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1930s in organized crime

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This is a list of organized crime in the 1930s, arranged chronologically.

List of years in organized crime
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1930 edit

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  • January – Brooklyn mobster Cola Schirò disappears after being forced to pay $10,000 to Joe Masseria. After Schiro's disappearance, Joe Parrino succeeds Schiro as leader of the Brooklyn Castellammarese faction.
  • January 5 – Ciro Terranova issues a press statement regarding the dramatic robbery at the Judge Albert Vitale Fundraiser dinner in New York in December 1929. Terranova claims that he is being used as a scapegoat for the split in the New York Tammany Hall political organization. He also claims to be a "man of peace" and asks to be left alone.
  • February 4 – Chicago gangster Julius Rosenheim is killed shortly after agreeing to become a police informant.
  • February 20 – Carlo T. Piranio, founder of the Dallas crime family, dies of natural causes. His organization is taken over by his brother, Joseph T. Piranio.
  • February 26 – Bronx mobster Tom Reina is killed by a shotgun blast by mobster Vito Genovese while leaving his aunt's home. Reina is later replaced by Joe Pinzolo. Reina, an ally of Masseria, had been suspected of secretly negotiating to defect to Maranzano's organization before his death.
  • March 14 – The New York State Appellate Court orders the removal of Magistrate Albert Vitale due to his ties to organized crime figures such as Ciro Terranova and Arnold Rothstein and an unexplainable $10,000 deposit to his bank account.
  • March 17 – Released from prison in Philadelphia, Al Capone returns to Chicago to resume his war against mobster Joe Aiello.
  • April – Raymond "Craneneck" Nugent Bank robber and killer with the Egan's Rats gang of St Louis "Vanished" in Florida.
  • April – Detroit bootlegger Joseph Galbo is convicted of bribery (April 8) and sentenced to 15 months in federal prison (April 14).
  • April 13 – Clinton G. Price, district attorney of Juneau County, Wisconsin and political figure within Milwaukee, is severely wounded by a shotgun blast at his home. Price dies the following morning.
  • May 6- Mob boss Tony Buccola "Disappears" after alleged confrontation with organized Crime Figures {Joseph Ardizzone}. The only trace of him is his car found in Venice California. Allgedly Buccola claimed to have information in the disappearance of Frank Baumgartker who vanished November 25, 1929.
  • May 31 – Gaspar Milazzo of the Detroit crime family, is shot and killed while walking through a Detroit fish market.
  • June 1 – Fox Lake Massacre, Fox Lake Illinois Verne Miller killed three and wounded two men in revenge for disappearance/death of his friend Eugene "Red" McLaughlin in May 1930 by Al Capone gang. {McLaughlin body found in Chicago canal}
  • June 9 – Chicago Tribune journalist Alfred Lingle is shot and killed in a train station in Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago newspapers would promise a $55,000 reward for information on the murderer. It would be rumored that Lingle had extensive connections to organized crime.
  • June 30 – Thomas Somneiro, a Chicago Outfit lieutenant, is found dead in Chicago's West Side. He was strangled to death.
  • July 5 – Cleveland, Ohio mobster Joe Porrello is killed, along with his bodyguard Sam Tilocco, by an unidentified gunman while dining at a restaurant owned by mobster Frank Milano. Milano would succeed Porrello as leader of the Cleveland syndicate.
  • July 15 – Vito Bonventre, Underboss to Nicolo Schiro, is gunned down outside his garage in Brooklyn.
  • July 31 – Thomas McNichols and James "Bozo" Schupe, two smalltime bootleggers, shoot each other to death on Madison Street in Chicago.
  • August 15 – Peter "The Clutching Hand" Morello, consiglierie to Joe Masseria, and his bodyguard Giuseppe Piranio are killed by gunmen employed by rival boss Salvatore Maranzano. The gunmen possibly include the mysterious mobster known only as Buster from Chicago.
  • September – Forming a secret alliance with the remnants of deceased mobster Tom Reina's organization, Salvatore Maranzano arranges to have Joe Pinzolo, the new Reina family boss, killed in early September. Pinzolo would be killed by Bobby Doyle outside the offices of the Lucchese crime family. The hit is reportedly planned by Lucchese bosses Tommy Lucchese and Tommaso Gagliano.
  • September 5 – Tommy Lucchese is arrested for the murder of Joe Pinzolo. However, charges are later dropped due to lack of evidence.
  • September 23 – Al Capone rival and Unione Siciliane President Joe Aiello is killed in a drive-by shooting outside a friend's home. Aiello's death eliminates a major threat to the Chicago Outfit. Agostino Loverdo is placed by Capone as head of the Union Siciliane. However, the organization's value greatly declines over the decade, quietly dissolving by the late 1930s.
  • November 5 – Mobsters Steve Ferrigno and Alfred Mineo, allies of Joe Masseria, are killed by Salvatore Maranzano's gunman outside Ferrigno's home in New York. Masseria narrowly avoids the ambush himself.

