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69-640: The Greenwich Village Crew is a crew within the Genovese crime family , active in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan. It was originally controlled by Don Vito Genovese from the early 1920s until his arrest in the late 1950s. In the early 1980s capo Vincent Gigante , was made the new boss of the Genovese crime family. He continued to operate from and with the Greenwich Village Crew members. Today

138-401: A "Ruling Panel" to run the family in his absence. This first panel included acting boss Thomas "Tommy Ryan" Eboli , underboss Gerardo "Jerry" Catena , and Catena's protégé Philip "Benny Squint" Lombardo . After Genovese died in 1969, Lombardo was named his successor. However, the family appointed a series of "front bosses" to masquerade as the official family boss. The aim of these deceptions

207-546: A Mafia member he believed had been contracted to kill him. After time with FBI handlers, Valachi came forward with a story of Genovese giving him a kiss on the cheek, which he took as a " kiss of death ". A $ 100,000 bounty for Valachi's death had been placed by Genovese. Soon after, Valachi decided to cooperate with the US Justice Department . In October 1963, he testified before Arkansas Senator John L. McClellan 's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of

276-751: A bacchanalian banquet to celebrate the death of Masseria right on the spot where he was murdered and another one on Washington Avenue at a hall in the Bronx. Maranzano called another meeting of crime bosses in Wappingers Falls, New York , where he declared himself capo di tutti capi ("boss of all bosses"). Under Maranzano rule the Italian-American gangs in New York City were reorganized into Five Families headed by Luciano, Joe Profaci , Tommy Gagliano , Vincent Mangano , and himself. Maranzano also whittled down

345-461: A bug. Genovese members were not allowed to mention Gigante's name in conversations or phone calls; when they had to mention him, members would point to their chins or make the letter "C" with their fingers. On May 30, 1990, Gigante was indicted along with other members of four of the Five Families for conspiring to rig bids and extort payoffs from contractors on multimillion-dollar contracts with

414-819: A building the Morellos were using in Highland, New York , as a front for their counterfeiting operation and recovered a large amount of American and Canadian counterfeit bills. After letters were found by Black Hand victims from New Orleans , fifteen members of the Morellos were arrested, including bosses Giuseppe Morello and Ignazio Lupo and member Pasquale Vassi, who possessed $ 1,200 worth of counterfeit money. The trials began on January 26, 1910, and ended on February 19 with all members involved convicted, including Morello and Lupo, who were sentenced to 30 and 25 years, respectively, at Atlanta Federal Prison . With Giuseppe Morello 's and Lupo's convictions, Nicholas "Nick" Terranova ,

483-569: A captain within the family, took advantage of its weakened status and broke off, forming his own separate mafia famiglia based mostly in the Bronx. Nick Terranova made an effort to unify much of the Italian underworld in the face of these problems. His efforts to unify the Sicilian mafiosi and the Neapolitan camorristi during the early 1910s were unsuccessful despite his best efforts. During this time,

552-553: A car driven by Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova . It was reported that Terranova was too nervous to drive, so Siegel took the driver's seat and drove the car out of the crime scene. With Maranzano's blessing, Luciano became his lieutenant and took over Masseria's gang, ending the Castellammarese War. Between August 1 and 3, 1931, Maranzano called a meeting where crime bosses met at Nuova Villa Tammaro in Coney Island for

621-558: A meeting arranged at a Navy Street café owned by camorrista Alessandro Vollero . However, upon arriving on September 7, 1916, Morello was ambushed by five members of the Brooklyn Camorra group and killed along with bodyguard Charles Ubriaco . While the loss of the Morello family's senior leader was a blow to the Mafia, Morano was quickly charged with Nick Morello's murder after two members of

690-553: A mobster who controlled Manhattan's Little Italy . In 1903, Lupo married Morello's half-sister, uniting both organizations. The Morello-Lupo alliance continued to prosper in 1903, when the group began a major counterfeiting ring with powerful Sicilian mafioso Vito Cascioferro , printing $ 5 bills in Sicily and smuggling them into the US. New York police detective Joseph Petrosino , later assassinated while in Sicily seeking evidence to permit

