1910s in organized crime

List of years in organized crime
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This is a list of organized crime in the 1910s, arranged chronologically.

1910

Events

• Rival newspapers William Randolph Hearst's Chicago American and the Chicago Tribune extend contracts through Moses Annenberg to street gangs such as Ragen's Colts, under the guise of "athletic clubs", in which newsdealers and vendors are intimidated into selling a specific newspaper. During the three-year period known as the "Circulation Wars", 27 street vendors are stabbed, beaten or shot as many of the future Prohibition gangsters and other criminals of Chicago's underworld become involved, including Dean O'Banion.
• New York police arrest over 200 known Italian gangsters and known Black Hand members in a raid in Little Italy, including Morello crime family leader Lupo the Wolf. However, none are convicted as many of the notes of extortion threats cannot be traced to them.
• Chicago racketeer James "Big Jim" Colosimo brings his nephew Johnny Torrio, then with New York City's Five Points Gang, to eliminate the Black Hand from the city in response to their extortion demands. Within a month, ten Black Hand extortionists had been killed.
• Jim Cosmano, a major Chicago Black Hand leader, is severely wounded in an ambush by Johnny Torrio on a South Side bridge. Cosmano had previously demanded $10,000 threatening to destroy Colosimo's café.
• Gas House Gang member William Jones is imprisoned.
• Eastman Gang leader Chick Tricker's Park Row dive bar is closed by the New York City Committee of Fourteen. However he moves his operations, purchasing Dan the Dude's Stag Cafe on West 28th Street, later renaming it the Cafe Maryland.
• January 1 – March 26, 1911 – Thirty-eight Black Hand victims are killed by Black Hand assassins, many by the unidentified assassin known only as Shotgun Man, between Oak Street and Milton Street in Chicago's Little Italy.
• April 1 – Spanish Louie, a lieutenant of Humpty Jackson, is killed while walking on East 11th Street by an unknown gunman (although other sources have incorrectly claimed 1900 and 1911).

Births

• Frank Abbandando "The Dasher", Murder, Inc. "hitman"
• Albert Facchiano, "Chinky" Genovese crime family member
• February 6 – Carlos Marcello [Calagero Menacore], New Orleans Mafia Don
• February 21 – Carmine Galante "Lilo"/"The Cigar", Bonanno crime family Don
• May 11 – Angelo Bruno "The Gentle Don"/"The Docile Don", Philadelphia Mafia leader
• October 1 – Bonnie Parker, sidekick and lover of Clyde Barrow

Deaths

• April 1 – John "Spanish Louie" Lewis, New York gangster and member of the Humpty Jackson Gang.

1911

Events

• Five Points Gang member James T. "Biff" Ellison is sentenced to Sing Sing Prison for the attempted murder of gang leader Paul Kelly. He dies several years later in an insane asylum.
• Jack Zelig is arrested for robbing a bordello. The charges are later dropped. However, in an attempt to gain leadership of the Eastman Gang, lieutenants Jack Sirocco and Chick Tricker refuse to post bail, beginning a gang war between the two factions.
• Nathan Kaplan severely injures Johnny Spanish in a knife fight before police arrive to break up the fight. Kaplan also fights Jacob Orgen later that year giving a scar across Orgen's face before the fight is stopped.
• Filippo "John 'Handsome Johnny' Roselli" Sacco arrives with his family in the United States, from Sicily.
• Frank Tieri emigrates to the United States from Castel Gandolfo, Italy.
• Salvatore Sabella lands in the US and soon takes control of the Philadelphia Mafia.
• December 1 – "Big" Jim O'Leary sells off his gambling operations and other business interests and goes into retirement.
• December 2 – Julie Morrell, an assassin hired by Sirocco and Tricker to murder Zelig, is lured to a Second Avenue nightclub and killed.

Births

• Philip Lombardo, (Miami) Genovese crime family leader
• May 1 – Anthony Salerno "Fat Tony", Genovese crime family Don
• November 4 – James Napoli "Jimmy Nap", Genovese crime family member involved in illegal gambling and loansharking

Deaths

• December 2 – Julie Morrell, Eastman Gang member

1912

Events

• Timothy "Big Tim" Sullivan, longtime political boss of Tammany Hall, is committed to a sanitarium.
• June 7 - Mock Duck is convicted of running a policy game and sentenced to imprisonment at Sing Sing Prison.
• July 15 – Members of the Lenox Avenue Gang including leader Harry Horowitz, known as "Gyp the Blood", and top lieutenants Jacob Seidenschner, Louis Rosenberg, and Francesco Cirofici, kill prominent New York gambler and police informant Herman "Beansie" Rosenthal. They are convicted of Rosenthal's murder later the same year, and executed in April 1914.
• September – Republican State's Attorney John E.W. Wayman, shortly before his term of office is to expire, officially closes down Chicago's South Side "Levee District". The long-time vice district had been a hotbed of criminal activity for Chicago's underworld, as well as a major source of political power for Chicago's First Ward aldermen, such as Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna and "Bathhouse" John Coughlin, since the 1890s.
• October 5 – Eastman Gang leader Jack Zelig is killed by "Red" Phil Davidson on a Second Avenue street car trolley.
• October 19 – Frank Costello is again arrested for assault and robbery and is later released.
• October 24 - New York Police Lt. Charles Becker is found guilty of first degree murder in the Rosenthal case. He is sentenced to death, going to New York's electric chair in July 1915.
• November 6 – Owney Madden is shot by several thugs while at a 52nd Street dance in New York City.

