Eddie McGrath

Eddie McGrath (born January 31, 1906,[citation needed] date of death unknown[1]) was an Irish-American gangster from New York City, who controlled the Hell's Kitchen Irish Mob and the lucrative waterfront throughout the 1940s. Originally from the notorious Gashouse District on the East Side, McGrath was arrested numerous times throughout the 1920s and 30s for offenses ranging from burglary to murder.

After serving a lengthy stretch in Sing Sing, McGrath ended up as an organizer for the International Longshoremen's Association on the Hell's Kitchen waterfront. With the notorious Joseph P. Ryan in control of the ILA, McGrath became the primary muscle on the waterfront, with gangsters like John "Cockeye" Dunn (who was McGrath's brother in law) and Andrew "Squint" Sheridan as his enforcers. He became a close ally of powerful organized crime figures such as Joe Adonis, Albert Anastasia, and Meyer Lansky.

Eddie McGrath was forced to abscond from New York after Dunn and Sheridan were executed for the murder of a hiring stevedore named Andy Hintz in 1949 and the investigation of waterfront criminal activity subsequently began to escalate. He was sent to Miami as an ILA organizer at the behest of Meyer Lansky, where he spent the remainder of his life.

The character of Johnny Friendly in On the Waterfront is loosely based on a composite of McGrath, Albert Anastasia, and an ILA organizer named Mickey Bowers.

Carlos Marcello

Carlos Marcello, also known as The Godfather and "The Little Man" Marcello (February 6, 1910 – March 2, 1993), was an Italian-American mafioso who became the boss of the New Orleans crime family during the 1940s and held this position for the next thirty years.

Cesare Manzella

Cesare Manzella (Cinisi, December 18, 1897 - Cinisi, April 26, 1963) was a traditional Mafia capo, who sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission. He was the head of the Mafia family in Cinisi, a small seaside town near the Punta Raisi Airport. As the airport was in their territory it was an invaluable asset for the import and export of contraband, including narcotics. His deputy was Gaetano Badalamenti.[1]

Stefano Magaddino

Stefano "The Undertaker" Magaddino (October 10, 1891 – July 19, 1974) was a Sicilian mafioso who became the boss of the Buffalo crime family in western New York. His underworld influence stretched from Ohio to Southern Ontario and as far east as Montreal, Quebec. Known as Don Stefano to his friends and The Undertaker to others, he was also a charter member of the American Mafia's ruling council, otherwise known as The Commission.

Joseph Magliocco

Joseph Magliocco, also known as "Joe Malayak" (June 29, 1898 – December 28, 1963) was a New York mobster and the boss of the Profaci crime family (later to become the Colombo crime family) from 1962 to 1963. Magliocco participated in an audacious unsuccessful attempt to kill other family bosses and take over the Mafia Commission.

Tommy Lucchese

Thomas Lucchese (pronounced [lukˈkeːse]; born Gaetano Lucchese, December 1, 1899 – July 13, 1967) was a Sicilian-born American gangster and founding member of the Mafia in the United States, an offshoot of the Cosa Nostra in Sicily. From 1951 until 1967, he was the boss of the Lucchese crime family, one of the Five Families that dominates organized crime in New York City.

Frank Lucas (drug dealer)

Frank Lucas (born September 9, 1930)[4] is an American former heroin dealer, who operated in Harlem during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was particularly known for cutting out middlemen in the drug trade and buying heroin directly from his source in the Golden Triangle. Lucas boasted that he smuggled heroin using the coffins of dead American servicemen,[5][6] but this claim is denied by his South East Asian associate, Leslie "Ike" Atkinson.[7] Rather than hide the drugs in the coffins, they were hidden in the pallets underneath as depicted in the 2007 feature film American Gangster in which he was played by Denzel Washington, although the film fictionalized elements of Lucas' life for dramatic effect.

Philip Lombardo

Philip Lombardo (pronounced "loam-BAR-doh") (October 6, 1908 in New York City – April 1987) also known as "Benny Squint" and "Cockeyed Phil", was the boss of the Genovese crime family from the late 1960s until the beginning of the 1980s. Lombardo began his career as a soldier on Michael "Trigger Mike" Coppola's powerful 116th Street Crew in the East Harlem section of New York. During the 1940s, Lombardo served a brief prison stretch for narcotics trafficking, his only imprisonment. Due to his thick eyeglasses Lombardo earned the nickname, "Benny Squint."

In 1959, family boss Vito Genovese was sent to prison. However, Genovese used a series of acting bosses to maintain control of the family from prison. His three acting bosses, or Ruling Panel, were Capo Michele Miranda, underboss Gerardo "Jerry" Catena, and acting boss Thomas "Tommy Ryan" Eboli. The trio panel was known to authorities but in 1962 former mobster turned government witness Joseph Valachi stated before a US Senate subcommittee that Lombardo was also a part of this same panel. In that same year Anthony Strollo disappeared and was presumed murdered. Strollo's role as a front or acting boss was given to Thomas Eboli. Eboli himself was later gunned down in 1972. It had been theorized that Commission chairman Carlo Gambino had orchestrated Eboli's murder in order to install his own candidate for Genovese boss in the form of Alphonse Frank "Funzi" Tieri who would replace Eboli as front boss shortly after Eboli's murder. However according to FBI informant Vincent Cafaro, Lombardo had been boss since 1969 and had been using Eboli and Tieri as decoys to insulate himself from the FBI. It then seems that he coincided his retirement with Tieri's death and named Vincent Gigante as his successor while at the same making Anthony Salerno the new front boss to disguise Gigante's transition into boss. This way, the FBI would still not know who was really in charge and would continue to go after the wrong people, which they did sentencing Salerno to 100 years in prison in 1986. Although there is no definitive evidence, Valachi's and Cafaro's testimonies have made it widely believed that he had been boss all along.

Tieri and Gigante manipulated members of the Philadelphia crime family into murdering their boss Angelo Bruno, who was shot to death in his car in 1980, and then killed off those same members of the Philly mob to cover their tracks. It is worth noting that Lombardo may also have been involved. As he was at least the de facto boss, and probably the official boss during that time he probably had the final say on whether the plan could go ahead. Adept at remaining behind the scenes he may have been privy to this scheme also, this is purely speculation however.

By 1981, Lombardo was in poor health and played a more relaxed role in the day-to-day operations of the family. Although he resided in Englewood, New Jersey, he spent his remaining winters in Hollywood, Florida. He made it clear that Gigante was to become the new boss, and Salerno would continue as the front boss. He was 78 years old and living in Florida when he died in April 1987.

Nick Licata (mobster)

Nick "Old Man" Licata (February 20, 1897 - October 19, 1974) was an Italian American mobster who was the Boss of the Los Angeles crime family from 1967 until his death in 1974.

Nicolò Licata was born on February 20, 1897 in the small Italian town of Camporeale, in Sicily[1] (although his surname may suggest family origins in Licata). He was the son of Colagero and Vita, and had six brothers and two sisters.[1] According to his records at Ellis Island, he boarded the Sant' Anna in Palermo at age 16 with $25. On December 5, 1913, Licata arrived in the United States and joined his brother Leonardo in Brooklyn. He later legally anglicised his first name to "Nick". During the 1920s Licata became involved in bootlegging in Detroit during the prohibition era. He eventually became a made man in the Detroit crime family. He left for Los Angeles after offending its boss, Joseph Zerilli. He endeared himself to L.A. Boss Jack Dragna who was able to convince Zerilli to call off a murder contract on Licata. He was accepted as a member of the L.A. family and became close to Dragna's brother, consigliere Tom Dragna. On March 25, 1932 Licata became a naturalized citizen.[1] He resided in Inglewood and owned several apartment buildings, including the one he lived in.[1] Licata owned barrooms and operated as a bookie and loan shark out of a hangout on La Brea Avenue in Hollywood and a club called "Five O'Clock" in Burbank.[2] He was arrested once in 1945 for refilling liquor containers.[1]

Luciano Leggio

Luciano Leggio (Italian pronunciation: [luˈtʃaːno ˈlɛddʒo]; January 6, 1925 – November 15, 1993) was an Italian criminal and leading figure of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the head of the Corleonesi, the Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone. Some sources incorrectly spell his surname Liggio, a result of a misspelling in court documents in the 1960s.[1]

As well as setting the Corleonesi on track to become the dominant Mafia clan in Sicily, he became infamous for avoiding convictions for a multitude of crimes, including homicide, before he was finally imprisoned for life in 1974.

Salvatore La Barbera

Salvatore La Barbera (Palermo, April 20, 1922 – January 17, 1963) was a Sicilian mafioso. Together with his brother Angelo La Barbera he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro. Salvatore La Barbera sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission that was set up in 1958 as the capo mandamento for Mafia families of Borgo Vecchio, Porta Nuova and Palermo Centro. La Barbera disappeared during the First Mafia War, a victim of the lupara bianca, never to be seen again.

The Palermo police suspected that Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" and his cousin Salvatore Greco "The Engineer" had arranged a deal whereby Tommaso Buscetta betrayed his former friend, killed him and disposed of his body in the furnaces of his glass factory. Buscetta claims to know nothing about the disappearance.[1]

Angelo La Barbera

Angelo La Barbera (July 3, 1924 – October 28, 1975) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Together with his brother Salvatore La Barbera (Palermo, April 20, 1922 – January 17, 1963) he ruled the Mafia family of Palermo Centro. Salvatore La Barbera sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission that was set up in 1958 as the capo mandamento for Mafia families of Borgo Vecchio, Porta Nuova and Palermo Centro.

Gaia Servadio, an English\Italian journalist who wrote a biography on Angelo La Barbera, described him as the symbol of the quick, clever gangster. The new post-war mafioso who in the end became the victim of the many politicians he himself had built. He represented the proletariat who tried to become mafioso, middle class, and ultimately did not succeed.[1]

Kray twins

Twin brothers Ronald "Ronnie" Kray (24 October 1933 – 17 March 1995) and Reginald "Reggie" Kray (24 October 1933 – 1 October 2000) were English gangsters who were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in the East End of London during the 1950s and 1960s. With their gang, "The Firm", the Krays were involved in armed robberies, arson, protection rackets, assaults, and the murders of Jack "The Hat" McVitie and George Cornell.

As West End nightclub owners, they mixed with prominent entertainers including Diana Dors, Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland, and with politicians. The Krays were much feared within their milieu, and in the 1960s became celebrities in their own right, even being photographed by David Bailey and interviewed on television.

They were arrested on 9 May 1968 and convicted in 1969 by the efforts of a squad of detectives led by Detective Superintendent Leonard "Nipper" Read, and were both sentenced to life imprisonment. Ronnie remained in Broadmoor Hospital until his death on 17 March 1995, but Reggie was released from prison on compassionate grounds in August 2000, eight weeks before his death from cancer.