759-637: A possible third sister of the Terranovas, Rosalia Lomonte (1892 – October 14, 1915). In 1892, Giuseppe Morello emigrated to the United States. On March 8, 1893, Giuseppe's family arrived in New York: his wife Maria Rosa Marvalisi, his mother Angelina Piazza, his stepfather Bernardo Terranova, his half-brothers Ciro, Nicolo, and Vincenzo, and his half-sister Rosalia. The Morello-Terranova family lived in New York for

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828-658: A top aide in Masseria's organization. By the late 1920s, Masseria's main rival was boss Salvatore Maranzano , who had come from Sicily to run the Castellammarese clan . Their rivalry eventually escalated into the bloody Castellammarese War . As the war turned against Masseria, Luciano, seeing an opportunity to switch allegiance, decided to eliminate him in 1931. In a secret deal with Maranzano, Luciano agreed to engineer Masseria's death in return for taking over his rackets and becoming Maranzano's second-in-command. Adonis had joined

897-584: A while before moving to Louisiana, then Texas, and by 1896 the family was back in New York City. The brothers returned to New York and became known as the 107th Street Mob (sometimes called the Morello Gang ) dominating East Harlem , Manhattan , and parts of the Bronx . Giuseppe Morello's strongest ally was Ignazio Lupo , a mobster who controlled Little Italy, Manhattan . On December 23, 1903, Lupo married Morello's half sister, Salvatrice Terranova. The Morello-Lupo alliance continued to prosper in 1903, when

966-415: A year, while he was obviously a wealthy man. Dewey's case against Luciano on the prostitution charges actually leveled in the indictment, on the other hand, rested on much shakier ground: first on the testimony of Joe Bendix, who was discredited by his own testimony as well as that of others, and then later on the testimony of three prostitutes, whom Dewey rewarded by either paying for a trip to Europe after

1035-487: Is possible he was hoping for government protection as part of a plea bargain in which he was sentenced to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty for a 1962 murder. While serving his sentence for heroin trafficking , Valachi came to fear that Genovese, also serving a sentence on the same charge, had ordered his murder. On June 22, 1962, using a pipe left near some construction work, Valachi bludgeoned an inmate to death whom he had mistaken for Joseph DiPalermo,

1104-502: Is the current boss of the organization. The FBI described the Genovese family as the largest and most powerful of the Five Families in December 2001. The family is unique in today's Mafia, and has benefited greatly from members following omertà , a code of conduct emphasizing secrecy and non-cooperation with law enforcement and the justice system. While many mobsters from across the country have testified against their crime families since

1173-640: The Javits Center , as well as protection payoffs from merchants at the Fulton Fish Market . Gigante also had influence in the Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy, running illegal gambling operations, extorting payoffs from vendors, and pocketing thousands of dollars donated to a neighborhood church—until a crackdown in 1995 by New York City officials. During Gigante's tenure as boss of the Genovese family, after

1242-625: The Kefauver Hearings , chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee . Costello was convicted of contempt of the Senate and sentenced to eighteen months in prison. Kefauver concluded that New York politician Carmine DeSapio was assisting the activities of Costello, and that Costello had become influential in decisions made by the Tammany Hall political machine . DeSapio admitted to having met Costello several times, but insisted that "politics

1311-623: The New York City Housing Authority to install windows. Gigante attended his arraignment in pajamas and bathrobe, and due to his defense stating that he was mentally and physically impaired, legal battles ensued for seven years over his competence to stand trial. In June 1993, Gigante was indicted again, charged with sanctioning the murders of six mobsters and conspiring to kill three others, including Gotti. At sanity hearings in March 1996, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano , former underboss of

1380-595: The US Senate Committee on Government Operations , known as the Valachi hearings , stating that the Italian-American Mafia actually existed, the first time a member had acknowledged its existence in public. Valachi's testimony was the first major violation of omertà , breaking his blood oath . He is credited with popularization of the term cosa nostra . Although Valachi's disclosures never led directly to

