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…
Joe Valachi – The First Rat
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,…
Vincent Louis “Chin” Gigante – Part II – The Robe
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
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 – Prime Minister of the Mob Part I
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- CEO of Murder
Louis “Lepke” Buchalter was one of the great Jewish gangsters of the 20th century, a violent goon who led the Mafia’s own private hit squad. He worked with key bosses of his day, helped build the mob we know today, and became the only major Mafia figure sent to the death chamber.Louis Buchalter was born…
Vincent Louis Chin Gigante – Muscle on Both Ends Part I
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 – Eighth Grade Drop Out to Gambino Family Boss Part I
Constantino Paul Castellano was born on June, 26 1915 in Brooklyn, New York. His mother’s name was Concetta and his father, a butcher and early member of the Mangano crime family, was named Giuseppe. Castellano had a sister, Kathryn who married Carlo Gambino, Castellano’s cousin and future boss of the Gambino crime family. Castellano had…
Monk Eastman: Last of the Old-Time Gangsters
Edward Monk Eastman was a mobster who dominated street crime in New York City around the turn of the 20th century. By some measures he was the last of the old-school hoods who came before the Italian-American Mafia and truly organized crime. Though often referred to as one of the city’s great Jewish gangsters, it’s…
Joe Magliocco – 31 year Colombo Family Consigliere
Giuseppe “Joe” Magliocco was born in Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily in 1898. Magliocco was related by marriage to consigliere and underboss Salvatore Mussachio, Buffalo crime family boss Stefano Magaddino, Bonanno crime family founder Joseph Bonanno, and his closest confidant, Profaci family founder, Joseph Profaci. When he arrived in the United States he quickly took…