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105-559: Although immigration from Naples and Campania to New York City was rather small compared to that from the rest of southern Italy and Sicily, criminal groups from that area would have a substantial impact on organized crime events in the 1910s. However, their recorded links to crime organisations in Italy were "weak to non-existent". The substantial population of the New York Italian immigrant community offered plentiful economic opportunities. At

210-705: A claim to the land. There were several rebellions on the island of Sicily against the King Ferdinand II , but the end of the kingdom was not brought about until the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi , an icon of Italian Unification, with the support of the House of Savoy and its Kingdom of Sardinia with its economic, political and cultural powerhouse in Northern Italy. The expedition resulted in

315-667: A coffee house at 133 Navy Street in Brooklyn . The coffee house was used as the headquarters for their gang, which mainly consisted of Neapolitans, and was often referred to as The Camorra. Morano opened the Santa Lucia restaurant close to the Coney Island amusements parks with his right-hand men Tony Parretti , from where his gang made money in gambling and cocaine dealing. The gangs were not tightly led organizations, but rather loose associations where everybody worked for himself, although Morano

420-452: A death sentence for his part in the killing of Nicholas Morello and Charles Ubriaco on September 7, 1916. Both were also involved in the murder of Joe Nazzaro. Leading to his execution security in Sing Sing prison was enhanced from 16 hours a day to 24 hours a day. He was pressuring politicians to deny the death penalty but this was not granted. He was electrocuted on February 17, 1927, at

525-589: A deep reform of the laws culminating with the promulgation of the Constitutions of Melfi (1231, also known as Liber Augustalis ), a collection of laws for his realm that was remarkable for its time and a source of inspiration for a long time afterward. It made the Kingdom of Sicily a centralised state and established the primacy of written law . With relatively small modifications, the Liber Augustalis remained

630-548: A lesser extent Gaeta , Molfetta and Trani , rivalled other Italian maritime republics in their domestic prosperity and maritime importance. From 999 to 1139, the Normans occupied all the Lombard and Byzantine possessions in southern Italy , ended a millennium of imperial Roman rule in Italy and eventually expelled the Muslims from Sicily. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily under Roger II

735-744: A monopoly on gambling in the area, the stage was set for conflict. On the other side of the East River, the Neapolitan gangs were also getting ambitious. Allessandro Vollero, a top Navy Street leader, had never been happy with cooperating with the Morellos on the DeMarco hit. He now decided to break their alliance. A meeting was held in Philadelphia between Navy Gang representatives and the Camorra leadership about hitting

840-609: A reaction from the authorities. Police convinced Ralph Daniello to testify against his former associates of the Brooklyn Navy Street gang. He provided evidence about 23 murders. Several Grand Juries issued 21 indictments in November 1917. At the trials, some criminals involved depicted the Navy Street and Coney Island gangs as "Camorra" and used "Mafia" to identify the groups from East Harlem. The trials in 1918 entirely dismantled

945-521: A restaurant and several gambling establishments on Mulberry Street in Lower Manhattan . Having faced the Morellos before, DeMarco had survived two assassination attempts and had unsuccessfully tried to murder Nicholas Morello on one occasion. The Morello family decided to seek help from the Navy Street and Coney Island gangs to subdue DeMarco. On June 24, 1916, the Morellos met with the Navy Street and Coney Island gangs in Coney Island. The reason for

1050-875: A striking series of defeats for the Sicilian armies against the growing troops of Garibaldi. After the capture of Palermo and Sicily, he disembarked in Calabria and moved towards Naples, and in the meantimem the Piedmontese also invaded the Kingdom from the Marche . The last battles fought were that of the Volturnus in 1860 and the siege of Gaeta , where King Francis II had sought shelter in thepe of for help, which never came. The last towns to resist Garibaldi's expedition were Messina , which surrendered on 13 March 1861, and Civitella del Tronto , which surrendered on 20 March 1861. The Kingdom of

1155-449: Is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern regions . The term " Mezzogiorno " today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or culture of the historical and cultural region that was once politically under the administration of the former Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily (officially denominated as one entity Regnum Siciliae citra Pharum and ultra Pharum , i.e. "Kingdom of Sicily on

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1260-589: Is mainly Mediterranean ( Köppen climate classification Csa), except at the highest elevations (Dsa, Dsb) and the semi-arid eastern stretches in Apulia and Molise, along the Ionian Sea in Calabria and the southern stretches of Sicily (BSw). The largest city of southern Italy is Naples , an originally Greek name that it has historically maintained for millennia. Bari , Taranto , Reggio Calabria , Foggia , and Salerno are

1365-594: Is nonetheless often subsumed into the Mezzogiorno . The Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) employs the term " south Italy " ( Italia meridionale , or just Sud , i.e. "south") to statistically identify in its reportings the six mainland regions of southern Italy without Sicily and Sardinia, which form a distinct statistical region under the ISTAT denominated " Insular Italy " ( Italia insulare , or simply Isole "Islands"). These same subdivisions are at

