Meyer Cohen (1913 - 1976)

Gangster. Born in a poverty-stricken part of New York in 1913. His Jewish mother was from Kiev in the Ukraine. After running away from home at fifteen, he picked up his swagger in the fight clubs of Cleveland, then the nation’s fifth largest city. Lifelong connections with major underworld players were forged there, and in […]

Carl Civella (1910 - 1994)

Organized Crime Figure. Brother of Kansas City Crime Boss Nick Civella. When Nick died in prison Carl became boss of the family and in 1984 he was sentenced to thirty years in federal prison for his role in skimming more than $280,000 from the Las Vegas Tropicana and almost $2 million from casinos run by […]

Antonio Cincotta (1875 - 1915)

Organized Crime Figure. He was a Mafia Blackhand Leader in New York City whom attempted to extort $15,000 from opera star Enrico Caruso in 1910. Cincotta was arrested when he went to pick up the extortion money at a drop in Brooklyn. He was convicted of extortion and sent to prison until December 1914. Cincotta […]

Joseph Catania (1902 - 1931)

Organized Crime Figure. Known as “Joe Baker”, he was a top Captain to Joe “the Boss” Masseria during the Castellammarese War. On February 3, 1931, future mob informant Joseph Valachi, then a soldier loyal to Salvatore Maranzano, shot him six times while he was walking on a street in the Bronx. He died in the […]

Salvatore Catalanotte (1894 - 1930)

Organized Crime Figure. The first unified boss of the Detroit underworld, he was born in Seleni, Trapani, Sicily on February 15, 1894. He arrived in Detroit in 1905, and was a popular figure who held tremendous influence in the Italian community due largely in part to charitable donations and his standing as the head of […]

Paul Castellano (1915 - 1985)

Paul Castellano Castellano was born in Brooklyn on June 26th, 1915. His father was a butcher who also operated an Italian gambling game for the locals. Paul was late Mafia boss Carlo Gambino’s younger cousin, and his sister, Catherine, was Gambino’s wife. Castellano operated several lucrative meat businesses in the 1950s and his control over […]

Vito Cascioferro (1862 - 2024)

Cascioferro is considered to be the mastermind behind the murder of New York policeman and head of the Italian Squad, Joe Petrosino, on March 12, 1909. He was shot and killed in Piazza Marina in Palermo; two men were seen running from the crime scene. Petrosino had gone to Sicily to gather information from local […]

Robert Carey (1894 - 1932)

Robert Carey Gangster. Robert Carey was born and raised in St. Louis. He became embroiled in the early gang wars there between the Egan’s Rats and the Hogans, fleeing to Detroit after the murder of Harry “Cherries” Dunn in September 1916. Thereafter Carey commuted across the Midwest commiting crimes with his childhood friends Fred “Killer” […]

Frank Capone (1895 - 1924)

Frank Capone Born Salvatore Capone, Frank was the son of Gabriele Capone (1865-1920), an Italian immigrant who settled with his wife Teresa Raiola (1867-1952)in New York City in 1894.[1] Besides Al, Frank had another brother who became a mobster, Ralph Capone. Growing up in New York, both Frank and Al became involved in the infamous […]

Louis Capone (1896 - 1944)

Louis Capone In 1936, Capone participated in the murder of Joseph Rosen. Buchalter had previously ruined Rosen’s trucking business and was now afraid that Rosen would implicate him in criminal activity. To protect himself, Buchalter ordered Rosen’s murder. On September 13, 1936, Harry Strauss, Emanuel Weiss and James Ferraco shot Rosen 17 times in his […]

Al Capone (1899 - 1947)

Al Capone Organized Crime Figure, Chicago Gangster. Probably the best known of the 1920s gangsters, he controlled Chicago until brought down by FBI Agent Elliott Ness. Ness later wrote a book “The Untouchables” which detailed his efforts to jail Capone. Capone was the largest of the racketeers, and captured the American public’s imagination as few […]

Nathan Caplin (1891 - 1923)

Nathan Caplin One of seven children, Kaplan was born in New York’s Lower East Side on August 3, 1891. Kaplan began committing petty theft at an early age and later becoming a skilled sneak thief and pushcart extortionist, later becoming known for his skill with the “drop swindle“. He was originally a member of the […]

James Burke (1931 - 1996)

Organized Crime Figure. Known as “Jimmy the Gent”, he was immortalized in the Martin Scorcese gangster film “Goodfellas”. He was one of New York City’s most successful and revered organized criminals who went down in the annals of crime as the architect of the notorious 1978 Lufthansa heist, which looted New York’s JFK airport of […]

Louis Buchalter (1897 - 1944)

Organized Crime Figure. He was a Jewish Mob boss who operated in the New York City, New York Garment District in the 1930s and 1940s, and was a close associate of mafia boss Lucky Luciano. He was part of the Murder Incorporated a group of professional killers who worked solely for the National Crime Syndicate […]

Angelo Bruno (1910 - 1980)

Angelo Bruno In 1959, Bruno succeeded Joseph Ida as boss of the Philadelphia family. Over the next 20 years, Bruno successfully avoided the intense media and law enforcement scrutiny and outbursts of violence that plagued other crime families. Bruno himself avoided lengthy prison terms despite several arrests; his longest term was two years for refusing […]

Vito Bonventre (1875 - 1930)

Vito Bonventre Organized Crime Figure. He was an underboss to Salvatore Maranzano during the Castellmmarese War (1930 to 1931). He was shot to death by gunmen of Joe “the Boss” Masseria in the driveway of his Brooklyn home. He was a second cousin of Mafia boss Joseph Bonanno.