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1931 edit

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  • The Commission is developed in The Atlantic City hotel by "Lucky" Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and The Five Families.
  • The Castellammarese War continues as mob boss Joe Masseria offers to negotiate with his rival, Salvatore Maranzano. Maranzano and the Castellammarese faction refuse to end the war, demanding the death of Masseria ally Joe "The Baker" Catania. Although Catania would be murdered later in 1931, the war would continue.
  • Mobster Salvatore Sabella is arrested for assault and battery using a motor vehicle; however, he receives a suspended sentence. During his indictment, New Jersey police discover that his address matches that of Stefano Magaddino, leader of the Buffalo crime family, following Magaddino's arrest in 1921. Shortly after his arrest, the 40-year-old Sabella retires as leader of the Philadelphia crime syndicate in favor of lieutenant John Avena.
  • Charles Entratta, a partner of New York gangster Jack "Legs" Diamond is gunned down in a Brooklyn neighborhood.
  • February 3 – Joe Catania is killed as he leaves his home in New York. It is thought that Masseria ordered Catena's murder out of suspicion that he was hijacking Masseria's liquor shipments.
  • April 15 – Mob boss Joe Masseria is killed by Joe Adonis, Vito Genovese, Albert Anastasia, and Bugsy Siegel on the orders of Lucky Luciano. Ciro Terranova drives the getaway car. This effectively ends the long Castellammarese War in New York.
  • May – Following Masseria's death, Salvatore Maranzano declares himself capo di tutti capi (boss of bosses) during a mob conference in Chicago, Illinois. While the conference was to serve as a reconciliation with Al Capone's Chicago Outfit, ally Charles Luciano and others conspire to eliminate Maranzano.
  • September 10 – On orders of Charles Luciano and Frank Costello, boss of all bosses Salvatore Maranzano is murdered in his headquarters on Park Avenue in Manhattan by gangsters disguised as police officers. That same day, several of Maranzano's lieutenants, including James Marino, are killed by unknown gunmen including outside a Bronx neighborhood barbershop. The bodies of Maranzano allies Samuel Monaco and Louis Russo would later be recovered from Newark Bay; both corpses would show signs of torture. These events may or may not have been the basis for the beginning of the alleged "Night of the Sicilian Vespers" in which many old world Sicilian-born mafiosi are killed throughout the country by the Luciano-Lansky faction in the aftermath of the Castellammarese War.
  • September 13 – Joseph Siragusa, leader of the Pittsburgh crime family, is shot to death in his home. He is succeeded by John Bazzano.
  • September 17 – Meyer Shapiro, who controls bootlegging, illegal gambling and prostitution in New York's East Side, is murdered by former associates Abe "Kid Twist" Reles and Martin "Bugsy" Goldstein, who quickly take control of his criminal operations. His younger brother Irving was previously killed outside his Bronx apartment on July 11. One year later, Willie Shapiro would also be killed, buried alive by Reles and his associates.
  • October 15 – Joe Ardizonne, head of the Los Angeles crime family, disappears and is presumed murdered (possibly a victim of the "Night of the Sicilian Vespers"). Mobster Jack Dragna {died 1956} would go on to succeed Ardizzone as leader of the Los Angeles family.
  • October 17 – Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion and fined $80,000
  • December 18 – New York Prohibition gangster Jack "Legs" Diamond is shot to death while staying at a safe house in Albany, New York by a number of unidentified gunman.
  • December 22 – Irish-American mob boss Frankie Wallace, on the pretense of a sit-down with Italian-American mobsters, is ambushed and murdered in Boston's North End. The Gustin Gang would be the first victims in a three-year systematic elimination of Irish-American gangsters in the United States.

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  • Charles Entratta "Charlie Green", New York mobster and associate of Jack Diamond
  • February 3 – Joe Catania, New York mobster and a lieutenant to Joe Masseria
  • April 15 – Giuseppe Masseria "Joe the Boss", New York mobster, boss of bosses
  • May 8 – Sam Carlino Underboss to brother Pete Carlino of Colorado's Bootleg gang.
  • July 11 – Irving Shapiro, New York (East Side) mobster
  • September 10 – Salvatore Maranzano, New York mobster, boss of bosses
  • September 10 – Pete Carlino, Head of Colorado bootleggers.
  • September 10 – James Marino (James LaPore), Salvatore Marranzano lieutenant
  • September 10 – Samuel Monaco, Salvatore Maranzano ally and New Jersey underboss
  • September 10 – Louis Russo, Salvatore Maranzano ally and New Jersey consigliere
  • September 13 – Joseph Siragusa, leader of the Pittsburgh crime family
  • September 17 – Meyer Shapiro, New York (East Side) mobster
  • October 15 – Joseph Ardizzone, Los Angeles crime family boss
  • December 22 – Frankie Wallace, Boston mobster and leader of the Gustin Gang
  • December 22 – Barney (Dodo) Walsh, Boston mobster and member of the Gustin Gang

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  • Paul Kelly (Paolo Antonini Vaccarelli), Five Points Gang leader
  • February 14 – Jack McGurn (Vincenzo Gibaldi) "Machine Gun", Chicago Outfit member
  • August 17 – John Avena "Big Nose", Philadelphia crime syndicate leader
  • September 12–13 – Joseph Rosen, Brownsville candy store owner and government witness

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References edit

  1. ^ Document Kyushu Yakuza Wars, "Person, Isoji Koga" (p.228), Masaki Yasuda, December 1990, Seinen-shokan ISBN 4-7918-0496-1 (in Japanese)
  2. ^ a b "The oddball story of Ciro "The Artichoke King" Terranova". The Mob Museum. 2018-03-23. Retrieved 2022-03-21.
  3. ^ Litvak, Anatole (1938-07-30), The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (Crime, Drama), First National Pictures, Warner Bros., retrieved 2022-03-21
  4. ^ Curtiz, Michael (1938-11-26), Angels with Dirty Faces (Crime, Drama, Film-Noir), First National Pictures, Warner Bros., retrieved 2022-03-21
  5. ^ Bacon, Lloyd (1938-07-16), Racket Busters (Action, Adventure, Crime), Cosmopolitan Productions, Warner Bros., retrieved 2022-03-21
  6. ^ Edwardsville Intelligencer January 6, 1938
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