Tag: gangster

Abe was regarded to be a bootlegger and thug operating on the Lower East side of Manhattan and was of Jewish origin. He compared himself to that of Dropper even had roughened up Joe Masseria’s son to show him what he is capable of. Fortunately for Wagner, before taking revenue for insult caused to his son, Masseria got gunned down.

Mafia activities

With Allie, his brother Wagner had been making a decent living in bootlegging business on Lower East Side. On 20^th February 1932, when he was riding his new car, he got attacked by some shooters and managed to escape in the crowd. Although he claimed to be a tough soul, his activities proved him not to be one. After the attack, he tried to be in peace with the enemies. To achieve this, he had sent his brother and an associate to meet the Mazza and hand over to them a huge amount for leaving him off. But in the process, Albie was shot dead and a message was left to Wagner that the Mazza meant business and his death.

He was prodded by his mother to seek refuge elsewhere from the Mazza gang, since she did not want similar fate for the other son. He took his wife and left town. However, in New Jersey’s Hopewell region, the Lindberg baby got abducted, which made Wagner to come under suspicion by the law enforcement officials.

More trouble for Wagner

At the same time, the Mazza Gang having aligned with the likes of Lucky Luciano searched for Wagner throughout the country. To check out on his mom, he sneaked back into New York.  On understanding that his presence came to light by the gang, he again ran with his wife and had his identity changed to Abe Loeb taking the profession of a fruit seller. But in weeks, Wagner was noticed by Luciano’s men. Two mobsters from Luciano’s Murder Incorporated were sent to kill Wagner, who was quite knowledgeable about the place where the latter hid, as it once had been their hideout too.

With Al Gordon, the new partner, Wagner on 25^th July 1932 was followed by the two mobsters and killed both. Wagner succumbed to injuries, was taken to the nearby Ancker Hospital, where he died hours later, whose real identity was confirmed by his mother.

It was on 1^st December 1899 that Gatano Lucchese was born in Palermo Sicily. However, in 1911, his parents Maria and Giuseppe had immigrated to East Harlem, United States and settled in Manhattan’s Italian neighborhood. Here, his father had worked hauling cement. In 1915, when Lucchese was trying to help his family financially by working at a machine shop, he lost his right forefinger and thumb.

His life as a mafia

On turning 18 years old, he worked with a window cleaning firm that was dubbed as extortion racket for 107^th Street gang. He was its member. Businesses that refused using his services were noticed to have their windows to be broken.  The gang also included his close friends Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello and Charlie Luciano. Together, they specialized in stealing wallets, burglarizing stores, smalltime gambling, etc. Although they were a gang, they were protected by Gaetano Reina, a popular gangster and boss of Bronx-East Harlem boss.

He got arrested in 1920 for auto theft, where the police officer had compared his deformed hand with  that of Mordecai Brown, the professional baseball pitcher, known popularly as ‘Three-Finger’. Hence, Lucchese was nicknamed as Three-finger brown by the police a name that remained for the rest of his life and got shortened to just Brown.

He got convicted and served 13 months in prison at Sing Sing Correctional place. It is regarded to be the only and first conviction in his life. he was arrested several times for receiving stolen goods and murdering small-time hood. But charges against him were dropped.

The murder of Pinzolo at a Manhattan office owned by Luchesse made the law enforcement officials to suspect the latter of committing the crime. But on his self surrendering to the police authorities on 8^th September 1930, saw him to be acquitted due to lack of evidence. The end of Castellammarese War saw the rise of Maranzano who had declared himself to be boss of bosses, placing Luciano as second in command and Lucchese was made the underboss.

Lucchese had been naturalized to become an American citizen on 25^th January 1943, but securing the good conduct certification from Parole Board of the State of New York, took him another 7 years. He was successful as a VP of the garment factory by early 1950s, however, had controlled its worker unions, trucker unions and longshoremen unions. Also he had influenced numerous government officials of the city of New York as well as local entertainment industry. He had become a powerful entrepreneur, businessman and controller of unions, while being the entertainment industry’s friend. It was on 16^th February 1951 that he died.

