Frank Rio (1895 - 1935)

Organized Crime Figure. Al Capone’s personal bodyguard, he was also known as “Frankie Cline” and “Slippery Frank” because he was good at avoiding trials. While dining with Capone in the Hawthorne Hotel in September 1926, Rio threw himself on top of Capone to protect him from machine gun fire during a drive-by shooting courtesy of […]

Paul Ricca (1897 - 1973)

Chicago Gangster – ‘The Waiter.’

Abe Reles (1906 - 1941)

Organized Crime Figure. Known as “Kid Twist”, he was a member of the murder-for-hire group of mafia assassins that became known as “Murder Inc”. About to go to trial for his involvement, he instead became a government witness. Just prior to his scheduled testimony against crime boss Lepke Buchalter and other figures. he either fell, […]

Gaetano Reina (1889 - 1930)

Gaetano Reina, 40 years old, a wealthy wholesale ice dealer, was shot and killed by one of two uni- dentified men last night as he emerged from an apartment house at 1,521 Sheridan Avenue, the Bronx, where, according to the police, he and a woman had maintained an apartment as Mr. and Mrs. James Ennis. […]

Philip Rastelli (2026 - 1991)

Organized Crime Figure. He took control of the Bonanno Organized Crime Family after the murder of Carmine Galante in 1979. He was sentenced to twelve years in a federal prison in 1986.

Vincent Rao (1898 - 1988)

Organized Crime Figure. Consigliere of the Luchese Organized Crime Family during the reign of Family Boss Thomas (Three Finger Brown) Luchese. He operated out of 107th Street in Manhattan, New York from the 1920’s until the early 1970’s. He retired to Florida and died there of natural causes in 1988, at the age of 90.

Giuseppe Profaci (1897 - 1962)

Organized Crime Figure. He headed the Profaci Organized Crime Family, which became the Colombo Family upon his death.

Jackie Presser (1926 - 1988)

Labor Leader. He was President of the Teamsters Union from 1983 to 1988. He was indicted on federal charges in 1986 of racketeering and embezzlement but never stood trial. Presser said that he was an FBI informant. Died from complications after brain cancer surgery. Was a staunch supporter of Ronald Reagan and assisted him in […]

Bonaventura Pinzolo (1887 - 1930)

During the Castellammarese war Joe the Boss Masseria chose Joseph Pinzolo to head the Reina Family in the Bronx after the February 26, 1930, murder of Gaetano Reina. On September 9, 1930, members of the Reina Family loyal to Salvatore Maranzano shot Pinzolo to death in his Manhattan business office. After Pinzolo’s death Tommaso (Tommy) […]

Thomas Pence (1842 - 1880)

Outlaw and Member of the James Gang. During the Civil War, he rode with William C. Quantrill. He was in Samuels Depot, Kentucky with Quantrill when he was killed. On July 26, 1865, Bud, Frank James and some members of Quantrill’s Raiders surrended to Union forces at Samuels Depot and later on, he escaped from […]

Raymond Patriarca (1908 - 1984)

Organized Crime Figure. He was born on Shrewsbury Street to Italian immigrant parents. When he was 3, his father, Eleuterio, moved the family to Atwells Avenue in the Federal Hill section of Providence RI where he operated a package store. Raymond left school after the 8th grade and worked at the Biltmore Hotel, in Providence, […]

Jacob Orgen (1893 - 1927)

Born to a middle class Orthodox Jewish family in the city of Minsk in the old Tsarist Russian Empire, Orgen became a well known labor slugger for Benjamin “Dopey Benny” Fein by the early 1910s. Being ambitious, he had formed his own gang, “The Little Augies” c. 1911. He operated his labor rackets diligently for […]

Charles O’Banion (1892 - 1924)

O’Banion was born to Irish Catholic parents in the small town of Maroa in Central Illinois. The O’Banion family moved to Aurora, Illinois, when Dean was a small child. In 1901, after his mother’s death, he moved to Chicago with his father and one of his brothers (a second brother, Frank, remained in Maroa). The […]

August Nykiel (1896 - 1928)

Organized Crime Figure. He was one of the most popular and successful Detroit bootleggers during the early days of Prohibition. In addition to his illegal activities he financed and maintained a semi-professional football team, the Detroit Tigers. His territory was confined to Detroit’s Southwest Side, and his headquarters was a saloon at 8824 W. Jefferson […]

Frank Nitti (1888 - 1943)

Organized Crime Figure. The number 2 man for famed gangster Al Capone, he was born about 1883 in Italy. He started as a barber, but became involved in the Chicago gang started by Capone when he was asked to fence some stolen jewelry. He quickly became a favorite of Capone by his ability to do […]

James Napoli (2026 - 1992)

Organized Crime Figure. He was a Capo in the Genovese Organized Crime Family. He controlled one of the largest gambling operations in the United States from the 1950s though the 1980s.

