Part Of The Purge?

September 12, 1931 saw the murder of Italian gangster Giuseppi Mannino or Manino depending on which paper told the story. Mannino was arrested in 1918 for a barrel murder but acquitted. This was followed for an arrest in 1920 for stealing alcohol for which he received a suspended sentence.

Mannino had just parked his car on a Brooklyn street and exited the auto along with two cohorts. As they walked, the two men fell behind Mannino and, pulling out pistols, fired a number of times into his back. Mannino staggered up to the nearest building and collapsed in the hallway. The two gunmen ran up and finished him off before escaping.

The Police Inspector suggested that the murder may have been related to the killing of Salvatore Maranzano the day before. The following day the New York Daily News reported that Mannino was the former partner of mob boss Giuseppi "the Clutching Hand" Piraino, who was bumped off the previous year. The same article stated that Mannino was killed by Charles "Lucky" Luciano, who happened to be the architect of Maranzano's demise as well.

Giuseppe Mannino

Three of a Kind

July 28, 1932 saw the Pittsburgh underworld up-ended when three members of the ruling Volpe clan were eliminated at the same time. The patriarch of the Volpe crime family was brother John. He had been picked up numerous times for numerous crimes, including murder, but never convicted. Through the 1920s, the Volpe clan ran the underworld in the town of Wilmerding outside Pittsburgh. By the early 1930s they were making inroads into Pittsburgh.

John Bazzano, the local Mafia chieftain, who took the reigns of leadership the prior fall after the murder of Joe Siragusa, considered the Volpes allies, but with their moving into Pittsburgh he decided that they needed to go.

For a headquarters in Pittsburgh, the Volpe brothers used Bazzano's Rome coffee shop and it was there that Bazzano made his move. John was the first to go, simply because he stepped outside moments before the gunmen arrived. As he loitered out front, a car bearing New York license plates pulled up and three men got out. John seemed to know what was coming because he turned to run back to the shop but, the gunmen were faster and shot him five times. John crumpled to the ground and the gunmen passed him and entered the shop. They knew their targets. Brother Arthur, who was lunching on a bowel of corn flakes, took a bullet or two to the back of the head while his brother James made a dash for a counter but, fell with a bullet through the brain.

While the town of Wilmerding mourned the three Volpe brothers, the surviving siblings plead their case to the National Mafia Commission, who came to the conclusion that Pittsburgh mob boss John Bazzano had no authority to bump of the brothers. Sentence was passed and Bazzano ended up in sack.

John Volpe                James Volpe               Arthur Volpe

Murders in Cleveland

Ninety-years ago there was tension in Cleveland, Ohio's underworld. Seven brothers by the the name of Porrello were the top purveyors of corn sugar in the region. A most needed ingredient in the manufacturing of alcohol. The Mayfield Road Mob, the top Mafia gang in the city, headed by Frank Milano, was attempting to seize control or, at the very least, shake down the Porrellos for protection money.

On July 5, 1930, Joe Porrello, head of family operations, and his lieutenant, Sam Tilocco, attended a meeting with Milano and a hand full of his gang at Milano's Venetian saloon. They played cards for a while and Milano laid it all out. He wanted a piece of the Porrello's corn sugar business. Porrello said no and, as he and Tilocco were getting up to leave, the guns came out.

Porrello never made it out of the saloon, with two bullets to the face, he fell to the floor. Tilocco, though wounded, was able to stagger outside before collapsing and having a another round of shots fired into him by Milano's retreating men.*

Joe Porrello

*For the full story on the Porrello clan and the Cleveland Mafia, check out Rick Porrello's book in the link. A great book.

A Boss Buys It In The Kitchen

In the wee hours of this date (or possibly the late hours of the previous day) in 1931, Detroit Mafia boss Chester LaMare, known as the "King of Hamtramck" was gunned down in the kitchen of his Detroit home. Having the orchestrated the murder of some rival gangsters, he had been dodging both vengeful gangsters and the law for a number of months.

He returned to Detroit on the evening of February 6, and had a visitor to his house. At around 9:30 that evening, his wife left the house to give the visitor a ride home. When she returned after midnight, she found Chester on the Kitchen floor with two bullets in the back of his head. Since LaMare knew he was a marked man, his house was a virtual arsenal with at least one gun in every room, it was assumed that he killed by a trusted associate.

Chester LaMare

Rub-a-dub-dub Jerry Died by the Tub

"Handsome" Jerry Ferri was an ex-Chicago gunmnan who moved out to San Francisco around 1926 because things got to hot for his in Chi-town. Supposedly he got into trouble with gang leader and had to flee the city. While in San Francisco he dabbled in bootlegging, kidnapping and as one paper stated he could walk into a North Beach cafe, demand a 50-50 split and get it. He was described as a local mafia leader.

Ferri, whose real name may have been Gennero Fieve, end came at about 2:30 in the morning on November 24, 1928 when some men accosted him at the foot of the stairwell of his apartment. The guns came and they opened fire. Ferri managed to run up the stairs to his apartment, but the gunmen chased him and fired through his front door. Making their way in they chased the gangster into his bathroom. Ferri, already wounded closed the door and the men fired through the door and one of the bullets pierced the gangster's head killing him.

