The Mob and the City (48 page)

Read The Mob and the City Online

Authors: C. Alexander Hortis

Tags: #True Crime, #Organized Crime, #History, #United States, #State & Local, #Middle Atlantic (DC; DE; MD; NJ; NY; PA), #20th Century

BOOK: The Mob and the City
5.1Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

4
. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Autopsy of Salvatore D'Aquila, October 11, 1928 (NYMA);
Brooklyn Standard Union
, October 11, 1928; Mike Dash,
The First Family: Terror, Extortion and the Birth of the American Mafia
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2009), pp. 291–92, 398.

5
. Ibid., pp. 275, 325;
New York Times
, October 11, 1928;
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
, October 11, 1928.

6
. Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, pp. 61, 76; FBI Report, Denver, La Cosa Nostra, March 29, 1964, in Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Record Group 65, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (hereafter “NARA College Park”).

7
.
New York Times
, October 11, 1928;
Brooklyn Standard Union
, October 11, 1928; autopsy of D'Aquila, October 11, 1928 (NYMA); Dash,
First Family
, p. 362.

8
. Critchley points out that the men first engaged D'Aquila in a discussion before killing him, and in 1968 an informant by the pseudonym “Jim Carra” claimed D'Aquila was killed by his own underboss. Critchley,
Origin of Organized Crime
, p. 289. On the other hand, Carra's version is uncorroborated, and other mob killings began with arguments with the victim, such as the January 1931 murder of Joseph Parrino in a restaurant.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
, January 20, 1931. Thanks to Rick Warner for this citation.

9
. Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, p. 80.

10
. Ibid., p. 96.

11
. Critchley,
Origin of Organized Crime
, pp. 77, 157.

12
. Dash,
First Family
, p. 320.

13
. Thomas Hunt, “Profaci's Rise,”
Informer: The Journal of American Crime and Law Enforcement
(January 2012): pp. 4–15; Critchley,
Origin of Organized Crime
, pp. 161–62.

14
. Dash,
First Family
, pp. 364–66.

15
. Critchley,
Origin of Organized Crime
, pp. 171–77; Dash,
First Family
, p. 328.

16
. Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, p. 96; Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, p. 87.

17
.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
, February 27, 1930; Critchley,
Origin of Organized Crime
, p. 175.

18
. Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, p. 106; Joseph Valachi, “The Real Thing: The Expose and Inside Doings of Cosa Nostra” (unpublished manuscript), pp. 339–40, in Boxes 1 and 2, Joseph Valachi Personal Papers, in John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston, MA.

19
.
Hearings before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations: Organized Crime and the Illicit Traffic in Narcotics
, Senate, 88th Cong., 1st Sess. (1963), 163 (testimony of Joseph Valachi).

20
. Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, p. 97; Critchley,
Origin of Organized Crime
, pp. 171, 178. Although Bonanno claimed Morello admitted his culpability in the Milazzo murder, there is no corroboration for this questionable story. Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, pp. 100, 103.

21
. Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, p. 70.

22
. Critchley,
Origin of Organized Crime
, pp. 144–45.

23
. Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, p. 71; Peter Maas,
Valachi Papers
(New York: Putnam, 1968), p. 106.

24
. Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, p. 109; Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, p. 103.

25
.
Organized Crime
, 166 (testimony of Joseph Valachi); Salvatore Maranzano, quoted in Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, 86; Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, p. 97.

26
. Critchley,
Origin of Organized Crime
, p. 173.

27
. Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, p. 109.

28
. Valachi, “The Real Thing,” p. 287.

29
. Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, p. 102;
Brooklyn Daily Star
, July 15, 1930.

30
. Catania was killed on February 3, 1931 by Maranzano's hit men.
Organized Crime
, 188–89, 192 (testimony of Valachi).

31
. FBI Report, Activities of Top Hoodlums in the New York Field Division, September 14, 1959 (NARA College Park); Peter Diapoulos and Steven Linakis,
The Sixth Family
(New York: Bantam, 1976), pp. 21–22; Valachi, “The Real Thing,” p. 287.

32
. Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, p. 86.

33
. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Report of the Autopsy of Joseph Masseria, April 16, 1931 (NYMA); Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Report of the Autopsy of Salvatore Maranzano, September 11, 1931 (NYMA); Thomas Hunt and Michael Tona, “Cleveland Convention Was to Be Masseria Coronation,”
Informer: History of American Crime & Law Enforcement
(January 2010), p. 33 n. 62.

