Category: Famous Gangsters

It was on 15^th March 1914 that Aniello Dellacroce, popularly called Neil was born to American-Italian immigrants named Antoinette and Francesco Dellacroce. He had a younger sibling named Carmine and grew up in Manhattan’s Little Italy. At times, he would wear the uniform of a priest to throw the law enforcement officials off the track. In his career as a mafia, he climbed to great positions to become the Gambino Mafia family’s underboss, as well as mentor to John Gotti.

His early life

As a teenager, he had worked as an assistant to a butcher, however, as work had become scarce, he took to the life of a mafia. He was 5’ 10” tall having broad shoulders. He had joined the Mangano Mafia family during the 1930’s under the leadership of Vincent Mangano. Under Albert Anastasia, he had rose to the  rank of a capo by the 1950s after the death of Mangano.

He purchased Ravenite Social Club that was located in Little Italy that later become popular as Gambino Social Club. He was regarded to be a fierce follower of Anastasia and carried out numerous murders on his behest. But he followed the mafia tradition, since he was a devoted Cosa Nostra mobster and remained quiet as Anastasia got murdered on 25^th October 1957. The family was then taken over by Carlo Gambino, the then underboss, after which the family got renamed to Gambino Mafia family.

He preferred to live a low profile when in public and was nicknamed ‘Neil’ that was regarded to be ‘Aneillo’s’ Americanization form. As he had a square shaped face, few of the family members nicknamed him as ‘the Polack’.

His personal life

He got married to Lucille Riccardi and gave birth to two sons, Ronald and Armand, as well as a daughter called Shannon. They resided in Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan, however, moved onto Staten Island’s Grasmere region. Moreover, Dellacroce was John Ruggeiro Jr.’s great uncle as well of Salvatore Rugeiro Jr. and Angelo Ruggiero Jr., who had become the associates of the Gambino mafia family.

Dellacroce is known to have remained aloof and made use of body double when it came to attending public events. He also dressed as priest had killed a man and hence, had earned another nickname called ‘Father O’Neil’. He got promoted to becoming underboss in 1965. On 2^nd December 1985, he died due to lung cancer.

It was on 24^th May 1950 that Thomas DeSimone was born. He is well known as an American-Italian mobster having worked for New York’s Luchesse Mafia Family as an associate. DeSimone was popular with the other and had several nick names like Tommy D and Two Gun Tommy as he always carried with him two guns.

His early life

Tommy was among the three siblings to his parents, with two brothers Anthony and Robert (got life imprisonment) and a sister called Dolares. Anthony and Robert had worked for the Gambino Mafia Family as associates. In 1979, Anthony had been killed. His grandfather Rosario DeSimone was the mob boss of Los Angeles, way back in 1922, while Frank DeSimone, his uncle was mob boss of Los Angeles Mafia family in 1956.

His life as a Mafia

It was under Capo Paul Vairo that Tommy got engaged with the Luchhese Mafia Family in 1965. He was considered to be naïve, skinny and just 15 years old. A family friend named Jimmy Burke guided him to participate in few rackets and trained him to become a successful mafia.

DeSimone had a huge appetite and quick temper and could drink every day gallon of milk. Henry Hill, his fellow associate and friend had described him as pure psychopath. It was at the age of 18 that Tommy killed Howard Goldstein.

He had several kills to his credit, including Gambino Mafia Family’s made man called ‘Billy Batts’ Devino in 1970. Devino was regarded to be among the most feared gunmen, who had killed many people. He insulted DeSimone by reminding his earlier life as shoe shine boy that went on to be shown in the movie Goodfella. It was the reason behind Devino’s murder.

Another murder of DeSimone got played in Goodfella movie, where DeSimone had murdered Michael ‘Spider’ Gianco, by putting three bullets in the chest. The different murders carried out by DeSimone were done in Hollywood style, the reason why, he was better known among his friends and associates as Tommy Goodfella.

His other significant criminal activities

DeSimone is said to have participated in the JFK International Airport, Lufthansa Heist of December 1978, after which he had killed Parnell ‘Stacks’ Edwards due to his failure in having the delivery truck to be hidden. Upon this, DeSimone had risen to the ranks of a made man. However, on 14^th January 1979, according to his wife, Angela,  Tommy went missing and presumed to have been killed probably on 6^th January 1979, the reasons cited for the same being several.

