Rosario expires in his cario

Rosario Riggio was an ex-convict and racketeer who was paroled in May of 1934 after serving a ten year sentence in the Atlanta penitentiary for counterfeiting. Back in New York he opened a grocery store supposedly as a front for illegal activities.
Although they claimed he was a racketeer, police refused to say what racket he was involved in. His brother Joseph had been involved in the ice racket prior to being killed, possibly a victim in the Castellemmarese War, on March 19, 1930.*
Police said that fearing for his life, Riggio, who also feared violating his parole, took to using twenty-six year old Alfred Seru as a "gun-toter". It was Seru's job to be near his boss and supply him with a gun should the need arise. On January 31, an adversary of Riggio's dropped into the grocery store and Seru fired on him but unfortunately killed a young woman who was in the store shopping and was then hauled off to jail leaving his boss defenseless.
On this day in 1935, Riggio went to a house down the block from his store supposedly to inspect some art he was thinking about buying. At about 4:00pm he left the premises and as he walked up to his car, two men, both carrying pistols, quickly walked up behind him and fired simultaneously. Hit three times in the right side of the head and once in the neck, Riggio managed to stumble into his car before falling over the steering wheel dead.
One explanation for Riggio's murder is that it was an insurance hit. Perhaps the killers of his brother Joseph feared that he might make an attempt at retribution and so knocked him off just in case.

* For more on the Castellemmarese War read Gangster City

Death from above

On this date in 1931 Mariano Alonzo was walking along the street when a shot rang out from a second story apartment. As he crumpled to the street two gunmen escaped out the back of the tenement into a waiting car and escaped. Alonzo probably had just exited a nearby building because as the crowds gathered to watch him take his last breathes a woman, assumed to be his wife Sally, elbowed her way through and threw herself on the now dead man and began screaming hysterically until the cops dragged her away.

This wasn't in the brochure

Eighty-five years ago today a busload of tourist got to witness a gangland killing first hand when their tour bus was going through Little Italy. The victim was Joseph Marone who was walking down the street when a car containing four men pulled up behind him and fired a shot. Marone dropped to the sidewalk with a bullet in his thigh. Before any more shots could be fired the tour bus pulled up between the car and Marone and the shooters sped off.
The tourist thought they were watching the filming of a movie and didn't realize that Marone was actually hurt but a pedestrian who knew better went and fetched a cop. At first Marone's leg wound appeared superficial and he was taken to Bellevue hospital where he was arrested. But at midnight the police received word from the hospital that he had died.
During his interrogation Marone kept his mouth shut and said nothing about his affairs or the men who shot him but police believed he was part of a burglary gang and double crossed the other members with the divvying up of spoils. The police also said that Marone knew he was a marked man and only left his house in the daytime. The killers, they speculated had been staking out his house and that's how they got him.

AA meeting

On this date in 1931 gangster brothers Al and Abe Wagner and their Brother in-law Harry Brown attended a supposed peace conference with rival gangsters at the Hatfield House Hotel in Manhattan. After a few hours of drinking and talking Abe left the room to make a phone call. While he was in the next room Al and Harry got into an argument with their rivals and bullets began to fly. Three of them slammed into Al's chest as another plowed into his head. Five found their mark in brother in-law Harry who managed to walk out of the Hotel and make his way to nearby Bellevue Hospital. Abe escaped unharmed.

For the full story on the Wagners check Gangster City

An Ace gets shot down

Seventy-seven years ago tonight a twenty year-old Italian hood named John "Aces" Mazza entered an East Villiage restaurant and searched the crowd for a familiar face. When he didn't see it he stepped back out onto the sidewalk where two men standing at the curb suddenly opened fire on him. "Aces" drew his own .45 and squeezed off a few rounds before collapsing dead. A religious fellow Mazza was wearing a number of medals, one of which read, "I will spend my heaven doing good on earth." and another saying "St. Joseph patron of the grace of a happy death. Protect me." Editors note: Neither medal appears to have been effective

A few questions with Greg Vaccariello

Last month I had a chat with comedian Tim Krompier who was the grandson of Dutch Schultz Lt. Martin Krompier. This month I was able to chat with Greg Vaccariello a descendant of New York's crime boss Paul Kelly. Like Tim, Greg is also a comedian and actor. I've known Greg for a ten years or so, and like Tim, when I first learned his last name I thought to myself, "I wonder if...nah, what are the chances." Just like with Tim they were good. Some day I will learn.