Dündar Kılıç

Dündar Kılıç (real name Dündar Alikılıç) (1935 – 10 August 1999) was an infamous mob boss in the Turkish underworld. He earned himself the nickname of being the 'godfather of godfathers'.[1]

Dündar Kılıç was born in 1935 in a village of the Surmene District of Trabzon in the eastern Black Sea Region, Turkey. He moved to Ankara with his family when he was nine years old, and got his first gun a year later. His first arrested was at the age of 14, by the 1960s he was readily known as one of the Ankara's leading criminals. His primary income came from extortion and illegal gambling, and became known as the 'good godfather', allegedly because he would only have his people collect money from those already involved in illegal dealings. Eventually the authorities caught up with him and he was arrested and jailed for a murder he committed in 1960.

Danny Greene

Daniel John Patrick "Danny" Greene (November 14, 1933 – October 6, 1977) was an Irish American mobster and associate of Cleveland mobster John Nardi during the gang war for the city's criminal operations during the 1970s. Competing gangsters set off more than 35 bombs, most attached to cars in murder attempts, many successful. Greene had gained power first in a local chapter of the International Longshoremen's Association, where he was elected president in the early 1960s. Greene pushed into Cleveland rackets and began competing with the Sicilian Mafia for control of the city. He set up his own group called the Celtic Club, complete with enforcers.

Greene's life was chronicled in the 2011 crime-biopic Kill the Irishman, in which he was portrayed by actor Ray Stevenson.

Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco

Salvatore "Ciaschiteddu" Greco (January 13, 1923 – March 7, 1978) was a powerful mafioso and boss of the Mafia Family in Ciaculli, an outlying suburb of Palermo famous for its citrus fruit groves, where he was born. His nickname was "Ciaschiteddu" or "Chichiteddu", translated from the Sicilian alternatively as "little bird" or as "wine jug".

"Ciaschiteddu" Greco was the first "secretary" of the first Sicilian Mafia Commission that was formed somewhere in 1958. That position came to him almost naturally because he headed one of the most influential Mafia clans at the time, which went back to the late 19th century.

Salvatore "The Engineer" Greco

Salvatore Greco, (May 12, 1924 in Ciaculli – ?) also known as "l'ingegnere" (the engineer) or "Totò il lungo" (Totò the tall) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the son of Pietro Greco who was killed during a bloody internal feud between the factions of the Greco Mafia clan in Ciaculli and Croceverde Giardini in 1946. His cousin Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" was the first ‘secretary’ of the Sicilian Mafia Commission.

Michele Greco

Michele Greco (Ciaculli, May 12, 1924 – Rome, February 13, 2008) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia, previously incarcerated for multiple murders. His nickname was "il Papa" (The Pope) because of his ability to mediate between different Mafia families.[1] Greco was the head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission.

Anthony Gizzo

Anthony Robert Gizzo (August 4, 1902 – April 1, 1953) was a Kansas City, Missouri mobster with the Cosa Nostra and a boss of the Kansas City crime family.

Gizzo was born in New York City and was known as "Tony". In the early 1920s, after being arrested on a narcotics charge, Gizzo attempted to bribe a federal officer with $10,000 ($117,724 today). Gizzo was convicted and in 1924 served one year and a day at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Gizzo was a close friend of mobster Charles Binaggio. In 1930, Gizzo and Binaggio were arrested in Denver, Colorado, on a minor charge. During this time, both men were lieutenants to Kansas City North End political boss John Lazia in his illegal gambling operations. Gizzo soon became known as one of the five "Iron Men" due to his underworld clout.[citation needed]

In 1950, with Binaggio's murder, it is believed that Gizzo assumed leadership of the Kansas City family

Nenè Geraci

Antonio Geraci (Partinico, January 2, 1917 – Partinico, February 6, 2007), better known as Nenè or il vecchio (the old one), is the historical boss of the Mafia in Partinico, in the province of Palermo. Geraci sat on the Sicilian Mafia Commission since the mid-1970s and belonged to the hard line faction allied with the Corleonesi of Totò Riina and Bernardo Provenzano.[1] According to the pentito Tommaso Buscetta, Geraci took care of the fugitive Riina while he stayed in Partinico.

As member of the Commission, Geraci was implicated in many decisions that involved the killing of prominent Antimafia personalities and various high level law enforcement officials, the so-called Excellent Cadavers. As such he received 12 life sentences in the late 1980s, but he still maintained a great deal of influence within the Palermo mafia through the leadership of his Partinico clan, which he kept through various acting bosses while he was imprisoned. Through his membership or seat on the Sicilian Mafia Commission or Cupola, Geraci like several of his fellow mafia capos was directly held responsible for the killings of Antimafia judges Cesare Terranova, Rocco Chinnici, Antonio Saetta, Giovanni Falcone, Paolo Borsellino, the communist politician Pio La Torre and Carabinieri captain Emanuele Basile.

In the 1990s a war of power in Partinico set the Geraci family against the Vitale family, headed by Vito Vitale. The Geraci’s were loyal to Provenzano, while the Vitale’s were supported by Totò Riina and Leoluca Bagarella.[2]

Geraci was allowed to leave prison in May 2005 because of ill health and to return to his home town.[3] The 88-year old was blind, had heart problems and was restricted to a wheelchair. He died from a heart failure in his bed on February 6, 2007.[4]

Vito Genovese

Vito "Don Vito" Genovese (November 27, 1897 – February 14, 1969) was an Italian-born American mobster and crime boss who rose to power in America during the Castellammarese War to later become leader of the Genovese crime family. Genovese served as mentor to the future boss of the Genovese crime family Vincent "Chin" Gigante.[1] He was known as Boss of all Bosses from 1957–1959.[2]

Sam Giancana

Salvatore "Mooney Sam" Giancana (born Salvatore Giangana; June 15, 1908 – June 19, 1975),[1] better known as Sam Giancana, was a Sicilian American mobster and mob boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957–1966. Among his other nicknames were, "Momo", "Sam the Cigar," and "Sammy."

Carlo Gambino

Carlo "Don Carlo" Gambino (August 24, 1902 – October 15, 1976) was an Italian-born American gangster, notable for being boss of the Gambino crime family, which is still named after him. After the 1957 Apalachin Convention he unexpectedly seized control of the Commission of the American Mafia. Gambino was known for being low-key and secretive. In 1937 Gambino was convicted of tax evasion but had his sentence suspended. He lived to the age of 74, when he died of a heart attack in bed "in a state of grace", according to a priest who had given him the Last Rites of the Catholic Church. He had two brothers, Gaspare Gambino, who later married and was never involved with the Mafia and is not to be confused with another Gaspare Gambino who was a mafioso in Palermo, and Paolo Gambino who, on the other hand, had a big role in his brother's family.

Joe Gallo

Joseph Gallo (April 7, 1929 – April 7, 1972), also known as "Crazy Joe" and "Joe the Blond", was a celebrated New York City gangster for the Profaci crime family, later known as the Colombo crime family. Gallo initiated one of the bloodiest mob conflicts since the 1931 Castellammarese War and was murdered as a result of it.

Marcel Francisci

Marcel Francisci (1920 – 16 January 1982) was an alleged member of the Unione Corse[1] who was accused of masterminding the French Connection drug network. As a young man, Francisci fought in World War II and was awarded the Croix de Guerre.[1] Following the war, he developed a business empire that included casinos in Britain, France and Lebanon.[1] Francisci served in the general council (conseil général) of the Corse-du-Sud (UDR) and was a member of the Civic Action Service (SAC), a Gaullist militia. He was assassinated in Paris in 1982.

Jeff Fort

Jeff Fort (born February 20, 1947) is a former Chicago gang leader, Co-founder of the Black P. Stones gang and founder of its El Rukn faction. Fort was convicted of drug trafficking in 1983 and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He is currently serving an 80 year prison sentence after being convicted of conspiracy and weapons charges in 1987 for plotting to commit attacks inside the U.S. in exchange for weapons and $2.5 million from Libya[6] and a 75 year sentence for ordering a murder.

Gaetano Fidanzati

Gaetano Fidanzati (September 6, 1935 - October 5, 2013)[1] was a boss of the Resuttana mandamento of the Sicilian Mafia in Palermo. He was on the Italian Ministry of the Interior's most wanted list from 2008 till his arrest on December 5, 2009.[2]

Fidanzati and his four brothers hailed from Palermo's Arenella neighborhood. They formed a Mafia clan, said to be among the most heavily involved in international drug trafficking.[3] He reportedly innovated the practice of exchanging heroin for cocaine to avoid money trails. The exchange rate with the American Mafia – particularly the Gambinos – was one kilogram of heroin for three kilograms of cocaine.[4]

Thomas Eboli

Thomas "Tommy Ryan" Eboli (pronounced "EH-bow-lee") (June 13, 1911 Scisciano, Italy - July 16, 1972 Crown Heights, Brooklyn) was a New York City mobster who eventually became the acting boss of the Genovese crime family.

Born Tommaso Eboli in Scisciano, in the province of Naples, Italy to Louis and Madalena Maddalone, Eboli stood 5'10, weighed 165 pounds, and had a tattoo on his right arm. Eboli was the brother of Genovese crime family capo Pasquale "Patty Ryan" Eboli. To hide his Italian heritage, Eboli adapted the nickname "Tommy Ryan" from professional boxer Tommy Ryan. Eboli became a U.S. citizen on August 27, 1960.[1]

Thomas Eboli was married to Anna Ariola from Melrose Park, Illinois. Their children were Thomas Eboli Jr. and Chicago Outfit mobster Louis "The Mooch" Eboli.[1]

After separating from Ariola, Eboli entered a relationship with Mary Perello. She bore him two daughters, Madelena and Mary, and a son Saverio.[1] Eboli and his second family lived in a high rise apartment building in Fort Lee, New Jersey that overlooked the Hudson River. However, just before his death, Eboli had purchased a home in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.[2]

As a young man, Eboli worked as a professional boxer.[3] In the early 1920s, during Prohibition, Eboli became a bootlegger for future crime boss Lucky Luciano. By the early 1930s, Eboli had become the personal bodyguard for Luciano's underboss, Vito "Don Vito" Genovese. Some sources claim that Eboli committed as many as 20 murders for the Genovese family.[3]

In 1933, Eboli was arrested on six counts of illegal gambling and disorderly conduct.[1]

Gaspar DiGregorio

Gaspar or Gaspare DiGregorio (1905 – June 11, 1970) was a New York mobster and a high-ranking member of the Bonanno crime family who was a key figure in the so-called "Banana War".

A caporegime in the Bonanno family, DiGregorio had aspirations of becoming consigliere. However, family boss Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno made his son Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno consigliere, leaving hard feelings with DiGregorio. In 1964, fearful for his life, Joe Bonanno disappeared from New York. After a while, the New York Mafia Commission appointed DiGregorio as the new family boss. That decision was opposed by Joe's appointed successor Salvatore Bonanno and a war soon erupted within the Bonanno family. At one point, DiGregorio arranged a nighttime peace meeting with the Bonannos in a house in Brookyn. DiGregorio and his men arrived first; when the Bonannos arrived, DiGregorio's men started shooting. Miraculously, no one was hurt.