34
. George Wolf with Joseph DiMona,
Frank Costello: Prime Minister of the Underworld
(London: Morrow, 1974), p. 83.

35
.
New York Times
, August 15, 1930;
New York Sun
, August 16, 1930;
Brooklyn Standard Union
, August 16, 1930; Maas,
Valachi Papers
, p. 89.

36
. Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, p. 107; Dash,
First Family
, p. 376.

37
.
Organized Crime
, 164–66 (testimony of Valachi).

38
. Ibid., 170;
New York Times
, November 6, 1930.

39
. FBI Report, La Cosa Nostra, July 1, 1963, in RG 65 (NARA College Park); Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, p. 107.

40
. Ibid., p. 108.

41
. Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, p. 122.

42
.
New York Times
, April 19, 1930, April 20, 1931;
Organized Crime
, 211 (testimony of Valachi).

43
. Autopsy of Masseria (NYMA).

44
.
New York Times
, April 16, 1931;
New York Sun
, April 16, 1931.

45
.
Brooklyn Eagle
, April 17, 1931; autopsy of Masseria (NYMA); Critchley, “Castellammare War, 1930–1931,” p. 64 n. 123.

46
. Autopsy of Masseria (NYMA);
Daily Argus
, April 16, 1931.

47
.
New York Times
, April 16, 1931;
New York Sun
, April 16, 1931.

48
. It was unlikely Luciano was present at the Nuova. Luciano was not known as a hit man, no news accounts placed him in Brooklyn, and Nicola Gentile witnessed a calm Luciano in his residence shortly after the murder. Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, p. 112.

49
. Critchley,
Origin of Organized Crime
, p. 302, n. 160 citing “Giuseppe Masseria, November 27, 1940,” in Box 17, Murder, Inc. Collection, NYMA.

50
. Confidential Memorandum, In Re: Anastasia Brothers, March 21, 1952, in Box 8, Albert Anastasia Closed Files (NYMA). The informant did not appear to have been a
mafioso
himself and made some farfetched claims. For example, he called Vito Genovese “the boss” of the Brooklyn mob, and he alleged that William O'Dwyer actively conspired in Abe Reles's murder. However, the informant was accurate about other waterfront matters, and his story about Giustra was corroborated.
New York Times
, December 12, 1930, September 12, 1932;
New York Sun
, May 15, 1931.

51
. Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, p. 112.

52
. Ibid., p. 113.

53
. Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, p. 128.

54
. Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, p. 115.

55
. Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, pp. 126–27; Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, p. 115.

56
.
New York Times
, June 6, 1931.

57
. “Lucky Luciano Talks,”
Esquire
, p. 128.

58
. Humbert S. Nelli,
The Business of Crime: Italians and Syndicate Crime in the United States
(Chicago: University of Chicago, Press, 1976), pp. 205, 295 nn. 30–31.

59
.
Organized Crime
, 217–18 (testimony of Valachi); Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, pp. 115–116.

60
. Ibid.

61
.
New York Times
, September 11, 1931; Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, p. 130; Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, p. 116.

62
.
New York Times
, September 26, 1931; Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, p. 134.

63
. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus,
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars
, 121 CE.

64
. FBI ELSUR Log, Steve Magaddino, June 3, 1963, in RG 65 (NARA College Park); FBI Memorandum, Subject: Steve Magaddino, March 31, 1965, in RG 65 (NARA College Park).

65
.
Organized Crime
, 221, 226 (testimony of Valachi).

66
. Dash makes no mention of their role in the Maranzano assassination. While noting their presence at Maranzano's office, Critchley concludes only that the Gaglianos “may have been involved in it.” Critchley,
Origin of Organized Crime
, pp. 195, 305 n. 238, citing New York State Crime Commission,
Public Hearings (no. 4)
(November 1952), 111 (testimony of Lucchese).

67
.
Organized Crime
, 226 (testimony of Valachi); FBI Memorandum, Thomas Lucchese, January 12, 1954, in FBI FOIA file of Thomas Lucchese (copy in possession of author).

68
. Bonanno,
Man of Honor
, p. 139; Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, p. 117.

Other books

Midwife of the Blue Ridge by Christine Blevins
Where We Fell by Johnson, Amber L.
I Suck at Girls by Justin Halpern
Alyssa's Desire by Raine, Krysten
Enchanted Evening by M. M. Kaye
Wrath by Kristie Cook
Silence Once Begun by Jesse Ball