Vito “Don Vito” Genovese was an early boss and namesake of the Genovese crime family in New York. From Prohibition to Apalachin, he used his wits and reputation for violence to help maintain the organization’s place of infamy among the city’s “five families.” Born in Naples in 1897, Genovese got an early start in crime….
Category: Genovese
Salvatore Lucania a.k.a. Lucky Luciano – Building a Mafia Empire
Charles “Lucky” Luciano was born Salvatore Lucania on November 24, 1897 in Lercara Friddi, Sicily. He immigrated to the United States in 1906 where his family settled on the Lower East Side of New York where Lucky promptly integrated himself in the neighborhood as a small time hoodlum. By his 10th birthday, Salvatore Lucania had been…
Vincenzo “Vincent” Terranova, Underboss of the Morello Gang
Born in May 1886 in Corleone Italy, Vincenzo “Vincent” Terranova’s legacy is somewhat overshadowed by his stepbrother Giuseppe Morello who was a successful Italian American mafia boss. Nonetheless Terranova had his own successful run in the mob as the underboss to the Morello family, today known as the Genovese family; the family his stepbrother controlled….
Giuseppe “The Clutch Hand” Morello – The First “Capo di Tutti Capi” of New York
Giuseppe “the Clutch Hand” Morello was born on May 2, 1867 in Corleone, Sicily. His biological father, Calogero Morello died when Giuseppe was just five years old. One year later his mother Angelina remarried to Bernardo Terranova, a member of the Corelonesi Mafia in Corleone. The two had three additional sons and two daughters during…
Ignazio Lupo – Implicated in the early 1900’s Barrel Murders
Ignazio Lupo was born to a middle class family in Province of Palermo, Sicily on March 19, 1877. From an early age he was involved in crimes ranging from simple robbery to theft. In 1889 Lupo is believed to have committed his first murder when a man named Salvatore Morello (unrelated to the Giuseppe Morello…
Frank Costello – Luciano Crime Family Boss Part II
Like Masseria, Maranzano was an old-school mob boss, a “Mustache Pete,” as they were known. Costello, Luciano and the other “Young Turks” had had enough of the old ways, and they decided Maranzano, like Masseria, needed to go. In late 1931, less than six months into his reign as “boss of all bosses,” Maranzano called…
Willie Moretti – “What do you mean, like do I carry a membership card that says “Mafia” on it?”
Willie Moretti, birth name Guarino Moretti was born in Bari Puglia, Italy on February 24, 1894, and immigrated to the United States with his family in the early 1890s. The family settled in New Jersey where Moretti met brothers Frank and Eddie Costello where the three youth would eventually form a gang on the streets…