Phillip "Dandy Phil" Kastel was a Jewish-American organized crime figure, gambler, and longtime associate of both the Genovese and New Orleans crime family.
10 Facts About Phillip Kastel
1.
2.
Phillip Frank Kastel was born to a Jewish family on New York's Lower East Side to Solomon Kastel and Rachel Rosenthal on April 2,1893.
3.
Phillip Kastel was brother to Allen, Florence, Ida and Rose Kastel.
4.
Phillip Kastel married Elsie Conner in 1940 but they later divorced and he married Margaret Dennis.
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In 1917, upon the United States entry into World War I, Phillip Kastel fled to Canada in order to avoid the draft and operated a nightclub in Montreal, Quebec, for the remainder of the war.
6.
Phillip Kastel preyed upon local chorus girls, specifically being charged with stealing $22,000 from chorus girl Betty Brown in 1922; however this charge was dismissed.
7.
Between 1935 and 1937, the Costello-Phillip Kastel partnership earned an income of over $2.4 million from slot machines alone, according to federal authorities.
8.
Phillip Kastel attended the Havana Conference that began on December 20,1946.
9.
Phillip Kastel continued to run the organization throughout the 1950s and, due to considerable financial contributions to local politicians, without interference from city officials.
10.
However, as Costello was replaced by new acting boss Vito Genovese, Phillip Kastel was forced to hand over control of his illegal gambling operations in Louisiana to the New Orleans crime family and its new acting boss Carlos Marcello.