About The MOB
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Tony Accardo
April 28, 1906, to May 27, 1992.
"Joe Batters", "Big Tuna"
Accardo was Chicago Mafia boss for about a dozen years beginning near the end of World War II, when Frank Nitti apparently committed suicide and Paul Ricca was imprisoned.
Born April 28, 1906, Accardo became prominent in the mob during Al Capone's reign. He served for a time as Capone's bodyguard. In 1931, Accardo was named as a suspect in the killing of Capone rival Joe Aiello. (Some say he might also have been among the gunmen in the earlier St. Valentine's Day Massacre.)
Upon Capone's imprisonment for tax evasion, Accardo remained close to new boss Frank Nitti and took the reins of the Outfit in 1943 or 1944. He helped guide the Chicago family into gambling ventures, entertainment industry rackets and trucking.
Accardo allowed Sam Giancana to take over day-to-day mob operations in 1956. That was later viewed as a mistake. Giancana apparently aided the Kennedy Presidential campaign, which resulted in Attorney General Robert Kennedy's assault on the mob.
Accardo remained influential in the Family and returned to a visible leadership role when Giancana fled the country in 1966.
Accardo remained at the helm when Giancana returned to Chicago in 1974. Giancana was shot to death a year later.
Accardo retired in the 1980s to Palm Springs, Calif., and died May 27, 1992.
Joe Adonis
Nov. 22, 1906, to Nov. 26, 1971.
Giuseppe Antonio Doto
Adonis was born in Montemarano, an Italian village within the province of Avellino not far from the City of Naples. His family brought him to the United States when he was a child.
A longtime Brooklynite, he was affiliated early in his criminal career with Mafia bigshots Frank Yale and Anthony "Little Augie" Pisano (Anthony Carfano).
After the death of Yale in 1928, Adonis, Vito Genovese and Mike Miranda joined Pisano as the most prominent Neapolitans working within the Giuseppe Masseria organization in 1920s New York.
Adonis attended the May 13-15, 1929, national "convention" of bootleggers in Atlantic City. He aligned himself with the more Americanized Mafiosi - Charlie Luciano's faction - as "Mustache Petes" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano were eliminated in 1931. Some sources indicate that Adonis was one of the gunmen who dispatched Masseria at Nuova Villa Tammaro restaurant on April 15, 1931.
Joe Valachi stated that Adonis -- who directed criminal activity at the Brooklyn docks alongside Albert Anastasia and ran a Brooklyn eatery, Joe's Italian Kitchen on Carroll Street and Fourth Avenue -- was among those targeted for elimination by Maranzano after the conclusion of the Castellammarese War. After Maranzano was out of the way, the Mafia reorganized and Adonis became a major player, though his precise role in the hierarchy is hazy.
Some sources name him a top lieutenant in the Brooklyn Family of Vincent and Philip Mangano, while others place him within Luciano's own Manhattan-based Family. Nicholas Gage suggests that Adonis was actually the first post-war leader of what became the Mangano Family. But he does not offer a sufficient explanation for how or why Adonis became less than a Family boss later on.
Joe Bonanno, who probably knew Adonis' title, doesn't speak of it in his autobiography, and Valachi seems not to know anything about the Brooklyn leader.
Evidence suggests that Adonis was, at least nominally, part of the leadership of the Mangano mob, but owed his primary allegiance to his long-time friends Luciano and Frank Costello.
Eventually, Adonis seemed to be everywhere and into everything - alcohol, gambling, drugs, union rackets, political shenanigans... He had established relationships with several Mafia Families and with some non-Italian gangs as well. Adonis was known to be a trusted ally and confidant of Frank Costello, who presided over Luciano's Manhattan Family and served as supreme arbiter of Mafia affairs after Luciano went up the river in the 1930s. He joined Costello and Jewish mobsters Meyer Lansky and Benjamin Siegel in ownership of the Colonial Inn casino in Miami Beach. Adonis also shared a gambling empire in New Jersey with Mafioso Willie Moretti.
Adonis, who had long claimed to be an American native and who had settled in Fort Lee, NJ, was shown to be an immigrant in the 1950s. He was ordered to be deported in 1953, but a voluntary deportation to Italy occurred in 1956 in the wake of a perjury charge stemming from the Kefauver Committee hearings.
