A quick backstory behind this...A few months earlier John Gotti and his crew assassinated Gambino boss Paul Castellano and his underboss Tommy Bilotti because Gotti and his crew thought Castellano was going to put a hit out on them after they got caught on tape dealing heroin (dealing drugs was not allowed under Castellano). Gotti quickly then took over as boss of the Gambino Family.

However, when rubbing out a boss you had to get permission from all the other bosses which Gotti and his crew did not. One boss in particular (Genovese boss Vincent Gigante) was irate with Gotti and his crew. Allegedly, it's Gigante that setup this car bombing meant to kill Gotti and Decicco. The gangsters that carried out the hit thought Gotti and Decicco entered the vehicle so they detonated it. However, it wasn't Gotti that entered it was someone else, and he lived. Decicco was blown to pieces.

Gigante used a car bomb as way to deflect attention away from him because it was the Sicilians that were known to use car bombs. Similar to how Gotti had his henchmen dress in Russian attire to deflect attention away from him when assassinating Castellano. Many lives were lost between the two bosses and they eventually called a truce because of it.