The so-called Bonanno War continued even with the brief return of Joseph Bonanno in 1966. Although DiGregorio was supported by Mafia Commission members such as Carlo Gambino, Tommy Lucchese, Joe Colombo and Stefano Magaddino, they eventually became dissatisfied with DiGregorio's efforts at quelling the family rebellion. They eventually dropped DiGregorio and swung their support to Paul Sciacca. The war effectively ended in 1968 when Joe Bonanno suffered a heart attack and Sciacca became boss. DiGregorio was out in the cold. DiGregorio spent his final year living with his family in Long Island.

On June 11, 1970, Gaspar DiGregorio died of lung cancer at St. John's Hospital in Smithtown, New York. He is buried in Saint Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.[1]

Calcedonio Di Pisa

Calcedonio Di Pisa (October 11, 1931 in Palermo – December 26, 1962 in Palermo), also known as Doruccio, was a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of the Mafia family in the Noce neighbourhood in Palermo and sat on the first Sicilian Mafia Commission, the coordinating body of Cosa Nostra in Sicily.

Frank DeSimone

Frank A. DeSimone (July 17, 1909 – August 4, 1967) was the Boss of the Los Angeles crime family from 1956 to 1967. DeSimone was the son of former don Rosario DeSimone. He was sometime referred to as "One Eye" because one of his eyes drooped,[1] in the same way as Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Frank DeSimone's well-known nephew, Thomas DeSimone, was an enforcer for the Lucchese crime family. He was also related to Simone Scozzari and Joseph Civello.

Sam DeCavalcante

Simone Rizzo "Sam" DeCavalcanti (1912 – February 7, 1997), known as "Sam the Plumber", was a member of the New Jersey Mafia. Claiming descent from the Italian royal family, DeCavalcanti was nicknamed "The Count".[1] The Kefauver hearings later named his crime family the DeCavalcanti crime family since he was the boss of the family current to those hearings.

Joseph Colombo

Joseph Anthony "Joe" Colombo, Sr. (June 16, 1924 – May 22, 1978) was the boss of the Colombo crime family, one of the "Five Families" of the Cosa Nostra in New York.

Joseph Colombo, Sr. was born into an Italian American family. His father, Anthony Colombo, was an early member of the Profaci crime family, forerunner of the Colombo family. In 1938, he was found strangled in a car with his mistress.[1] Joe Colombo attended New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn for two years, then dropped out to join the U.S. Coast Guard. In 1945, he was diagnosed with neurosis and discharged from the service. His legitimate jobs included ten years as a longshoreman and six years as a salesman for a meat company.[2] His final job was that of a real estate salesman.[1]

Colombo owned a modest home in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn and a five-acre estate in Blooming Grove, New York.[2] His five children include sons Christopher Colombo, Joseph Colombo Jr. (December 24, 1946 - October 29, 2014)[3] and Anthony Colombo.

Mickey Cohen

Meyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen (September 4, 1913 – July 29, 1976) was a gangster based in Los Angeles and part of the Jewish Mafia, and also had strong ties to the Italian American Mafia (especially the Los Angeles crime family) from the 1930s through 1960s.

Joseph Civello

Joseph Francis Civello (February 3, 1902 - January 17, 1970) was an American mobster and the leader of the Dallas crime family from 1956 until his death in 1970.

A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Civello had moved to Dallas as early as July 1928 when he was arrested for the murder of Joe DeCarlo at the St. Paul Drug Store in Dallas. Reportedly, DeCarlo's dying words were that the close-range shotgun blast to his abdomen was accidental. Based on this information, a grand jury did not issue an indictment against Civello.[1] Civello was an expert marksman and regularly participated in skeet shooting competitions as a longtime member of the Dallas Gun and Skeet Club.[2]

By the early 1930s, Civello had organized a crew (dubbed The Civello Gang by the Dallas Morning News)[3] which included cousins Sam Civello, Louis Civello, Leon Civello, Frank Ianni, and Joe Cascio, among others.[4] The gang operated as associates of Dallas' Piranio crime family, and was involved primarily with bootlegging and narcotics trafficking.

The Civello gang's main rival during this time was a Jewish gang headed by Nathan Biegler. In 1935, when Biegler was sentenced to 10 years in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, another Jewish gangster, Louis "Big Daddy" Ginsberg, came to Dallas from Chicago to reorganize the remnants of Biegler's gang. Both the Civello Gang and the Ginsberg Gang were heavily involved in the sale and distribution of morphine and heroin. The Civellos collaborated almost exclusively with associates of Charles "Lucky" Luciano of New York City, while the Ginsbergs' drugs came from mobsters in Chicago.

In January 1937, after a two-year undercover investigation, federal agents seized more than $150,000 of drugs and arrested members of both the Civello and Ginsberg gangs. It was called the biggest narcotics bust in Bureau of Narcotics history. Ginsberg was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison which, at the time, was the longest sentence ever given for a drug crime in the United States.[5] Civello was sentenced to 15 years in Leavenworth, and five others of the Civello gang were given lesser sentences.

Nicholas Civella

Nicholas Civella (March 19, 1912 - March 12, 1983) was a Kansas City, Missouri mobster who became a prominent leader of the Kansas City crime family.

Giuseppe Nicoli Civella was the son of Italian immigrants in Kansas City. He was the younger brother of mobster Carl "Cork" Civella and the uncle of mobster Anthony Civella. Nicholas Civella began his criminal career as a teenager in the Italian "Northeast" neighborhood of Kansas City. Civella's first arrest was at age 10, after which he dropped out of school. Before he reached age 20, Civella had been arrested for auto theft, illegal gambling, robbery, and vagrancy.

In 1932, Civella spent two months in prison for bootlegging. In 1934 Civella married Katherine, his wife for almost fifty years. He had no children of his own. In the early 1940s, Civella became a Democratic Party precinct worker on the North Side of Kansas City and became friends with Kansas City crime boss, Charles Binaggio.

Carl Civella

Carl "Cork" Civella (January 28, 1910 – October 2, 1994) was the leader of the Kansas City crime family following the death of his brother, long-time crime boss Nicholas Civella, after heading day-to-day operations during the mid-1970s.

Carl's reign as Kansas city boss was brief. In 1984, he and his son, Anthony Civella, were convicted of skimming operations in Las Vegas casinos throughout the 1970s. Carl was sentenced to 10-to-20 years in prison, with another 10 years added on an unrelated charge.

On October 2, 1994, Carl Civella died in prison of pneumonia.

Chen Chi-li

Chen Chi-li (11 May 1943 – 4 October 2007), nicknamed King Duck, was a gangster from Taiwan, best known for heading the United Bamboo Gang.[1][3] His murder of dissident journalist Henry Liu in Daly City, California, USA, in 1984 has been described by the Financial Times as "the most prominent example of the [Kuomintang]'s co-operation with gangsters in upholding its dictatorship".

Jackie Cerone

John Philip "Jackie The Lackey" Cerone (July 7, 1914 – July 26, 1996) was a Chicago mobster and boss of the Chicago Outfit, during the late 1960s. He was the younger brother of mobster Frank "Skippy" Cerone and father of lawyer, John Peter Cerone and husband to the late Clara Cerone.

He was born to John Cerone Sr. and Rose Valant. He stood at 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) and weighed 195 pounds (88 kg). During the 1950s Cerone was a chauffeur to boss Antonino "Tony" "Joe Batters" Accardo, then became the protege of boss Salvatore "Sam," "Momo" Giancana. Cerone was part of the enforcer team that tortured and murdered loan shark William "Action" Jackson.[citation needed] As an Outfit enforcer, Cerone was arrested over 20 times on charges including armed robbery, bookmaking, illegal gambling, and embezzlement. Cerone became boss of the Outfit following the semi-retirements of Accardo and Joey "Doves" Aiuppa. In 1986 Cerone, Aiuppa, Carl "Corky" Civella, Angelo "The Hook" LaPietra and Carl "Tuffy" DeLuna were convicted of skimming $2 million from a Las Vegas casino. Joseph Agosto, Kansas City crime family member and Las Vegas casino worker, turned states evidence and testified against the bosses. Milwaukee organized-crime boss, Frank Balistrieri, was sentenced to 10-years in prison in the same case, in December 1985.

In 1996, Jackie Cerone died of natural causes six days after his release from prison.

Michele Cavataio

Michele Cavataio (Palermo, 1929 - Palermo, December 10, 1969), also known as The Cobra was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the boss of the Acquasanta mandamento in Palermo and was a member of the first Sicilian Mafia Commission. Some sources spell his surname as Cavatajo.

Cavataio was one of the most feared mafioso gangsters of his time. His nickname The Cobra allegedly came from his favorite firearm, the Colt Cobra, a six-shot revolver.[1] He was described as a cunning killer with a gorilla-like face.[2]

Giuseppe Calò

Giuseppe 'Pippo' Calò (born September 30, 1931) is a member of the Sicilian Mafia. He was referred to as the "Mafia's Cashier" because he was heavily involved in the financial side of organized crime, primarily money laundering. He has been charged with ordering the murder of Roberto Calvi – nicknamed "God's banker" – of the Banco Ambrosiano in 1982, but has been cleared in 2007 because of "insufficient evidence" in a surprise verdict.

Giuseppe Calderone

Giuseppe “Pippo” Calderone (Catania, November 1, 1925 – Palermo, September 8, 1978) was an influential Sicilian mafioso from Catania. He became the ‘secretary’ of the interprovincial Sicilian Mafia Commission, formed around 1975 on his instigation. Its purpose was to coordinate the provincial Mafia commissions and avoid conflicts over public contracts that crossed provincial borders. Calderone was killed in 1978, on the orders of Totò Riina.

Russell Bufalino

Russell A. Bufalino also known as "McGee" and "The Old Man" (September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1994) was the boss of the Northeastern Pennsylvania crime family (also known as the Bufalino crime family) from 1959 to 1989. Despite being the boss of a small crime family, Bufalino was a significant influence in the national Cosa Nostra criminal organization.

Angelo Bruno

Angelo "The Gentle Don" Bruno (born Angelo Annaloro; May 21, 1910 – March 21, 1980) was a Sicilian-American mobster who ran the Philadelphia crime family for two decades. Bruno gained his nickname and reputation due to his preference for conciliation over violence.

Francesco Paolo Bontade

Francesco Paolo Bontade (1914 – February 25, 1974), also known as Don Paolino Bonta, was a legendary and powerful member of the Sicilan Mafia. Some sources spell his surname Bontate. He hailed from Villagrazia, a rural village before it was absorbed into the city of Palermo in the 1960s. His father Stefano had been a powerful Mafia boss in the area that included Santa Maria di Gesù and Guadagna.

