Additions to Who Was Who

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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.

Alo biography added

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A biography of Vincent “Jimmy Blue Eyes” Alo has been added to the website’s Who Was Who section.

Alo
Alo

Alo, a longtime pal of Meyer Lansky, was the inspiration for a number of fictional underworld characters, including “Johnny Ola” of the movie, The Godfather Part II.

In real life, Alo was born in Harlem and became an important figure in the Genovese Crime Family, organizing rackets in Bronx and Westchester Counties, as well as in eastern Florida. He helped to link the crime organization led by Frank Costello, and later Vito Genovese, with Lansky. (Three dozen sources are listed following the article.)

Additions to Who Was Who

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Several biographies have been added to the Who Was Who section of the website (click on a name to jump to the bio):

All of these biographies have source listings at the end.

‘Frankie Shots’ Abbatemarco

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A biography of Brooklyn Mafioso Frank “Frankie Shots” Abbatemarco has been added to the American Mafia site’s Who Was Who. Abbatemarco, brother of Mike Abbatemarco, became a powerful and independent-minded capodecina in the Profaci Crime Family. His 1959 murder appeared to be intended to restore discipline in the Profaci organization but, instead, triggered a determined revolt by the Gallo group in South Brooklyn.

‘Mike Shots’ Abbatemarco

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A biography of Brooklyn gangster Michael “Mike Schatz (or Shots)” Abbatemarco has been added to the American Mafia site’s Who Was Who. Abbatemarco reportedly was a close associate of Frank Yale, who met his end at about the same time and in about the same manner as Yale.

What do we know about Frankie Yale?

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It’s a question that I’ve asked myself quite a bit over the years. It seems everyone who has written about the American Mafia has written something about Brooklyn gang boss Frankie Yale. But most of that material seems based on rumor or conjecture. Factual details about Yale’s life and career are sorely lacking.

It seemed time to take stock of what we actually know about Yale. After looking through the material I had accumulated on him, I assembled this article for the website (and linked to it from the Articles menu and the Who Was Who menu):

Additional mob biographies

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Buffalo Mob website

The launch of a new book (DiCarlo: Buffalo’s First Family of Crime by Mike Tona and myself) and a new website (buffalomob.com) has taken considerable time and energy. However, I’ve managed to have that work contribute to the offerings here on The American Mafia site. A number of biographies have been added to The American Mafia collection. These link to bios created for the Buffalo-oriented site. To date, the list includes:

  • Bonasera, Cassandro (1897-1972) – Brooklyn
  • Cammilleri, John (1911-1974)
  • Carlisi, Rosario “Roy” (1909-1980)
  • Clark, “Jew Minnie” (1887-1959)
  • Crocevera, Isadoro (1873-1920) – New York City and elsewhere
  • Fino, Joseph (1915-1984)
  • Frangiamore, Salvatore (1905-1999)
  • Magaddino, Antonino (1897-1971)
  • Magaddino, Stefano (1891-1974)
  • Montana, John (1893-1964)
  • Natarelli, Pasquale (1910-1993)
  • Pieri, Salvatore “Sam” (1911-1981)
  • Randaccio, Frederico (1907-2004)
  • Sansanese, Daniel Sr. (1908-1975)
  • Tronolone, John “Peanuts” (1910-1991) – Cleveland
Visit the Who Was Who page of the site to access these and other bios. Please note, the active biography links have birth-death years after the names (others aren’t online yet). Those with asterisks are the new ones that link to the Buffalo site.

Who Was Who coming online

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The American Mafia history website’s Who Was Who biographies are slowly coming online in a new location. While they will remain accessible from the main mafiahistory.us website, the biographies will be held in their own site on Blogger.com. The direct address for accessing the biographies is: http://mob-who.blogspot.com/ .

By placing the biography entries into the blogger site, they will be more easily searchable by name and keyword. With just 15 entries transferred into the new site to this point, the index has already reached 120 terms. As in the old biographies, links are provided from the biographies to American Mafia articles and crime family boss listings. Links to relevant issues of Informer and related Amazon.com books have been added.

All of the biographies are being edited/rewritten to bring them up to date with information acquired over the past nine years.