American Mafia History Website

Bagged by Brasco, 'Nicky Cigars' returned to Bonanno leadership

By Thomas Hunt, 2019

Known as "Nicky Cigars" and "Nicky Mouth," Santora was a longtime member of New York's Bonanno Crime Family. His underworld leadership role was revealed by the FBI's "Donnie Brasco" undercover operation. Though sentenced to a long federal prison term, Santora regained his status in the Bonanno organization following his release. Born in New York City on November 19, 1942, Santora began getting in trouble with the law as a young adult in the 1960s...

Mafia club robberies halted by Christmas Eve killings

By Thomas Hunt, 2018

Thomas and Rosemarie Uva headed out on the morning of Thursday, December 24, 1992, to finish up their Christmas shopping. Holiday traffic was heavy. The Uvas, in a four-door maroon Mercury Topaz, were less than a mile from home at nine o'clock when they stopped for a traffic light at 103rd Avenue's intersection with Ninety-First Street. Bullets cracked in rapid succession through the Topaz's windshield. Three slugs struck Thomas in the head. Three others hit Rosemarie...

When 'Lucky Luciano' was locked up

By Thomas Hunt, 2018

"Less than five years after achieving gangland eminence, Lucania was taken into custody. He spent most of the next decade - from the prime years of his life into middle age - behind prison bars. Lucky, who had embraced a luxurious and carefree lifestyle that included the grandest accommodations, the flashiest entertainment, the finest clothing and the most delectable cuisine, must have found most of his time in prison unbearably offensive, ordinary and dull. Yet, even during a lengthy prison stay, Lucania found a way to make himself important."

Two Gambino informants had very different fates

By Edmond Valin, 2018

"On July 11, 1963, two men wearing makeup disguises entered the Flowers By Charm flower store in Brooklyn, New York, and fired five bullets at the owner before fleeing. Lying dead on the floor was forty-year-old Gambino Crime Family member Alfredo Santantonio. The murder had the hallmarks of a professional killing... Informant Gregory Scarpa told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that 'it was common talk in Brooklyn that [Santantonio] was killed because he was cooperating with the Government...'"

Jack Ruby's 1959 visit to Havana

By Thomas Hunt, 2009

"Jack Ruby of Dallas appears to have played a role in the departure of American racketeers and the removal of their money from Cuba in 1959. How big a role he played remains uncertain. Some believe he secured the release of Mafia boss Santo Trafficante by the Fidel Castro government and later may have been part of a Castro-Mafia plot against U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Following the Nov. 22, 1963, Kennedy assassination, U.S. federal agencies and a number of private citizens began investigating connections between American organized crime and Cubans..."

Two inducted members provided info on Philly Mob

By Edmond Valin, 2017

"By the early 1960s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was able to persuade two members of the Philadelphia Crime Family to reveal confidential information about La Cosa Nostra. The informants were the sons of prominent LCN members who could trace their crime family connections to the 1920s. They provided federal agents with an inside look at the history, structure and membership of the Philadelphia Crime Family back to its earliest days. Sometime in 1963, the FBI convinced a longtime member of the Philadelphia Crime Family to break his code of silence...."

Death of Benny Eggs severs tie to family's past

By Thomas Hunt, 2017

"Venero Frank 'Benny Eggs' Mangano, one of the Genovese Crime Family's oldest and strongest remaining links to its traditional Lower West Side foundation, died of natural causes in Manhattan's Greenwich Village on August 18, 2017. He was ninety-five years old. The Greenwich Village area was a stronghold of the organization that became known as the Genovese Family since a young Vito Genovese joined forces with Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria in the Prohibition Era. Venero Mangano's parents, newcomers to the United States, settled in the area in the early 1910s..."

Just How Organized Was Calabrian Crime?

By Thomas Hunt, 2015

"There are a number of unanswered questions related to the American Mafia's incorporation of Calabrian gangsters - those who trace their origins to the southernmost portion of the Italian mainland. We may ask: How did this combination occur? Precisely when did it occur? Was it the result of a decision of the American Mafia as a whole or did it result from decisions of individual crime families? Were Calabrian gangsters welcomed on an individual basis or was a Calabrian crime network consumed by the Mafia en masse? This last question touches on a subject that I have found particularly interesting..."

Sinistro: The Underworld Career of Giuseppe Morello

By Thomas Hunt, 2015

Giuseppe Morello was the first known boss of bosses of the American Mafia. While he was a unifying force initially, he later became a central figure in underworld conflicts and was an early casualty of the Castellammarese War. Morello was born on May 2, 1867, to Calogero and Angela Piazza Morello in Corleone, Sicily. A sister, Maria, was born several years later. Calogero Morello died in the early 1870s, and Angela subsequently married Bernardo Terranova. The couple had three sons, Vincent, Ciro and Nicholas "Coco," and three daughters, Lucia, Salvatrice "Dora," and Rosalia ...

The Capone of New Jersey: Abner Zwillman

By Thomas Hunt, 2014

One of the more powerful and influential New Jersey underworld figures of the Prohibition Era and beyond, Abner "Longie" Zwillman became known as the "Al Capone" of his state. A political powerhouse in the Newark area, Zwillman amassed a fortune through rum-running, gambling and coin-operated machines. He was regarded as generous with friends and underworld associates. But his downfall was his stinginess with Uncle Sam...

What Do We Know About Frankie Yale?

