Big bang for Big Sam

Big Sam Oteri was a Boston gangster who was scratched from the "Cradle of Liberty's" underworld on this date back in 1933. It was about 1 A.M. when a card game between Oteri and some of his cronies broke up.

Oteri, who had previoulsly been arrested for bootlegging and suspicion of murder, walked out with Frank Castelone, the brother of Oteri's late partner Charles Castelone who was killed the previous July, and as the men parted a car pulled up and three quick shots from a shotgun lit up the night.

Hit by over two dozen pellets, Oteri fell to the ground as Castelone ran away. A cop found Oteri on the sidewalk and rushed him to the hospital where he died less than an hour later.

Big Sam Oteri

Omaha Stakes are High

Gene Livingston was the booze baron of Omaha, Nebraska. He got his start by bringing in booze from St. Joseph, Missouri when Prohibition started but by the end of the 1920s he was operating stills in the commercial of district of Omaha.

After law enforcement got around to closing his stills, Livingston started a policy operation in a number of pool halls, paying better odds than his competitors. This could possibly be the reason he was rubbed out on May 1, 1930.

Livingston knew was put on the spot. A few months previously, on February 13, he was driving when a car pulled up along side him and peppered his car with a shotgun. He managed to pull over and get out and run.

Then end came in the Omaha apartment of Margaret Mack, which doubled as a speakeasy.. Livingston and his bodyguard,  Bob Glasgow, had stopped in earlier for a drink and returned at about 4 A.M. "I'm pretty drunk and I'd like to stay here all night." Livingston told Mack. A few minutes later he stepped into the kitchen and there were a number of shots.

Glasgow ran into the kitchen and he was hit a number of times as well. His boss had been hit five times in the belly, possibly by a shotgun blast.

What exactly happened in the kitchen wasn't determined. It was thought that Livingston was shot from a window. But another version has it that the shots came from inside the apartment. No one involved bothered to straightened out the story.

Though wounded, Glasgow took his boss to the hospital where Livingston died a half hour later.

Gene Livingston

A stubborn Mule buys the farm

Sam Mule, 37, was called an independent bootlegger in Chicago, hard to believe any still existed in the Windy City in 1932 but there you go. And on this date in said year, Sam went the way of all gangster flesh.

Sam had a headquarters located at 325 Menomonee Street. Two days prior to his death two men and a woman rented a room on the first floor of 327 Menomonee. There was a small passage way between the buildings that Sam had to traverse when leaving his HQ, For two days his killers patiently waited for an opportunity, supposedly one came that night but they didn't get him because he was with his wife and back then killers had some manners. Two days later though, as Mule was exiting his place he passed the window of the apartment at 327, it was at head level and Mule was only about three feet away. One shot was fired from a shot gun and took off the top of Mule's head.

Witnesses reported that two men, also armed with a shotgun, were headed towards the front of the building when the shot was fired and they quickly turned around and jumped into a car and left. It was thought that they were coming to make sure Mule didn't get away if the window shooter missed.

It was hypothesized that Mule was executed for defying the Capone syndicate.

Sam Mule

California dreaming

In 1926, twenty-seven year old Dominic Di Ciolla headed from Chicago to L.A. more than two thousand miles all the way. Whether or not he got his kicks on Route 66 or not is unknown but the former Windy City bad man was attempting to get his piece of Los Angeles bootlegging pie. An ambition that cost him his life; his body was found on this date back in 1931.

Di Ciolla, according to law enforcement, sought to be the criminal king of Los Angeles's Italian colony. He was arrested numerous times on "liquor charges" and twice on suspicion of murder. Reconstructing his death, police believe that he was lured to a remote road about five miles outside of Van Nuys. He put his car in park, got out and crossed the street to a waiting car. As he approached the other car he took off one of his gloves, probably to shake someone's hand. Instead of a friendly handshake however he was greeted with a blast from a shotgun that took off a chunk of his head.

Di Ciolla's killers drove off and left him in the road where he was found in the morning. The head lights of his car still burning.

Dominic Di Ciolla

Rocky Mountain Die (Colorado)

On this St. Patrick's Day back in 1932, four of Denver, Colorado's providers of intoxicating spirits were driving about town. At the wheel was Vincent Mortellaro, unknown to police, but assumed to be a bootlegger. In the back were Joe Barry and Roxy Stone, both known gangsters. Riding shotgun was Mortellaro's brother in-law, Frank Mortelli. Speaking of shotguns, as the quartet motored along, a black sedan pulled up along side them and a shotgun barked. The blast instantly killed Mortellaro and, as his car careened into the curb, the black auto pulled up along side and opened fire again. Barry and Stone were slightly wounded as they jumped out and ran. Mortelli was injured by the volley that killed his brother in-law, but not seriously.

Stone was still recovering from a wound he received a week previous and Barry lost two other associates, Sam and Pete Carlino, to gangster bullets a year or so earlier.