1470-575: Is the most representative of these Byzantine monuments. From then to the 11th-century Norman conquest the south of the peninsula was constantly plunged into wars between the Byzantines, Lombardy, and the Aghlabid dynasty . The latter established two emirates in southern Italy : the Emirate of Sicily and, for 25 years, the Emirate of Bari . Amalfi , an independent republic from the 7th century until 1075, and to

1575-1088: The Chalcidean / Cumaean variety of the Greek alphabet , which was adopted by the Etruscans ; the Old Italic alphabet subsequently evolved into the Latin alphabet , which became the most widely used alphabet in the world. Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful like Neapolis (Νεάπολις, Naples , "New City"), Syrakousai (Συράκουσαι, Syracuse ), Akragas (Ἀκράγας, Agrigento ), and Sybaris (Σύβαρις, Sibari ). Other cities in Magna Graecia included Tarentum (Τάρας), Metapontum (Μεταπόντιον), Heraclea (Ἡράκλεια), Epizephyrian Locri (Λοκροὶ Ἐπιζεφύριοι), Rhegium (Ῥήγιον), Croton (Κρότων), Thurii (Θούριοι), Elea (Ἐλέα), Nola (Νῶλα), Syessa (Σύεσσα), Bari (Βάριον), and others. Although many of

1680-628: The Crown of Aragon . At his death in 1458, the kingdom was again divided . Ferrante , Alfonso's illegitimate son, inherited Naples. When Ferrante died in 1494, Charles VIII of France invaded Italy by using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples, which his father had inherited on the death of King René's nephew in 1481, as a pretext, which started the Italian Wars . Charles VIII expelled Ferrante’s successor, Alfonso II of Naples , from Naples in 1495. However, he

1785-512: The House of Anjou , who had likewise been ruling it. Thus, the peace was formal recognition of an uneasy status quo . Although the king of Spain had seized both two crowns in the 16th century, the administrations of the two halves of the Kingdom of Sicily remained separated until 1816, when they were reunited in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies . In 1442, Alfonso V conquered the Kingdom of Naples and unified Sicily and Naples once again as dependencies of

1890-598: The House of Hohenstaufen and the papacy led to Sicily's conquest by Charles I , Duke of Anjou . Opposition to French officialdom and taxation combined with incitement of rebellion by agents from the Byzantine Empire and the Crown of Aragon led to the Sicilian Vespers insurrection and successful invasion by king Peter III of Aragon in 1282. The resulting War of the Sicilian Vespers lasted until 1302

1995-655: The Lombards , who annexed the area of Cosenza to their Duchy of Benevento . Consequently, the Lombard and the Byzantine areas became influenced by Eastern monasticism, and much of southern Italy experienced a slow process of orientalisation in religious life (rites, cults and liturgy), which accompanied a spread of Eastern churches and monasteries that preserved and transmitted the Greek and Hellenistic tradition. The Cattolica monastery in Stilo

2100-502: The Peace of Caltabellotta divided the old Kingdom of Sicily into two. The island of Sicily, called the "Kingdom of Sicily beyond the Lighthouse" or the Kingdom of Trinacria, went to Frederick III of the House of Barcelona , who had been ruling it. The peninsular territories, called Kingdom of Sicily contemporaneously but Kingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went to Charles II of

2205-651: The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Naples was given to Charles VI , the Holy Roman Emperor . He also gained control of Sicily in 1720, but Austrian rule did not last long. Both Naples and Sicily were conquered by a Spanish army during the War of the Polish Succession in 1734, and Charles, Duke of Parma , a younger son of King Philip V of Spain was installed as King of Naples and Sicily from 1735. Charles inherited

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2310-520: The "Mezzogiorno" after the Second World War . In the 1946 referendum , the region voted to keep the monarchy, with its greatest support coming in Campania . Politically, the region was at odds with the north, which won the referendum to establish a republic. Today, the south remains less economically developed than the northern and central regions, which enjoyed an " economic miracle " in the 1950s and

2415-581: The "absolutely antithetical conditions" of northern and southern Italy at the time of Italian unification in 1861, when south and north were united again after more than one thousand years. Gramsci remarked that in Northern Italy, the historical period of the Comunes had given a special boost to history and in northern Italy existed an economic organization similar to that of the other states of Europe, propitious to further development of capitalism and industry , but in southern Italy, history had been different, and

2520-419: The "civilized, Piedmontese north" (167) to intervene. Another viewm however, was marked by disdain for southern Italy. According to the article, "such manifestations of the south's difference threaten the glowing and gloating sense of northern superiority" (167). These viewpoints clearly indicate the divide between northern and southern Italy in the 1860s. In an attempt to explain the striking difference between

2625-722: The "spur" of the boot, the peninsula of Monte Gargano ; on the Tyrrhenian Sea , the Gulf of Salerno , the Gulf of Naples , the Gulf of Policastro and the Gulf of Gaeta are each named after a large coastal city. Along the northern coast of the Salernitan Gulf and on the south of the Sorrentine Peninsula runs the Amalfi Coast . Off the peninsula's tip is the isle of Capri . The climate