Frank Abbatemarco was popularly called by his associates as ‘Frankie Shots’. It was in 1899 that he was born and grew up with Gallo family in Brooklyn’s Red Hook place. There is not much knowledge related to his early childhood days. However, he got arrested in during the late 1920s several times on narcotic charges.

His life as a Mafia

He was into racketeering by early 1930s for Joseph Profaci, the new appointed Brooklyn’s boss and enjoyed immense success. Dollars in thousands were kicked every week by Abbatemarco for the family boss. During the late 1940s and early part of 1950’s, he got a better position as a capital within the Profaci Mafia family and was among the family’s biggest earners and was in charge of several rackets in South Brooklyn. During his peak, he pulled around $7,000 in a day and a year about $2.5 million.

His joining the Gallo team to avoid payment to Profaci

However, the late 1950’s saw disgruntle among the Mafia members in the Profaci Mafia family. The reason was because of the huge demands being made by Profaci as tribute demands. An additional monthly tribute of $25 was made by Profaci from every family member that had to be paid to him directly, which became the tipping point. It was seen by the family members as a means for Profaci to have his extravagant lifestyle to be funded with. Joe Gallo along with his crew members in the early part of 1959 denied tribute  payments to boss, leading to a feud and all out war. At the same time, the rackets of Abbatemarco also started to falter because of frequent raids conducted by the law enforcement officials. For a short time, he agreed to Gallo to avoid making payments to Profaci.

The late tribute or back taxes of Abbatemarco by 1959 October had amounted to $50,000 and still he was convinced by Gallo to stick to his decision of not paying up Profaci, which turned to be a bad advice. On 4^th November 1959 night, when he was at the cousin’s saloon, he was shot at by two men fully armed and getting killed on spot. It was only after his murder that Gallo and his team had started to kidnap the top shots of Profaci family in retaliation of the murder, which led to the Gallo-Profaci war that lasted until the death of Profaci on 6^th June 1962.

Benjamin Ruggiero was nicknamed ‘Lefty’ and popularly called ‘Lefty two guns’ and ‘Lefty guns’. It was in Manhattan’s Little Italy neighborhood, where he was born on 19^th April, 1926. Ruggiero at a very young age had joined the Bonanno Mafia family and worked under Michael Sabella as street soldier.

His personal life

He is said to have lived at Knickerbocker Village, in an apartment that was located at Monroe Street and had immense fascination for fish. He boasted of having several fish tanks that had both fresh and salt water within his apartment. Tony Mira, his close friend also lived with him and is known to have introduced him to Joseph Pistone, the undercover FBI agent, also called Donny Brasco or Don the Jeweler,  who was considered to be an unconnected jeweler, peddling in stolen jewelries. This was actually a plan by the FBI and Pistone to enter the mob.

Ruggiero as a soldier was regarded to be prolific in loansharking, extortion and bookmaking. He also became an enforcer for the Bonanno family. He preferred being a wise guy, since he felt that he could do anything legitimately, the reason why he had earned a reputation for being a killer and feared Mafioso.

Popularity

Since he threw dice using the left hand, he had earned the name ‘Lefty’. As he preferred to carry two guns when going for a hit, he had earned the nickname of ‘Two Guns’. During those days, mobs had used abused and old guns for their hits that were of little value, something that Ruggiero knew about. He had clipped over 30 people, but had acquired huge debts because of gambling. By 1977, he is known to have owned over $160,000 to Nicholas Marangello, a Bonanno soldier, from whom he had loaned from after losing his bets. In order to be promoted to a made man within the Bonanno family, he was made to pay back the debt in full, after which in 1977 he became the made man.

In the same year, he got introduced to Donnie Brasco by Mira, who then became close. Ruggiero had Brasco introduced to the Mafioso associate life and employed him, to make collections. With the death of Carmine Galante, there began internal strife within the family.

On 30^th August 1981, he got picked up by the FBI, on the way to a social club of Marangello, where he was supposed to have been killed. He was offered safety by the FBI for exchange of testimony against the Bonanno Mafia Family, to which he refused, citing Omerta law. He got charged under RICO Act in 1982 and sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment.