David Barksdale

David Barksdale (born Donise David Barksdale; May 24, 1947 – September 2, 1974), also known as King David, was the original leader of the Chicago-based street gangs ; Devil's Disciples, Black Disciples, Maniac Latin Disciples, Black Gangster Disciples and Satan's Disciples.

Gaetano Badalamenti

Gaetano Badalamenti (September 14, 1923 – April 29, 2004) was a powerful member of the Sicilian Mafia. Don Tano Badalamenti was the capofamiglia of his hometown Cinisi, Sicily, and headed the Sicilian Mafia Commission in the 1970s. In 1987 he was sentenced in the United States to 45 years in federal prison for being one of the leaders of the so-called Pizza Connection, a USD 1.65 billion drug-trafficking ring that used pizzerias as fronts to distribute heroin from 1975 to 1984.[1][2]

Tano Badalamenti always remained an old-style mafioso, faithful to the rule of omertà. He never admitted to belong to Cosa Nostra, but he never denied it either. At one point he said during interrogations by the FBI: "If I did answer I would damage myself in Italy." Despite his 45-year sentence in the US he never became a pentito. Badalamenti commanded respect. He is described as "the kind of person who, when you look at him, you know is in charge of something"

Albert Anastasia

Albert Anastasia (born Umberto Anastasio, September 26, 1902 – October 25, 1957) was one of the most ruthless and feared Cosa Nostra mobsters in United States history. A founder of the American Mafia, Anastasia ran Murder, Inc. during the prewar era and was boss of the modern Gambino crime family during most of the 1950s.

Gus Alex

Gus Alex (April 1, 1916 – July 24, 1998) was a Greek-American mobster and high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit, who succeeded Jake Guzik as the Syndicate's main political "fixer".

According to William F. Roemer,

    "Gus, being Greek, could not be 'made,' but he had done it all. His dad had operated a small restaurant at Wentworth and 26th in Armour Square/Chinatown, which was frequented by many members of the Capone, and then the Nitti, mob. Gus and Strongy [Ferraro] had worked in the restaurant from an early age. Both were sharp guys and came to the attention of the boys. Gus had, therefore, been one of them almost since birth.[1]

Working primarily for Al Capone's Jewish-American associate, Jake Guzik, Alex would later become his protégé as he rose through the ranks of the Chicago crime family. By 1930, he was suspected in the deaths of at least five unsolved murder cases. Two of the alleged victims, later dying of their injuries in hospital, identified Alex as their assailant as well as three others who were killed after reporting to police extortion and death threats sent by Alex.

Felix Alderisio

Felix Anthony "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio (April 26, 1912 – September 25, 1971) was a prominent enforcer, bagman, hitman and burglar for the Chicago Outfit, serving as an underboss to Salvatore Giancana ("Sam", "Momo", "Mooney") during the 1960s and as boss for a short time from 1967 before being sent to prison in 1969 and dying there.

Tony Accardo

Antonino Joseph Accardo (born Antonino Leonardo Accardo; April 28, 1906 – May 22, 1992), also known as "Joe Batters" or "Big Tuna",[1] was a longtime American mobster. In a criminal career that spanned eight decades, he rose from small-time hoodlum to the position of day-to-day boss of the Chicago Outfit in 1947, to ultimately become the final Outfit authority in 1972. Accardo moved The Outfit into new operations and territories, greatly increasing its power and wealth during his tenure as boss.

Santo Trafficante, Sr.

Santo Trafficante, Sr. (May 28, 1886 – August 11, 1954) was a Sicilian-born mobster, and father of the powerful mobster Santo Trafficante, Jr.

Santo Trafficante Sr. gained power as a mobster in Tampa and ruled the Mafia in Tampa from the 1930s until his death in 1954. Trafficante was heavily involved in the operation of illegal bolita lotteries. During his reign, Trafficante was a well-respected boss with ties to Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Thomas Lucchese. He sent his son, Santo Trafficante, Jr. to New York to learn from other mobsters. Upon his death, Santo Trafficante Sr. gave the power to his son, Santo Trafficante, Jr. This was a respected decision since the New York bosses and Tampa mobsters liked Santo, Jr.

John Sciandra

John "Johnny" Sciandra also known as "Giovanni" (1899–1940) was the notorious boss of the Bufalino crime family of Pennsylvania from 1933 until his death in 1940.

Very little is known about Sciandra's early life. The Sciandra family immigrated to the United States from Montedoro, Sicily in the 1880s. Originally a coal miner in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Sciandra became an enforcer and bootlegger for Buffalino family boss Santo Volpe. Like so many crime families, they are built upon blood ties, long standing friendships and various powerful arms. The Bufalino crime family would have four very powerful members who pulled all the strings. These included Santo "King of The Knights" Volpe, Angelo Polizzi, Giuseppe "Joe The Barber" Barbara and John "Johnny" Sciandra. In 1933, Following the death of Volpe, Sciandra was nominated boss over Scranton and surrounding areas. Polizzi became consigliere, maintaining this role until his death in 1957.

In 1940, Sciandra was found murdered. Speculation was that Pollizzi and Barbara colluded in Sciandra's killing. Sciandra's death was most certainly approved by the ruling Cosa Nostra crime board in New York City known as the Commission.

John T. Scalish

John T. Scalish (September 18, 1912 – May 26, 1976), also known as "John Scalise", was an Ohio mobster who became the boss of the Cleveland crime family. His death resulted in the ascension of James T. Licavoli to the head of the Cleveland Mob and to a bloody gang war that would almost destroy the once powerful crime family that Scalish had helped build up.

Giuseppe Genco Russo

Giuseppe Genco Russo (Mussomeli, January 26, 1893 – Mussomeli, March 18, 1976) was an Italian mafioso, the boss of Mussomeli in the Province of Caltanissetta, Sicily.

Genco Russo, also known as "Zi Peppi Jencu", was an uncouth, sly, semi-literate thug with excellent political connections. A vulgar man – he used to spit on the floor no matter who was present – he was often photographed with bishops, bankers, civil servants and politicians.[1] As such he was considered to be the arbiter of Mafia politics, and regarded as the successor of Calogero Vizzini who had died in 1954.

Although by then a wealthy landowner and politician (as a member of DC, Democrazia Cristiana, Italian Christian Democrat) he still kept his mule in the house and the toilet outside, which was little more than a hole in the ground with a stone for a seat and no walls or door, according to Mafia turncoat Tommaso Buscetta.[2]

Traditional mafiosi, like Genco Russo and Calogero Vizzini, Mafia bosses of in the years between the two world wars until the 1950s and 1960s, were the archetypes of the "man of honour" of a bygone age, as a social intermediary and a man standing for order and peace. Although they used violence to establish their position in the first phase of their careers, in the second stage they limited recourse to violence, turned to primarily legal sources of gain, and exercised their power in an open and legitimate fashion and became "man of order".

Ross Prio

Ross Prio (born Rosario Priolo) (d. 1972) was a Chicago mobster and high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit criminal organization from the 1930s until the early 1970s, when he died of natural causes.
Early years

Born in Sicily, Prio was brought to the United States by his adoptive parents in 1909. The family eventually settled in Chicago. As a young man, Prio accumulated an extensive arrest record, but a court order expunged it in 1929. During the later years of Prohibition, Prio became involved in bribing politicians and police officials for the Chicago Outfit. Prio made many loans to high-ranking police officials, including at least one member of the Chicago police intelligence unit.

Alfred Polizzi

Alfred "The Owl" Polizzi (March 15, 1900 – May 1975) was a Cleveland, Ohio mobster who helped establish criminal syndicate operations in Northeast Ohio.

Born in Siculiana, Sicily, Polizzi immigrated to the United States with his family the same year. During the 1920s and 1930s, Polizzi worked with his brother Joseph Polizzi, Anthony Milano, and Moe Dalitz. He married Philomena Valentino and had three children: Joanne, Raymond, and Nicholas. His arrest record would eventually include robbery, violations of the Volsted Act, income tax evasion, and suspicion of murder

By 1935, Polizzi ruled the Cleveland rackets. In 1944, Polizzi was convicted of tax evasion. Around that time, he moved to Coral Gables, Florida. At one point, US Senate investigators characterized Polizzi as "... one of the most influential members of the underworld of the United States". By the 1970s, his influence reportedly extended from Ohio to Central Florida and Southern California during Peter Milano's leadership of the Los Angeles crime family. Polizzi ran illegal gambling and narcotics distribution rackets in Florida. He also owned a construction company in Coral Gables.

Alfred Polizzi died in May 1975.

Willie Moretti

Guarino "Willie" Moretti, also known as Willie Moore (February 24, 1894 – October 4, 1951), was a notorious underboss of the Genovese crime family and a cousin of the family boss Frank Costello.

Born Guarino Moretti in Bari, Apulia, southern Italy, on February 24, 1894, Moretti migrated to America with his family to live in New Jersey.

On January 12, 1913, after being convicted of robbery in New York City, Moretti was sentenced to one year in state prison in Elmira, New York. He was released after several months.[1]

From 1933 to 1951, Moretti, in association with Joe Adonis, Settimo Accardi and Abner Zwillman, ran lucrative gambling dens in New Jersey and Upstate New York. His operations were based out of his homes in Hasbrouck Heights (located in Bergen County, New Jersey, just outside of New York City) and Deal (located in Monmouth County, New Jersey along the Jersey Shore).

Bumpy Johnson

Ellsworth Raymond Johnson (October 31, 1905 – July 7, 1968) — known as "Bumpy" Johnson — was an American mob boss and bookmaker in New York City's Harlem neighborhood. The main Harlem associate of the Genovese crime family, Johnson's criminal career has inspired films and television.

Salvatore Giuliano

Salvatore Giuliano (November 16, 1922 – July 5, 1950) was a Sicilian bandit, who rose to prominence in the disorder which followed the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. In September of that year, Giuliano became an outlaw after shooting and killing a police officer who tried to arrest him for black-market food smuggling when 70% of Sicily's food supply was provided by the black market. He maintained a band of subordinates for most of his career. He was a flamboyant, high-profile criminal, attacking the police at least as often as they sought him. In addition, he was a local power-broker in Sicilan politics between 1945 and 1948, including his role as a nominal colonel for the Movement for the Independence of Sicily. He and his band were held legally responsible for the Portella della Ginestra massacre, though there is some doubt about their role in the numerous deaths which occurred.

The widespread international press coverage he attracted made him an embarrassment to the Italian government, and throughout his banditry up to 2000 police and soldiers were deployed against him. He was killed in 1950 amid convoluted circumstances. The historian Eric Hobsbawm described him as the last of the "people's bandits" (a la Robin Hood) and the first to be covered in real time by modern mass media.[1]

Antonio Cottone

Antonio Cottone (1904/1905 – August 22, 1956) was a member of the Sicilian Mafia in his hometown Villabate in the province of Palermo, Sicily. He was known as U Patre Nostru (Our Heavenly Father) due to his generosity.[1] The Cottone clan was a historical Mafia family. They were mentioned in 1937 as the Mafia bosses of Villabate by Melchiorre Allegra, a mafioso physician who became an informant when he was arrested.