2730-504: The 1960s and became highly industrialized. Starting from the unification of Italy in 1861–1870, a growing economic divide between the Northern provinces and the southern half of Italy became evident. In the early decades of the new kingdom, the lack of effective land reform, heavy taxes, and other economic measures imposed on the south, along with the removal of protectionist tariffs on agricultural goods imposed to boost northern industry, made

2835-573: The Bourbons in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies were staunch supporters of a feudal system, had feared the traffic of ideas and had tried to keep their subjects insulated from the agricultural and industrial revolutions of Northern Europe. The study by Mack Smith is confirmed by the Italian historian and left-wing politician Antonio Gramsci in his book The Southern Question by which the author emphasizes

2940-561: The Brooklyn gang members at Lauritano's cafe. The main problem in staging an attack on DeMarco was that he knew all Morellos and wouldn't let them get near him. However, Verizzano was a close friend of DeMarco's; he was therefore assigned to set up the trap. The plan was for Verizzano to smuggle a Navy Street hitman into DeMarco's gambling den and point out DeMarco to the assassin, who would then kill him. The first attempt at killing DeMarco failed when Navy Street hitman John Fetto arrived late at

3045-493: The Camorra could not kill the new leaders, their plot for destruction would have to be executed indirectly. The Camorra tried to wrest artichoke business from Ciro Terronova. Their threats failed not only against artichokes but coal, ice and other markets. Members killed in this war included Salvatore DeMarco, George Esposito, Gaetano Del Gaudio, Antonio 'Tony the Shoemaker' Parretti , and Joseph 'Chuck' Nazzaro. The man who played

3150-476: The Crown of Aragon and France resumed their war over the kingdom, ultimately resulting in an Aragonese victory leaving Ferdinand in control of the kingdom by 1504. The kingdom remained disputed between France and Spain for the next several decades. The French efforts to gain control of it became feebler as the decades went on, and Spanish control was never genuinely endangered. The French finally abandoned their claims to

3255-515: The DeMarco/Lombardi killing. Johnny Esposito, the killer of Lombardi, tried to testify against Terranova, but once it was proved that they were in the same gang, Ciro was acquitted due to lack of corroboration. Ralph Daniello's sentence was suspended due to the testimony he had given. An assault which cost him five years in Coney Island cut short his freedom. After his release in 1925 he was found shot near Metuchen , New Jersey . Frank Fevrola

Camorra in New York City - Misplaced Pages Continue

3360-461: The Greek elements that once formed Magna Graecia. After Pyrrhus of Epirus failed in his attempt to stop the spread of Roman hegemony in 282 BCE, the south fell under Roman domination and remained in such a position until the barbarian invasions (the Gladiator War is a notable suspension of imperial control). It was restored to Eastern Roman control in the 530s after the fall of Rome in

3465-501: The Greek inhabitants of Magna Graecia were entirely Latinized during the Middle Ages , pockets of Greek culture and language remained and have survived to the present day. One example is the Griko people in Calabria ( Bovesia ) and Salento ( Grecìa Salentina ), some of whom still maintain their Greek language ( Griko language ) and customs. The Griko language is the last living trace of

3570-518: The Greek settlers and the native peoples were initially hostilem especially with the Iapygian tribes. The Hellenic influence eventually shaped their culture and way of life. The Romans used to call the area of Sicily and coastal southern Italy Magna Graecia ("Great Greece") since it was so densely populated by coastal Greek colonies ; the ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia and Calabria with Strabo being

3675-399: The Italian institutional sources the problems of southern Italy had existed way before Italian unification, and Giustino Fortunato emphasised that the Bourbons were not the only ones responsible for the problems of the south, which had ancient and deep origins in the previous centuries of poverty and isolation, caused by domination by foreign governments. In literature, the period around 1860

3780-592: The Italian lottery or numbers game and enjoyed functional immunity from law enforcement through his political contacts. Apart from them there were different Camorra gangs in New York. The gangs had their roots in the Neapolitan Camorra , but most members were American born. The two New York based Camorra groups were the Neapolitan Navy Street gang headed by Alessandro Vollero and Leopoldo Lauritano, and

3885-458: The Jing of Naples Ferdinand II had no interest in doing useful works to improve the neglected condition of public hygiene, particularly in the provinces, where scarcity of sewer systems and often water shortages were known issues. The problem of brigandage is explained in the book Heroes and Brigands by the southern Italian historian and politician Francesco Saverio Nitti , outlining that brigandage

3990-629: The Mafia, the Camorra drew its recruits from immigrants from the Naples region of Italy. The Camorra organization's close allies included the Navy Street and Coney Island gangs of Brooklyn, both of which were Neapolitan in origin. Leopoldo Lauritano and Allesandro Vollero headed the Navy Street Gang, and Pellegrino Morano was boss of the Coney Island Gang. Before this conflict started, relations between