Handsome Jerry Ferri with his girlfriend

Detroit Vengeance

Sixty-year-old Joe Rivetts, owned a saloon in Wyandotte, Michigan. His town is in the region known as "Down River" because it is south of Detroit along the Detroit River. After years of running his business independently, in the summer of 1931 Detroit mobster Joe Evola came calling and demanded that Rivetts start taking his beer from him. Rivetts refused. Shortly thereafter, hoodlums came and wrecked the place. Rivetts fixed the joint up and reopened.

The reopening was followed with more demands and threats by Evola. Rivetts ignored them leading the Detroit mobster to pay another visit on October 15 with another man, while Rivetts was working behind the bar. Witnesses stated that Evola was cursing Rivetts and then jumped over the bar. As Evola was clamoring over the bar, Rivetts pulled out a pistol and shot him once in the chest, piercing a lung. the Detroit mobster was removed from the tavern and taken to the hospital where he expired a few days later.

Rivetts was arrested for the shooting but let go after it was determined that he acted in self defense. The case brought to much attention to Rivetts who closed his place.

On this evening back in 1931, Rivetts sat at the bar in another saloon reading the paper. Charles Tear, the owner of the place, was tending bar. Another bartender, John Pelletier was also sitting at the bar when at approximately 8:05 three men walked in. One pulled out a shotgun from under his coat and the other two pulled out pistols. Rivetts noticed them first and made a dash for the rear door. A blast from the shot gun took off half his face. He was down. Tear tried to make his way from behind the bar but another shotgun blast removed the top of his head. The guys with the pistols took care of Pelletier. For some reason, another bar tender who was in the room wasn't shot. After the three men were killed the gunmen shot up the bar some and then took off.

 Joe Rivetts                     Charles Tear

Grape Ape

Newark, New Jersey -

On this date in 1930, Dominick "The Ape" Passelli, described as a ranking member of Newark mob boss Richard Boiardo's gang, walked into the Newark General Hospital with a slight scalp wound. He claimed he had had an accident but in reality his head had been creased by a bullet. He was on the spot.

The staff patched him up and told him he could go on his way. "No, if it's all right with you, I think I'll stay here a couple of days." He told them. He was given room 33 where he received a few visitors, two men, around three o'clock. They stayed a short time then left.

A few minutes after six two men entered the hospital and, according to different stories, it was the same two men from earlier or two new men who made there way upstairs and asked where they could find room no. 33.

Also depending on who wrote the story one man stood at the door while the other fired, or both fired. The end result was the same; The Ape caught two bullets in the head and was killed.

At the time of the murder long time Newark gangland adversaries Longy Zwillman and Richard Boiardo supposedly had a peace pact so police didn't feel that it was rival gangsters that killed him. Since some reports stated the Ape's killers were his visitors from earlier, it was suggested that he was done in by his own gang. There was also a theory that he was muscling in on the grape racket

Dominick "The Ape" Passelli

Human pin cushion

Pittsburgh mobster John Aliberti was found on this date in 1933 on the outskirts of his home town with upwards of sixty ice pick wounds in his body. His pal, John Bazzano, was found in a similar condition the previous year in Brooklyn. Bazzano had orchestrated the murders of the Volpe Brothers, rival mafiosi in his coffee shop, a decision that the fellas in New York City didn't take kindly to. Aliberti, we're told, took a powder from the his old haunts after the Volpe murders for a number of months.

Known as a gunman, Aliberti was arrested in 1927 for having a pistol and shotgun in his car. He did time in prison for a shooting and was arrested and acquitted for murder in the spring of 1932.

Perhaps Aliberti was bumped off for being in the Bazzano camp or maybe it was because the previous summer he reportedly bombed a night club. The gunman was last seen at 2 a.m. the morning of his murder arguing with two men and two women, but when cops approached he got into a car with them, and two other men, and took off. His body was found six hours later.

A Boss Buys it

Eighty-nine years ago today one of New York's Mafia bosses was bumped off in Brooklyn. Giuseppe Piraino, known as the "Clutching Hand" because of some gnarled fingers on his right hand, was said to have inherited the Bay Ridge liquor traffic after the demise of Frankie Yale. Supposedly he had just exited a gangland summit where he agreed to stop operating in other Mafiosis territory but refused to split the profits he made from venturing into their locale.  It is also possible that he was a victim of the Castellammarese War, that was then in progress.

Whatever the reason, Piraino was crossing the street when the shots rang out. Three slugs entered the area of his heart and two more went into his chest. According to a witness, after Piraino was struck, the mob boss swayed, then turned back to where the shots came from and fell face up into the gutter dead.

Two in the Trunk

On this date back in 1930 A coupe was found sitting in a field in the town of  Brecksville, about fifteen or so miles outside of Cleveland. Crammed the in trunk, or turtle back, as they were then called, were the bodies of Anthony Borsellino, 40,  and his 39 year-old cousin Joe*. Both men were described as Cleveland gangsters and both had been garroted with a cord and there wrists tied to their feet.