Guarino Moretti (1894 - 1951)

Organized Crime Figure. He was the Underboss of Frank Costello (1936-1951). A close friend of Lucky Luciano and Joe Bonanno, he ruled illegal gambling in the New Jersey area. By 1950, he was in the latter stages of syphilis which began to affect his mind. Fearing that he would talk too much the Mafia commission […]

Giuseppe Morello (1870 - 1930)

Giuseppe Morello (AKA: The Clutch Hand, Peter, Don Petru) was born in Corleone, Sicily in 1870. Morello was underboss to Joe the Boss Masseria in New York City during the early part of the Castellammarese War of 1930-1931. On Aug. 15, 1930, Morello and two of his men were shot to death in his business […]

George Moran (1893 - 1957)

Gangster. The way he got his nickname is disputed. It is believed it comes for his imaginative but impractical plans for robbing banks and kidnapping millionaires in Chicago during the 1920s or from those who thought he was nuts or “buggy”. He is most known for trying to murder Al Capone. Capone was after Moran […]

Harry Millman (2026 - 1937)

Organized Crime Figure. One of the most prominent members of Detroit’s “Purple Gang”, he was part of a younger generation of Jewish youths in Detroit’s North End who sought to emulate the older, established members of the of the Purple Gang. Harry Millman was a handsome, tough, hard drinking young man who rose to prominence […]

Irving Milberg (2026 - 1938)

Organized Crime Figure. A member of Detroit’s Purple Gang, he was born and raised in Brooklyn along with several other Purples including Abe Axler, Eddie Fletcher, Sam Abramson, and Isadore Cantor. First coming to Detroit in late 1923 to fight in the Oakland Sugar House War, he soon became one of the Purple Gang’s top […]

Michele Merlo (1880 - 1924)

born January 4, 1880 in Sambuca Zabut, Sicily Mafia figure. Chicago labor leader whose death precipitated the city’s infamous 1920’s gangster war

Jack McGurn (1902 - 1936)

Although Capone bodyguard Jack McGurn was never prosecuted in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, the theory endures that he was its mastermind. For one thing, if Capone was behind the Massacre, it seems likely he would have had McGurn handle the details. Also, McGurn would have had good reason to go after members of Bugs […]

Frank McErlane (1894 - 1932)

Organized Crime Figure. Chicago gangster of the bootlegging 1920s. Credited with being the first to use a submachine gun in gang warfare. He was thought to be one of the machine gunners in the St. Valentines Day massacre of 1929, Chicago, Illinois.

John May (1894 - 1929)

Gangster. A member of Bugs Moran crime gang, he was a victim of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago, Illinois. The other victims were Reinhardt Schwimmer, Frank Gusenberg and his brother Peter Gusenberg, Adam Meyer, Albert Weinshenker and Albert Kachellek. On January 19, 1929, Al Capone gangster Patsy Lolordo and his wife, Aleina, were […]

Hattie May (1887 - 1969)

Seven murder indictments were returned today against Jack McGurn and John Scalise, reputed gangsters, in connection with the slaying on St. Valentine’s Day of seven members of the “Bugs” Moran Northside gang in a beer truck garage at 2,122 North Clark Street. Rocco Fanelli, reputed gangster, who has been held under murder charges by the […]

Joseph Masseria (1886 - 1931)

Gangster. Murdered by four mafia gunmen: Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese, Joe Adonis and Benjamin Siegel. Joseph (Joe the Boss) Masseria’s Mafia Family was the most powerful Organized Crime Family in New York City from the start of prohibition until the out break of the Castellammarese war in 1930. During the Castellammarese war he came into […]

Salvatore Maranzano (1886 - 1931)

Organized Crime Figure. He instigated the 1929 to 1931 “Castellammarese War” amongst New York City, New York organized crime factions. He was briefly the undisputed leader of the entire mafia organizations in New York until he was murdered on the orders of younger crime figures like Meyer Lansky and Charles “Lucky” Luciano.

Philip Mangano (1898 - 1951)

Capo in the Mangano Mafia Family of Brooklyn, NY. The Mangano Family was named after Philip’s older brother Vincent who was the Boss of the Family from 1931 until his death. On April 19,1951, Philip was found shot to death in a marsh near Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn, NY. His brother Vincent disappeared that same […]

Harry Maione (2026 - 1942)

Organized Crime Figure. He was part of the “Murder Inc.”, a group of professional assassins who worked solely for the National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s.