1449-519: The housing bubble with a wave of mortgage frauds . Prosecutors say loan shark victims obtained home equity loans to pay off debts to their mob bankers. The family found ways to use new technology to improve on illegal gambling , with customers placing bets through offshore sites via the Internet . Although the leadership of the Genovese family seemed to have been in limbo after the death of Gigante in 2005, sources believe that Liborio "Barney" Bellomo

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1518-466: The 1915 murder of Gallucci, the alliance between the Morellos and the East Harlem camorristi ended. The Brooklyn camorristi made plans to eliminate the mafiosi from Manhattan. In early 1916, Camorra boss Pellegrino Morano and lieutenant Vincenzo Paragallo began moving into Morello territory. After six months of fighting, Morano offered a truce to end the stalemate. Mafia boss Nick Morello agreed to

1587-731: The 1980s, the Genovese family has had only eleven members and associates turn state's evidence in its history. Detective Joseph J. Coffey of the New York Organized Crime Task Force described the Genovese family as "the Ivy League of the underworld" in April 1998. The Genovese crime family originated from the Morello gang of East Harlem , the first Mafia family in New York City . In 1892, Giuseppe Morello arrived in New York from

1656-475: The Camorra gang. In 1917, Morano was charged with Morello's murder after Camorrista Ralph Daniello implicated him in the murder. By 1918, law enforcement had sent many Camorra members to prison, decimating the Camorra in New York and ending the war. Many of the remaining Camorra members joined the Morello family. The Morellos now faced stronger rivals than the Camorra. With the passage of Prohibition in 1920 and

1725-570: The Camorra group, Tony Notoro and Ralph Daniello , contacted New York police and implicated Morano and Alessandro Vollero, revealing the war between the Sicilian and Neapolitan gangs. Both Morano and Vollero, after being denied help from New York detective Michael Mealli, along with the remaining leaders of the camorristi were convicted of murder and imprisoned, effectively ending the Mafia-Camorra War. The Mafia–Camorra war ended in 1917, and Terranova brothers Vincenzo and Ciro kept control of

1794-522: The Commission were to quietly maintain his own power over all the families, and to prevent future gang wars; the bosses approved the idea of the Commission. The Commission's first test came in 1935, when they ordered Dutch Schultz to drop his plans to murder Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey . Luciano argued that an assassination of Dewey would precipitate a massive law enforcement crackdown. An enraged Schultz vowed to kill Dewey anyway and walked out of

1863-1219: The Gambino family, who became a cooperating witness in 1991, and Alphonse "Little Al" D'Arco , former acting boss of the Lucchese family , testified that Gigante was lucid at top-level Mafia meetings and that he had told other gangsters that his eccentric behavior was a pretense. Gigante's lawyers presented testimony and reports from psychiatrists stating that, from 1969 to 1995, Gigante had been confined twenty-eight times in hospitals for treatment of hallucinations and that he suffered from " dementia rooted in organic brain damage". Morello crime family The Morello family traces back to Corleone , Sicily . In 1865, Calogero Morello married Angelina Piazza who gave birth to two children: Giuseppe Morello (born May 2, 1867) and Maria Morello-Lima (née Morello, born c.  1869 ). Calogero Morello died in 1872, and one year later Piazza remarried to Bernardo Terranova. The new marriage produced five children: three sons, Vincenzo (born 1886), Ciro (born 1888) and Nicolo (born 1890), and two daughters, Lucia (born 1877) and Salvatrice (born 1880). Critchley mentions

1932-625: The Manhattan faction, Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno , became the new front boss. Lombardo, the de facto boss of the family, soon retired and Gigante, the triggerman on the failed Costello hit, took actual control of the family. In 1985, US Attorney General for the Southern District of New York, Rudolph Giuliani set his sights on taking down the Mafia Commission through wiretaps, cooperating witnesses, and surveillance cameras. In 1985, Salerno

2001-471: The Masseria faction, and when Masseria heard about Luciano's betrayal, he approached Adonis about killing Luciano. However, Adonis instead warned Luciano about the murder plot. On April 15, 1931, Masseria was killed at Nuova Villa Tammaro, a Coney Island restaurant, while playing cards with Luciano, who allegedly excused himself to the bathroom, when four gunmen (Anastasia, Genovese, Adonis, and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel ) shot Masseria to death then escaping in