Frank Costello

Frank "the Prime Minister" Costello (born Francesco Castiglia; January 26, 1891 – February 18, 1973) was an Italian-American gangster and crime boss. Costello rose to the top of America's underworld, controlled a vast gambling empire across the United States, and enjoyed political influence.

Nicknamed "The Prime Minister of the Underworld," he became one of the most powerful and influential mob bosses in American history, eventually leading the Luciano crime family (later called the Genovese crime family), one of the Five Families that operates in New York.

Charles Carrollo

Charles Vincent "Charlie the Wop" Carrollo (born August 25, 1902 - died 1979) was a Kansas City, Missouri crime boss during the 1930s.

Born Vincenzo Carrollo in Santa Cristina Gela a town in the province of Palermo, Sicily, Carrollo's family emigrated to the United States when he was three years old, initially settling in New York City before moving to Kansas City. His father was Antonio Carrollo and his mother Rosa Maria Carrollo.

At some time after 1917, Carrollo became a close friend and enforcer for future Kansas City mob boss John Lazia. During the early 1920s, when Lazia was arrested for bootlegging, Carrollo accepted responsibility for the crime and went to prison for a short time. By the late 1920s, Lazia controlled all organized crime in Kansas City and Carrollo was a top lieutenant.

On the night of July 10, 1934, Carrollo drove Lazia and his wife Marie to their apartment building. When Lazia got out of the car, an unidentified "hit team" gunned him down in a hail of submachine gun fire. Lazia last word's were for Carrollo to drive Marie to safety. Carrollo and Marie Lazia escaped unharmed. The murder was never solved. With the aid of the Kansas City Pendergast political organization, Carrollo became the new mob boss. Carollo and newly appointed Kansas City police chief Otto Higgins became closely involved in numerous criminal activities.

In 1939, Treasury Agents under Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. started pursuing Carrollo. Carrollo responded by refusing any warrants and sending his gunmen to harass the agents. However, on October 20, 1939, Carrollo, Higgins, and Tom Pendergast were convicted of income tax evasion and sent to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. While at Leavenworth, Carrollo was discovered trafficking in contraband within the prison and was transferred to Alcatraz, the high security prison in San Francisco Bay.

Released from prison in 1954, Carrollo was eventually deported to Italy. In 1979, Carrollo died of natural causes in Kansas City.

Alex Birns

Alex Birns (February 21, 1907 – March 29, 1975), best known as Shondor Birns was a notorious Jewish-American mobster and racketeer from Cleveland, Ohio who was once labeled as the city's "Public enemy No. 1" by the local newspapers. He was actively involved in a wide variety of racketeering and other organized crime related activities such as prostitution, theft, numbers, etc., from the days of Prohibition until his demise.

Charles Binaggio

Charles Binaggio (January 12, 1909 - April 5, 1950) was a Missouri gangster who became the boss of the Kansas City crime family and concocted a bold plan to control the police forces in Kansas City, Missouri and St. Louis, Missouri.

Joseph Barbara (mobster)

Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara (August 9, 1905 – June 17, 1959) was a New York state mobster who became the boss of the Bufalino crime family. Barbara is most notable for hosting the abortive Apalachin Conference in 1957. He was the father of mobster Joseph Barbara, Jr.

Abner Zwillman

Abner "Longie" Zwillman (Jul 27, 1904 – February 27, 1959) was a Jewish American mob boss, mainly active during the Prohibition, and operative in the North Jersey.

It is believed that Zwillman was born on July 27, 1904, in Newark, New Jersey. He was forced to quit school in order to support his family after his father's death in 1918. Zwillman first began working at a Prince Street cafe, the headquarters of a local alderman in Newark's Third Ward. However, in need of more money, Zwillman was eventually forced to quit, later selling fruits and vegetables in his neighborhood with a rented horse and wagon.

Zwillman was unable to compete with the cheaper Prince Street pushcarts, however, so he moved to the more upper-class neighborhood of Clinton Hill, where he began selling lottery tickets to local housewives. He observed that much more money was made selling lottery tickets than produce, so he concentrated on selling lottery tickets through local merchants. By 1920, Zwillman controlled the bulk of the numbers racket with the help of hired muscle.

Frankie Yale

Francesco Ioele (January 22, 1893 – July 1, 1928), better known as Frankie Uale or Frankie Yale, was a Brooklyn gangster and original employer of Al Capone before the latter moved to Chicago.

Hymie Weiss

Henry Earl J. Wojciechowski, also known as Hymie Weiss (January 25, 1898 – October 11, 1926), was an American mob boss who became a leader of the Prohibition-era North Side Gang and a bitter rival of Al Capone. He was known as 'the only man Al Capone feared'.[1]

Johnny Torrio

John "Papa Johnny" Torrio (born Giovanni Torrio; January 20, 1882 – April 16, 1957), also known as "The Fox" and as "The Immune", was an Italian-American mobster who helped build the criminal empire known as the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s that was later inherited by his protégé, Al Capone.[1][2] He also put forth the idea of the National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s and later became an unofficial adviser to the Genovese crime family.

The U.S. Treasury official Elmer Irey considered him "the biggest gangster in America" and wrote as follows: "He was the smartest and, I dare say, the best of all the hoodlums. 'Best' referring to talent, not morals".[3] Virgil W. Peterson of the Chicago Crime Commission stated that his "talents as an organizational genius were widely respected by the major gang bosses in the New York City area".[4]

Stephanie St. Clair

Stephanie St. Clair (1886–1969) was a gang leader who ran numerous criminal enterprises in Harlem, New York in the early part of the 20th century. St. Clair resisted the interests of the Mafia for several years after Prohibition ended; she continued to be an independent operator and never came under Mafia control.

Bugsy Siegel

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (February 28, 1906[1] – June 20, 1947) was a Jewish American mobster. Siegel was known as one of the most "infamous and feared gangsters of his day".[2] Described as handsome and charismatic, he became one of the first front-page-celebrity gangsters.[3] He was also a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip.[4] Siegel was not only influential within the Jewish mob but, like his friend and fellow gangster Meyer Lansky, he also held significant influence within the Italian-American Mafia and the largely Italian-Jewish National Crime Syndicate.

Siegel was one of the founders and leaders of Murder, Incorporated[5] and became a bootlegger during Prohibition. After Prohibition was repealed in 1933, he turned to gambling. In 1936, he left New York and moved to California.[6] In 1939, Siegel was tried for the murder of fellow mobster Harry Greenberg. Siegel was acquitted in 1942.

Siegel traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada where he handled and financed some of the original casinos.[7] He assisted developer William Wilkerson's Flamingo Hotel after Wilkerson ran out of funds.[8] Siegel took over the project and managed the final stages of construction. The Flamingo opened on December 26, 1946 to poor reception and soon closed. It reopened in March 1947 with a finished hotel. Three months later, on June 20, 1947, Siegel was shot dead at the Beverly Hills home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill.

Dutch Schultz

Dutch Schultz (born Arthur Flegenheimer; August 6, 1901 – October 24, 1935) was a New York City-area German Jewish-American mobster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities, including bootlegging and the numbers racket. Weakened by two tax evasion trials led by prosecutor Thomas Dewey, Schultz's rackets were also threatened by fellow mobster Lucky Luciano. In an attempt to avert his conviction, Schultz asked the Commission for permission to kill Dewey, which they refused. When Schultz disobeyed them and made an attempt to kill Dewey, the Commission ordered his murder in 1935.[1]

Joseph Saltis

Joseph "Polack Joe" Saltis [Soltis] (1894 in Hungary - 1947 in Winter, Wisconsin) was an early Prohibition gangster who, with Frank McErlane, controlled bootlegging in the Southwest Side of Chicago, Illinois.

Originally a Slovakian[1] immigrant who had become a saloon owner in Joliet, Illinois, Saltis moved to Chicago with the announcement of the Volstead Act in 1920. With the assistance of John "Dingbat" O'Berta, a candidate for the Illinois State Senate, Saltis began supplying illegal alcohol to Chicago's speakeasies. By 1925, Saltis effectively controlled the Southwest Side. Saltis, by now extremely wealthy from bootlegging, purchased a residence in Winter, Wisconsin. Employing over half of the town's sixty citizens, Saltis later tried to have the town named Saltisville in the town's general election, but failed by one vote. Saltis also built the Barker Lake Golf Course in Winter.

During this time, Saltis remained on good terms with his South Side neighbor Al Capone, whose Chicago Outfit began dominating Chicago's bootlegging soon after his arrival in the early 1920s. Indeed, by the mid-1920s, only the Saltis-McErlane organization remained independent from the eight satellite gangs under Capone's control.[2] However, soon becoming entrenched in territory disputes with many of Capone's satellite gangs, Saltis began talks for a secret alliance with Capone rival Earl "Hymie" Weiss's North Side Gang.[3] Throughout the next year, Saltis began preparing for war as smaller rivals such as the Southside O'Donnell's (for which an attempt would be made on his life in late-1925) and sometimes allied Sheldon Gang began to threaten Saltis's hold on the Southwest Side as soon gunmen such as Frank "Lefty" Koncil, Charlie "Big Hayes" Hubacek, and Frank McErlane joined Saltis's ranks.

On August 6, 1926, Sheldon Gang member John "Mitters" Foley was killed by Frank Koncil while in Saltis's territory. While Koncil, along with O'Berta and Saltis, were arrested and charged with murder O'Berta's considerable political influence (as well as assistance from Weiss[4]) was able to get the case dropped on November 9.

The following year O'Berta, with Saltis, managed to arrange a conference at the Hotel Sherman on October 20, which included Al Capone, George "Bugs" Moran, Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci, Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, Ralph Sheldon, William Skidmore, Maxie Eisen, Jack Zuta, and Christian Betsche, and managed to agree on a general ceasefire of the various gang wars, specifically between the Chicago Outfit and the North Side Gang, as well as the gang war between Saltis-McErlane and the Sheldon Gang. The ceasefire lasted a little over two months before war broke out again when members of Saltis-McErlane gang killed Sheldon Gang member Hillary Clements on December 30. As the gang war continued between Saltis and the Sheldon Gang over the Southwest Side, Al Capone had begun to move in on Saltis's territory, as the war was beginning to turn in favor of the Sheldon Gang. When Koncil and Hubacek were lured into an ambush and killed on March 11, 1927, Saltis appealed to Capone to negotiate peace between the Sheldon Gang in exchange for a cut of Saltis's profits. By the end of the gang war, however, Saltis's gang began to disintegrate as Frank McErlane left Saltis in late 1929 over disagreements over McErlane's share. When O'Berta and his chauffeur, Sam Malaga, disappeared on March 25, 1930, allegedly taken for a "one way ride", O'Berta was later found dead of a gunshot wound to the head. With his associates gone and his organization all but destroyed, Saltis quickly retired to his home on Barker Lake in Winter, Wisconsin.[5]

Joe Saltis later died at age 53 from complications of a stomach ulcer in Chicago's Cook County Hospital in 1947.