Arts and literature

• D.W. Griffith's The Musketeers of Pig Alley is released starring Elmer Booth, Lillian Gish, Clara T. Bracy and Walter Miller.

Births

• January 8 – Joseph N. Gallo, alleged consigliere of Gambino crime family bosses Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano and John Gotti
• March 19 – Nicholas Civella, Kansas City crime family boss
• April 12 – Jack "Spot" Comer, Jewish-English gangster
• September 18 – John T. Scalish, Cleveland crime family boss and National Crime Syndicate labor racketeer
• December 28 – William Daddano Sr., Chicago Outfit enforcer

Deaths

• July 15 – Herman "Beansie" Rosenthal, New York gambler and police informant
• October 5 – Jack Zelig, Eastman Gang leader

1913

Events

• The White Hand Society disbands after police inaction and vigilantism in other Italian neighborhoods ends public support for the organization.
• Timothy Sullivan escapes from the sanitarium and is later found dead near a Westchester County freight yard.
• George Washington "Chuck" Connors, one of the last of the Tammany Hall associates, dies of heart failure in New York City's Hudson Street Hospital at the age of 61. Within several months, Frank "Mike the Dago" Salvatore succeeds Connors as the political boss of Chinatown.
• Cleveland gangster Thomas Joseph McGinty (aka T.J. McGinty) organizes a gang of labor sluggers competing against rival Cleveland News sluggers Arthur McBride's Mayfield Road Mob during Cleveland's "Circulation Wars".
• May 28 – A peace agreement is signed, with the exception of the Four Brothers, ending the tong war between the On Leong, Hip Sing, and the Kim Lan Wui Saw tongs.
• November 28 – Preparing to assault workers who had refused to strike, rival labor sluggers led by "Dopey" Benny Fein are met by a combined number of smaller gangs as street fighting breaks out in front of a Greenwich Street hat shop. This is the first of many skirmishes which will eventually lead up to the First Labor Slugger War.

Arts and literature

• The Gangster (1913) starring Lionel Adams, Ferdinand Tidmarsh and Edna Luby is released.

Births

• February 8 – Carmine Lombardozzi "The Doctor", New York labor racketeer, illegal gambling and drug trafficker as a Capodecina of the Gambino crime family and former associate of Meyer Lansky
• February 12 – Anthony Corallo "Tony Ducks", Lucchese crime family Don and Mafia Commission member
• March 26 – Victor Riesel, New York organized crime journalist
• April 30 – Sam DeCavalcante "The Plumber", New Jersey mobster
• October 6 – Leonard Patrick, Chicago Outfit member and informant

Deaths

• Timothy Sullivan, New York City gambling syndicate leader, Tammany Hall politician and associate of the Whyos and Monk Eastman street gangs.