4095-747: The Morellos and taking complete control of Manhattan. After discussing it with Camorra boss Ricci the two groups agreed to an alliance. The Navy Gang and the Camorra developed a plan to lure the leaders of the Morello gang to another meeting in Brooklyn, only to ambush and murder them. On September 7, 1916, Nicholas Morello and Charles Ubriaco were lured in a trap while being invited to a chat with Morano and Navy Street gang boss Lauritano. Terranova and Ubriaco were shot and killed. Subsequently, they went after other East Harlem gang leaders, killing Giuseppe Verrazano at Joseph Conti's Italian Gardens Restaurant at 341 Broome Street October 6, 1916, but were unable to reach

4200-515: The Morellos who stayed close to their house in East 116th Street. The Neapolitans did not fear police investigations because they paid off police officers and omertà prevented witnesses to step forward. However, in May 1917, Ralph Daniello , aka 'The Barber', a member of the Navy Street gang who had been present at the meetings to decide on the murders, began to tell the police everything he knew about Morano,

4305-554: The Navy Street gang. Testimonies of their own associates destroyed the internal protection against law enforcement they once enjoyed. The demise of the gangs meant the end of the Camorra in New York and the rise in power of their rivals, the American-based Sicilian Mafia groups. Pellegrino, Morano and Voltero were sentenced from 20 years to life in Sing Sing prison for murder. Paretti was sentenced to death, and Andrea Ricci

Camorra in New York City - Misplaced Pages Continue

4410-634: The Neapolitan Coney Island gang under the command of Pellegrino Morano who ran his activities from his Santa Lucia restaurant in Coney Island . Camorra gangs largely dominated Brooklyn in the 1910s. Under Pelligrino Morano, the Brooklyn Camorra held the upper hand over the Mafia, then largely controlled by Manhattan's Morello crime family in Italian Harlem . Vollero and Lauritano owned

4515-407: The Neapolitan gangs, and the recent murders. Giuseppe Verrazano, who was with the Morello gang, wanted to open another gambling house; this was not liked by the Navy Street gang so a plot to kill him was hatched. Verrazano spotted a Navy Street member and tried to kill him, but he was spotted and forced to flee. Many assassinations and attempts happened after this, making neither side safe. Since

4620-400: The Nick Morello case. Sgroia testified against his fellow assailants and received a shorter prison sentence and deportation to Italy . Justice for Morello's and Ubriaco's death did not stop there. John Esposito and Antonio Notaro were sentenced in June 1918, from 6 to 10 years each for their participation in the murder. Ciro Terranova was tried for Complicity in June 1918, in connection with

4725-442: The Spanish throne from his older half-brother in 1759, he left Naples and Sicily to his younger son, Ferdinand IV . Despite the two kingdoms being in a personal union under the House of Bourbon from 1735 onwards, they remained constitutionally separated. Being a member of the House of Bourbon , King Ferdinand IV was a natural opponent of the French Revolution and Napoleon . In January 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte , in

4830-408: The Terronovas, Vincenzo, Ciro and Nicholas Morello . Vincenzo and Nicola occasionally used their older, half-brother's name, Morello even though they were legally Terranovas. They controlled Harlem and most of northern Manhattan . Morello and his allies were part of the traditional Sicilian Mafia. The Camorra organization, run by Andrea Ricci, was a powerful underworld force in Brooklyn. Unlike

4935-446: The Two Sicilies was dissolved and annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy , which was founded in the same year. At the time of Italian unification, the gap between the former northern states of Italy and the southern two Sicilies was significant: northern Italy had about 75,500 kilometers of roads and 2,316 kilometers of railroads, combined with a wide range of canals connected to rivers for freight transportation; iron and steel production

5040-414: The Two Sicilies, though this meant control only of the mainland portion of the kingdom. Throughout this Napoleonic interruption, King Ferdinand remained in Sicily, with Palermo as his capital. After Napoleon's defeat, King Ferdinand IV was restored by the Congress of Vienna of 1815 as Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies . He established a concordat with the Papal States , which previously had

5145-417: The West in 476, and some form of imperial authority survived until the 1070s. Total East Roman rule was ended by the Lombards by Zotto 's conquest in the final quarter of the 6th century. After the Gothic War (535–554) until the arrival of the Normans , much of southern Italy's destiny was linked to the fortunes of the Eastern Empire even though Byzantine domination was challenged in the 9th century by

5250-467: The annexed territory of the former Two Sicilies and the economic and political powerhouse centred in the north, racist theories were postulated , suggesting that such a divide had its roots in the coexistence of two mostly incompatible races. The British historian Denis Mack Smith describes the radical difference between Northern and the newly-annexed southern Italy in 1860 as both halves being on quite different levels of civilization. He pointed out that

5355-439: The area has had it record numbers of emigration. The most prevalent issue in southern Italy is its inability to attract businesses and therefore create jobs. Between 2007 and 2014, 943,000 Italians were unemployed, 70% being Italians from the south. Employment in the south is ranked the lowest when compared to countries in the European Union. Italians from the south are also ranked the lowest in terms of financial contributions into