Despite his retirement, when Frank J. Loesch, chairman of the Chicago Crime Commission compiled his "Public Enemies" list of the top 28 people he saw as corrupting Chicago in April 1930, Saltis was ranked in ninth place (Capone headed the list). The list was widely published, gaining Saltis a measure of nationwide notoriety.

Arnold Rothstein

Arnold Rothstein (January 17, 1882 – November 6, 1928),[2][3] nicknamed "the Brain", was a Jewish-American racketeer, businessman and gambler who became a kingpin of the Jewish mob in New York. Rothstein was widely reputed to have organized corruption in professional athletics, including conspiring to fix the 1919 World Series.

According to crime writer Leo Katcher, Rothstein "transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business, run like a corporation, with himself at the top."[4] According to Rich Cohen, Rothstein was the person who first realized that Prohibition was a business opportunity, a means to enormous wealth, who "understood the truths of early century capitalism (giving people what they want) and came to dominate them."[5] His notoriety inspired several fictional characters based on his life, portrayed in contemporary and later short stories, novels, musicals and films.

Rothstein failed to pay a large debt resulting from a fixed poker game and was murdered in 1928. His illegal empire was broken up and distributed among a number of other underworld organizations and led in part to the downfall of Tammany Hall and the rise of reformer Fiorello La Guardia. Ten years after his death, his brother declared Rothstein's estate was bankrupt.

Paul Ricca

Paul Ricca, also known as The Waiter (1897 – October 11, 1972), was a Chicago mobster who served as the nominal or de facto leader of the Chicago Outfit for 40 years.

Ricca was born in Naples, Italy as Felice DeLucia. By age 17, Ricca was working for organized crime in Naples (Camorra). In 1915, Ricca stabbed Emilio Parrillo to death. Ricca later claimed that he killed Parillo for breaking an engagement to Ricca's sister. In reality Ricca killed Parrillo on Mafia orders. After serving two years in an Italian prison, Ricca then killed Vincenzo Capasso, who had testified against him in the Parillo trial, by slitting his throat.

After killing Capasso, Ricca assumed the name Paolo Maglio and fled to the United States by way of Cuba. On August 10, 1920, Ricca arrived in New York City and Americanized his name to "Paul Ricca".

Gaetano Reina

Gaetano "Tommy" Reina (September 1889 – February 26, 1930) was the first Boss of the Lucchese crime family in New York City.

Gaetano Reina was born in September 1889 in Corleone, Sicily to Giacomo Reina and Carmela Rumore.[2] In the early 1900s (decade), the Reina family moved to New York City and settled on 107th Street in East Harlem. Reina along with his brother Antonio began working with members of the Morello family.[2] In July 1913, Reina's sister Bernarda married Vincenzo Terranova.[3] Gaetano Reina married Angelina Olivera, the couple had three sons (one, Giacomo, became a member of the Lucchese family [4]) and three daughters (one, Carmela "Mildred", married Joe Valachi in 1932[4][5]). In November 1914, Reina and Jack Dragna were arrested for the murder of Barnet Baff.

Joe Profaci

Giuseppe "Joe" Profaci (October 2, 1897–June 6, 1962) was a New York La Cosa Nostra boss who was the founder of what is today known as the Colombo crime family. Established in 1928, this was the last of the Five Families to be organized. He was the family's boss for over three decades.

Joseph Pinzolo

Bonaventura "Joseph" Pinzolo (1887 – September 5, 1930), also known as "Fat Joe", was the boss of the family during 1930. In July 1908, Pinzolo was arrested for trying to bomb 314 East 11th Street in an effort to force owner Francisco Spinelli to pay Black Hand extortion demands.[186] After his arrest Pinzolo, gave up his boss Giuseppe Costabile, a Camorrista who controlled the area south of Houston Street to Canal Street and from East Broadway to the East River.[186] Pinzolo served 2 years and 8 months to 5 years after refusing to testify against Costabile.[186]

In February 1930, Gaetano Reina was murdered and boss Joseph Masseria backed Pinzolo to take control of the Reina family. Pinzolo may have been responsible for Reina's murder, though the most widely-suspected culprit for that crime remains Vito Genovese.[187] As boss Pinzolo was unfamiliar with the members of the family and the East Harlem area.[188] His promotion angered Tommaso Gagliano, Tommy Lucchese and Dominick Petrilli who formed a splinter group within the family and planned his murder.[189] On September 5, 1930 Pinzolo's body was found in the Brokaw building on 1487 Broadway in suite 1007 occuiped by California Dry Fruit Importers.[189] The office was leased by Tommy Lucchese four months earlier.[190] According to Joseph Valachi the killer was Girolomo Santuccio.[189] Valachi also mentioned that after Pinzolo's assassination a meeting was held on Staten Island to uncover who was responsible for the murder.[190]

Raymond L.S. Patriarca

Raymond Loreda Salvatore Patriarca, Sr. (March 18, 1908 – July 11, 1984) was an Italian-American mobster from Providence, Rhode Island who became the longtime boss of the Patriarca crime family, whose control extended throughout New England for over three decades. One of the most powerful crime bosses in the United States, Patriarca often mediated disputes between Cosa Nostra families outside the region. He was the father of Raymond Patriarca, Jr.

Dean O'Banion

Charles Dean O'Banion (July 8, 1892 – November 10, 1924) was an Irish-American mobster who was the main rival of Johnny Torrio and Al Capone during the brutal Chicago bootlegging wars of the 1920s. The newspapers of his day made him better known as Dion O'Banion, although he never went by that first name. He led the North Side Gang until he was murdered by Frankie Yale, John Scalise and Albert Anselmi in 1924.

Giuseppe Morello

Giuseppe "the Clutch Hand" Morello (May 2, 1867 – August 15, 1930), also known as "The Old Fox", was the first boss of the Morello crime family and later top adviser to Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria. He was known as Piddu (Sicilian diminutive form of Giuseppe) and his rivals the Castellammarese knew him as Peter Morello.[1] He was famous for having a one-fingered deformed right hand that resembled a claw.

In the 1890s, Giuseppe founded a gang known as the 107th Street Mob and which would later evolve into the Morello crime family. Today the Morello crime family is known as the Genovese crime family and is the oldest of the Five Families in New York City.

Alfred Mineo

Alfredo "Al Mineo" Manfredi (pronounced "mee-NAY-oh") (1880 - November 5, 1930) was a Brooklyn based New York mobster, who headed a strong American Mafia crime family during the Castellammarese War. Mineo's organization would eventually become the present-day Gambino crime family.

In the early part of the 20th century, New York had five Sicilian crime families. With the imprisonment of powerful Sicilian Mafia boss Giuseppe Morello in 1910, Salvatore D'Aquila, one of Morello's chief captains, immediately emerged as the new chief Mafia power in New York City, mostly in East Harlem and Little Italy (in southern Manhattan), but he also led a faction in Brooklyn that was headed locally by Mineo. D'Aquila had assumed the title from Morello of Capo di tutti capi or Boss of Bosses. D'Aquila's family, with Mineo's Brooklyn faction included, reigned supreme through the 1910s. However, upon the advent of prohibition other Mafia crime families and also non-mafia operations began to gain power and influence, and cemented their positions around the city. One of these crime families was the former Morello crime family, which had been taken over by Joseph "Joe the Boss" Masseria around 1920. Former boss Giuseppe Morello was released from prison approximately the same time, and quickly aligned himself with Joe Masseria against boss Toto D'Aquila and his underbosses, including Mineo.

Bugs Moran

Adelard Cunin (August 21, 1893 – February 25, 1957), better known as George 'Bugs' Moran, was a Chicago Prohibition-era gangster. He was incarcerated three times before turning 21. On February 14, 1929, in an event that has become known as the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, seven members of his gang were gunned down in a warehouse, supposedly on the orders of Moran's rival Al Capone.

Joe Masseria

Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria (January 17, 1886 – April 15, 1931) was an early Mafia Boss in New York City. He was boss of what is now called the Genovese crime family, one of the New York Mafia's Five Families, from 1922 to 1931. He waged a bloody war to take over the criminal activities in NYC, gaining considerable power for himself. He was killed in 1931.

Salvatore Maranzano

Salvatore Maranzano (Italian pronunciation: [salvatore marandzano]) (July 31, 1886 – September 10, 1931) was an organized crime figure from the town of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, and an early Cosa Nostra boss who led the Bonanno crime family in the United States. He instigated the Castellammarese War to seize control of the American Mafia operations, and briefly became the Mafia's "Boss of Bosses". He was assassinated by a younger faction led by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, who established a power-sharing arrangement rather than a "boss of bosses" to prevent future turf wars.

Vincent Mangano

Vincent Mangano (pronounced MAHN-ga-noh) (March 28, 1888 – April 19, 1951), born Vincenzo Giovanni Mangano, also known as "The Executioner" as he was named in a Brooklyn newspaper, was the head of the then Mangano crime family from 1931 to 1951. His brother Philip Mangano was his right-hand man and de facto, or substituto, underboss of the crime family which eventually became the Gambino crime family. He is also a distant paternal relative of current Genovese crime family Underboss Venero Mangano and a suspected relative of Lawrence Mangano.

Stefano Magaddino

Stefano "The Undertaker" Magaddino (October 10, 1891 – July 19, 1974) was a Sicilian mafioso who became the boss of the Buffalo crime family in western New York. His underworld influence stretched from Ohio to Southern Ontario and as far east as Montreal, Quebec. Known as Don Stefano to his friends and The Undertaker to others, he was also a charter member of the American Mafia's ruling council, otherwise known as The Commission.

Lucky Luciano

Charles "Lucky" Luciano (pronounced /luːtʃˈɑːnɵ/;[1] born Salvatore Lucania[2] November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962), was an Italian-born American mobster. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for the establishment of the first Commission. He was for many years, the head of the modern Genovese crime family. He was, along with his associate Meyer Lansky, instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate in the United States.

Salvatore Lucania was born on November 24, 1897 in Lercara Friddi, Sicily.[3][4] Luciano's parents, Antonio and Rosalia Lucania, had four other children: Bartolomeo (born 1890), Giuseppe (born 1898), Filippa (born 1901), and Concetta. Luciano's father worked in a sulfur mine in Sicily.[5] In 1907, when Luciano was nine years old, the family immigrated to the United States.[6] They settled in New York City in the borough of Manhattan on its Lower East Side, a popular destination for Italian immigrants.[7] At age 14, Luciano dropped out of school and started a job delivering hats, earning $7 per week. However, after winning $244 in a dice game, Luciano quit his job and went to earning money on the street.[5] That same year, Luciano's parents sent him to the Brooklyn Truant School.[8]

As a teenager, Luciano started his own gang and was a member of the old Five Points Gang. Unlike other street gangs whose business was petty crime, Luciano offered protection to Jewish youngsters from Italian and Irish gangs for 10 cents per week. He was also learning the pimping trade in the years around World War I. Around this time, he also met Meyer Lansky, his future business partner and close friend.