Greg is based in L.A. and took a few minutes to answer a few questions.


Q: How exactly are you related to Paolo Vacarelli and when did you first become aware that he was actually the infamous Paul Kelly?

A: Uncle Paolo is my great uncle. We always knew that there was a connection but we never really talked about it. Mostly because my dad didn't talk about much of anything.

Q) There is a slight mispelling in your names. Why is that? Any idea if this was done a hundred or so years ago by your family to disassociate yourselves from Uncle Pauley?

A) The misspelling is simply a mistake made at Ellis Island. The correct spelling is 'Vaccariello'. Most of my relatives use that spelling. I don't think there was ever a desire to disassociate from Uncle Paulo at all. I get the impression that back in those days it was kind of an honor to have someone in that line of work in your family. My understanding is that although my family worked hard to make a living, it didn't hurt to drop a name or two in case of anything...if you know what I mean.

Q) When speaking with gangster descendants I find that two or three generations have to go by before anyone is willing to discuss said gangster. Is that the way it was with your family or was he discussed openly? If the latter were any family stories handed down?

A) We never really discussed Uncle Paolo. I don't think there was any reason for that other than the fact that my dad wasn't close to many people in his family. My dad was a cop so maybe that was part of the reason too.

Q) Were there any other Vaccarelli's involved in organized crime or would answering that guarantee us both a free trip to the bottom of the East river?

A) The East River is very very cold this time of year. But seriously, I don't think so. As far as I know it stopped with Uncle Paolo. As a matter of fact, my family has gone legit. At least that's what we're telling everyone. Some of my relatives have become quite successful, having careers in medicine, politics (both NY City and NY State), sports, on Broadway and as entrepreneurs. I think I'm actually the white trash of my family. One of my relatives was a professional boxer and was mentioned in Raging Bull, but as far as I know the name was changed to 'Baccariello' in the movie. I'm not sure why they changed it but I heard a rumor that they were 'asked' to. Another relative was the sanitation commissioner under Mayor Koch and later worked for the governor on NYS.

Q) Do mobophiles ever see your name in the paper and approach you at your shows for some gangster talk?

A) A few times over the years I've had people come up to me after shows and asked if I was related to Uncle Paolo. That's a weird situation. I usually respond with 'And you are?' The last thing I need is for someone to say''And this is for Monk and then blast away, especially after I just had a great show and didn't get a chance to sell my CDs. It's only happened a few times but I really think they were just descendants of business associates of my uncle. Curiosity more than anything. I did have one guy come up to me in Vegas and say, 'If you ever need anything, ANYTHING, call me.' Nice guy.

Q) Speaking of Monk, do you ever have an inexplicable urge to beat up anyone named Eastman?

A) Eastman, no. Downey, yes.

Thanks Greg!

For more info on Greg and to see if he is performing in your town soon check out:
www.myspace.com/gregvaccariello

Roll 'em

Looks like they rounded out the rest of the cast for Public Enemies. According to IMDB here are the actors and the persons that they will be portraying.

Jason Clarke as John "Red" Hamilton (Dillinger gang)

Channing Tatum as Pretty Boy Floyd bankrobber

John Ortiz as Frank Nitti Chicago mob boss

Giovanni Ribisi as Alvin Karpis kidnapper/bank robber

stephen Dorff as Homer Van Meter (Dillinger gang)

Marion Cotillard as Billie Frechette (Dillinger's girl friend)

Johnny Depp as John Dillinger

Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis (FBI)