One of the fallings out between the American Mafiosi and the Kennedy Administration was allegedly over arrangements for the Mafia to support Kennedy's candidacy for President in return for Kennedy allowing Adonis back into the country. President John Kennedy was reportedly willing to welcome Adonis home, but Attorney General Robert Kennedy blocked the move.
The Italian government decided to inflict an exile within an exile upon Adonis on June 20, 1971. A Milan court demanded that he be restricted to the town of Ancona. Adonis died there of natural causes on Nov. 26, 1971. His remains were returned to the United States and buried Dec. 6 in Madonna Roman Catholic Cemetery in Fort Lee, NJ.
Raffaele Agnello
? to April 1, 1869.
Agnello was a Palermo Mafioso who set up a Mafia organization in New Orleans just after the Civil War. Agnello settled in the Crescent City before the war and served in a home-guard force of immigrants as federal troops took the city.
Agnello became a powerful underworld leader in New Orleans' Little Palermo in the later 1860s. His gang of transplanted Palermitani came into conflict first with a community of immigrants from Messina and later with a local gang led by Joseph Macheca (a native New Orleanian born to Sicilian parents).
After a bitter feud, Agnello appeared to have defeated his rivals. However, he was then ambushed and killed in front of Macheca's fruit store in 1869. Agnello's brother Joseph continued a losing struggle for some years before he, too, was murdered.
The organization of Agnello's Mafia group was copied by Macheca in his own gang. The Macheca organization later gave way to a Mafia-like organization called the Stuppagghieri run by the Matranga family.
Joe Aiello
Sept. 27, 1890, to Oct. 23, 1930.
Aiello was the boss of the Sicilian Mafia in Prohibition-Era Chicago. While Alphonse Capone is widely regarded as Chicago's "Mafia" leader, Capone was not Sicilian and was not widely accepted by Sicilian Mafiosi (hence his obsession with dominating the Unione Siciliana brotherhood and with opening that group's membership to non-Sicilian Italians).
Immigrant Aiello initially settled in Utica, an upstate New York community located about halfway between Albany and Rochester. About 1920, Aiello headed westward to Chicago and eventually became the acknowledged head of the post-Genna Sicilian underworld there.
During Prohibition, Aiello controlled much of the criminal element in the city's Little Sicily, including its home liquor-making establishments, and was a thorn in Capone's side. He actively worked to be more than just a thorn and in the late 1920s, possibly with the approval of Brooklyn's Frank Yale, a former close friend of Capone, and the national Unione (who had grown disgusted with Capone's meddling), Aiello allied with Bugs Moran's mob in an attempt to destroy Capone.
The gang war did not go well for the Aiello forces, and the family leadership left Chicago for a time. The Aiello's reportedly found sanctuary in New Jersey or in Yale territory in Brooklyn, NY.
The Aiello leadership returned to Chicago in 1928 after Yale was killed. The family was blamed for the assassinations of Capone-sponsored Unione Siciliana leaders Antonio Lombardo and Pasquale Lolordo.
After the assassination of Lolordo in January 1929, Aiello stepped up to the coveted but terribly hazardous position of Unione president.
Giuseppe Masseria of New York, the "boss of bosses" of his day, attempted to mediate the conflict between Aiello and Capone early in 1929 but only succeeded in offending Aiello (as well as his allies in Detroit, Buffalo and Brooklyn). During the early Castellammarese War, Aiello (a native of Bagheria, a wealthy suburb of Palermo) supported the forces of Salvatore Maranzano in New York against Masseria and Capone.
Aiello would have been on the winning side in the Castellammarese conflict (momentarily), but he was killed by Capone's men on Oct. 23, 1930, near the corner of West End and Kolmar Avenues. A sketch at right shows that shots were fired from two adjacent residences across the street from Aiello's waiting taxicab.
Joe Aiello had several brothers who also participated in bootlegging and other Mafia endeavors. Tony Aiello was injured in a Capone attack.
Enrico Alfano
Alfano was one of New York supercop Joe Petrosino's primary underworld targets in 1907. Believed to be the head of the Camorra in New York City, Alfano was arrested April 17. The U.S. government deported him, dealing a severe blow to the new world Camorra.
Some believe Alfano allies were responsible for assassinating Petrosino as he traveled in Sicily in 1909.
Back in Italy, Alfano stood trial at Viterbo for the Cuoccolo murders. His trial lasted many months in 1911 and 1912. In the end, Alfano was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
It should be noted that Lt. Petrosino was far more effective at penetrating and intimidating the Camorra than the Mafia. His activity unintentionally may have given a competitive edge to the city's Mafia organization.