Benedetto Aloi also called Benny in short, was born to Sebastian Aloi, and popularly called ‘Buster’, who was associated with the Profaci Mafia family as a soldier. It was under his influence that Bendetto and his brother Vincenzo Aloi had been introduced to the La Cosa Nostra. He was born on 6^th October 1935.

His early life

Like any other children, he had spent his early childhood days with friends and brother and studied in school. He also visited his father on several occassions at local Profaci hangout to help with some errands. It is here that he came to know about a goodfella’s life.

His entering the Mafia family

He got into the Colombo Mafia family, which became the Profaci Mafia family by his 20s. His father had rose to the ranks of a caporegime and guided his two sons and provided them with few enterprises to control. They found the garment trucking business to be the most profitable, therefore, providing the Colombo family with substantial income.

But he along with other Mafioso had come under the vigilance of the FBI for running numerous rackets. On 19^th November 1974, he and more than La Cosa Nostra’s 150 members had been indicted with perjury charges. But Aloi never got tried.

He rose to the rank of a capo by the 1980’s, after which he again got tracked by the FBI for allegedly being involved in capital finance group, lending money at higher rate of interest. It was during the early 1990’s that his biggest threat came in the form of the most infamous ‘Windows Case’. In this case, about 4 New York Mafia Families out of the 5 had used their influence for fixing New York Housing Authorities bids over local contractors and construction unions.

Aloi had by May 1991 had risen within the Colombo Mafia Family to the position of a consigliere and was convicted of conspiracy and extortion. Receiving more than 5 times of the original expected time, he got sentenced to about 16 years 8 months. But in 18^th May 1991, he got released and was 74 years of age. At this age, he found it difficult to get back into the Mafia Family and to gel well with the 21^st century mafia members, was all the more difficult. He got retired officially as a caporegime to live the remaining part of his life in seclusion. Finally, on 7^th April, 2011, he died.

Anthony Spero, was also called popularly the ‘Old Man’, was born in the year 1929. It was during his early 20s that he got familiar with the organized crime on Brooklyn streets. He became a consigliere and New York’s Bonanno Mafia family acting boss for two times. Carmine Galante, the underboss of Bonanno crime family and close confident of Anthony during his early years, was the one, who had shown him the way of the life of a mobster. Being Bonanno street soldier and belonging to ‘Galante’, Spero could not be ordered by any other mobster as to what needs to be done, as it was Galante only who gave orders to him. This automatically provided him with quick ways to make wealth in during the 1950’s & 60’s.

His personal life

Spero just like Galante kept a low profile and engaged in hobbies like breeding pigeons in Bensonhurst on an apartment roof. He had spent a good amount of time with his pigeons, while held meetings with the other Mafia members, being out of FBI’s prying eyes. He did own a home at Staten Island, but spent most of the time in Brooklyn. He was married happily and had two daughters named Diana and Jill.

To avoid jail time due to charges related to drug and conspiracy, Galante in 1958 had gone into hiding. The Bonanno family’s acting boss during this time was Natale Evola, while the regular activities of the family were taken care of by Spero, with no real promotion witnessed. But Galante got convicted and then sentenced to prison for 20 years on 10^th July 1962.

Rise to high rankings

Spero in 1968 got promotion to become a Consigliere within the Bonanno family after Joe and Bill Bonanno had been compelled to take retirement after a failed attempt in capturing the Commission. The acting boss still was Evola, but died of cancer in 1973. The new acting boss was Phillip Rasteli, while Spero remained in Consigliere spot.

With Galante back to head the family in 1974 after being released, Spero was to lead a crew as caporegime. On 14^th June 1977, he became the family’s official made man. But after the death of Carmine Galante in 1979 and Rastelli’s imprisonment in 1987 along with Massino, his protégé, Spero got the promotion as acting boss. With the death of Rastelli in 19971, Spero again became the acting boss. On his arrest and being convicted on 5^th April 2001, Spero was 73 years old and spent the remaining life in Butner’s Butner Federal Correctional Facility, North Carolina and died on 29^th September 2008.