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5460-403: The article "This is Not Italy! Ruling and Representing the South", it is clear how the northern elites considered the south. The Piedmontese north felt the need to invade the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and establish a new form of governance based on the northern system, since they viewed the south as underdeveloped and lacking in social capital. Those views of the south can largely be attributed to

5565-410: The author underscored the Sicilians' problems of having to change their old lifestyle and remaining on their island. The novel was adapted by Luchino Visconti for his homonymous 1963 film The Leopard . The southern economy greatly suffered after the Italian unification, and the process of industrialisation was interrupted. This situation of persistent backwardness in the socioeconomic development of

5670-454: The back bedroom where the card games were going on. Inside the back room, DeMarco, Charles Lombardi , other gangsters, and numerous spectators were watching the card game. To identify the target for Esposito and Fetto, Verizzano sat down opposite DeMarco. Outside the room, Sassi and Rocco Valente from Navy Street were standing watch to make sure everyone had a clear escape route. Suddenly, Esposito pulled out his gun and fatally shot Lombardi;

5775-432: The basis of Sicilian law until 1819. His royal court in Palermo from around 1220 to his death saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian , which had a significant influence on what was to become the modern Italian language . He also built the Castel del Monte and in 1224 founded the University of Naples , now called, after him, Università Federico II . In 1266, conflict between

5880-425: The biggest part in the victory of the mafia was Ralph 'The Barber' Daniello who testified against Navy Street's activities, from murders to rackets, leading to numerous convictions and indictments . The Camorra boss Andrea Ricci was shot dead in November 1917, allegedly by his own men as they were afraid he could testify. Rocco Valenti was arrested in January for participation in the DeMarco / Lombardi killing. He

5985-408: The bottom of the Italian First level NUTS of the European Union and the Italian constituencies for the European Parliament . Nonetheless, Sardinia and especially Sicily are included as "southern Italy" in most definitions of the southern Italy macroregion. In a similar fashion to France 's Midi ("midday" or "noon" in French ), the Italian term " Mezzogiorno " refers to the intensity and

6090-417: The colonies. Naples enjoyed a demographic and economic rebirth, mainly due to the interest of King Victor Emmanuel III , who was born there. In the 1950s, the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno was set up as a huge public master plan to help industrialise the south by land reforms creating 120,000 new small farms and by the "Growth Pole Strategy" whereby 60% of all government investment would go to the south to boost

6195-444: The control of the New York rackets is known as the Mafia–Camorra War and started after the killing of Giosue Gallucci and his son on May 21, 1915. This murder heightened tensions between the different groups. "Before this conflict started, relations between the two sides were relatively amicable; in fact, each year the Morellos would attend a 'smoker' held by Camorra boss Ricci in Brooklyn." The violence and string of murders prompted

6300-474: The crime traditions from their original Italian home regions. One of the prominent crime bosses was Enrico Alfano , who became one of the principal underworld targets of police sergeant Joseph Petrosino , the head of the Italian Squad of the New York City Police Department . Another prominent criminal boss around 1910–15 was Giosue Gallucci , the undisputed King of Little Italy born in Naples, who employed Neapolitan and Sicilian street gangs as his enforcers for

6405-443: The distribution of which the criminal elements attempted to control." The Neapolitans based in Brooklyn were also active in retail cocaine sales to "theatrical people and the waiters". The cheap labor needed for the expansion of capitalism of that time was made available by the scores of poor Italian immigrants . Like earlier immigrant generations, a few Sicilians and Neapolitans engaged in criminal activities to succeed, employing

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6510-405: The eastern coast of the Black Sea , Eastern Libya and Massalia ( Marseille ). They included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula. The first Greek settlers found Italy inhabited by three major populations: Ausones , Oenotrians and Iapyges (the last of which were subdivided into three tribes: Daunians , Peucetians and Messapians ). The relationships between

6615-431: The economy of Italy from immigrants. In southern Italy, the tourism, distribution, food industries, wood furniture, wholesale, vehicle sales, mineral sales and artisan fields are among the leading areas contributing to the projected employment growth. The south heavily relies on tourism in for its economy and attracts tourists through its rich historical background. Mafia%E2%80%93Camorra War The Mafia–Camorra War

6720-450: The explanation being that the police had threatened and bribed her to testify. The retrial was opposed by mocking the affidavit of Tessie Fevrola. Tompkins denied any form of retrial for Fevrola. A last-minute attempt to save Fevrola was made by lawyer Thomas O'Neil on May 29, 1923. With seven hours till execution Tompkins was granted a retrial, sparing him until October 7. His death sentence was eventually commuted. Tony Parretti received

6825-409: The fall of the last indigenous state , was an integral part of the Council of Aragon instead and remained as such until the first years of the XVIII° century, when Sardinia was ceded to Austria and eventually handed over to the Alpine -based House of Savoy in 1720. After the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, possession of the kingdom again changed hands. Under the terms of

6930-454: The gambling den; by that point, DeMarco had left. Complicating the planning for a second attempt, the conspirators found out that a friend of DeMarco, Joe "Chuck" Nazzaro would accompany DeMarco that afternoon. To increase their chances of success, John Esposito was added to the hit team. That afternoon, Esposito and Fetto made their way to a saloon on Elizabeth Street to await a signal from Verizzano. At around five o'clock, Verizzano arrived at

