Chronicles of Events and Biographies Related to the American Mafia
Joe Colombo was born in Brooklyn on June 16, 1923. Much of his early life is unknown; he lived with his parents, and had no other siblings. His father was a member of the American mafia until his murder in 1938. In his younger years Colombo held several legitimate jobs. He spent time in the…
Salvatore D’Aquila was born in November 1877 Palermo, Sicily and immigrated to America in 1906 at the age of 29. Before leaving Sicily, D’Aquila was already heavily involved with organized crime. He’s known as a “Mustache Pete”, which unlike the younger Sicilian-Americans known as the “Young Turks”, the Mustache Pete’s’ had usually committed their first…
Phillip “Rusty” Rastelli was a former boss of the Bonanno crime family, taking over the rein in the early 1970s, following the retirement of Joseph Bonanno. Rastelli, who listed his occupation as a radio dispatcher for a taxi company, was eventually convicted of antitrust violations and sentenced to a 10-year prison term. He reportedly directed…
Frank “Frankie Shots” Abbatemarco had no idea when he left his favorite watering hole at 8 p.m. on Nov 4, 1959 that he was walking into an ambush. Frankie Shots was born in 1899 and grew up in Red Hook Brooklyn with the Gallo family. Not much is known about his early childhood, but by…
The great Salvatore Maranzano was born on July 31, 1886 in Sicily. Little is known about Maranzano while he lived in Italy; however he was once rumored to have wanted to become a priest as a young kid, and even studied to become one; he became associated with the mob instead. Maranzano built a following…
James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke was one of the most notorious Irish-American gangsters of all time, a violent, ruthless criminal responsible for countless murders and one of the largest cash robberies in American history. He was also one of the real-life goodfellas. Burke was never an official member of the mafia. His Irish blood excluded…
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, 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…
Henry Hill was born June 11, 1943 in Brownsville Brooklyn. He is most famous for being portrayed by actor Ray Liotta in the 1990 blockbuster movie, Goodfellas as a Lucchese family associate involved in several high profile robberies, murders, scandals, and finally as an FBI informant. Henry grew up in a working class family in…
The Lucchese crime family is an organized crime family based out of New York that is a part of the Mafia or Cosa Nostra. They are one of the “Five Families” and have a seat on the mafia’s Commission. They originated in the early 1920’s and beside the Castellammarese War, maintained a low profile under…
Vincent Mangano had a 20 year reign as the Mangano crime family boss. Until that point in history no other crime boss controlled a family for as long as he did. He was successful, feared, and envied by gangsters all across the country. If Mangano was the brains of the family, his underboss, Albert Anastasia…
Tommaso “Tommy” Gagliano was an early leader of the Lucchese crime family in New York City, a low-key don who believed in secrets and knew how to keep them. Little is known about his reign at the top of one of the nation’s most powerful criminal organizations, and that’s exactly the way he would have…
Joe Bonanno, Sr. was a self-described “venture capitalist” and denied any involvement with drug trafficking or prostitution. As the head of one of New York City’s five original mafia families, Bonanno led the Brooklyn-based crime family for more than three decades before losing power in the 1960s. Bonanno was born Giuseppe Carlo Bonanno on January…
Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano came into this world on June 16, 1930, and was raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where he got his start as a petty thief. Although his descendants were from Naples, Italy, he was born with blond hair and as he grew into adulthood died it jet black which earned him the nickname…
Paul “Big Paulie” Vario was born on July 9, 1914 and lived in Brooklyn New York. He had four brothers, Vito, Salvatore, Thomas, and Leonard. As a youngster, Vario was in trouble with law enforcement often. In 1925 at the age of 12 he was sent away for seven months for truancy. He had several…