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The Morello Mob was a Mafia gang of "Black Hand" extortionists, murderers and counterfeiters that reigned over Lower Manhattan's Little Italy at the turn of the 20th Century. It was closely linked with the Terranova gang of thieves and racketeers in East Harlem. 
The Morello Mob's leaders were brothers-in-law Giuseppe Morello and Ignazio Lupo (the Wolf), both escaped criminals from Corleone, Sicily. The two men were for a time the most powerful Mafiosi in the United States. Morello established a large Mafia network, with branches in Chicago, New Orleans and elsewhere, and rose to the position of Mafia Boss of Bosses. Morello was forced into retirement in 1910 when he and Lupo were sentenced to long terms in Atlanta Federal Prison for counterfeiting. During their absence, the American Mafia grew in strength, wealth and influence. Morello returned to New York at the dawn of the Prohibition Era, sparking a struggle with new Boss of Bosses Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila. A decade later, with D'Aquila gone and the real Mafia power in New York held by Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria, Morello was called upon to serve as Masseria's chief counselor. He did not last long in the role. Gunmen shot him to death in his offices in mid-August, 1930, at the start of the Castellammarese War. Lupo, released from prison in 1920 on a conditional Presidential commutation, busied himself with a variety of labor racketeering in Brooklyn until the law documented his illegal activities in July 1935. A year later, he was found in violation of the Presidential commutation and went back to Atlanta Prison. Lupo, aging and in poor health, was released late in 1946 and died in January 1947. Copyright © 2013 |
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