The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder and the Birth of the American Mafia (51 page)

46.
Giovanni Vella was not like:
James Ortelero to Superintendent, Federal Penitentiary, Atlanta, February 7 and 15, 1911, inmate file 2882, Giuseppe Morello, Atlanta Federal Penitentiary papers, Records of the Bureau of Prisons, RG 129, NARA-SE (“brave fearless man,” “nearing a solution”); Flynn, pp. 244-60 (rival candidate, scene at Ortoleva’s, Vella murder).

47.
Francesco Ortoleva:
Dino Paternostro, personal communication, October 25, 2007, author’s files.

48.
the killing:
Mattox et al.,
Trauma
(effects of gunshot wound to lung).

50
a woman named Anna Di Puma:
Washington Post
, April 26, 1914, M5; Flynn, pp. 244-48, 256.

50.
Michele Zangara:
Flynn, p. 245; Zangara death certificate, January 10, 1904, Ufficio Anagrafe, Corleone.

51.
Ortoleva finally came to trial:
Flynn, pp. 255-59.

52.
Morello’s new idea was counterfeiting:
New York Police Department criminal record, n.d. (1910), inmate file 2882, Giuseppe Morello, Atlanta Federal Penitentiary papers (conviction and sentence); Fentress,
Rebels
, pp. 170-71, 177-78 (Siino, Giammona, Palermo ring); Dickie,
Cosa Nostra
, p. 164 (Verro’s café).

CHAPTER 3.
Little Italy

54
It was a spring day:
Passenger list for SS
Alsatia
, March 8, 1893, “Passenger lists of vessels arriving at New York, 1820-1897,” M237/603, RG85, NARA (family members, baggage, occupation, literacy);
New York Times
, March 7, 1893, p. 8 (weather); Ferber,
A New American
, pp. 1-2 (sea voyage; arrival at Ellis Island in March); Bonanno,
A Man of Honor
, p. 19 (Sicilian perceptions of New York upon arrival); Ianni,
A Family Business
, p. 66 (immigrant wealth).

54.
Ellis Island:
Burrows and Wallace,
Gotham
, pp. 1111-12 (size, description); Amfitheatrof,
Children of Columbus
, p. 160 (tests); Burns and Sanders,
New York: An Illustrated History
, p. 271 (12,000).

55.
the Clutch Hand had slipped into:
Federal transcripts, Morello, fol. 456; prisoner’s record, February 23, 1910, inmate file 2882, Giuseppe Morello, Atlanta Federal Penitentiary papers, RG 129, NARA-SE (immigration date).

55
entered the country with six dollars:
Herald
, April 26, 1903, fifth section, p. 5; Amfitheatrof,
Children of Columbus
, p. 160.

55.
Gotham was an unimaginable metropolis:
Jackson,
The Encyclopedia of New York City
, pp. 582, 1157; Dash,
Satan’s Circus
, pp. 24-29.

56.
The number of Italians:
Iorizzo,
Italian Immigration and the Impact of the Padrone System
, pp. 57 ($30 million), 58 (problems in Italy); Bevilacqua et al.,
Storia dell’Emigrazione Italiano
, pp. 55-88 (numbers, conditions); Amfitheatrof,
Children of Columbus
, pp. 137-38 (“At the head of everything;” a third of the population); Nelli, “The Italian Padrone System,” pp. 157, 160-62 (conditions outside New York); Jackson, pp. 584-5 (immigrant numbers).

57.
regarded with hostility:
Herald
, April 26, 1903, fifth section, p. 5 (“scum of Southern Europe,” SS
Belgravia)
.

58.
immune from deportation:
La Gumina,
Wop!
, pp. 89-90 (three-year deportation limit).

58.
Mulberry Bend:
Riis,
How the Other Half Lives
, pp. 30, 46-58; Page,
The Creative Destruction of Manhattan, 1900-1940
, pp. 74-84.

59.
Conditions in the tenements:
Iorizzo,
Italian Immigration
, pp. 59-60 (wages in Italy and New York); Nelli, “Italian Padrone System,” pp. 156-67 (workings of padrone system); Burrows and Wallace,
Gotham
, pp. 1122-25 (tenements); Norton, “Chicago Housing Conditions,” pp. 519, 528-29 (damp walls); Ianni,
A Family Business
, p. 68 (“More than anything I remember …”); Riis,
How the Other Half Lives
, pp. 41-46 (rag picking); Maas,
Valachi Papers
, pp. 40-41 (coal under beds; cement-bag sheets); Amfitheatrof,
Children of Columbus
, p. 161 (rag picking); Orsi,
The Madonna of 115th Street
, p. 28 (women’s work).