It was on 1^st October 1910 that Carmine Tramunti was born in New York’s Manhattan district. He was popularly called ‘Mr. Gibbs’. It was in Harlem that he spent within a tenement building, his early years. At the age of 20, he robbed his neighborhood rent collection and got arrested. Because of lack of evidence, he was rereleased.

Leading a criminal life

He was again arrested and convicted of felony in July 1931 and sentenced for 6 to 15 years, being sent to Sing Sing Correctional center at New York’s Ossining. He was released for a brief period and for parole violation, got arrested, but eventually in 1938 got released.

After his release, he again took to criminal activities and got engaged in a lucrative New York crap game known as ‘Harlem Game’. He got married and gave birth to two children, during the time he got close to Brooklyn’s Lucchese Mafia family.

His rise to power

He had a very good relation with Carlo Gambino, the future Gambino Mafia family boss and with his power and friendship rose to power within the Lucchese cri me family. With Thomas Lucchese’s death in 1967, Gambino had the Commission to be pushed to accept Tramunti as his successor, given his general intelligence and business leadership. It was agreed upon by the Commission and Tramunti was made the boss of Lucchese Family. It was assumed that the Commission was simply buying time as Anthony Corallo, the true successor was in prison. Tramunti got indicted with stock fraud on 14 counts for taken over a Florida based investment firm on 19^th November 1970. At trial, he got convicted. Again the next year, he got indicted, this time due to his lying to the grand jury about not having any kind of contact with Paul Vario, the Lucchese capo. On 6^th August, 1972, he got 3  three years sentence.

The same year, when serving in prison for the above reason, along with 42 others, Tramunti got charged on drug charges,  with law enforcement officials cracking a heroin route that came through Canada via France. This trial had received national headlines and been dubbed as ‘The French Connection’. For this,  on 7^th May 1973, he got sentenced to about 15 years in prison, to which he reacted that he was a mobster doing bad things, but of course not at all a drug dealer.

Anthony Corallo in the meanwhile had been released and went back to the top spot in the Lucchese Crime Family. On 15^th October 1978, Carmine had died when serving sentence because of natural causes.

Paul was regarded to be among the most disliked Mafia bosses till date due to having superiority complex. It was on 26^th June 1915 that Paul Castellano was born as Constantino Paul Castellano in the Brooklyn region of New York. His dislike for his first name made him to put it off when using his name. Apart from being a butcher by profession, his father was also one of the early members of Mangano Mafia Family.

His life

It is after the 8^th grade that Castellano had dropped out of school and helped his father in his business. At the age of 19, in 1934, he committed armed robbery along with two accomplices. Big Paul as he was called was the only one to be apprehended by the police officials. In appearance, he weighed about 275 pounds and 6 foot 3” in height. He was stubborn enough for not cooperating with the police, which had earned him a name in the underworld.

He married Nina Manno, his childhood sweetheart in 1937 and sister in law to Carlo Gambino, another popular mobster of that time. They gave birth to three sons named Joseph, Philip and Paul and a daughter named Connie.

Becoming a Mobster

He was indicted into the Mangano Mafia family in 1940 as Made Member, where Carlo Gambino, his first cousin was a captain. After Anastasia took charge of the Mangano Family and had its title changed, Big Paul was made a captain. But in 1957, Anastasia was killed by Vito Genovese and this made Gambino to take charge of the family changing it to the Gambino Crime Family. Paul Castellano, his cousin was made his right hand man.

A mafia meeting at New York’s Appalachian region on 17^th November 1957 saw Paul to visit it, instead of his boss Gambino. A raid by the police made others to run away, but Paul surrendered without resistance and got sentenced to imprisonment for just a year.

With his success in his family meat business, he had owned numerous businesses by 1950s, which included Ranbar Packing Inc., The Pride Wholesale Poultry and Meat Corp. and Blue Ribbon Meats. He also was more into loansharking business.

When Gambino wanted Castello to succeed him, there was noticed outrage among the street soldiers, since the latter was seen to be a greedy snob, demanding 15% take from the street soldiers, unlike other captains who demanded 10%. However, with some struggle he became the Gambino family head, but was later killed by a Gotti shooter.