Joseph Bonanno (1905 - 2002)

Crime Figure. He immigrated to the United States in his 20s and began to work as a muscleman for the large New York gangs of era, most under Joseph (Joe the Boss) Masseria, and Salvatore Maranzano. When both were murdered in 1931, Bonanno was appointed as boss of the Brooklyn-based Bonnano Family, which he exerted […]

Ruggiero Boiardo (1890 - 1984)

Ruggiero Boiardo Was a caporegime in the Genovese crime family who ran mob operations in the Newark, New Jersey area. Born in Naples, Italy, Boiardo’s family immigrated to the Newark area in 1910. His first criminal activity involved bookmaking while he worked as a milkman. Boiardo eventually controlled criminal activities in the First Ward section […]

Thomas Bilotti (1940 - 1985)

Thomas Bilotti Over the years, Bilotti became a close aide-de-camp, confidant and chauffeur for capo Paul Castellano. Bilotti was a regular visitor to Castellano’s Todt Hill, Staten Island mansion and was considered a close family friend. However, when Castellano started an affair with his maid, Bilotti kept it secret from Castellano’s wife. He would also […]

Sam Battaglia (1908 - 1973)

Sam Battaglia Chicago Gangster. He was the middle of three brothers who dominated the Chicago mob for nearly four decades before falling from power. He broke into the mob after spending time with the street gang 42, founded by his brother Paul. Sam, a burglar and muscle man, was a huge, good looking youngster when […]

Joseph Barbara (1905 - 1959)

Joseph Barbara Organized Crime Figure. Immigrated to the United States in 1921 at age 16. He was soon working as a hitman for the Buffalo crime family in their Northern Pennsylvania territory. During the 1930s, Joseph was arrested for several murders, including the 1933 murder of rival bootlegger Sam Wichner. Wichner had gone to Barbara’s […]

Stefano Badami (1888 - 1955)

Stefano Badami Organized Crime Figure. He was the first boss of what is now called the Decavalcante Organized Crime Family based in New Jersey. He ran the family until the 1930s, and was stabbed to death in a restaurant at 372 15th Avenue in Newark, New Jersey in 1955.  

Abe Axler (2024 - 1933)

Abe Axler Organized Crime Figure. One of the most prominent members of Detroit’s Purple Gang. He was born and raised in Williamburg, Brooklyn, along with future Purples like Eddie Fletcher, Irving Milberg, Sam Abramson, and Isadore Cantor. In the fall of 1921, Abe and his brother Simon were convicted on burglary charges and did 4 […]

Joseph Armone (1917 - 1992)

Joseph Armone Armone followed his brother into the Mangano family. By the time Albert “Mad Hatter” Anastasia took over the family, he had become one of the family’s major earners. In 1957, underboss Joseph Biondo allegedly picked Armone and two other family mobsters to kill Anastasia. However, before the attack could take place, Armone was […]

Albert Anselmi (1883 - 1929)

Albert Anselmi Organized Crime Figure. Born in Marsala, Sicily in 1884, Albert Anselmi became involved with the Mafia early in his life. Escaping the relatives of one of his murder victims, he fled to America around 1912 and entered the country illegally through the Gulf Coast, eventually settling on “The Hill”, the Italian community of […]

Anthony Anastasio (1906 - 1963)

Organized Crime Figure, Anthony Anastasio (Tough Tony), was a powerful labor boss and racketeer on the Brooklyn waterfront.  Brother of Mafia figures Albert and Frank Anastasia.  As brother of syndicate chieftain Albert Anastasia,Tough Tony took control of the astoundingly lucrative Brooklyn docks through the International Longshoremen’s Association for which he was a vice president and head […]

Albert Anastasia (1902 - 1957)

Albert Anastasia As Umberto Anastasio became known as a Brooklyn gangster, he adjusted his name to Albert Anastasia. The adjustment to his surname was reportedly to save his Anastasio relatives from embarrassment. (One of his brothers entered the U.S. legally and became a parish priest in New York.) Anastasia became an accomplished underworld enforcer, earning […]

Louis Amberg (1897 - 1935)

In 1935, Joseph Amberg was killed. On October 23, 1935 (the same day Dutch Schultz was murdered) Louis Amberg’s body was found in a burning car in Brooklyn, charred beyond recognition. He was killed with an ax and a shotgun blast, put in a car and set on fire. It took several days for him […]

Joseph Amberg (1892 - 1935)

Organized Crime Figure. He along with his brothers Louis “Pretty” and Hyman Amberg were the most feared gangsters in the Jewish neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York City, New York during the 1920s and 1930s On September 30,1935, Joseph Amberg and Morris Kessler (one of his henchmen) were lined-up against the wall of an auto repair […]

Herman Amberg (1970 - 1926)

Herman Amberg Organized Crime Figure. Along with his brothers Louis “Pretty” and Joseph Amberg, they were the most feared gangsters in the Jewish neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York City, New York during the 1920s and 1930s. Hyman was arrested for the murder of a Brooklyn jeweler in 1926 and placed in the “Tombs” jail in […]