Ciro Terranova
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Ciro Terranova | |
---|---|
New York, New York, U.S. | |
Other names | "The Artichoke King" |
Occupation | Gangster |
Ciro Terranova (Italian pronunciation: [ˈtʃiːro ˌtɛrraˈnɔːva]; July 20, 1888 − February 20, 1938) was an Italian-born New York City gangster and one time underboss of the Morello crime family.
Early life
Terranova was born in the town of
Due to lack of work in the New York area, Terranova and his family only stayed there for about a year. They eventually traveled to
Return to New York
Ciro and Vincent went to school and worked at the family business, a plastering store, on evenings and weekends. Ciro later worked as a waiter at a restaurant owned by his stepbrother Giuseppe, at the rear of the Prince Street Saloon. In 1903, Giuseppe was charged with the
Rise to power
When
Ciro earned his nickname, "the Artichoke King", by purchasing all the artichokes that came into New York and selling them for roughly three times as much.[1]
DiMarco murder
In 1916, Joe DiMarco, a gambling joint operator, challenged the power of Ciro and the Morellos. The Morellos then conspired with the Navy Street Gang to kill DiMarco and gave the job to Leo Lauritano, the Navy Street leader. Lauritano in turn passed the job on to Mike Fetto.
Accounts differ as to what happened next. In one narrative Fetto went to DiMarco's club to kill him but could not identify DiMarco and returned without finishing the job, which was then given to John "Jonny Left" Esposito, with Fetto as his assistant. Esposito likewise could not find Dimarco, so he killed Charles Lombardi instead. Fetto eventually caught up with DiMarco and murdered him.
In another account of the
Change in power
After the DiMarco murder, the police arrested hitman John Esposito. Esposito then implicated Ciro, who was indicted on the two murders. However, the charges against Ciro were soon dropped. The reason was that the testimony against Ciro was given by co-conspirators and accomplices and under New York law outside corroboration was necessary. Two weeks after the DiMarco hit, but before his arrest, Esposito was ordered to kill
By 1920 the Morello-Terranova-Lupo rule was being challenged by Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria, an up-and-coming gangster. Vincent Morello was murdered on East 116 St. A powerful ally of the Morello Family, Umberto "Rocco" Valenti, was killed by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, then a member of the Masseria family. After Valenti's death, many of Ciro's men switched sides to Masseria. Even Peter Morello switched sides and became one of Masseria's most trusted lieutenants, even though the Masseria gang had killed his brother. When the dust settled, Ciro controlled the 116th Street Crew in Upper Manhattan and Masseria ruled the Bronx.
Castellammarese War
While the
Valachi's first assignment was to kill Ciro's driver; instead, Valachi killed Ciro's nephew, Joseph Catania. At Catania's funeral, Terranova swore revenge. Valachi also claimed to have killed Peter Morello, Ciro's half brother, but Lucky Luciano said that
During the early 1930s, New York mayor
Death
On February 18, 1938, Ciro Terranova suffered a paralyzing
In popular fiction
- In the television series The Untouchables, Terranova is portrayed by Jack Weston.
References
- ^ "Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics: Hearings Before the United States Senate Committee on Government Operations, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Eighty-Eighth and Eighty-Ninth Congresses". 1963.
- ^ a b "TERRANOVA DEAD; ONCE RACKET 'KING". New York Times. February 20, 1938. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
- ^ "21 Feb 1938, Page 3 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch at". Newspapers.com. 1938-02-21. Retrieved 2022-06-05.
- ^ a b Dash, epilogue
- ISBN 978-1-84737-173-7.
Further reading
- Critchley, David (2008). The Origin of Organized Crime: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931. New York: Routledge.
- Dash, Mike (2009). The First Family: Terror, Extortion and the Birth of the American Mafia. London: Simon & Schuster.