Samuel Amatuna
? to November 1925
Amatuna was briefly president of the Chicago Unione Siciliana. At the time - 1925 - Sicilians in Chicago (and likely in New York, as well) were trying to keep Alphonse Capone from gaining control of the Unione. Capone sought to dominate the Unione to prove his legitimacy in the Mafia, to gain prestige among Sicilians and to cash in on the Sicilians-only rackets run within the Unione. In the early 1920s, the most lucrative racket was the network of home distilleries producing abundant but low quality liquor.
Amatuna stepped into the presidency when Angelo Genna was killed on May 25, 1925. He attempted to act as a roadbloack to Capone but was actually little more than a speedbump.
Amatuna was shot and mortally wounded Nov. 10, 1925. He died a few days later. Capone immediately installed his own ally, Antonio Lombardo, into the Unione presidency. Lombardo began liberalizing the Chicago Unione and opening its membership to non-Sicilians.
Albert Anastasia
Feb. 26, 1902, to Oct. 25, 1957
Umberto Anastasio
Anastasia was dubbed by the press as "the Lord High Executioner" of Murder Inc., the enforcement arm of the Mafia. He was an devoted ally of Charlie Luciano in the 20s and 30s and an enforcer of the will of Frank Costello after that.
With Joe Adonis, he reportedly controlled a portion of the Brooklyn docks and the unions that worked them. Anastasia's brother, Tony Anastasio, was a dock workers' union leader. Anastasia was also thought to be the organizer of a narcotics trafficking network.
Anastasia supported boss of bosses Giuseppe Masseria in the Castellammarese War. After the war, Anastasia emerged as the underboss in the Mangano Family.
Anastasia once approached the Mafia Commission asking to support Dutch Schultz by eliminating New York State Prosecutor Tom Dewey. Mob boss Joe Bonanno suggested that Luciano had Anastasia float that idea before the Commission so Luciano himself would not be linked with it.
Dewey later hoped to use hitman-turned-state-witness Abe Reles' testimony to prosecute Anastasia as the official go-between for the Mafia hierarchy and the hired killers of Murder Inc. But Reles suddenly decided to step out of a high-rise hotel window, ending the state's case against Anastasia.
In 1951, with the Manganos suddenly gone, Anastasia rose to the leadership of their Family.
As Anastasia reached the pinnacle of the Mafia underworld, an old rivalry with Vito Genovese turned deadly. Anastasia was shot to death Oct. 25, 1957, as he sat in a barber's chair in the Park Sheraton hotel lobby. The killing appeared to be part of a effort by Genovese to eliminate the Costello-Anastasia influence in the underworld (Costello was shot in the head - but survived - just a few months earlier and turned control of his organization over to Genovese).
However, the assassination also might have been the result of Anastasia's recent moves to establish a gambling empire in Cuba outside of the influence of usual Mafia-Cuba go-between Meyer Lansky. Anastasia had made a recent trip to Havana and later scheduled a meeting with representatives of Cuban gaming interests in New York. Carlo Gambino, who succeeded Anastasia as boss, Genovese and Lansky all had motives to do away with Anastasia and could have cooperated on the assassination.
Albert Anselmi
July 15, 1883 to May 1929
Anselmi was a bootlegger and enforcer in the Genna Brothers Mafia Family in Chicago who later became an important figure in the Al Capone Outfit.
Between 1925 and 1927, Anselmi and his perpetual companion John Scalise, battled cop-killing charges arising from the shooting deaths of two Chicago detectives. After three trials, in which the defendants argued that they used deadly force against the police officers in self-defense, the two men were freed.
Anselmi, a native of Marsala, Sicily, pulled away from the Sicilian Mafia in Chicago - then controlled by the Aiello clan - and moved toward the Capone mob.
Many believe that Capone used Anselmi, Scalise and others to execute the St. Valentine's Day massacre of Bugs Moran's men.
Just three months after that bloody event, Anselmi, Scalise and Joseph Guinta were found dead in Indiana. The accepted story is that Capone discovered the men were plotting against him and beat them to death with a baseball bat.
It is possible that Capone's repeated interference with the Unione Siciliana caused Anselmi and the others to rethink their allegiance. However, it seems at least as likely that Capone was removing evidence of his connection to the massacre. Scalise had recently been indicted for involvement in the murders of the Moran gangsters.