2070-483: The Morellos had allied with powerful and prominent East Harlem businessmen and camorristi , including Giosue Gallucci , who possessed local political connections, and the Lamonti brothers. Gaetano "Thomas" Lamonti and brother Fortunato "Charles" Lamonti were known as cousins of the Morellos and owned a feed store down the street from the famous Murder Stable owned by Ignazio Lupo . After the 1914 murder of Charles Lamonti and

2139-682: The Valenti gang murdered Vincenzo Terranova . Masseria's gang retaliated killing Morello member Silva Tagliagamba . On August 11, 1922, Masseria's men murdered Valenti, ending the conflict, as Masseria took over the Morello family. During the mid-1920s, Masseria continued to expand his bootlegging, extortion , loansharking , and illegal gambling rackets throughout New York. To operate and protect these rackets, he recruited many ambitious young mobsters, including future heavyweights Charles "Lucky" Luciano , Frank Costello , Joseph "Joey A" Adonis , Vito Genovese , and Albert Anastasia . Luciano soon became

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2208-615: The Westside , is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the " Five Families " that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American Mafia . The Genovese family has generally maintained a varying degree of influence over many of the smaller mob families outside New York, including ties with the Philadelphia , Cleveland , Patriarca , and Buffalo crime families. The modern family

2277-454: The assistance of Mangano family underboss Carlo Gambino . On May 2, 1957, Luciano mobster Vincent "the Chin" Gigante shot Costello in the side of the head as Costello returned to his apartment. Gigante's aim proved errant, however, and Costello survived the attack with no more than a flesh wound. Costello claimed he could not identify his attacker; Gigante was later acquitted when prosecuted for

2346-474: The ban of alcohol sales, the family regrouped and built a lucrative bootlegging operation in Manhattan. In 1920, both Morello and Lupo were released from prison and Brooklyn Mafia boss Salvatore D'Aquila ordered their murders. This is when Giuseppe "Joe" Masseria and Rocco Valenti , a former Brooklyn Camorra, began to fight for control of the Morello family. On December 29, 1920, Masseria's men murdered Valenti's ally, Salvatore Mauro. Then, on May 8, 1922,

2415-554: The body of Benedetto Madonia, brother-in-law to police informant Giuseppe DiPrimo (de Priemo), was found in a barrel after being brutally tortured. A United States Secret Service detective, who had been investigating the counterfeiting ring, traced the man to a restaurant where he was seen with Morello crime family boss, Ignazio Lupo, along with associate and hitman, Tommaso "The Ox" Petto . New York detective Joseph Petrosino later confirmed Madonia's identity after visiting DiPrimo at Sing Sing Prison . A letter by Madonia seeking to leave

2484-506: The convictions were overturned on appeal in 1960. Wary of Genovese gaining more power in the Commission, Gambino used the Apalachin meeting as an excuse to move against his former ally. Gambino, Luciano, Costello, and Lucchese allegedly lured Genovese into a drug-dealing scheme that ultimately resulted in his conspiracy indictment and conviction. In 1959, Genovese was sentenced to fifteen years in prison on narcotics charges. Genovese, who

2553-638: The crew is still active, but after the death of Dominick Canterino , it is uncertain who is controlling the crew. The crew controlled many of the organized crime activities throughout downtown Manhattan, and some of the rackets included labor racketeering, gambling, loan sharking, hijackings, and extortion of businesses. The main hangout for Gigante and his crew was the Triangle Social Club , located at 208 Sullivan Street . Genovese crime family The Genovese crime family ( pronounced [dʒenoˈveːze, -eːse] ), also sometimes referred to as

2622-531: The deportation of Morello and other mafiosi, began investigating the Morello family's counterfeiting operation, the barrel murders , and the black hand extortion letters. On November 15, 1909, Morello, Lupo, and others were arrested on counterfeiting charges. In February 1910, Morello and Lupo were sentenced to twenty-five and thirty years in prison, respectively. In 1910 the Lomonte Brothers, cousins of Morello, ran East Harlem until 1915. Fortunato Lomonte

