About The MOB
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Tommy Eboli
1911 to July 16, 1971.
"Tommy Ryan"
Eboli held the reins of the Genovese crime Family in New York from around 1962 until his assassination in 1972.
Eboli initially served the Family as a management team member while Vito Genovese was in prison. (Genovese died behind bars in 1969).
Eboli was reportedly disliked by the ambitious and meddlesome Carlo Gambino. Gambino appears to have had a role in Eboli's assassination at his girlfriend's Brooklyn home on July 16, 1972.
After Eboli's demise, the apparent leadership of the Family passed to Gambino's preferred contender Franceso "Funzi" Tieri. But, behind the scenes, the Genovese Family orders were reportedly being issued by Phil Lombardo. So began a tradition of leadership secrecy in the Genovese clan.
Giuseppe Esposito
"Radazzo, " "Radzo, " "Vincenzo Rebello "
Esposito served as lieutenant to the infamous Antonino Leone back in 1874 Sicily. He emigrated to the U.S. and briefly found underworld success in New Orleans before being deported.
Esposito and Leone are believed to have been responsible for the kidnaping of English businessman John Forester Rose in that year (and, according to legend, for sending several of his body parts back to his family with ransom demands). The two leaders were cornered by Italian police in 1875, but Esposito escaped to become the new boss of the island's most feared band of central hill-country brigands.
After some of Esposito's closest allies were captured, he turned himself in to friendly authorities in Alia. Charged with a number of crimes, including murder and extortion, Esposito was transported to Palermo to stand trial. During the trip, he escaped. His escape appears to have been organized by Palermo Mafiosi, with whom he had at least friendly relations.
In the late 1870s, Esposito fled to New York via Marseilles, France. He quickly moved on to New Orleans. Adopting a new name, Vincenzo Rebello, Esposito married and began to settle into a life of crime. He was immediately recognized as leader by the various Mafia factions already in place in New Orleans. Esposito and his right hand man Joe Provenzano quickly controlled much of the profitable activity on the New Orleans docks and in the produce markets.
Esposito was betrayed by a New Orleans associate, and Italian authorities tracked him to the Crescent City. He was arrested by Detectives Mike and David Hennessy (cousins) on July 5, 1881, and sent to New York for an extradition hearing. Overwhelming support from the Sicilian community there, coupled with Esposito's insistence that the authorities had misidentified him, delayed the proceedings until he could be positively identified in late September.
Upon his return to Italy, he was convicted of murders in Rome and jailed for life.
After his departure from New Orleans, his crime organization split into two factions. The Macheca-Matranga mob began drawing support from Stuppagghieri (Stoppaglieri) groups in Sicily, while the Provenzano wing remained oriented toward the Palermo Mafia and the more conservative Giardinieri. The split would eventually lead to a number of deaths, including that of New Orleans Police Chief David Hennessey.
Some doubt that Esposito was a proper mafioso, insisting that he was no more than a bandit (and forgetting that the traditional, honored society of the Sicilian Mafia had largely degenerated into a collection of thieves, cut-throats and political radicals by the mid-1870s). In his History of New Orleans, author John Kendall defined the "brigand " view of Esposito:
Esposito had terrorized the vicinity of Palermo. From boyhood he had been a criminal. In his maturity he was a mountain desperado, plundering, burning, and murdering. Captured by the Italian police after a desperate battle, in which his band of brigands was destroyed, he escaped from custody, and fled to America. The press teemed with stories of his terrible exploits in Italy, and he was sought throughout the world...
However, the FBI asserts that he "was the first known Sicilian Mafia member to emigrate to the United States. He and six other Sicilians fled to New York after murdering eleven wealthy landowners, the chancellor and vice chancellor of a Sicilian province." The FBI account leans very strongly on the word "known," as Mafia organizations existed at least in New Orleans and New York at the time Esposito arrived.
Natale Evola
c. 1907 to Aug. 28, 1973.
"Joe Diamond"
Evola stepped up to the leadership of the Bonanno Crime Family in the late 1960s, after Joseph Bonanno's second term as boss ended with retirement.
Some sources indicate that the Bonanno family was so demoralized after years of civil war and disgrace before the national Commission that Evola took over by default.
Low-key Evola has largely escaped the notice of history. Even Joe Bonanno's "A Man of Honor" barely mentioned him (Evola was an usher at Bonanno's wedding). Some say that he was serving as a capo in the Lucchese Family when he was called upon to assume a leadership role for the Bonannos.
Sources generally agree that he cooperated with - rather than resisted - the more powerful bosses, Vito Genovese and Carlo Gambino.
In 1957, Evola was among the crowd of Mafiosi identified as attending the Genovese-called Apalachin convention. He was one of 20 to be charged with conspiracy in connection with that meeting (the charges were later overturned).
Two years later, he was convicted along with Genovese of a conspiracy to violate narcotics laws.
The Commission meddled considerably in Bonanno family matters during the 1960s. After endorsing Gaspar DiGregorio as boss over missing Joe Bonanno's heir apparent (his son), the Commission soured on DiGregorio and attempted to move Paul Sciacca into the boss position just as Joe Bonanno reappeared and decided to retake the reins. Bonanno's sudden departure from New York in the late 1960s left the clan leaderless and in chaos.
It seems Evola was unable to restore order to the family. If he had been installed as boss by the Commission (like DiGregorio and Sciacca), rather than through agreement of the Bonanno membership, it would explain the continued divisions in the family.
In 1971-72, investigators gained significant information on Evola's operation, as well as that of then-Lucchese-boss Carmine Tramunti, by bugging a trailer used by the bosses and their lieutenants as a meeting place. Evidence suggested that Evola was engaged in garment district labor racketeering, drug trafficking and hijacking.
Evola's health was failing by then. He died of cancer in 1973. He was reportedly unmarried and lived at the time of his death with his elderly mother in Brooklyn.
Evola was replaced for a time by his underboss Philip "Rusty" Rastelli. (Rastelli, not yet popular with the Bonanno capos, was merely keeping the seat warm. Former Bonanno underboss Carmine Galante, a genuine power in the family, was finishing a jail term for drug trafficking.)