By Thomas Hunt, 2013

Frankie Yale was a Brooklyn gangster and businessman with ties to Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria and Al Capone. His 1928 assassination coincided with dramatic changes in the Brooklyn underworld and the Mafia of the United States. Yale apparently was born Jan. 22, 1893, in Longobucco, a town in the southern mainland Italian region of Calabria. The original spelling of his surname was probably "Ioele"...

Bay-Area informants proved crucial for FBI

By Edmond Valin, 2018

As the FBI entered the fight against organized crime on a national level, it benefited from membership data and organizational history obtained through confidential informants from a small Mafia family in northern California. For a brief period in the 1960s, there may have been more member-informants active in San Jose than any other LCN crime family. Their cooperation left the FBI better informed about the Bay Area underworld than its local boss Joseph Cerrito.

Stefan Cicale Testimony - U.S. v Joseph Young

Edited By J.Dugard, 2010

A gruesome murder in a reportedly haunted, old, Staten Island mansion provides a window into the operation of the Bonanno Crime Family of New York. Turncoat witness Cicale testifies in the October 2008 case United States v. Joseph Young.

Gangsters in Southwest Michigan

By David Critchley, 2008

Historians have neglected the role played by Berrien County, Michigan, in the history of Chicago and New York organized crime. The Berrien cities of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph were linked to three significant incidents in American organized crime history.

The Man in the Shadows: Sam Pollaccia

By T. Hunt and L. Cafiero, 2008

Some underworld legends, often repeated in mob history books and long cherished by Hollywood, will have to be revised or discarded due to continuing discoveries related to a shadowy Mafia figure named Saverio "Sam" Pollaccia.

Badges in Little Italy: New York's Italian Squad

By Thomas Hunt, 2007

After completing an evening meal of fish and pasta at the Cafe Oreto on March 12, 1909, Joseph Petrosino walked into the Piazza Marina, a wooded, public square just to the south of the busy docks of Palermo, Sicily. Petrosino, a New York police lieutenant, leader and founder of the Italian Squad, was in Italy to gather evidence against Italian fugitives living in New York.

Gambino Family Chronicles, 1980-2002

Feb. 2006 testimony of Michael DiLeonardo

Paul Castellano had sent some emissaries to talk to me about it. My brother Robert was with the Colombo family, and being he was with that family, we have no say and no influence on their politics or anything that they do. So this is a way to tell me this is Cosa Nostra. This is the way the rules are. Your brother was there. They killed him and that's it. There's no questions to be asked.

White-Collar Mafioso: Tommy Lucchese

By Thomas Hunt, 2006

Despite running one of New York's smaller underworld units, Gaetano "Tommy" Lucchese was one of the more successful American Mafia bosses of the post-Prohibition era. Abundant evidence of his business acumen suggests he was among the few mob chiefs who could have succeeded in life without underworld ties.

Chicago's Man in Vegas: Anthony Spilotro

By Thomas Hunt, 2006

Anthony Spilotro wasn't much to look at. His build certainly wasn't threatening. He stood just five feet, six inches tall and weighed in the neighborhood of 160. His small stature led underworld colleagues to call him "Tony the Ant" and "The Little Guy."

Remembering "Boo Boo": Max Hoff

By Parry Desmond, 2003

Max "Boo Boo" Hoff was born in 1893 in South Philadelphia, a son of poor Russian-Jewish, immigrants. After quitting school, Boo Boo worked for several years as a cigar store clerk. His salary allegedly was raised from $12 a week to $15 after the proprietor noticed how Boo Boo's amiable personality appealed to customers.

Counterfeit Capone? A Puzzle

By Thomas Hunt, 2010

"Al Capone's ten-month imprisonment in Philadelphia gave rise to a number of conspiracy theories. The most complex theory was advanced by Real Detective magazine in 1931. That periodical charged that the real Al Capone was dead and the man who had served time for carrying a deadly weapon in Philadelphia was an imposter. Real Detective charged that, at the time of his imprisonment, Capone's eye color changed from brown to blue, his ears grew rounder, and both his famous facial scar and his fingerprints changed noticeably. The magazine asserted that the real Capone had been murdered on orders from Johnny Torrio, former Chicago gang boss..."

Former San Francisco boss supplied info to federal agents

By Edmond Valin, 2018

In 1965, Anthony Lima, former boss of the San Francisco Crime Family, began to share confidential information with federal law enforcement. The veteran LCN member provided an insider's view of organized crime from the highest levels. Lima told federal agents about his induction ceremony, provided details about the history of the Pittsburgh Crime Family, and identified LCN members, many for the first time, in Pittsburgh and the San Francisco Bay Area. He kept the FBI up-to-date on the activities of LCN members and helped shape the Bureau's organized crime investigations across the country.

Vinnie Teresa cooperated much earlier than he let on

By Edmond Valin, 2018

Vincent "Fat Vinnie" Teresa achieved notoriety in the 1970s after he became a cooperating witness against the mob. The former New England Crime Family mobster testified at more than a dozen mob trials and made a televised appearance before a United States Senate committee investigating organized crime. Teresa's tales of mob life and his distinctive appearance - a large head, massive frame and gravely voice - made him the most infamous mobster in America for a time.

Sicilian vendetta in Missouri and Texas

By Thomas Hunt, 2018

The force of Sicilian vendetta was observed in the United States between 1918 and 1921, during a long and bloody family feud in Texas and Missouri. It is uncertain whether the immigrant families involved, the Restivos and the Campanellas, were at all connected with the Mafia criminal society. However, their determination to destroy each other rivaled anything seen in Mafia history. It was reported that the families were bitter enemies in Sicily and brought their feud with them when they relocated to the United States early in the 1900s...