About The MOB
F
Steve Ferrigno
? to Nov. 5, 1931.
"Fannuzzo"
Ferrigno has been labeled by Mafia historians as everything from a Joe Masseria bodyguard to a major crime boss.
The weight of evidence (and there really isn't much weight to the available evidence) indicates that he was affiliated with boss Al Mineo (Manfré or Manfredi) in the old Salvatore D'Aquila crime organization. The two men might have conspired with Masseria to eliminate their old boss in 1928.
Masseria installed Mineo as leader of the D'Aquila family after 1928. It seems likely that Ferrigno served as underboss or a top aide to Mineo. Whatever their official relationship, their names were always spoken together.
Mineo and Ferrigno were reportedly strong allies of Masseria during the Castellammarese War. Some of the D'Aquila family defected during the war, siding with Brooklyn-based Castellammarese boss Salvatore Maranzano.
Mineo and Ferrigno were ambushed and killed in the Bronx by Castellammarese-affiliated gunmen on Nov. 5, 1930, greatly diminishing Masseria's strength and prestige.
Pasquale Ferruccio
1917 to March 2006.
"Pat"
Midwest racketeer Pasquale Macri Ferruccio, was born to immigrant grocer Rocco Ferruccio and his wife Teresa in Canton, Ohio, near the start of World War I. He was raised in an Italian neighborhood on Liberty Street and regularly attended St. Anthony's Catholic Church with his ten siblings.
As an adult, Ferruccio founded the Canton, Ohio-based Liberty Vending Company. He eventually turned management of the facility over to his son, but maintained an office in the headquarters building.
A key participant in Midwest gambling rackets, Ferruccio admitted in 1991 that he ran a video poker operation in Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania from 1978 to 1988. Poker machines illegally designating cash payouts for winning hands were distributed through the Liberty Vending Company to nightclubs and other establishments in the three states.
At the time of his admission, he was sentenced to 30 months and a $100,000 fine through a plea bargain. (He served 27 months.) Ferruccio's son also pleaded guilty to participation in the gambling venture. He received probation and a small fine.
Angelo Lonardo of Cleveland, a mob underboss who turned government informant, aided the case against Ferruccio by identifying him as a "made" member of the LaRocca Family in Pittsburgh. Ferruccio also appeared to have a working relationship with the Cleveland Mafia family and has been considered a liaison between the two underworld clans.
Upon leaving prison, Ferruccio again had trouble with the law. He was charged with violating release terms after meeting with known Pittsburgh Mafia associate Lennie Strollo (who later became an informant). Ferruccio and Strollo allegedly shared ownership of a gambling facility in Puerto Rico. Ferruccio received two years for that offense.
During that term he concurrently served a year penalty for attempting to obstruct the Indian gaming commission. Ferruccio tried to gain control of operations at the Rincon Indian Reservation Casino near San Diego, California, without divulging his criminal record.
Ferruccio died a month before his 89th birthday.
Arthur Flegenheimer
Aug. 6, 1902, to Oct. 23, 1935.
"Dutch Schultz," "Charles Harmon," "Dutchman," "Beer Baron of the Bronx"
Dutch Schultz was probably the last of the big-time independent criminal operators.
Never an inducted member of the Mafia, he had some personal and business relationships with its members. Those relationships ultimately led to his demise.
Born in the Bronx, Schultz (who was not at all Dutch) grew up in street gangs. He did some jail time - more than a year - for burglary at age 17 and emerged from prison in time to join Arnold Rothstein's bootlegging operation. In that venture, he came into contact with such notables as Charlie Luciano and Jack Diamond.
Schultz and longtime friend Joey Noe became partners in a speakeasy and a beer distribution business and later coerced owners of other speakeasies into becoming outlets for Schultz beer. The Coll brothers were affiliated with the Schultz-Noe mob before going out on their own.
Some bad blood developed between Shultz-Noe and the Rothstein organization, including Diamond. Diamond looked to be responsible for Noe's death on Oct. 15, 1928 (Noe lingered at Bellevue Hospital until finally succumbing to his injuries on Nov. 21, 1928.)
Schultz's men attempted retaliation several times, but the bullet-riddled Diamond simply refused to die until blasted in his sleep on Dec. 18, 1931.
The Schultz men appear to have had better luck pursuing revenge against Rothstein, who was gunned down in his hotel on Nov. 4, 1928, before Noe passed away. Others were suspected of involvement in Rothstein's murder, but it was most likely done by the Schultz mob.
Schultz had a tight relationship with Harlem's Tammany boss Jimmy Hines, a useful situation as the gangster muscled in on Harlem numbers rackets and forcefully established a restaurant "union" protection racket. As a show of good faith to the American Mafia, Schultz cut Ciro Terranova, Mafia boss in Harlem, in for a share of his numbers business.
The relationship between Schultz and the Mafia appeared cordial as the Dutchman's old friend Luciano stepped to power in 1931 and thereafter established a national criminal Syndicate. Schultz remained apart from that Syndicate. Secretly, Mafia leaders were envious of the Dutchman's operations, particularly the lucrative numbers.
New York prosecutor Thomas Dewey and the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover began pursuing Schultz at the end of the Prohibition Era. Public Enemy No. 1 couldn't be touched for his rackets and his murders, so the government went after him - as it had with Capone - for federal income tax evasion.
Schultz was surprisingly successful in his court battles. After a deadlocked jury in Syracuse and an Aug. 24, 1935, not-guilty verdict in the small town of Malone, NY, where Schultz threw some money around in advance of the trial, it appeared the gangster had the government on the ropes.
But Dewey wasn't ready to quit. He prepared to charge Schultz with state tax evasion. Schultz left the state, heading into Newark, NJ, while he worked on a strategy. The pressure was on Hines as well, so Tammany was little help.
Schultz approached the Mafia's ruling Commission with a plan. With Mafia help, Schultz offered to bump off Dewey. Some accounts indicate that Schultz made a personal appearance at a meeting of the Commission. Others say he sent a message through Albert Anastasia. (There are also differences of opinion as to whether non-Mafia Syndicate leaders were permitted to vote at the meeting.)
Fearing the law enforcement pressure it would generate, the Commission decided it wanted no part of the assassination proposal. Enraged by the lack of support, Schultz swore he would see to Dewey's murder himself.
The Commission then acted against Schultz, using members of its enforcement arm (often referred to as "Murder Inc.") to eliminate Schultz and his gang leadership at Newark's Palace Chop House on Oct. 23, 1935. Under orders from Lepke Buchalter, salaried hitmen Mendy Weiss and Charlie "Bug" Workman did the job. Schultz clung to life at Newark County Hospital for 20 hours, speaking a prolonged stream-of-consciousness nonsense that historians are still puzzling over today.
Charlie Luciano would later claim that he saved Thomas Dewey's life, but for the time being he was content to carve up the money-making ventures of the dead Dutchman.
Anthony Forti
Forti, a Mafia hood, was found to be working with former mob boss Ignazio Lupo in a bakery union racket in 1935. It was participation in the bakery racket that caused the federal authorities to throw Lupo back in prison to complete the unexpired term of his 1910 counterfeiting sentence.