1914

Events

• During his first year in office, NYPD Police Commissioner Arthur Woods arrests more than 200 gangsters.
• Gas House Gang leader Thomas Lynch is killed during a gunfight with members of the Jimmy Curley Gang led by "Gold Mine" Jimmy Cariggio. The Gas House Gang breaks up soon after Lynch's death.
• Within two years of the closing of Chicago's infamous vice district The Levee, long-time vice lord Saffo the Greek is forced to flee the area. It is during this time that Chicago police captain Michael Ryan, district commander of The Levee, is dismissed from the force for corruption.
• Frank Costello, with his brother Edward, join Owney Madden's Gopher Gang.
• March 3 - New York gang leader James "Gold Mine Jimmy" Cariggio is shot dead by unknown gunmen near a bookstore on East 13th Street.
• March 13 - Former New York gang leader Thomas "Humpty" Jackson is arrested for selling opium near his home on Third Avenue. On March 27, Jackson is convicted and is later sentenced to six months in prison.
• April 13 - The four convicted gunmen in the 1912 murder of gambler Herman Rosenthal - Harry "Gyp the Blood" Horowitz, Francesco "Dago Frank" Cirofici, Louis "Lefty Louie" Rosenberg, and Jacob "Whitey Lewis" Seidenshner - are executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing prison. About two hours prior to the execution, Cirofici makes a statement to the warden suggesting that NYPD Lt. Charles Becker was not involved in the murder plot, and that Cirofici himself was not present at the slaying, though he admitted knowing about it. (Despite Cirofici's efforts to clear Becker, the policeman would be executed the following year.)
• April 17 – Five New York City gangsters are killed in a gunfight between Joe Morello and Joe Baker on 113th Street and Third Avenue.
• May – Following his arrest for assault earlier that year, New York labor racketeer "Dopey" Benny Fein agrees to testify against several gangsters and union leaders. In exchange for a reduced sentence, Fein reveals details of labor slugging operations from over five-year period resulting in the indictment of eleven gangsters and twenty two union officials.
• May 11 - Philip "Pinchy" Paul, a New York City labor racketeer, and rival to established labor gangsters such as Benjamin "Dopey Benny" Fein and Joseph "Joe the Greaser" Rosenzweig is shot and killed on Norfolk Street in Manhattan. Rosenzweig gunman Benjamin Snyder eventually confesses and informs against his boss, who is indicted for the murder in December.
• May 23 - Future Los Angeles crime family boss Joseph "Iron Man" Ardizzone is arrested for allegedly assaulting his future wife, the 15-year-old Elsa Marie Ellenberger, and as a suspect in the 1906 murder of mobster George Maisano.
• July – Shortly after being brought to Chicago by his cousin John Torrio, New York gunman Rocco "Roxie" Vanilli is arrested for the murder of a Chicago police officer in Chicago's infamous vice district, The Levee, on July 16.
• November – Patsy Doyle is killed by Owney Madden after Doyle attempts to take leadership of the Gopher Gang.
• November 11 - Lorito Monastero, the brother of future Pittsburgh crime family boss Stefano Monastero, is indicted for the murder of Stefano's estranged mother-in-law in August.
• November 24 - Hired by members of the West Washington Market poultry trust, two Italian gunmen shoot New York City poultry dealer Barnett Baff dead on Thirteenth Avenue in Manhattan, and flee in a waiting auto.

Births

• Dominic Brooklier, Los Angeles crime family don
• March 15 – Aniello Dellacroce "Mr O'Neil"/"Polack", Gambino crime family underboss
• April 29 – Johnny Dio, Lucchese crime family capo and Murder, Inc. member
• June 2 – Anthony Giordano, St. Louis crime syndicate leader and New Orleans crime family associate
• July 29 – Mickey Cohen, Los Angeles mobster and New York representative
• November 14 – Jimmy Fratianno, Los Angeles Mafia member
• November 20 – Jackie Cerone "The Lackey", Chicago Outfit leader
• December 14 – Joe Colombo, Colombo crime family don and Italian-American Civil Rights League founder.
• December 15 – Samuel Carlisi "Wings", Chicago Outfit boss
• December 18 – Joseph Dippolito, underboss of the Los Angeles crime family

Deaths

• March 3 - James "Gold Mine Jimmy" Cariggio, New York City gang leader
• April 13 - Harry "Gyp the Blood" Horowitz, leader of the Lenox Avenue Gang
• April 13 - Francesco "Dago Frank" Cirofici, member of the Lenox Avenue Gang
• April 13 - Louis "Lefty Louie" Rosenberg, member of the Lenox Avenue Gang
• April 13 - Jacob "Whitey Lewis" Seidenshner, member of the Lenox Avenue Gang
• May 11 - Philip "Pinchy" Paul, New York City labor racketeer

1915

Events

• United States
  • A Black Hand gang in Chicago led by Sam Cardinelli begins years of setting off over eight hundred bombs, killing over twenty people and wounding hundreds more until 1920, when they are convicted of murder, and hanged the following year.
  • Benjamin Snyder, an associate of New York labor racketeer Joseph "Joe the Greaser" Rosenzweig, is convicted of murder and sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment
  • Peter H. Matthews is arrested, tried, and jailed for operating policy games throughout New York City.
  • Steve Wallace, with his brothers Frank and Jimmy Wallace of the Gustin Gang, begin hijacking and looting trucks in Southie often stripping cargo from the rear of the truck while stopped at intersections. The brothers are soon known by the press as the "Tailboard Thieves".
  • Al Capone joins the James Street Gang under Johnny Torrio, a satellite of the Five Points Gang.
  • March 12 – Frank Costello is arrested for carrying a concealed weapons after detectives receive information from an informant. Costello is sentenced to one year in Welfare Island prison by Judge Edward Swann and is released after ten months.
  • May 17 – Giosue Gallucci, also known as the undisputed King of Little Italy, who controlled the policy game in Italian Harlem (New York City) is shot together with his son. He died four days later.
  • July 15 – New York police lieutenant Charles Becker is convicted of planning the murder of police informant Herman "Beansie" Rosenthal by the Lenox Avenue Gang in 1912 and executed at Sing Sing Prison.

