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Da' Bronx Diva's World
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The History of the NY Mob
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| Vito Cascio-Ferro |
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| The Establisher of the NY Mafia |
1862-1943
Once the boss of all bosses of the Sicilian Mafia, Vito Cascio-Ferro
appeared to have made efforts to transplant his organization to the United States before and during the Italian reign of Fascist
Benito Mussolini.
Evidence suggest that Cascio-Ferro spent some of his
younger years in New York and New Orleans before returning home as an important Mafioso in Sicily. He kept in close touch
with Mafiosi in both American cities through the 1900s and apparently worked with the transplanted criminals on a counterfeiting
racket.
Sources indicate a number of visits by Cascio-Ferro
to those cities. When in New York, he reportedly stayed with members of the Lupo-Morello Mob. During the visits, he is credited
with helping American mobsters refine their practices for extorting protection money from businesses. Cascio-Ferro showed
the gangs they could maximize profits by extorting sums that were not financially damaging to the businesses - a practice
called "wetting the beak."
He organized and participated in the assassination
of gangbuster Lt. Joseph Petrosino of the New York Police during Petrosino's official visit to Sicily in 1909. Cascio-Ferro
excused himself from a dinner party at the home of a Sicilian government official and borrowed his host's vehicle to deliver
the coup de grace shot to the head of Petrosino. Then, of course, he returned to complete his friendly visit with the official.
Cascio-Ferro never denied involvement in the Petrosino murder.
The Sicilian Mafia's supreme boss would never make
his final planned trip to the U.S. In 1929, he went on trial - on probably trumped-up charges - just as the Castellammarese
War was breaking out in the U.S. He was convicted, imprisoned, and died behind bars.
His death is given as 1945, but an author
found evidence of Cascio-Ferro's demise in summer of 1943. The Mafia leader was left behind in his cell when other inmates
of Pozzuoli prison were evacuated in advance of the Allied invasion. The author says Cascio-Ferro died of thirst.
| Salvatore Maranzano |
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| The Creater of the NY Cosa Nostra |
1886-1931
Salvatore Marazano was sent to the United States by
Vito Cascio Ferro, the leading Mafia boss in Sicily, with orders to organize the American Mafia and
bring it under Don Vito's control. When Don Vito was arrested and later died in a fascist prison, Maranzano then decided to
organize the American Mafia under his control.
Maranzano began to invade the territory of Joe "The Boss"
Masseria, hijacking truckloads of Masseria's liquor and
taking over his bars. This led to a bloody underworld battle known as the Castellammarese War. Maranzano and his fellow Castellamarese grew stronger as the war progressed. The war ended after one
of Masseria's lieutenants, Charles "Lucky" Luciano,
helped orchestrate Masseria's murder in April 1931 in return for being considered an equal to Maranzano.
Maranzano was now the most powerful gangster in New York.
Two weeks after Masseria's murder, Maranzano called together several hundred Mafiosi at a banquet hall at an undisclosed location
in Upstate New York. He laid out his vision of a new
gangland, structured on hierarchical lines. The New York Mafia would be organized into 5 Families, headed by himself, Luciano, Profaci, Vincent Mangano and Thomas Gagliano. In addition,
Maranzano created a special position for himself-- Boss of All Bosses.
Luciano and his ambitious friends, like Vito Genovese,
Frank Costello, and others came to believe that Maranzano was more power-hungry
than Masseria had been. Despite his advocacy for modern methods of organization, including capos overseeing crews that did
the bulk of the families' work, many younger mafiosi resented him as a "Mustache Pete"--an old-school mafioso too steeped in Old World ways. For instance, he was opposed to Luciano's partnership with non-Italian
gangsters such as Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. In fact, Luciano and
his colleagues had intended all along to bide their time before getting rid of Maranzano as well.
Maranzano realized this soon enough,but did not act
quick enough in planning the murder of Luciano, Genovese, Costello and others. By the time he hired Mad Dog Coll to murder Luciano and Genovese, Luciano, aided by Meyer Lansky, had already found out about Maranzano's plans. Luciano arranged for Samuel "Red" Levine and three other gangsters provided by Lansky to go to Maranzano's office on September 10, 1931, posing as police detectives.
Once inside his office on the 9th floor of the Helmsley Building, they
disarmed Maranzano's guards. The four men then shot and stabbed Salvatore Maranzano to death. As they fled down the stairs,
they met Coll on his way upstairs for his appointment with Maranzano. They warned him that there had been a raid, and he fled
too.
