Salvatore D’Aquila – The Mustache Pete who went on to become the boss of his own Mafia family

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 10th October 1928, he was murdered by his underboss Al Mineo, who later was given the mantle of the D’Aquila crime family.