61
dimly lit sweatshops:
Burns and Sanders,
New York
, pp. 276-77;
Sante, Low

61.
Life
, pp. 307-8. 61
This sort of casual work:
Iorizzo,
Italian Immigration
, pp. 57, 59-60 (wages, savings, Italian banks).

61.
The crash of 1893:
Rezneck, “Unemployment, Unrest and Relief,” pp. 324-45; Steeples and Whitman,
Democracy in Desperation
, pp. 142-65.

62.
traveled south, to Louisiana:
Federal transcripts, Morello, fol. 456 (locations);
Washington Post
, July 12, 1914, MS6 (Morello in Louisiana); Scarpaci, “Italian Immigrants in Louisiana’s Sugar Parishes: Recruitment, Labor Conditions, and Community Relations, 1880-1910,” pp. ii, 16-20, 32, 35, 97, 99-100, 107, 124-6, 139-31, 146 (conditions); Iorizzo,
Italian Immigration
, p. 59 ($3). The approximate date of the family’s arrival in Louisiana can be fixed by the marriage records of Plaquemines Parish, which show that Lucia Terranova married Antonio Saltaformaggio there on February 3, 1894; private information from the Saltaformaggio family.

64.
to an agricultural community in Texas:
Federal transcripts, Morello, fols. 456-57 (location); Valentine Belfiglio,
The Italian Experience in Texas
, pp. 81-88 (conditions in Brazos County, Corleone colony).

65.
The decision to return north:
Federal transcripts, Morello, fols. 456-57 (timing, malaria, business ventures); passenger list for SS
Alsatia
, March 8, 1893, “Passenger lists of vessels arriving at New York, 1820-1897,” M237/603, RG85, NARA; and death certificate of Calogero Morello, April 17, 1912, Manhattan 12458, NYMA (two Calogeros).

65.
New York’s Italian neighborhoods had changed:
Jackson,
Encyclopedia
, pp. 584-85, 605 (numbers); Iorizzo,
Italian Immigration
, p. 57 (remittances).

66.
the criminals of the Italian districts:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
, May 30, 1899, p. 4 (kidnapping craze); Pitkin,
The Black Hand
, pp. 31 (Giovanni Branchi), 67 (extemporized gangs), 87 (Petrosino’s estimate); Jackson,
Encyclopedia
, pp. 604-5 (total immigrants);
New York Times
, March 3, 1907, SM10 (1:300); Nelli,
The Business of Crime
, pp. 85, 90 (1:250, 1:5).

67.
Extortion rings:
Gambetta,
Sicilian Mafia
, pp. 28-33 (Sicily); Pitkin,
The Black Hand
, p. 46 (New Orleans); Landesco,
Organized Crime in Chicago
, p. 108 (Chicago).

69.
“the Black Hand”:
Lombardo, “The Black Hand,” p. 395 (representatives, negotiations);
New York Times
, February 7, 1907, p. 1 (J.P. murdered), March 9, 1909, p. 1, and March 26, 1910, p. 4 (Caruso), March 3, 1907, SM10 (three hundred killings); Sacco, “Black Hand Outrage,” pp. 59-63 (methodology); Landesco,
Organized Crime
, p. 108 (Black Hand letters); Pitkin,
The Black Hand
, p. 89 (no national gang);
San Francisco Call
, October 18, 1905, p. 4 (twelve cities).

CHAPTER 4.
“The Most Secret and Terrible Organization in the World”

70.
Tunisia, which had long been:
Pitkin,
The Black Hand
, p. 134; Flynn, pp. 83-84.

71.
were not sent there by their superiors:
Bonanno,
A Man of Honor
, pp. 19-28; Ianni,
Family Business
, p. 66;
Fentress, Rebels
, pp. 196-98.

71
For all this, even the most conservative analysis:
St. Lawrence Herald
, May 1, 1903, p. 1 (Boston); Morello,
Before Bruno
, pp. 4 (Luzerne County, 1880s), 6, 8, 13 (Sciaccatani, DiGiovannis, counterfeiting); Fox,
Blood and Power
, p. 64 (Men of Montedoro); Cutrera,
La Mafia e i Mafiosi
, pp. 25-30 (Sciaccatani);
Sun
, September 20, 1903, p. 8;
New York Times
, August 17, 1921, p. 1 (Detroit);
Philadelphia Inquirer
, December 3, 1903, p. 1 (early report of a Mafia in Philadelphia);
New York Times
, May 5, 1891, p. 1,
Chicago Tribune
, February 22, p. 1, February 23, 1901, p. 3, and Nelli,
The Business of Crime
, pp. 125, 134-36 (Chicago); Gentile,
Vita di Capomafia
, p. 33 (Pittsburgh).