It is not clear how Luciano earned the nickname "Lucky". It may have come from surviving a severe beating by three men in the 1920s, as well as a throat slashing. This was because Luciano refused to work for another mob boss.[6] From 1916 to 1936, Luciano was arrested 25 times on charges including assault, illegal gambling, blackmail and robbery, but spent no time in prison.[9] The name "Lucky" may have also been a mispronunciation of Luciano's surname "Lucania".

Antonio Lombardo

Antonio "Tony the Scourge" Lombardo (1892 – September 7, 1928) was an American mobster. He was advisor, or consigliere, to Al Capone and later President of the Unione Siciliana.

Born in the town of Galati Mamertino in Sicily on November 23, 1891, Antonio Lombardo immigrated to the United States in the early 20th century where he became a successful wholesale grocery business owner in Chicago, Illinois. A long time Mafia associate, Lombardo became Al Capone's advisor after John Torrio retired in 1925.

Lombardo tried unsuccessfully to negotiate peace between the Chicago Outfit and the North Side Gang during the four-year gang war, suggesting that Capone surrender supposed Dean O'Banion assassins Albert Anselmi and John Scalise, which Capone refused. Lombardo, with the help of Capone, later became President of the Unione Siciliana in November 1925, attempting to regain control of the unstable organization as well as instituting reforms, including opening membership to non-Sicilian Italian immigrants (such as the Neapolitan Capone) and changing the organization's name to the Italo-American National Union.

Lombardo's reforms, however, caused some resentment within Unione Siciliana members. With the partnership of Al Capone and New York gangster Frankie Yale worsening, possibly due to the end of payoffs from the Unione Siciliana to Yale, Lombardo would be challenged for the Presidency by Joe Aiello, supported by Yale, in January 1928.

Lombardo, however, refused to resign and continued to organize civic projects under the Unione Siciliana until shortly before his death on September 7, 1928. Lombardo was gunned down, along with his bodyguard Joseph Ferrara (although bodyguard Joe Lolordo survived), allegedly by an alliance of the Joe Aiello Gang and the North Side Gang, at the intersections of Madison Street and Dearborn Street. It was said that Moran ordered this death and had his two experienced gunman do the job with the help of Aiello. Thought to be retaliation for the murder of Frankie Yale the previous July, Lombardo's death was in turn soon avenged with the murder of members of the Joe Aiello Gang and the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, in 1929. He is buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.

Only one gunman was identified in Lombardo's death: a Frank Marco aka Marlo who was killed in New York City February 17, 1931 {See [1]}; a possible unknown accomplice to Marco was killed September 9, 1928 in Michigan.[2] Another suspect was Pietro La Mantia[3]

Louis Buchalter

Louis "Lepke" Buchalter (February 6, 1897 – March 4, 1944) was an American mobster and head of the Mafia hit squad Murder, Inc. during the 1930s. Buchalter was one of the premier labor racketeers in New York City during that era.

Buchalter became the only major mob boss to receive the death penalty in the United States after being convicted of murder.[1]

Buchalter was born in the Lower East Side section of Manhattan in February 1897. His mother, Rose Buchalter, called him "Lepkeleh" ("Little Louis" in Yiddish), which later became "Lepke". Louis Buchalter had one sister and three brothers; one brother eventually became a dentist, another brother a college professor and rabbi, and the third brother a pharmacist.[2] His father, Barnett Buchalter, was a Russian immigrant who operated a hardware store on the Lower East Side.[3]

In 1909, when Buchalter was 12, his father died. In 1910, Buchalter finished elementary school and started a job selling theatrical goods. Soon after, his mother moved to Arizona for health reasons, leaving Buchalter in the care of his sister Sarah. However, Buchalter was beyond her control.[4]

On September 2, 1915, Buchalter was arrested in New York for the first time for burglary and assault, but the case was discharged.[5] When arrested as a child for breaking and entering, he was wearing stolen shoes, both for the same foot and an unmatched pair.

In late 1915 or early 1916, Buchalter went to live with his uncle in Bridgeport, Connecticut.[4] On February 29, 1916, Lepke was arrested in Bridgeport on burglary charges and was sent to the Cheshire Reformatory for juvenile offenders in Cheshire, Connecticut, until July 12, 1917.[4] After a dispute with his uncle over wages, Buchalter moved back to New York City.

On September 28, 1917, Buchalter was sentenced in New York to 18 months in state prison at Sing Sing in Ossinning, New York, on a grand larceny conviction.[5] After a transfer to Auburn Prison in Auburn, New York, Buchalter was released on January 27, 1919.[6] On January 22, 1920, Buchalter returned to Sing Sing on a 30-month sentence for attempted burglary.[5] He was released on March 16, 1922[6]

John Lazia

John Lazia, also known as "Brother John" (September 22, 1896 – July 10, 1934), was an American organized crime figure in Kansas City, Missouri, during the prohibition period in the United States.

According to his draft card for World War I, Lazia (spelled Lazio on the card, in the 1910 census, and on his tombstone) was born in New York in 1895. He dropped out of high school in the eighth grade.[citation needed] By 1915, Lazia was an office clerk during the day and a robber at night.[citation needed] In 1916, after robbing a man on the street, Lazia was confronted by a police officer. After an exchange of gunfire, the officer arrested him. Lazia was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 12 years in prison. However, nine months later in 1917, the lieutenant governor of Missouri paroled Lazia on the condition that he join the United States Army. Lazia ignored this parole condition and instead started working for the political machine controlled by Tom Pendergast. Lazia, on his draft card, claimed to be the supporter of his mother and father and to have some additional difficulties. (Draft card illegible.)

Meyer Lansky

Meyer Lansky (born Meier Suchowlański;[1] July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was a major organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States.

Lansky developed a gambling empire which stretched across the world. He was said to own points (percentages) in casinos in Las Vegas, Cuba, The Bahamas and London. Although a member of the Jewish Mob, Lansky undoubtedly had strong influence with the Italian Mafia and played a large role in the consolidation of the criminal underworld (although the full extent of this role has been the subject of some debate, as he himself denied many of the accusations against him).[2]

Despite all the reports, Lansky was never found guilty of anything more serious than illegal gambling.[3]

Enoch L. Johnson

Enoch Lewis "Nucky" Johnson (January 20, 1883 – December 9, 1968) was an Atlantic City, New Jersey political boss and racketeer. From the 1910s until his conviction and imprisonment in 1941, he was the undisputed "boss" of the political machine that controlled Atlantic City and the Atlantic County government. His rule encompassed the Roaring Twenties when, as a refuge from Prohibition, Atlantic City was at the height of its popularity. In addition to bootlegging, his organization also was involved in gambling and prostitution.

Waxey Gordon

Waxey Gordon (born Irving Wexler; January 19, 1888 – June 24, 1952) was an American gangster who specialized in bootlegging and illegal gambling. An associate of Arnold Rothstein during prohibition, he was caught up in a power struggle following Rothstein's death. Fellow Rothstein associates Charles Luciano and Meyer Lansky provided authorities with evidence that led to his imprisonment for ten years.

Tommy Gagliano

Tommaso "Tommy" Gagliano (1884 − February 16, 1951)[1] was an American mobster and boss of the Lucchese crime family, one of the "Five Families" of New York City. He served as a low-profile boss for over two decades. His successor was his longtime loyalist and underboss, Gaetano "Tommy" Lucchese.

Vincent Drucci

Vincent Drucci, also known as "The Schemer" (1898 – April 4, 1927), was an American-Sicilian mobster during Chicago's Prohibition era who was a member of the North Side Gang, Al Capone's best known rivals. A friend of Dean O'Banion, Drucci succeeded him by becoming co-leader. He is the only US organized crime boss to have been killed by a policeman.

Jack Dragna

Jack Ignatius Dragna[1] (April 18, 1891 – February 23, 1956) was an American Mafia member and Black Hander who was active in both Italy and the United States in the 20th century. He was active in bootlegging in California during the Prohibition Era in the United States. In 1931, he succeeded Joseph Ardizzone as the boss of the Los Angeles crime family after Ardizzone's mysterious disappearance and death in 1931. Both James Ragen and Earl Warren dubbed Dragna the "Capone of Los Angeles". Dragna remained the boss of the Los Angeles crime family from 1931 until his death in 1956.

Legs Diamond

Jack "Legs" Diamond (born Jack Diamond; July 10, 1897 – December 18, 1931), also known as Gentleman Jack, was an Irish American gangster in Philadelphia and New York City during the Prohibition era. A bootlegger and close associate of gambler Arnold Rothstein, Diamond survived a number of attempts on his life between 1916 and 1931, causing him to be known as the "clay pigeon of the underworld". In 1930, Diamond's nemesis Dutch Schultz remarked to his own gang, "Ain't there nobody that can shoot this guy so he don't bounce back?"

Rosario DeSimone

Rosario "the Chief" DeSimone (December 11, 1873 - July 15, 1946), was the head of an Italian crime family that was the predecessor to the Los Angeles crime family of the American Mafia from 1922 to 1925. Rosario was the father of the future California mob boss, Frank DeSimone.
Biography

DeSimone was born in Salaparuta, Sicily, in Italy, on December 11, 1873. He initially settled in New Orleans before moving to Pueblo, Colorado. In Pueblo he was part of that city's Mafia organization, and was evidently well-respected. He became a close ally of Vito Di Giorgio in Los Angeles. Upon Di Giorgio's death in Chicago in 1922, DeSimone took power. His empire spanned over Los Angeles County. His rule in Los Angeles was brief, and he stepped down around 1925. He later became a legitimate businessman who settled in Downey, California. Rosario died of natural causes in 1946.

Moe Dalitz

Morris Barney Dalitz (December 25, 1899 – August 31, 1989 ), known as Moe Dalitz, was an American gangster,[1][2] businessman, casino owner and philanthropist. He was one of the major figures who shaped Las Vegas, Nevada in the 20th century. He was often referred to as "Mr. Las Vegas."[3]

Mad Dog Coll

Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll (born Uinseann Ó Colla, July 20, 1908 – February 8, 1932) was an Irish American mob hitman in the 1920s and early 1930s in New York City. Coll gained notoriety for the alleged accidental killing of a young child during a mob kidnap attempt.[1][2]

Al Capone

Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone (/æl kəˈpoʊn/; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947) was an American gangster who attained fame during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit. His seven-year reign as crime boss ended when he was 33 years old.