7035-415: The heel and the boot itself. It is an arm of the Ionian Sea . The island of Sardinia , situated to the west of the Italian peninsula and right below the French island of Corsica , may also often be included. On the eastern coast is the Adriatic Sea , leading into the rest of the Mediterranean through the Strait of Otranto (named after the largest city on the tip of the heel). On the Adriatic, south of

7140-419: The highest in the south, and illiteracy in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies reached 87%. In 1860, the southern merchant navy amounted to 260,000 tons, and the northern merchant navy came to 347,000 tons, apart from the Venetian Navy, which was annexed in 1866 and assessed at 46,000 tons. In 1860 the whole Italian merchant navy was the fourth largest in Europe at about 607,000 tons. The southern merchant navy

7245-436: The historical Kingdom of the Two Sicilies , including Abruzzo , Apulia , Basilicata , Calabria , Campania , Molise , and Sicily . The island of Sardinia, although being culturally , linguistically and historically less related to the aforementioned regions than any of them is to one another is frequently included as part of the Mezzogiorno , often for statistical and economical purposes. Southern Italy forms

7350-469: The kingdom by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559. With the Treaty of London (1557), the new client state of the so-called Presidi ("state of the garrisons") was established and governed directly by Spain as part of the Kingdom of Naples. The administration of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, as well as of the Duchy of Milan , was run by the Council of Italy . The island of Sardinia, which had fully come to be under Iberian sovereignty in 1409 upon

7455-412: The letters of correspondents in southern Italy who sent biased letters to leaders of the north, specifically Camillo Benso , urging the invasion and reformation of the south. Although those views of the south were condescending, they also came with a genuine belief that to create a unified Italy, help from the north was necessary. Viewing southern Italy as barbaric served as a sort of justification to allow

7560-413: The lower part of the Italian "boot", containing the ankle ( Campania ), the toe ( Calabria ), the arch ( Basilicata ), and the heel ( Apulia ), Molise (north of Apulia) and Abruzzo (north of Molise) along with Sicily, removed from Calabria by the narrow Strait of Messina . Separating the "heel" and toe of the "boot" is the Gulf of Taranto , named after the city of Taranto , which is at an angle between

7665-495: The lucrative artichoke business, but the wholesale dealers resisted their threats. In the end, a deal was negotiated in which a 'tax' of 25 dollars was levied on every car load of artichokes delivered, under threat of stealing the dealer's horses or wrecking their merchandise. Coal and ice merchants also proved hard to extort, and the business gains of the groups were not as large as they expected. Eventually, they were decimated when their own members turned against them. The fight over

7770-472: The meeting was to parcel out control of all illegal activities in New York, including gambling, drugs , and extortion . At the meeting, Nick Morello and his associate, Steve LaSalle , proposed killing DeMarco. The two Brooklyn gangs agreed and Lauritano, the Navy Street boss, set up a meeting at his Brooklyn cafe to plan the hit. Three weeks later, Nick Morello and his associates Steve LaSalle, Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova , and Giuseppe Verizzano met

7875-455: The most prominent advocate of the wider definitions. With this colonisation, Greek culture was exported to Italy in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language , its religious rites and its traditions of the independent polis . An original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic and Roman civilisations . The most important cultural transplant was

7980-654: The name of the French Republic , captured Naples and proclaimed the Parthenopaean Republic , a French client state, as successor to the kingdom. King Ferdinand fled from Naples to Sicily until June of that year. In 1806, Bonaparte, by then French Emperor, again dethroned King Ferdinand and appointed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte , as King of Naples. In the Edict of Bayonne of 1808, Napoleon removed Joseph to Spain and appointed his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat , as King of

8085-501: The neighborhood into a kind of human ant heap in which suffering, crime, ignorance and filth were the dominant elements", according to historian Arrigo Petacco . According to sociologist Humbert S. Nelli: "New York's Italian community offered a lucrative market for illicit activities, particularly gambling and prostitution. It also provided a huge market for products from the homeland and from the West Coast, such as artichokes and olive oil,

8190-427: The nervous gunman had misread the signals from Verizzano and thought he was shooting DeMarco. Working quickly, Verizzano managed to kill DeMarco himself. The Navy Street gunmen then crawled out the bedroom window on to Oliver Street and safely made their escape. That evening Nick and Vincent Morello, LaSalle, Terranova and Verizzano all traveled to the Navy Street Gang headquarters. They advised Lauritano that Joe DeMarco

8295-626: The next largest cities in the area. The region is geologically very active, except for Salento in Apulia , and highly seismic: the 1980 Irpinia earthquake killed 2,914 people, injured more than 10,000 and left 300,000 homeless. In the 8th and the 7th centuries BCE, for various reasons, including demographic crisis (famine, overcrowding etc.), the search for new commercial outlets and ports, and expulsion from their homeland, Greeks began to settle in southern Italy. Also during this period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as