71.
Rocco Racco:
Louis Warren,
The Hunter’s Game
, pp. 21-45.

72.
It was a killing that took place in New Orleans:
Smith,
The Crescent City Lynchings
, pp. 39-41 (rates of pay, ambush), 47 (Red Light club), 49 (murders of Sicilians), 53-65 (Provenzano trial; “soak the levee”); Hunt and Macheca,
Deep Water
, pp. 86-88, 188-91, 201-5 (vendetta murders); Gambino,
Vendetta
, p. 153 (ambush arrests); Nelli,
The Business of Crime
, pp. 24-46 (Provenzano-Matranga feud and Mafia claims).

74
It was the Italian authorities:
“Relazioni di Rosario La Mantia,” Ministero di Grazia e Giustizia dir gen.le aa pp, misc 1879.b.55, f.620, Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Rome;
Fentress, Rebels
, pp. 193-211.

74.
a Mafia in New Orleans:
New Orleans
Daily Picayune
, May 16, 1891 (mutual accusations); Smith,
The Crescent City Lynchings
, pp. 57-58 (threatening letters), 59 (“Stoppiglieri”), 102 (Provenzano), 104-5 (“They’re people that work for the Matrangas …”), 247 (“a great deal…,” Vandervoort).

75.
“They’ve got the Mafia Society”:
New York Times
, October 20, 1890, p. 1; Smith,
The Crescent City Lynchings
, pp. 39, 103-4 (Matranga and the domino); 47-48 (Vandervoort); 237-38 (repeats Provenzano’s allegations); 247-48 (no evidence at trial); Hunt and Sheldon,
Deep Water
, pp. 201-02, 206, 298–99 (Matranga as leader).

75.
information about Joseph Macheca:
Hunt and Sheldon,
Deep Water
, pp. 7, 10, 85-87.

76.
Hennessy himself appeared:
Gambino,
Vendetta
, pp. 1-5 (murder); Smith,
The Crescent City Lynchings
, pp. xxii-xxv (day leading to the murder, the shooting), 34-35 (character and history); Baiomonte, “‘Who Killa de Chief Revisited,” p. 122 (“dagoes did it”).

77.
When the chief’s words reached:
Smith,
The Crescent City Lynchings
, pp. 80-115; Gambino,
Vendetta
, p. 41-95 (“We find them …”).

77
Whipped up by the mayor:
Smith,
The Crescent City Lynchings
, pp. 213-32 (events); Gambino,
Vendetta
, pp. 78-95 (“snapping fire,” “hang the dagoes,” execution squad).

79.
an outbreak of violence:
Scarpaci, “Italian Immigrants in Louisiana’s Sugar Parishes,” pp. 246-49.

80.
Matranga, who had found:
Nelli,
The Business of Crime
, p. 64; Smith,
The Crescent City Lynchings
, p. 289.

80.
dark rumors still swirled:
Winona Republican Herald
, October 18, 1890, p. 1 (murder officials); Scarpaci,
Italian Immigrants
, p. 247 (spate of murders).

81.
the biggest Mafia scare of the century:
Morning Oregonian
, August 2, 1890 (Boston);
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
, December 7, 1892 (Denver);
Milwaukee
Sentinel
, July 18, 1897 (Milwaukee);
Ogden Standard Examiner
, December 7, 1898 (San Francisco);
Chicago Tribune
, October 29, 1888, p. 3 (Drummond, Rosso), and October 6, 1892, p. 6 (Wheeler, Lewis, and Duranto).

81
Only in New York:
New York Times
, September 22, p. 5, September 30, 1857, p. 1, and March 28, 1891, p. 2 (early rumors); May 16, 1893, p. 9;
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
, October 4, 1889, p. 6 (barber).

81.
the Secret Service:
Sun
, April 19, 1903, second section, p. 15.

82.
Raymond and Carmelo Farach:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
, February 18, 1877, p. 4 (Raymond Farach and a murderous counterfeiter), April 7, p. 4 (murder, appearance, Flaccomio under police surveillance, barber’s statement), April 8, p. 2 (several wounds), 4 (partners), April 11, 1884, p. 4 (no positive identification), July 25, p. 16 (stabbed in back, left-handed, visit to Raymond Farach, “If he does …”), and October 21, 1886, p. 6 (Carmelo involved in counterfeiting);
Richmond County Standard
, April 12, 1884, p. 4 (circumstances of body’s discovery); private information from the Farach family (date of immigration).