Recent additions to the Who Was Who collection of American Mafia biographies:
Frank “Butsey” Morelli was an early leader of Italian organized crime in Rhode Island, mentoring a number of later Mafiosi, including Raymond Patriarca and Henry Tameleo. Morelli and some of his brothers long have been suspected of involvement in the April 1920 South Braintree, Massachusetts, robbery-murders for which Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in August 1927.
Gaspare Messina was one of just two men known to have served as temporary boss of bosses of the American Mafia. He is also distinguished among Mafia leaders by his lack of arrests and apparent competence as a legitimate businessman.
Vincenzo “Jimmy Marino” LePore was one of a small number of Salvatore Maranzano loyalists murdered following Maranzano’s Sept. 10, 1931, assassination. His killing helped to give life to the “Night of Sicilian Vespers” legend in the U.S. Mafia.