It was in Palermo, Sicily, in November 1877 that Salvatore Aquila was born. In 1906 he got into the United States to escape the wrath of the then government there who were after the Mafiosi. By the time he reached America, D’Aquila already was involved heavily in organized crime and had a nickname ‘Mustache Pete’, which meant those who had already committed their initial killings back in Italy. On his arrival at New York, he worked with other Sicilians at a nearby cheese importing company. But very soon, he leaned towards his old-world connections, to have a career in the underworld.

His life as a Mafia

He had befriended another Mustache Pete, having solidified as boss in the city of New York. The Clutch Hand or Giuseppe Morello had powerful organization in Bronx and in those days was boss of bosses. As a confidence man, D’Aquila worked with Morello that was similar to the position of a caporegime, leading towards instigation of criminal activities.

On his moving to Brooklyn, he became the family’s powerful lieutenant, but in 1906 as well as 1909 got arrested. However, the charges upon him were dropped.

But with the imprisonment of Morello and Ignazio Lupo, his second-in-command in 1910 due to counterfeiting charges and being sentenced 30 years of prison, D’Aquila not having proper backup to fight the rising powerful Masseria, moved to East Harlem distancing from Morello family. Along with him, he took several loyal followers to start his very own gang.

His plan after becoming his family’s leader was to have all New York mafia gangs to be united under one umbrella. Although his attempt to kill numerous slow ranking bosses of East Harlem did not succeed along with his plan to become the boss of bosses, he did seize several ports and had them under his control. During the Prohibition, he grew as a Mafioso family and helped join many members under his wing.

He had numerous top Mafia members to work for him like Frank Scalise, Giuseppe Traina and Alfred Mineo. One of D’Aquila’s top mafia members, Valenti was asked to prove his loyalty and this was to be done by killing Masseria. But with repeated failures, Valenti tried to bring the two families to the table, but in the process got murdered himself. With Valenti’s death, the influence of D’Aquila also started to wane, since most of his associates defected to Masseria. With Morello and Masseria determined to have D’Aquila’s reign to be ended, many of his associates were murdered in the process. On 10^th October 1928, he was murdered by his underboss Al Mineo, who later was given the mantle of the D’Aquila crime family.

It was on 16^th June 1923 that Joseph Anthony Colombo was born. The early life of Joe is not known, but he was the only son of his parents. His father also belonged to the American Mafia, until 1938, when he was murdered. Colombo got engaged into various legitimate jobs during his younger days, like joining U.S. Coast Guard, worked as longshoreman, meat packing company, with the last one being selling real estate.

His life as a Mafia

He had become the Profaci Mafia Family’s Enforcer by late 1950’s, in New York. It was a tough family, among New York’s prominent 5 Mafia Families, while holding a seat on the national Mafia Commission. His job as an enforcer was to have money collected that was owed to Profaci Family, to take part in activities engaging physical work that was ordered by the higher ups or the capo. He had great skills to collect money and was into extortion, and later got inducted officially within the Cosa Nostra.

His career

Colombo is said to have come across numerous close calls or ‘scares’ during his tenure as a Mafia. Many Profaci leadership members along with Colombo had been kidnapped at one time by a disgruntled and most feared capo of the family, known as Joe Gallo. The reason for the feud was Joe Profaci, the family’s boss had been requesting Gallo to provide bigger tributes. Gallo being infuriated had held the hostage for several weeks until an agreement was made finally by Profaci to lessen down the tributes which were owned by Gallo. With the death of Joe Profaci, Joseph Magliocco a consigliere, became the family’s boss, who pursued Gallo. Magliocco made a plot to have the whole commission to be murdered, which included Joe Bonnano, Tommy Lucchese, and Carlo Gambino. He had asked Joe Colombo to take the contract, hoi had revealed this plot to Gambino and Luchhese, upon which Magliocco was compelled to take retirement. In the process for his loyalty to the Cosa Nostra, Colombo got rewarded and the Profaci Family was handed over to him, thereby having the renaming Profaci Mafia family to be renamed as Colombo Mafia family. Colombo had become the nation’s youngest family boss at the age of 41. At the same time, he also had supported the American-Italian rights, fighting for equality, thereby creating American-Italian Civil Right League. He emerged a popular leader with the community. On 8^th June, 1971 Colombo was shot, but survived, only to remain in vegetative state,  until 22^nd May 178, when he finally died.