The last anyone had heard of them they said they were on their way to Akron to meet some people. Obviously they never made it. Cops thought that perhaps Akron gangsters took them out. It was also speculated that Cleveland gangsters may have taken them out. There was strife in the Cleveland underworld at the time and one paper stated that Anthony had replaced the recently dispatched Big Joe Lonardo as Mafia boss. Seeing that both men were executed in the same fashion as Sam Monastero, Pittsburgh authorities felt that perhaps there was an inter-state rum war going on and the Borsellinos fell victim to the same killers as Monestero. 

Sam's (Swan) Song

Sam Monastero took precautions. He wasn't naive. His brother was a Pittsburgh Mafia boss who was gunned down. He knew the life, so he took measures to protect himself. His coupe was bullet proof and the glass shatterproof. There was a shot gun strapped to the inside door in case some enemies pulled up along side him. But none of these safeguards are effective when your killers don't come at you on the road, so Sam met a gangsters fate on this date back in 1930.

A witness stated that Sam's car sped his own and a short time later the driver saw two kids flagging him down, and the coupe in a ditch. The rear compartment was on the fire and the driver doused the flames and went to check on Sam who he considered to be an unconscious drunk. Turns out that Sam had been garroted, either in his car, or elsewhere, and his body transferred to the car. Either way before he could be delivered to his final resting spot the driver of coupe crashed and got away unseen.

Sam Monastero

Clang clang clang went the trolley, bang bang bang went the gun

Ninety-nine years ago today, Mafia man Joseph "Joe Chuck" Nazzaro was lured to Yonkers by his "friends" under the pretext of killing one of their own. This was a lie however because Navarro was the one on the spot. The four men were seen walking down the street at 10:00pm when the supposed victim complained of a stomach ache and fell behind. When he was in the rear he pulled out a pistol and fired into Nazzaro's back. The remaining gangsters took out their guns and fired into the doomed hoodlum as well. In an attempt to obliterate his identity the killers dragged the dead man onto some street car tracks. A car came along and ran Nazzaro over and dragged him for about a hundred feet. Although he was badly mangled (it took a crew about a half hour to remove "Joe Chuck" from the front of the car) his finger prints were still intact and he was properly indentified.

For more on Joe Chuck and his pals check out Gangster City

Black Hand red blood

At 11:20pm 109-years ago today thirty-five year old Felipo Randazzo locked the door to his butcher shop, located at 177 Christie Street, and turned to begin his walk home. After a couple of steps a large caliber bullet fired from a powerful rifle plowed through his heart, went out his back, passed through the shop door and hit a column inside before coming to a rest on the floor.

At first it was thought that he was an innocent victim of the Black Hand until a search of his shop turned up a dynamite cartridge of the type used in some recent Black Hand explosions.
The NYPD's famous Mafia fight cop Lt. Petrosino put his entire sixteen man Italian Squad on the case and soon learned that Randazzo was indeed a member of the Black Hand. He had come over from Palermo three years previously and worked as a plasterer before hooking up with a nefarious band of extortionist. With his profits he was able to open his butcher shop three months before being shot down.

During the investigation the Italian Squad learned through one of Randazzo's friends that the dead man had had a falling out with some of the members of his gang and he [Randazzo] intended to supply the police with information that would have resulted in their arrests but his confederates were faster and took care of him first.

Sunday Night is Alright for Fighting

Ninety-five years ago tonight, a Sunday it was, a large group of guys and dolls were lining the stairwell of a lower eastside building waiting to get into a night club on the third floor. As the band was getting ready to play a couple of shots rang out and the throng of people ran out into the streets. One man, Michael Dimesci, ran across the street and dropped dead with a bullet in the heart.

Frankie Uale

The police sent officers to all the hospitals in the area to see if anyone else showed up. Within the hour Brooklyn mobster Frankie Uale stumbled into one with a bullet wound to the lung. Uale said he just happened to be walking by the club when the shooting took place and had no idea what it was about. Police later asserted that they believe the Brooklyn Mafioso was the intended target and that Dimesci may have been an innocent bystander.

Miami Vice

107-years ago today Pasquale Miami, said to be a “barber”, was walking down the street when a man stepped out of a doorway and shot him. A beat cop who was nearby gave chase but the gunman ran into a tenement and escaped over the roof tops.
     Miami was rushed to Bellevue Hospital where he died half an hour later. His body was identified by his friend Nicola Giaroffa who stated that the two men had been in the States for three years and that Miami had been involved in an Italian feud for the six months leading up to his death.

Lt. Petrosino

After viewing the body, America's first mafia busting cop, Lt. Petrosino of the NYPD Italian Squad stated that Miami (which wasn’t his real name. His real name wasn’t given) was one of the leading Black Hand agents in the city. Police felt this was bore out when twenty-five men came to the morgue to view the dead man and almost half of them raised their hands and vowed to avenge his murder.