2691-427: The end of the war, the arrangement with Luciano became public knowledge. To prevent further embarrassment, the government followed through on its plans to deport Luciano on condition that he never return to the U.S. In 1946, Luciano was taken from prison and deported to Italy, where he died in 1962. From May 1950 to May 1951, the U.S. Senate conducted a large-scale investigation of organized crime, commonly known as

2760-454: The family was run between 1981 and 2005 by "The Oddfather", Vincent "The Chin" Gigante , who feigned insanity by shuffling unshaven through New York's Greenwich Village wearing a tattered bath robe and muttering to himself incoherently to avoid prosecution. The Genovese family is the oldest and the largest of the "Five Families". Finding new ways to make money in the 21st century, the family took advantage of lax due diligence by banks during

2829-399: The family. Many former Brooklyn Camorra members joined the Morello family; Umberto Valenti was one of new members. One year earlier in 1916, Giuseppe Masseria was released from prison after serving three years for burglary of a Bowery pawnshop and became a top member in the family. In 1918, Ciro Terranova was tried for the murders of gambling bosses Charles Lombardi and Joe DiMarco; the case

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2898-530: The gangsters disarmed Maranzano's bodyguards. The other two, aided by Lucchese, stabbed Maranzano multiple times before shooting him. After Maranzano's murder, Luciano called a meeting in Chicago with various bosses, where he proposed a Commission to serve as the governing body for organized crime. Designed to settle all disputes and decide which families controlled which territories, the Commission has been called Luciano's greatest innovation. Luciano's goals with

2967-534: The group began a major counterfeiting ring with powerful Sicilian mafioso Don Vito Cascio Ferro , printing $ 5 bills in Sicily and smuggling them into the United States. Many of the later " barrel murders ", particularly that of Giuseppe "Joe" Catania, Sr. (whose body was found in July 1902), were thought to have been committed by the Morellos, who employed numerous members of the counterfeiting operation. On April 13, 1903,

3036-473: The imprisonment of John Gotti in 1992, Gigante came to be known as the figurehead capo di tutti capi , the "Boss of All Bosses", despite the position being abolished since 1931 with the murder of Salvatore Maranzano. Gigante was reclusive, and almost impossible to capture on wiretaps , speaking softly, eschewing the phone, and even at times whistling into the receiver. He almost never left his home unoccupied because he knew FBI agents would sneak in and plant

3105-423: The meeting. Anastasia, now the leader of Murder, Inc. , approached Luciano with information that Schultz had asked him to stake out Dewey's apartment building on Fifth Avenue . Upon hearing the news, the Commission held a discreet meeting to discuss the matter. After six hours of deliberations, the Commission ordered Lepke Buchalter to eliminate Schultz. On October 23, 1935, before he could kill Dewey, Schultz

3174-507: The new acting boss and overseer of Luciano's interests. During World War II , federal agents came to Luciano for help in preventing enemy sabotage on the New York waterfront and other activities. Luciano agreed to help, in return for a pardon from the State of New York, made contingent on Luciano's deportation to Italy. In reality Luciano provided insignificant assistance to the Allied cause. After

3243-425: The organization was found in a search of Madonia's house. With this evidence, several mafiosi were arrested including Morello, Lupo, Petto, and restaurant owner Pietro Inzarillo, as well as several other members. However, the charges were later dropped after witnesses changed their statements. The Morello family had consolidated their hold on Upper Manhattan. Additionally, on November 15, 1909, New York police raided

3312-420: The police stopped a car driven by Russell Bufalino , whose passengers included Genovese and three other men, at a roadblock as they left the estate. Mafia leaders were chagrined by the public exposure and bad publicity from the Apalachin meeting, and generally blamed Genovese for the fiasco. All those apprehended were fined, up to $ 10,000 each, and given prison sentences ranging from three to five years, but all

3381-402: The prosecution of any Mafia leaders, he provided many details of history of the Mafia , operations, and rituals; aided in the solution of several unsolved murders; and named many members and the major crime families. The trial exposed American organized crime to the world through Valachi's televised testimony. After Genovese was sent to prison in 1959, the family leadership secretly established

