John Dioguardi (1914 - 1979)

Organized Crime Figure. Known as “Johnny Dio”, he was a Captain in the Luchese Organized Crime Family. A powerful labor racketeer and union boss, he was indicted for hiring a small-time criminal named Abe Telvi to throw acid in the face of labor columnist Victor Riesel in 1956, who was blinded in the attack. The […]

Louis DiBono (1927 - 1990)

Organized Crime Figure. Member of the Gambino crime family and business partner of mob informant Salvatore “Sammy The Bull” Gravano. After a falling out over business, he was murdered by Gravano and his body was found in the trunk of his car in the garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. His […]

Jack Diamond (1897 - 1931)

Jack Diamond Gangster bootlegger. Born Jack Moran on July, 1897, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to an Irish immigrant family. After his mother, Sara’s death, Diamond moved with his father and brother to Brooklyn, New York. Growing up impoverished, Diamond turned to street gangs and became involved in theft and violent crime as a teen. He later […]

Sam DeStefano (1909 - 1973)

Gangster. Sam DeStefano, a.k.a. “Mad Sam,” was the most violent loanshark in Chicago’s history. He grew up in Little Italy and fell in with the infamous 42er Gang. He served three years in prison for rape and eleven in Wisconsin for bank robbery. He was known as a “six for five” juice man in Chicago, […]

Roy DeMeo (1942 - 1983)

Organized Crime Figure. A member of the Gambino crime family, he was a loanshark, car thief, and killer who operated out of the Gemini Lounge in Flatlands, Brooklyn, New York City, New York. Beginning in the mid 1970s, he started dealing drugs and retagging stolen automobiles, accompanied by several neighborhood youths. He then became perhaps […]

Neill Dellacroce (2026 - 1985)

Organized Crime Figure. He was the Underboss of the Gambino Crime Family during the reigns of crime figures Carlo Gambino and Paul Castellano. When he died of natural causes in 1985, his death created a vacuum in the Family that lead to the murders of Gambino Family boss Paul Castellano and Underboss Thomas Bilotti on […]

Simone DeCavalcante (2026 - 1997)

Organized Crime Figure. Known as “Sam the Plumber,” he was the boss of the Mafia’s New Jersey based DeCavalcante Family (which is named after him) from the 1960s until the mid 1970s. In 1961, the FBI planted a listening device in the office of his plumbing company, and recorded him discussing criminal activities with other […]

Morris Dalitz (1899 - 1989)

Organized Crime Figure. Known to his contemporaries as “Moe”. Born Boston, he was raised in Michigan. During Prohibition he was a bootlegger in Detroit, Akron and Cleveland, where he was associated with the Mayfield Road Gang. Expanding beyond bootlegging into gambling both in the Clevland area and in Newport, Kentucky, he operated several illegal casinos […]

Salvatore D’Aquila (1878 - 1928)

Organized Crime Figure. He was the first head of what is now called the Gambino Organized Crime Family. He was shot and killed at the corner of Avenue A and 13th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York.

Paul D’Amato (2026 - 1984)

Organized Crime Figure. Known as “Mr. Atlantic City”, he was the owner of the 500 Club in Atlantic City, New Jersey from the 1930’s until the club burned down in 1973. The 500 Club was a front for an illegal gambling operation providing slot machines, baccarat, craps, roulette, and blackjack. To draw gamblers, he had […]

Gandolfo Curto (1890 - 1929)

Organized Crime Figure. A top Captain in the Organized Crime Family of Joe “The Boss” Masseria during the 1920s, “Frankie Marlow” ran a major gambling and bootlegging operation in New York City. He was also a boxing manager and night club owner. He was a partner in the ownership of the Cotton Club in Harlem. […]

Charles Crawford (1879 - 1931)

Criminal. Shady Los Angeles racketeer. His murder by a Deputy District Attorney was ruled justifiable homicide.

Frank Costello (1891 - 1973)

Frank Costello Arriving in New York City at the age of four with his immigrant Calabrian parents, Costello grew up in East Harlem and became head of the 104th Street Gang, a group of young Italian hoodlums. In 1915 he went to prison for a year for carrying a concealed weapon; on release he allied […]

Anthony Corallo (1913 - 2000)

Mafia Boss of the Lucchese Crime Family. Criminal record dates back to 1929. He did 2 yrs in prison in 1962 for paying $35,000 in bribes to New York Supreme Court Justice James Vincent Keogh and Assistant U. S. Attorney Elliott Kahaner to assure a light sentence for a mob associate. In 1968 Corallo was […]

Michael Coppola (2026 - 1966)

Organized Crime Figure. Known as “Trigger Mike,” he was a Made-Member in the Costello/Genovese Organized Crime Family, and ran a large gambling operation in Harlem. He was also major drug trafficker and was considered one of the most vicious enforcers in American Mafia history. In 1931, he took control of the artichoke rackets in New […]

Jim Colosimo (1877 - 1920)

Organized Crime Figure. Colosimo was ten years old when he left Italy with his family destined for Chicago. As a teenager he began supplementing his income with thievery, including pickpocketing, and by the time he was 18 he began engaging prostitutes to work for him. Early in his career he took up the Italian practice […]

Joe Colombo (1923 - 1978)

Organized Crime Figure. He was the head of the Colombo crime family (named after him) from 1963 until he was shot in the head and critically wounded at a rally for the Italian American Civil Rights League (which he started) at Columbus Circle in New York City, New York on June 28, 1971. His shooting […]

Vincent Coll (1908 - 1932)

Organized Crime Figure. An Irish-born gangster in New York City, he regaled in the media attention for his violent activities, preferring short-term, violent solutions to his problems with gang rivalry. His attacks on the major New York City gangs left him with the nickname “Mad Dog,” for daring to take on the other mobsters. In […]

Peter Coll (1970 - 1931)

Gangster. He was a foot soldier in his brother, Vincent ‘Mad Dog’ Coll’s army.

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 (1893 - 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 - 1943)

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 […]