Chronicles of Events and Biographies Related to the American Mafia
“Machine Gun” Jack McGurn was an Italian-American born in Licata, Sicily population 39,000 on July 2, 1902. His birth name was Vincenzo Gibaldi; however he had other variations such as Vincent Gebardi, and Vincenzo Demory. At four years old he and his mother, Giuseppa Verderame, just 24 years old according to the ships manifest arrived…
Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria was born on January 17, 1886 in Menfi, Sicily although he lived most of his childhood in Marsala. Masseria had no siblings, and his father was a tailor by trade. Masseria immigrated to the United States in 1903 at the age of 17 to avoid a murder indictment in Italy….
Meyer Lansky, one of the great Jewish mobsters, ran gambling in much of the United States and helped build the National Crime Syndicate that ran organized crime in the 1930s and ‘40s. He was known as the “Mob’s accountant,” and he ranks as one of the most powerful gangsters in history. Lansky, a Jewish immigrant,…
Giovanni “Papa Johnny” Torrio ran Chicago’s Mafia in the 1920s, building it from a prostitution racket into an illegal liquor empire. His feud with Irish-American bootleggers led to the worst violence in the history of American organized crime and paved the way for Al Capone. Later in his life, Torrio helped create the Commission that…
Roy Albert DeMeo was born on September 7, 1942 in Bath Beach Brooklyn to working class Italian immigrants. In 1959 DeMeo graduated from James Madison High School with an accomplished loan shark business bringing in hundreds of dollars each week. After leaving James Madison High School DeMeo married and fathered three children. He also continued…
Joseph M. “Joe Cargo” Valachi ranks as one of the most notorious Mafia informants, the first mobster to acknowledge, in public, on television, under oath, that Cosa Nostra is real. Long before Sammy “The Bull” ratted out John Gotti, Valachi’s turncoat testimony gave a face to a Mafia the public knew nothing about. Joseph Valachi,…
Genovese was a ruthless boss who ruled with an iron fist, but his grip began to loosen throughout the 1960s. He was sent to prison for 15 years in 1959 on what were thought to be trumped-up heroin charges, and though he maintained technical control of his family, a panel of three other men made…
Giuseppe “Joe” Profaci was born on October 2, 1897 in Villabate a province Palermo, Sicily. His life as a child is mostly unknown but he is suspected of having been associated with the Sicilian mafia and spent one year in a Sicily prison on theft charges. On September 4, 1921 Profaci boarded ship bound for…
Frank Costello was one of the most notorious Italian Mafia bosses in American history, with a reach that covered a vast national racket and extended deeper into politics than any other. He was dubbed the “Prime Minister of the Underworld” and led an organization nicknamed the “Rolls-Royce of organized crime.” Born in 1891 in Lauropoli,…
Louis “Lepke” Buchalter ran Murder Inc., the Mafia’s private hit squad, and became the only major mob boss in American history to die in the electric chair.
Vincent Louis Chin Gigante, also known as “The Oddfather” for his largely successful efforts to dodge criminal punishment by faking mental illness, was a one-time boxer who rose from low-level enforcer to become don of one of the infamous “five families” of organized crime in New York City. Unlike most of his predecessors in the…
Paul Castellano dropped out of school in the eighth grade to become a butcher — then rose to lead the most powerful crime family in America. Read his full biography at AmericanMafiaHistory.com.
Monk Eastman ruled New York’s underworld before the Mafia existed — then gave it all up to fight in WWI. Read the remarkable story of the last old-school gangster at AmericanMafiaHistory.com.
Joe Magliocco spent 31 years as underboss of the Profaci family, only to lose everything in a matter of months after plotting to assassinate rival bosses. Read his full story at AmericanMafiaHistory.com.
Gaetano Lucchese was born on December 1, 1899 in Palermo Sicily and immigrated with his parents Giuseppe and Maria in 1911. They settled in East Harlem, an Italian neighborhood of Manhattan where Lucchese’s father worked as a laborer hauling cement. Lucchese worked in a machine shop to help this family earn money until an accident…