in South Brooklyn, where as a teenager he shot pigeons and fought in a street gang, according to a New York Times article published about him in 1992.

As an adult, Casso joined the Lucchese crime family and rapidly rose through the ranks to the top of the mob's hierarchy, amassing a fortune in the process and leaving a bloody trail of murdered rivals and turncoats - both real and perceived - in his wake.

Casso was believed to have personally killed some 40 people, while ordering the executions of around 100 more, including via corrupt NYPD officers. 

Casso was Lucchese crime family's underboss in the 1990s and was believed to have personally killed some 40 people, while ordering executions of 100 more (pictured with mobster Alfonso 'The Professor' D'Arco)

Casso was handed a life sentence in 1998, after his plea agreement with the government was rescinded for infractions, including making false statements about fellow mafiosi

In 1990, Casso, who at the time was Lucchese family's second-in-command, was indicted on 67 federal counts but fled prosecution and remained on the lam for nearly three years, until 1993, when federal agents tracked him down to his hideout in Budd Lake, New Jersey, and arrested him.

During his time as a fugitive, Casso continued to run the mob. He was said to have ordered two brazen mob hits, the May 1991 shooting of Lucchese crime family captain Peter Chiodo - who survived to become a key government informant - and the 1992 attempted murder of Chiodo’s sister, who was shot in Brooklyn. 

Following his arrest, Casso pleaded guilty to dozens of charges and became a government informant, revealing that two retired NYPD detectives had been on the Lucchese payroll and committed eight murders on his orders.

Three years later, prosecutors rescinded Casso's plea deal and ejected him from the Witness Protection Program for a series of infractions, including bribery, assault and making false statements about fellow mafiosi. 

In 1998, a federal judge sentenced Casso to 455 years in prison without the possibility of parole.