8400-509: The other side of the Strait " and "across the Strait") and which later shared a common organization into Italy's largest pre-unitarian state , the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies . The island of Sardinia , which was not part of the aforementioned polity and had been under the rule of the Alpine House of Savoy , which would eventually annex the Bourbons' southern Italian kingdom altogether,

8505-455: The paternalist Bourbon administrations produced nothing of value. The bourgeois class did not exist, agriculture was primitive and insufficient to satisfy the local market, there were no roads, no ports and the few waterways that the region had were not exploited because of the region's special geographical features. The living conditions of the people of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies are also illustrated by Raffaele De Cesare, who reported that

8610-506: The position of sunshine at midday in the south of the Italian peninsula . The term came into vogue after the annexation of the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by the mainland-based Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia , and the subsequent Italian unification of 1861. Southern Italy is generally thought to comprise the administrative regions that correspond to the geopolitical extent of

8715-468: The regions of southern Italy compared to the other regions of the country, especially the northern ones, is known as the Southern question . Poverty and organised crime were long-standing issues in southern Italy as well and it got worse after unification. Cavour stated the basic problem was poor government, and believed the solution lay in the strict application of the Piedmontese legal system. The main result

8820-448: The rise of Benito Mussolini , the "Iron Prefect", Cesare Mori , tried to defeat the powerful criminal organizations flowering in the south with some degree of success. However, when connections between mafia and the fascists emerged, Mori was removed, and fascist propaganda declared the mafia defeated. Economically, Fascist policy aimed at the creation of an Italian Empire and southern Italian ports were strategic for all commerce towards

8925-408: The saloon and notified the gunmen that DeMarco had arrived at the gambling den. Verizzano and the two hitmen left the saloon and made their way to the entrance of the gambling den. Verizzano, Esposito, and Fetto arrived at the entrance to DeMarco's gambling hall. Nick Sassi , a DeMarco employee who was a Navy Street sympathizer, got the three men past the doorman and inside the hall. The men walked to

9030-421: The situation nearly impossible for many tenant farmers, small businesses and land owners. Multitudes chose to emigrate rather than try to eke out a meagre living, especially from 1892 to 1921. In addition, the surge of brigandage and mafia provoked widespread violence, corruption and illegality. Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti once conceded that places existed "where the law does not operate at all". After

9135-448: The southern economy by attracting new capital, stimulating local firms, and providing employment. However, the objectives were largely missed, and the south became increasingly subsidised, dependent on the state and incapable of generating private growth itself. Presently, huge regional disparities still persist. Problems still include pervasive organised crime and very high unemployment rates. Southern Italy's lack of progress in bettering

9240-627: The turn of the century, some 500,000 Italians, mainly originating from the impoverished southern regions of Italy , lived in New York City and had to survive in difficult social and economic circumstances. A New York Times article in 1885 mentions the presence of the Camorra in New York, involved in extortion and immigrant and labor racketeering . The extortion practice of Italian criminal organizations in New York were often referred to as Black Hand operations. Italian immigration "made fortunes for speculators and landlords, but it also transformed

9345-799: The two sides were relatively amicable; in fact, each year the Morellos would attend a 'smoker' held by Camorra boss Ricci in Brooklyn. However, things were soon to change. As with many gang conflicts, the Mafia-Camorra war started due to greed - in this case, the Morello ambition to control gambling in Manhattan. The Morello's first target was the Del Gaudio brothers, who controlled gambling operations in East Harlem . The Morellos killed Nicolo Del Gaudio and cowed his brother Gaetano . Their next target, Joseph DeMarco , would be much harder to subdue. DeMarco ran

9450-433: The undisputed King of Little Italy , and his son on May 17, 1915. The trials that followed in 1918 completely smashed the Camorra gangs; the protection that they enjoyed was demolished from the testimonies of their own men. It was the end of the Camorra in New York and the rise in power of American-based Sicilian Mafia groups. The Morello gang, formerly run by Giuseppe Morello until 1909, then run by his half-brothers,

9555-421: Was 17,000 tons per year. By contrast, in the former Bourbon southern state, there were 14,700 kilometers of roads, 184 kilometers of railroads (only around Naples), no canals connected to rivers and iron and steel production was 1,500 tons per year. In 1860, illiteracy rates on the Italian peninsula averaged 75%, with the lowest level of 54% in the northwestern Kingdom of Sardinia (also known as " Piedmont ") and

9660-521: Was a gang war in New York City that lasted from 1915–1917. On one side was the originally Sicilian Morello crime family of Manhattan; on the other side were gangs originally from Naples and the surrounding Campania region, based in Navy Street in Brooklyn and Coney Island referred to as the Camorra . The fight over the control of the New York rackets started after the killing of Giosue Gallucci ,

9765-438: Was an upsurge in brigandage . Therefore, the south experienced great economic difficulties resulting in massive emigration leading to a worldwide Italian diaspora , especially to North America , South America , Australia and other parts of Europe. Many natives also relocated to the industrial cities in northern Italy, such as Genoa , Milan and Turin . A relative process of industrialisation has developed in some areas of