It was in Sicily’s Castellammare del Golfo region, in the year 1898 that Giuseppe Magliocco, called Joe in short was born. He was said to be related by his marriage to underboss and consigliere Salvatore Mussacio, Joseph Bonanno the Bonanno Mafia family founder, Stefano Magaddino the Buffalo Mafia family boss and Joseph Profaci, the founder of Profaci Mafia family and close confident of Joe. He took benefit of this excellent relationship on his arrival at the United States.

His activities as a Mafioso

On reaching the U.S., he got into union racketeering and illegal gambling. A meeting was held in Cleveland, Ohio’s Statler hotel on 5^th December 1928 for establishing new territories after the murder of Salvatore D’Squila, the boss of Brooklyn New York gang. The meeting was attended by Profaci and Magliocco. However, the meeting was raided by the law enforcement officials, with several Mafioso were detained in the process along with Magliocco, who appeared to be the only one charged for carrying weapons.

Rise to fame

The Castellammarese War had begun in 1931 among two powerful American-Italian Mafia Families of New York. With both of the bosses being dead, the war ended and Lucky Luciano had established the Mafia Commission. 5 mafia families were created, which was supervised by the Commission. Profaci as New York boss was a member of the ruling panel and had become one among the 5 family bosses. Profaci’s very first business order was naming Magliocco as his second in command or underboss, to which the latter agreed and remained in the position for about 31 years.

The Appalachian Conference in 1957 proved to be a failure, with 60 mobsters along with Magliocco was arrested by the authorities. Again on 13^th January 1960, he along with other 21 mafia members had been convicted of conspiracy, which led to being sentenced for a period of 5 years that was later overturned by an appeals court.

With the death of Profaci on 6^th June 1962, Magliocco had become the Profaci family’s new acting boss, but did not get the Commission’s endorsement. But as a Profaci capo named Joseph Bonanno was voted to become the family boss, Magliocco got back into his position of a consigliere. Magliocco had become the right hand man of Bonanno after his involvement to kill Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese. But with the plot being found out, he confessed of his involvement before the Commission, who fined him and spared his life, because of his failing health. He died of heart attack on 28^th December 1963.

Giuseppe Profaci also called Joe in short was born in the Palermo province named Villabate, Sicily, on 2^nd October 1897. His early childhood days are not much known, however, he is said to have been associated with Sicilian mafia members, while spending a year in prison in Sicily for theft charges.

His coming to the United States

On 4^th September 1921, he started out for the U.S. and boarded a shop that also carried Phillip Mangano and Vincent Mangano (the future Gambino Mafia family boss). On his arrival at the United States, he settled in Chicago, opening up a grocery store. But the business proved to be unsuccessful, which compelled him to move to New York in 1925. Here, ,he took to exporting olive oil and hence got the nick name of ‘Olive Oil king’ and made Long Island to be his territory.

Life as a mafia

He formed his very own gang taking assistance from Vincent Mangano by 19274 and built relationship with other New York gang leaders. His business included bootlegging, counterfeiting and extortion. By 1928, he went on to become the most powerful New York gang.

His rise to power

He along with others was invited to Cleveland’s Statler Hotel on 5^th December 1928 to the mafia summit, hosted by Joseph Porello, the Cleveland mafia boss. But by the middle of the meeting, Profaci along with 23 other mafia members were arrested and pressed bootlegging charges. However, Profaci was not fazed with the arrest and by now had become a well recognized mafia boss and built up an empire in New York.

His other activities

Profaci had a powerful gang by 1931 that was involved in narcotics, numbers racket, trafficking, loan sharking and prostitution. During Castellammarese War, he remained neutral and when Lucky Luciano reorganized the mafia members, Profaci was awarded his own family among the five New York Mafia Families, as well as a seat in the Commission.

He still had maintained his business in olive oil, a legitimate business, which thrived during the Second World War. With time, he operated and owned over 20 legitimate businesses, while employing New York citizens, at a time, when being employed was quite difficult. He was very close to Bonanno family and it further strengthened with Rosalie, Profaci’s niece and Salvatore Bonanno married.

He was a devoted Catholic and distributed among Catholic charities, dollars in thousands. In 1950s, he had been sued by the IRS for back taxes amounting to $1.5 million. But he got involved in the 1960s in the Profaci-Gallo war over payment of tributes to mafia boss, which has been termed to be very violent in history.

On 7^th June 1962, he died due to cancer.