3450-419: The rising power, the former captain and current ally of the Morello's, Giuseppe Masseria. First attempts failed and a war was on. On December 29, 1921, Masseria's men murdered Valenti's ally Salvatore Muaro on Chrystie Street. Then Valenti had Vincent Terranova murdered, effectively taking out the head of the Morello family. On May 8, 1922, while Terranova was in front of his home at 116th Street and 2nd Avenue, he

3519-546: The rival factions in the war-torn Philadelphia family. They finally gave their support to Philadelphia mobster Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo , who in return gave the Genovese mobsters permission to operate in Atlantic City in 1982. Gigante built a vast network of bookmaking and loansharking rings, and from extortion of garbage, shipping, trucking, and construction companies seeking labor peace or contracts from carpenters', Teamsters , and laborers' unions, including those at

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3588-516: The rival families' rackets in favor of his own. Luciano appeared to accept these changes, but was merely biding his time before removing Maranzano. Although Maranzano was slightly more forward-thinking than Masseria, Luciano had come to believe that Maranzano was even more greedy, power-hungry and hidebound than Masseria had been. By September 1931, Maranzano realized Luciano was a threat, and hired Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll , an Irish gangster, to kill him. However, Tommy Lucchese alerted Luciano that he

3657-590: The shooting. Months later, Anastasia, the boss of the Mangano family and a powerful ally of Costello's, was murdered by Gambino's gunmen at the Park Central Hotel in Manhattan. With Anastasia's death, Carlo Gambino seized control of the Mangano family. Fearing for his life and isolated after the shootings, Costello quietly retired and surrendered control of the Luciano family to Genovese. Having taken control of what

3726-582: The trial or arranging for lucrative film and magazine deals. All three witnesses subsequently recanted their testimony. On June 7, 1936, Luciano was convicted on 62 counts of compulsory prostitution. On June 18, he was sentenced to thirty to fifty years in state prison, along with David Betillo and others. Luciano continued to run his crime family from prison, relaying his orders through Genovese, his acting boss. However, in 1937, Genovese fled to Naples to avoid an impending indictment for murder in New York. Luciano appointed Costello, his consigliere , as

3795-446: The village of Corleone , Sicily , Italy . Morello's half-brothers Nicholas , Vincenzo , Ciro , and the rest of his family joined him in New York the following year. The Morello brothers formed the 107th Street Mob and began dominating the Italian neighborhood of East Harlem, parts of Manhattan , and the Bronx . One of Giuseppe Morello's strongest allies was Ignazio "the Wolf" Lupo ,

3864-504: The youngest of the three Terranova brothers, took over the family with the aid of his older brothers, Vincenzo and Ciro. The family was involved in many criminal activities from East Harlem to Greenwich Village . Soon after opening the Venezia Restaurant, the club became a popular hangout for the city's underworld. Without Joseph Morello and Lupo the Wolf at the helm, the Morellos' power was waning. During this time, Gaetano Reina ,

3933-406: Was appointed as the new front boss. In reality, the Genovese family created a new ruling panel to run the organization. This second panel consisted of Catena, Lombardo, and Michele "Big Mike" Miranda . In 1981, Tieri became the first Mafia boss to be convicted under the new RICO Act and died in prison later that year. After Tieri's imprisonment, the family reshuffled its leadership. The capo of

4002-597: Was convicted in the Mafia Commission Trial and sentenced to 100 years in federal prison. In 1986, shortly after Salerno's conviction, his longtime right-hand man, Vincent "The Fish" Cafaro , turned informant and told the FBI that Salerno had been the front boss for Gigante. Cafaro also revealed that the Genovese family had been keeping up this ruse since 1969. After the 1980 murder of Philadelphia boss Angelo "Gentle Don" Bruno , Gigante and Lombardo began manipulating

4071-621: Was founded by Charles "Lucky" Luciano and was known as the Luciano crime family from 1931 to 1957, when Vito Genovese became boss . Genovese was head of the family during the McClellan hearings in 1963, which gave the Five Families their current names. Originally in control of the waterfront on the West Side of Manhattan as well as the docks and the Fulton Fish Market on the East River waterfront,