9870-625: Was characterised by its competent governance, multi-ethnic nature and religious tolerance . Normans, Jews, Muslim Arabs, Byzantine Greeks, Lombards and "native" Sicilians lived in relative harmony. However, the Norman domination lasted only several decades before it formally ended in 1198 with the reign of Constance of Sicily , and was replaced by that of the Swabian Hohenstaufen dynasty, thanks to Constance's marriage to Henry VI , member of this family. In Sicily, King Frederick II endorsed

9975-466: Was depicted by the Sicilian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa in his famous novel Il Gattopardo ( The Leopard ), set in Sicily at the time of Italian unification. In a famous final scene, Prince Salina, when invited to join the senate of unified Italy, tells a high-ranking Piedmontese officer that "the Sicilian will never want to change, because the Sicilian feels perfect...". With theoe and other words,

10080-577: Was endemic in southern Italy, since the Bourbons themselves relied on it as their military agent. Unlike in southern Italy, there was little brigandage in the other annexed states of Northern and Central Italy, like the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia , the Duchy of Parma , the Duchy of Modena , the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Papal States . According to the southern Italian historian Giustino Fortunato , and

10185-401: Was found guilty by Judge Tompkins for the murder of "Chuck" Nazzaro in 1917. Fevrola was sentenced to death at Sing Sing, the testimony having been given by someone who may have been closer to him than anyone, his wife. However, on April 14, 1922, notice was served on DA Weeks that a motion would be made to grant a retrial on the case of Fevrola. All previous statements were withdrawn by his wife,

10290-475: Was indeed dead; they gave Lauritano $ 50 (equivalent to $ 1,400 in 2023) to pass on to his gunmen. With the death of Joe DeMarco, the Morello organization was able to open up Lower Manhattan to their gambling operations. However, to the Morello's chagrin, the Camorra organization also grabbed the opportunity and opened a couple of their own gambling houses in Lower Manhattan. Since the Morello goal had been

10395-500: Was jailed for ten months, before being discharged in November 1918. He appeared later in court to testify against Charles Giordano in March 1919. Allesandro Vollero, was tried for first degree murder in the case of Nicholas Morello and Charles Ubriaco. Ralph Daniello testified against Vollero, and stated the gang paid money to a detective named Michael Mealli. Mealli was reduced in rank and assigned to patrol duty. Following this, Judge Kapper

10500-773: Was killed playing cards. Following the downfall of the New York Camorra, Neapolitan or Campanian organized crime groups in New York were absorbed into or merged with the newly dominant Sicilian Mafia groups in New York, creating the modern Italian-American Mafia , which would increasingly consist of not only Sicilians but Italian and Italian-American criminals from various Italian regions. Future Italian-American gangsters that originated from Naples or Campania , like Vito Genovese , operated in Italian-American Mafia families, in which an Italian-American gangster's exact Italian region of origin had little importance as long as he

10605-473: Was made up of sailing vessels mainly for fishing and coastal shipping in the Mediterranean Sea and had very few steamships, even if one of the first steamers was built and fitted out in Naples in 1818. Both the merchant and the military navies were insufficient compared to the great coastal extent of southern Italy, defined by the Italian historian Raffaele De Cesare: "… a great pier towards the south". In

10710-506: Was of Italian origin. Southern Italy Southern Italy ( Italian : Sud Italia , Italian: [ˈsud iˈtaːlja] , or Italia meridionale , Italian: [iˈtaːlja meridjoˈnaːle] ; Neapolitan : 'o Sudde ; Sicilian : Italia dû Suddi ), also known as Meridione ( Italian: [meriˈdjoːne] ) or Mezzogiorno ( Italian: [ˌmɛddzoˈdʒorno] ; Neapolitan: Miezojuorno ; Sicilian: Menzujornu ; lit.   ' Midday ' ),

10815-411: Was one of the leaders that initiated recruits as camorristi . Both gangs initially worked together against the Morello family from Italian Harlem for control of the lucrative New York rackets , aiming the take-over of the artichoke business, betting on the Italian lottery, the numerous zicchinetta card games, and the coal and ice business in Italian neighborhoods. The Camorra groups tried to muscle in

10920-438: Was soon forced to withdraw because of the support of Ferdinand II of Aragon to his cousin, Alfonso II's son Ferrantino . Ferrantino was restored to the throne but died in 1496 and was succeeded by his uncle, Frederick IV . The French, however, did not give up their claim and, in 1501, agreed to a partition of the kingdom with Ferdinand of Aragon, who abandoned his cousin, King Frederick. The deal soon fell through, however, and

11025-450: Was taken ill on February 18, causing a mistrial declaration. Vollero was retried on March 4 and was sentenced to life at Sing Sing . Pellegrino Morano, leader of the Coney Island faction, was convicted of murder in the second degree. He was sentenced 20 to life at Sing Sing. Alphonso Sgroia , a Navy Street gang member, was sentenced on June 17, 1918, he received twelve years in Dannemora for

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