• Japan
  • The Yamaguchi-gumi organization begins operating in Japan.

Arts and literature

• Sidney M. Goldin's The Last of the Mafia is released starring Jack J. Clark, William Conrad and Katherine Lee.

Births

• Salvatore Santoro "Tom Mix", Lucchese crime family mobster
• March 15 – Mario Anthony DeStefano, Chicago Outfit member
• June 20 – Paul Castellano "Big Paul", Gambino crime family Don
• November 15 – Santo Trafficante Jr., Tampa Mafia Don

1916

Events

• Summer – New York Police break up the last of the Manhattan street gangs, including the Hudson Dusters, from The Battery to Spuyten Duyvil. Many of these former gang members would become employed as labor sluggers. Street gangs would become non-existent in New York until the release of "Kid Dropper" Nathan Kaplan and Johnny Spanish the following year.
• The Mafia-Camorra War begins in New York City between the Manhattan Sicilian and Neapolitan Brooklyn Mafia.
• September 7 – Nicholas Morello, leader of the Morello crime family, is killed with bodyguard Charles Ubriaco outside a Navy Street restaurant while arriving at peace negotiations with rival Pellegrino Morano.

Arts and literature

• Poor Little Peppina (film) [1]

Births

• April 1 – Gus Alex, Chicago Outfit member
• June 10 – Peter Joseph LoCascio "Mr. Bread", New York City (Lower East Side) syndicate mobster involved in narcotics

Deaths

• September 7 – Nicholas Morello, Morello crime family leader
• September 7 – Charles Ubriaco, Morello crime family member

1917

Events

• Former Five Points Gang members Nathan Kaplan and Johnny Spanish, are released from prison. They form a criminal gang together, made up mostly of ex-Five Pointers, to take the place of now imprisoned labor racketeers Benjamin "Dopey Benny" Fein and Joseph "Joe the Greaser" Rosenzweig.

Al Capone

It was through the Five Points gang that Al Capone came to the attention of brutal New York mobster Frankie Yale. In 1917, 18-year-old Al Capone went to work for Yale at the Harvard Inn as a bartender and as a waiter and bouncer when needed. Capone watched and learned as Yale used violence to maintain control over his empire.

One day while working at the Harvard Inn, Capone saw a man and woman sitting at a table. After his initial advances were ignored, Capone went up to the good-looking woman and whispered in her ear, "Honey, you have a nice ass and I mean that as a compliment." The man with her was her brother, Frank Gallucio. Defending his sister's honor, Gallucio punched Capone. However, Capone didn't let it end there; he decided to fight back. Gallucio then took out a knife and slashed at Capone's face, managing to cut Capone's left cheek three times (one of which cut Capone from ear to mouth). The scars left from this attack led to Capone's nickname of "Scarface," a name he personally hated.

Births

• May 24 – Anthony Provenzano "Tony Pro", Genovese Crime Family Caporegime and New Jersey labor union racketeer

1918

Events

• Frankie Yale takes leadership of the Unione Siciliane after founder Ignazio "the Wolf" Lupo is convicted of numerous charges ranging from extortion to murder.
• Tong leader Mock Duck, upon his release from Sing Sing prison, retires from crime.
• June 6 – Ciro Terranova is charged with ordering the deaths of Charles Lombardi, Joe DiMarco and Michael Hayes. However, the case is later dropped.

Births

• Michael James Genovese, Pittsburgh crime family Boss and possible cousin of Vito Genovese
• January 31 – Philip Rastelli "Rusty", Bonanno crime family Don

1919

Events

• Cleveland Black Hand leader Rosario Borgio and three others are convicted of the murder of several Akron police officers and executed.
• Al Capone leaves New York, after an altercation with a member of the White Hand Gang, going to Chicago, where he becomes a top lieutenant to Johnny Torrio.
• Recently imprisoned criminal Joe Valachi encounters inmate and future mentor New York mobster Alessandro Vollero.
• Salvatore Sabella becomes leader of the Philadelphia crime syndicate.
• Frank Costello forms a novelty company which makes Kewpie dolls in punchboard games. By the following year Costello had made $80,000 ($1.4 million today), which he used to become a bootlegger at the start of Prohibition.
• July 29 – New York labor slugger Johnny Spanish is killed by three unidentified gunman possibly including rival gangster Nathan Kaplan.

Births

• James "Jimmy Brown" Failla, senior caporegime for the Gambino crime family and labor union racketeer
• Gennaro Jay "Jerry" Angiulo, former Patriarca crime family underboss
• January 14 – Giulio Andreotti, Italian Prime Minister and mafia associate
• April 21 – Licio Gelli, Italian mason and mafia associate

Deaths

• May 22 – Rosario Borgio, Cleveland Black Hand leader
• July 29 – Johnny Spanish, Five Points Gang member and labor racketeer