4140-411: Was later dismissed. In 1920, both Giuseppe Morello and Ignazio Lupo were released from prison so their former captain, now Manhattan Mafia boss, Salvatore D'Aquila , sensing his power to be threatened by their return, ordered their murders. One of D'Aquila's men, Umberto Valenti , had also run afoul of his boss and was under threat of death. To re-ingratiate himself with D'Aquila, Valenti would take out

4209-436: Was marked for death. On September 10, Maranzano ordered Luciano, Genovese, and Costello to come to his office at the 230 Park Avenue in Manhattan. Convinced that Maranzano planned to murder them, Luciano decided to take pre-emptive action. He sent to Maranzano's office four Jewish gangsters, secured with the aid of Siegel and Meyer Lansky , whose faces were unknown to Maranzano's people. Disguised as government agents, two of

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4278-634: Was murdered in a power struggle between the Morellos and the Neapolitan Camorra organization , which consisted of two Brooklyn gangs run by Pellegrino Morano and Alessandro Vollero . The fight over Gallucci's rackets became known as the Mafia-Camorra War . After months of fighting, Morano offered a truce . A meeting was arranged at a Navy Street cafe owned by Vollero. On September 7, 1916, Nicholas Morello and his bodyguard Charles Ubriaco were ambushed and killed upon arrival by five members of

4347-476: Was never discussed". In 1952, the federal government began proceedings to strip Costello of his U.S. citizenship and he was indicted for evasion of $ 73,417 in income taxes between 1946 and 1949. He was sentenced to five years in prison and fined $ 20,000. In 1954, Costello appealed the conviction and was released on $ 50,000 bail ; from 1952 to 1961, he was in and out of half a dozen federal and local prisons and jails, his confinement interrupted by periods when he

4416-508: Was out on bail pending determination of appeals. Costello ruled for twenty peaceful years, but his quiet reign ended when Genovese was extradited from Italy to New York. During his absence, Costello demoted Genovese from underboss to caporegime , leaving Genovese determined to take control of the family. Soon after his arrival in the U.S., Genovese was acquitted of the 1936 murder charge that had driven him into exile. Free of legal entanglements, he started plotting against Costello with

4485-504: Was renamed the Genovese crime family in 1957, Genovese decided to organize a Mafia conference to legitimize his new position. Held at mobster Joseph "Joe the Barber" Barbara 's estate in Apalachin, New York , the Apalachin meeting attracted over 100 mobsters from around the nation. However, local law enforcement stumbled upon the meeting and quickly surrounded the estate. As the meeting broke up,

4554-491: Was shot and killed in 1914 on East 108th st. Tomasso Lomonte and cousin Rose Lomonte were both shot and killed in 1915 on East 116th st. As the Morello family increased in power and influence, bloody territorial conflicts arose with other Italian gangs in New York. The Morellos had an alliance with Giosue Gallucci , a prominent East Harlem businessman and Camorrista with local political connections. On May 17, 1915, Gallucci

4623-649: Was shot in a tavern in Newark , New Jersey , and succumbed to his injuries the following day. On May 13, 1936, Luciano's pandering trial began. Dewey prosecuted the case that Eunice Carter had built against Luciano, accusing him of being part of a massive prostitution ring known as " the Combination ". During the trial, Dewey exposed Luciano for lying on the witness stand through direct quizzing and records of telephone calls; Luciano also had no explanation for why his federal income tax records claimed he made only $ 22,000

4692-463: Was the most powerful boss in New York, had been effectively eliminated as a rival by Gambino. Genovese soldier Joe Valachi was convicted of narcotics violations in 1959, and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Valachi's motivations for becoming a government informant had been the subject of some debate; Valachi claimed to be testifying as a public service and to expose a powerful criminal organization that he had blamed for ruining his life, but it

4761-404: Was to protect Lombardo by confusing law enforcement as to who was the true leader of the family. In the late 1960s, Gambino lent $ 4 million to Eboli for a drug scheme in an attempt to gain control of the Genovese family. When Eboli failed to pay back his debt, Gambino, with Commission approval, had him murdered in 1972. After Eboli's death, Genovese capo and Gambino ally Frank "Funzi" Tieri

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