Morello crime family
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The Morello crime family (Italian:
History
From Corleone to America
The Morello family traces back to Corleone, Sicily. In 1865, Calogero Morello married Angelina Piazza who gave birth to two children: Giuseppe Morello (born May 2, 1867) and Maria Morello-Lima (née Morello, born c. 1869). Calogero Morello died in 1872, and one year later Piazza remarried to Bernardo Terranova.[1] The new marriage produced five children: three sons, Vincenzo (born 1886), Ciro (born 1888) and Nicolo (born 1890), and two daughters, Lucia (born 1877) and Salvatrice (born 1880).[1] Critchley mentions a possible third sister of the Terranovas, Rosalia Lomonte (1892 – October 14, 1915).[1]
In 1892, Giuseppe Morello emigrated to the United States.[2][3] On March 8, 1893, Giuseppe's family arrived in New York: his wife Maria Rosa Marvalisi, his mother Angelina Piazza, his stepfather Bernardo Terranova, his half-brothers Ciro, Nicolo, and Vincenzo, and his half-sister Rosalia.[1] The Morello-Terranova family lived in New York for a while before moving to Louisiana, then Texas, and by 1896 the family was back in New York City.[2][3]
107th Street Mob
The brothers returned to New York and became known as the 107th Street Mob (sometimes called the Morello Gang) dominating East Harlem, Manhattan, and parts of the Bronx. Giuseppe Morello's strongest ally was Ignazio Lupo, a mobster who controlled Little Italy, Manhattan. On December 23, 1903, Lupo married Morello's half sister, Salvatrice Terranova.
The Morello-Lupo alliance continued to prosper in 1903, when the group began a major counterfeiting ring with powerful Sicilian mafioso Don Vito Cascio Ferro, printing $5 bills in Sicily and smuggling them into the United States. Many of the later "barrel murders", particularly that of Giuseppe "Joe" Catania, Sr. (whose body was found in July 1902), were thought to have been committed by the Morellos, who employed numerous members of the counterfeiting operation.
On April 13, 1903, the body of Benedetto Madonia, brother-in-law to police informant Giuseppe DiPrimo (de Priemo), was found in a barrel after being brutally tortured. A
The Morello family had consolidated their hold on Upper Manhattan. Additionally, on November 15, 1909, New York police raided a building the Morellos were using in Highland, New York, as a front for their counterfeiting operation and recovered a large amount of American and Canadian counterfeit bills. After letters were found by Black Hand victims from New Orleans, fifteen members of the Morellos were arrested, including bosses Giuseppe Morello and Ignazio Lupo and member Pasquale Vassi, who possessed $1,200 worth of counterfeit money.
The trials began on January 26, 1910, and ended on February 19 with all members involved convicted, including Morello and Lupo, who were sentenced to 30 and 25 years, respectively, at
Mafia–Camorra War
With Giuseppe Morello's and Lupo's convictions, Nicholas "Nick" Terranova, the youngest of the three Terranova brothers, took over the family with the aid of his older brothers, Vincenzo and Ciro. The family was involved in many criminal activities from East Harlem to Greenwich Village. Soon after opening the Venezia Restaurant, the club became a popular hangout for the city's underworld.
Without Joseph Morello and Lupo the Wolf at the helm, the Morellos' power was waning. During this time, Gaetano Reina, a captain within the family, took advantage of its weakened status and broke off, forming his own separate mafia famiglia based mostly in the Bronx. Nick Terranova made an effort to unify much of the Italian underworld in the face of these problems. His efforts to unify the Sicilian mafiosi and the Neapolitan camorristi during the early 1910s were unsuccessful despite his best efforts.
During this time, the Morellos had allied with powerful and prominent East Harlem businessmen and camorristi, including Giosue Gallucci, who possessed local political connections, and the Lamonti brothers. Gaetano "Thomas" Lamonti and brother Fortunato "Charles" Lamonti were known as cousins of the Morellos and owned a feed store down the street from the famous Murder Stable owned by Ignazio Lupo. After the 1914 murder of Charles Lamonti and the 1915 murder of Gallucci, the alliance between the Morellos and the East Harlem camorristi ended. The Brooklyn camorristi made plans to eliminate the mafiosi from Manhattan.
In early 1916, Camorra boss
Morello family war
The Mafia–Camorra war ended in 1917, and Terranova brothers
One of D'Aquila's men,
Historical leadership
Boss
- 1890s–1909 — Giuseppe "the Clutch Hand" Morello — founded the 107th Street Mob; imprisoned 1909
- 1909–1916 — Nicholas "Nick Morello" Terranova — killed during Mafia–Camorra war on September 7, 1916
- 1916–1920 — Vincenzo "Vincent" Terranova — stepped down becoming underboss
- 1920–1922 — Giuseppe "the Clutch Hand" Morello — stepped down becoming underboss
- 1922–1931 — Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria — paroled in 1920, became boss in 1922
Underboss
- 1903–1909 — Ignazio "Lupo the Wolf" Lupo — imprisoned 1910
- 1909–1916 — Vincenzo "Vincent" Terranova — became boss
- 1916–1920 — Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova — stepped down
- 1920–1922 — Vincenzo "Vincent" Terranova — murdered on May 8, 1922
- 1922–1930 — Giuseppe "the Clutch Hand" Morello — murdered on August 15, 1930
Former members
- Giuseppe Fanaro – a member of the Morello family who was involved in the Alfred Mineo's gangs.[6]
- Eugene "Charles" Ubriaco – a member of the Morello family, he lived on East 114th Street.[4] Ubriaco was arrested in June 1915 for carrying a revolver and was released on bail. On September 7, 1916, Ubriaco along with Nicholas Morello meet with the Navy Street gang in Brooklyn and they both were shot to death on Johnson Street in Brooklyn.[4][7]
- Tomasso "The Ox" Petto
Notes
- ^ a b c d Critchley p.51–54
- ^ a b Hunt, Thomas. 'Clutch Hand Confusion Mafia Boss of Bosses Giuseppe Morello Archived 2012-01-23 at the Wayback Machine The American Mafia
- ^ a b Giuseppe Morello Gangrule.com
- ^ a b c 2 Die In Pistol Fight in Brooklyn Street, The New York Times, September 8, 1916
- ^ Gangrule:"Giusepppe Fanaro"
- ^ Critchley pg.44
- ^ Gangrule: "Eugene Ubriaco"
References
- Critchley, David. The Origin of Organized Crime in America:the New York City Mafia, 1891-1931. London: Routledge, 2008. ISBN 978-0-415-99030-1
- Dash, Mike. The First Family: Terror, Extortion and the Birth of the American Mafia. London, Simon & Schuster, 2009.
- ISBN 1-56025-275-8
- Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3