Maranzano is buried in Saint John's Cemetery in Queens
located in New York City,
buried near the graves of Luciano and Genovese.
| Albert Anastasia |
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| 1903 -1957 |
| Albert Anastasia |
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| "The Executioner" |
Born Umberto Anastasia in Italy on Sept. 26, 1902. He moved to the United
States around 1919 and worked on Brooklyn's waterfront. He was one of four to kill mob head Joe "The Boss" Masseria in
1931. For his role, Anastasia got put in charge of Murder Inc., an arm of Lucy Luciano¹s National Crime Sydicate. He
became boss of the Mangano family in the 50s, which later became the Gambino crime family. Albert Anastasia was murdered on
Oct. 25, 1957 at a barbershop in the Park Sheraton Hotel by two gunmen.
| Carlo Gambino |
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| 1902-1976 |
| Carlo Gambino |
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| Gambino Godfather |
Gambino entered the United States as an illegal immigrant
on a shipping boat and joined his cousins, the Castellanos, in New York City. In 1921, at the age of 19, he became a "made
man", and was inducted into La Cosa Nostra. He was later known as an "original". Gambino also brought his cousin Paul
Castellano into the organization. Gambino was convinced
to give his support to carry out the hit on Albert Anastasia.
A family that still bears his name today, Gambino became
the new boss of the Mangano crime family, which was renamed the Gambino crime family.
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| Aniello "Mr. Neil" Dellacroce |
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| 1914-1985 |
Growing up in Little Italy, Dellacroce soon became a contract
killer for his father's boss Vincent Mangano in his family and earned a reputation as a vicious killer because he demonstrated
sadistic behavior. Under mob protocol Aniello Dellacroce could
have been sentenced to death for having had an affair with another mobster's wife. But as Dellacroce was respected
by his associates, fellow mobsters were persuaded to accept an undisclosed cash settlement
Carlo Gambino remembered the affair, this led to Carlo passing over
Dellacroce, selecting his cousin and brother-in-law Paul Castellano as his successor. Gambino avoided a potential inter-family
war by getting Castellano to agree to keep Dellacroce as underboss. On
December 2, 1985, Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce died of lung cancer at age 71. He was buried in St. John's Cemetery in the borough of Queens in New York City.
| Paul Castellano |
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| 1915 - 1985 |
| Paul "Big Paulie" Castellano |
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| murdered in front of Sparks Steakhouse in NYC |
Castellano often signed his name as "C. Paul Castellano" because he hated his first name, Constantino. Eventually he became
known as Paul. Paul logged his first arrest in 1934. The 19-year-old Castellano refused to identify his two accomplices
to the police and served a three-month prison sentence. By refusing to cooperate with authorities, Castellano enhanced his
reputation for mob loyalty. Before his death, Carlo Gambino designated Castellano as his successor. In 1975, Castellano became
acting boss and in 1976, after Gambino's death, assumed the title of official boss. Under Castellano, the Gambinos expanded
their already strong influence on the building industry. For decades, the Gambinos had controlled Teamsters Local 282, which
could literally bring most construction jobs in New York City to a halt. Some Gambino wiseguys began losing respect for Castellano,
feeling he had lost touch with the essence of the organization. They felt he was too distant. Dellacroce, however, supposedly
wouldn't approve of an attempt on Castellano's life, and thus they could not try to harm him. In the early 1980s, Castellano
became worried about the ambitions of the ruthless John Gotti, a protègé of Dellacroce, and the pair seemed to be on a collision
course. Castellano repeatedly made it clear that he would kill anyone who was dealing in narcotics—knowing that Gotti
was doing just that. Meanwhile, Gotti began to turn mobsters against Castellano, which was not very difficult given the growing
discontent in the family. When Dellacroce died Castellano then made two major mistakes. First, he did not attend Dellacroce's
funeral - which was viewed as highly disrespectful. Second, Castellano then named his bodyguard, Tommy Bilotti, as the new
underboss. Although Bilotti was a loyal mobster, he was also a brutish loanshark with little of the diplomatic skill required
to hold such a high rank within the organization. Within two weeks of Dellacroce's death, on December 16, Castellano and Bilotti
were shot to death outside Sparks Steak House in Manhattan on the orders of John Gotti. Castellano was buried in the Moravian
Cemetery, a non-sectarian cemetery located in the New Dorp section of Staten Island.
| John Gotti |
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| 1940 -2002 |
| John Gotti |
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| "The Dapper Don" |
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