Born in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City to Italian immigrants, Capone was a Five Points Gang member who became a bouncer in organized crime premises such as brothels. In his early twenties, he moved to Chicago and became bodyguard and trusted factotum for Johnny Torrio, head of a criminal syndicate that illegally supplied alcohol – the forerunner of the Outfit – and that was politically protected through the Unione Siciliana. A conflict with the North Side Gang was instrumental in Capone's rise and fall. Torrio went into retirement after North Side gunmen almost killed him, handing control to Capone. Capone expanded the bootlegging business through increasingly violent means, but his mutually profitable relationships with mayor William Hale Thompson and the city's police meant Capone seemed safe from law enforcement. Apparently reveling in the attention, such as the cheers when he appeared at ball games, Capone made donations to various charities and was viewed by many to be a "modern-day Robin Hood". However, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre of gang rivals from the North Side Gang damaged Chicago's image, leading influential citizens to demand governmental action.

The federal authorities became intent on jailing Capone and prosecuted him for tax evasion in 1931. The case was highly politicized and both prosecutors and judge later received preferment. During prior and ultimately abortive negotiations to pay the government any back taxes he owed, Capone had made admissions of his income; the judge deemed these statements usable as evidence at the trial, and refused to let Capone plead guilty for a lighter sentence. The effect of such decisions by the judge was added to by the incompetence of Capone's defense attorneys. Capone was convicted and sentenced to a then-record-breaking 11 years in federal prison. Replacing his old defense team with experts in tax law, his grounds for appeal were strengthened by a Supreme Court ruling, but Capone again found that his status as a symbol of criminality meant that judges decided in his disfavor. Already showing signs of syphilitic dementia early in his sentence, he became increasingly debilitated before being released after eight years. On January 25, 1947, Capone died of cardiac arrest after suffering a stroke. Capone's conviction had negligible effect on the prevalence of organized crime in Chicago.

Joseph Bonanno

Joseph Charles Bonanno, Sr. (January 18, 1905 – May 11, 2002) was a Sicilian-born American mafioso who became the boss of the Bonanno crime family.

Giuseppe Carlo Bonanno was born on January 18, 1905 in Castellammare del Golfo, a town on the northwestern coast of Sicily. When he was three years old (1908), his family moved to the United States and settled in the Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn for about 10 years before returning to Italy (1918). Bonanno slipped back into the United States in 1924 by stowing away on a Cuban fishing boat bound for Tampa, Florida. By all accounts, he'd become active in the Mafia during his youth in Italy, and he fled to the United States after Benito Mussolini initiated a crackdown. Bonanno himself claimed years later that he fled because he was ardently anti-Fascist.[3] However, the former account is more likely, since several other Castellammarese mafiosi fled to the United States around the same time.[4]

Eventually, Bonanno became involved in bootlegging activities, and soon joined a Mafia family led by another Castellammarese, Salvatore Maranzano.

Joseph Ardizzone

Joseph "Iron Man" Ardizzone (November 19, 1884 – October 15, 1931) was an early Los Angeles mobster, who became the first Boss of the Los Angeles crime family. He was involved in a long-standing feud with the Matranga family, and became the only Los Angeles boss to be murdered by his own men. He once claimed to have killed 30 men.[3]

Joe Aiello

Giuseppe "Joe" Aiello (1891 – October 23, 1930) was a Chicago bootlegger and organized crime leader during the Prohibition era. The leader of his own Sicilian Mafia family, he was best known for his long and bloody feud with Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone.

Aiello masterminded several unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Capone, and fought against his former business partner Antonio Lombardo, a Capone ally, for control of the Chicago branch of the Unione Siciliana benevolent society. Aiello and his ally Bugs Moran are believed to have arranged the murder of Lombardo, which directly led Capone to organize the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in retaliation.

Despite being forced to flee Chicago multiple times throughout the gang war, Aiello eventually took control of the Unione Siciliana in 1929, and ranked seventh among the Chicago Crime Commission's list of top "public enemies". Aiello was killed after Capone gunmen ambushed him as he exited a Chicago apartment building where he had been hiding out, shooting him 59 times. After his death, the Chicago Tribune described Aiello as "the toughest gangster in Chicago, and one of the toughest in the country".[1]

Joe Adonis

Joe Adonis (born Giuseppe Antonio Doto; November 22, 1902 – November 26, 1971), also known as "Joey A", "Joe Adone", "Joe Arosa", "James Arosa", and "Joe DiMeo", was a New York mobster who was an important participant in the formation of the modern Cosa Nostra crime families.

Du Yuesheng

Du Yuesheng (22 August 1888 – 16 August 1951), nicknamed "Big-Eared Du", was a Chinese mob boss who spent much of his life in Shanghai. He was a key supporter of Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang in their battle against the Communists in the 1920s, and was a figure of some importance during the Second Sino-Japanese War. After the Chinese Civil War and the Kuomintang's retreat to Taiwan, Du went into exile in Hong Kong and remained there until his death in 1951.

Calogero Vizzini

Calogero Don Calò Vizzini (July 24, 1877 – July 10, 1954) was a historical Mafia boss of Villalba in the Province of Caltanissetta, Sicily. Vizzini was considered to be one of the most influential and legendary Mafia bosses of Sicily after World War II until his death in 1954. In the media he was often depicted as the "boss of bosses" – although such a position does not exist in the loose structure of Cosa Nostra.

He was the archetype of the paternalistic "man of honour" of a rural Mafia that disappeared in the 1960s and 1970s. In those days a mafioso was seen by some as a social intermediary and a man standing for order and peace. Although he used violence to establish his position in the first phase of his career, in the second stage he limited recourse to violence, turned to primarily legal sources of gain, and exercised his power in an open and legitimate fashion.

Vizzini is the central character in the history of direct Mafia support for the Allied Forces during the invasion of Sicily in 1943. After World War II he became the personification of the reinstatement of Cosa Nostra during the Allied occupation and the subsequent restoration of democracy after the repression under Fascist rule. Initially he supported the separatist movement, but changed allegiance to the Christian Democrat party, when it became clear that Sicilian independence was unfeasible.

When he died in 1954, thousands of peasants dressed in black, and high ranking mafiosi, politicians and priests took part in his funeral. The funeral epitaph stated that "his 'mafia' was not criminal, but stood for respect of the law, defense of all rights, greatness of character. It was love." However, Don Calo's rise to power and persistence in power was tied with extortion, violence and murder. Vizzini’s stature as an all powerful Mafia boss rose to mythical proportions, but more recently historians have moderated his magnitude.

Ciro Terranova

Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova (July 1888 − February 20, 1938) was a New York City gangster and one time underboss of the Morello crime family.

Ciro Terranova was born in the town of Corleone, Sicily. In 1893, Ciro moved to New York with his father, mother, four sisters, brothers Vincenzo and Nicolo to meet half brother Giuseppe Morello, who had arrived six months earlier. Years later, Ciro, Vincenzo, Nicolo, and Giuseppe would found the powerful Morello crime family.

Due to lack of work in the New York area, Terranova and his family only stayed there for about a year. They eventually traveled to Louisiana where the father planted sugar cane, then moved to Bryan, Texas, where they worked as cotton pickers. After two years in Texas, malaria struck the family. They moved back to New York in 1896.

Salvatore Sabella

Salvatore Sabella (July 7, 1891 – 1962) was the Sicilian Mafia boss of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the 1920s. Sabella built the future Bruno crime family and trained its leaders.

Born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, in 1891, Sabella became a butcher's apprentice as a young boy. In 1905, tired of dealing with the butcher's violent outbursts, 14-year-old Sabella murdered him. In 1908, Sabella was convicted of the butcher's murder and sent to prison in Milan, Italy for three years. At some point, either in prison or after his release, Sabella became involved with the Sicilian Mafia. After his release, Sabella left Italy for the United States, apparently as an illegal immigrant. In 1912, Sabella arrived in Brooklyn, New York and joined the Salvatore D'Aquila criminal organization, which consisted of many other Castellammarese immigrants. During the next few years, mobster Giuseppe Traina trained Sabella for a future role in the organization.

Nicholas Morello

Nicolò Terranova (1890 – September 7, 1916), also known as Nicholas "Nick" Morello, was one of the first Italian-American organized crime figures in New York City. Along with his half-brother Giuseppe Morello and brothers Ciro and Vincenzo Terranova, he founded the Morello crime family, and was later one of the participants in the Mafia-Camorra War of 1914-17.

Terranova was born in Corleone, Sicily in 1890 to parents Bernardo Terranova and Angelina Piazza. In 1893, Terranova emigrated from Sicily with his family, including his brothers Ciro and Vincenzo, arriving in New York on March 8, 1893.[1] In 1903, Nicolo's sister Salvatrice Terranova married Ignazio "the Wolf" Lupo, who was running the Black Hand organization in Little Italy, Manhattan.[1] Lupo went on to become underboss of the Morello crime family. In 1910, when Lupo and Giuseppe Morello were arrested for counterfeiting, Terranova, now known as Nicholas Morello, became the boss of the Morello crime family.

In 1915, Brooklyn Camorra leader Pellegrino Morano began moving in on the Morello family's Manhattan territory of East Harlem and Greenwich Village after a Neapolitan ally of the Morello family, Goisue Gallucci was killed in East Harlem. In 1916, members of the Morello family killed Camorra member Nick Del Guido. Soon after a peace conference was called between the two warring groups, but Morano refused Morello's offer and open warfare continued. The war between New York's Sicilian Mafia and Neapolitan Camorra lasted for over two years.

Owney Madden

Owen Vincent Madden, known as Owney Madden and nicknamed "The Killer" (December 18, 1891 – April 24, 1965) was a leading underworld figure in Manhattan, most notable for his involvement in organized crime during Prohibition. He also ran the famous Cotton Club and was a leading boxing promoter in the 1930s.

Vito Di Giorgio

Vito Di Giorgio (March 19, 1880 – May 13, 1922) was an early Italian crime boss in Los Angeles. Originally from Palermo, Sicily, Di Giorgio lived most of his life as a grocer in New Orleans. While he lived in Los Angeles he was known as a wealthy food importer. During his New Orleans years he was an active Black Hander. He survived two shootings, only to be killed while visiting Chicago in 1922.

Salvatore D'Aquila

Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila (November 1877 – October 10, 1928[1]) was a New York City mobster from the Mustache Pete-era and the first boss of what would later become known as the Gambino crime family.

James Colosimo

James "Big Jim" Colosimo (born Giacomo Colosimo) (February 16, 1878 – May 11, 1920), also known as "Diamond Jim" was an Italian-American Mafia crime boss who built a criminal empire in Chicago based on prostitution, gambling, and racketeering. Immigrating from Calabria, Italy in 1895, he gained power through petty crime and by heading of a chain of brothels. From about 1902 until his murder in 1920, he would lead a gang that would become known after his death as the Chicago Outfit. Johnny Torrio, an enforcer Colosimo imported in 1909 from New York, seized control after his death. Al Capone, a Torrio henchman, allegedly was directly involved in the murder.[1]