1934_in_organized_crime

1930s in organized crime

1930s in organized crime

Overview of the events of the 1930s in organized crime

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

Quick Facts List of years in organized crime ...

1930

Events

Timeline

  • 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.

Arts and literature

Births

Deaths

  • Ike Bloom [Isaac Gittelson], Jim Colosio lieutenant
  • George Defeo, Murder, Inc. member
  • George Maloney, Chicago gangster and co-leader of a bootlegging gang with Michael "Bubs" Quinlan
  • Joe Parrino, New York mobster
  • February 4 – Julius Rosenheim, Chicago gangster and police informant
  • February 20 – Carlo T. Piranio, founder of the Dallas crime family
  • February 26 – Tom Reina, New York mobster
  • April – Raymond "Craneneck" Nugent Bank robber and killer "Vanished" in Florida.
  • April 13 – Clinton G. Price, Wisconsin District Attorney and political figure
  • May 6 – Crime boss Tony Buccola "vanishment"
  • May 31 – Gaspar Milazzo, former New York mobster and now leader of the Detroit crime family
  • June 9 – Alfred Lingle, journalist
  • June 30 – Thomas Somneiro, Chicago Outfit lieutenant
  • July 5 – Joseph Porrello, Cleveland mobster
  • July 31 – Thomas McNichols, Chicago bootlegger
  • July 31 – James Schupe "Bozo", Chicago bootlegger
  • August 15 – Peter Morello, "The Clutching Hand", Masseria consigliere and former leader of the Morello crime family
  • September 5 – Joe Pinzolo, New York mobster
  • September 23 – Joe Aiello, Chicago mobster and president of the Unione Siciliane.
  • November 5 – Steve Ferrigno, New York mobster
  • November 5 – Alfred Mineo, New York mobster

1931

Events

  • 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.

Arts and literature

Births

Deaths

  • 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

1932

Events

Arts and literature

Births

Deaths

  • Vito Cascio Ferro, Sicilian mafiosi
  • February 9 – Vincent Coll "Mad Dog", New York Prohibition, Irish-American mobster
  • March 16 – Antonio Lonzo, New York mobster
  • March 16 – Gerard Vernotico, New York mobster
  • July 29 – John Volpe, Pittsburgh bootlegger
  • July 29 – Arthur Volpe, Pittsburgh bootlegger
  • July 29 – James Volpe, Pittsburgh bootlegger
  • August 8 – John Bazzano, Pittsburgh crime family leader

1933

Events

  • Reform Mayor Fiorello La Guardia is elected mayor of New York City.
  • Recently released from prison, Salvatore "Sam" "Mooney" Giancana becomes a bodyguard and chauffeur to Antonino "Tony," "Joe Batters" Accardo.
  • Walter Sage, a member of Brooklyn's Abe Reles-Harry Maione gang, is stabbed to death by Murder, Inc. assassin "Pittsburg Phil" Harry Strauss.
  • January 24 – Charles "King" Solomon, the leading Prohibition bootlegger in Boston's underworld, is killed at the Cotton Club in South Boston.
  • March 7 – Salvatore Sabella, along with John Avena and Domenico Pollina, are acquitted for a 1927 gangland slaying.
  • May 30 – Sebastiano Domingo aka Buster from Chicago killed in New York City; five others wounded-of whom one died.
  • June 17 – In an attempt to free bank robber Frank "Jelly" Nash from federal custody, Verne Miller, Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and Adam Richetti, ambush federal agents and local police at the Kansas City Union Station parking lot resulting in the deaths of FBI Agent Raymond J. Caffrey, Oklahoma, Police Chief Otto Reed, Kansas City Policemen W. J. Grooms and Frank Hermanson, as well as Frank Nash himself. The event would become known as the "Kansas City Massacre".
  • August 12 – Gas Fascone, a gunman for Kansas City mobster John Lazia, is shot and killed by police after murdering Joe Lusco lieutenant Ferris Anthon.
  • October 9 – Gus Winkler, a gambler and bootlegger on Chicago's West Side (or North Side), is machine gunned to death. Winkler was suspected to have been involved in planning the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
  • November 29 – Vernon C. Miller, an associate of New York mobster Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and one of the surviving gunmen of the Kansas City Massacre, is found murdered in Detroit (possibly members of New Jersey mobster Abner Zwillman's organization).
  • December 5 – Prohibition ends following the ratification of the 21st Amendment.

Arts and literature

Births

Deaths

1934

Events

Arts and literature

Births

Deaths

1935

Events

  • Owney Madden, a mob leader and speakeasy owner, leaves New York City. Madden's departure follows several years of police surveillance after the shooting death of renegade mobster Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll. Madden later settles in Hot Springs, Arkansas, establishing gambling operations there and forming political attachments through his hotel operation.
  • Gunman Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa joins the Chicago Outfit to help protect their criminal operations in Cicero, Illinois.
  • January 30 – Frank Milano, former boss of the Cleveland crime syndicate, flees the United States for Mexico. Milano is succeeded by Alfred "Big Al" Polizzi.
  • March – Salvatore Sabella is arrested, convicted, and imprisoned for three months for illegally distilling alcohol in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
  • April – Tri-State Gang member Francis Wiley is convicted of the 1934 kidnap-murder of Philadelphia racketeer William Weiss. Tri-State Gang leaders Walter Legenza and Robert Mais had previously been convicted of murder and executed in Richmond, Virginia in February.
  • July 16 – "Lupo the Wolf" Ignazio Saietta is charged with extortion. Saietta had been intimidating Italian bakers into joining a local New York labor union he controlled.
  • July 25 – George Musey, associate boss of the Downtown Gang, is assassinated by the Maceo Crime Syndicate.
  • August 22 – Vincenzo Troia, Sicilian mafiosi and associate of former "boss of all bosses" Salvatore Maranzano, is gunned down. Troia was reportedly conspiring to assume control of the Newark-based New Jersey crime syndicate.
  • September 9 – Abraham Weinberg, a lieutenant of Dutch Schultz, disappears and is presumed murdered. Weinberg had been running Shultz's organization since Shultz went into hiding in 1933. Reportedly, Weinberg had been secretly negotiating with syndicate leaders Charles Luciano and Louis Buchalter. Schultz may have murdered Weinberg after returning to power.
  • October 23 – After threatening the life of New York State prosecutor Thomas Dewey, Dutch Schultz is murdered along with Otto Berman, Lulu Rosencrantz and Abraham Landau at the Palace Chophouse in Newark, New Jersey. The hit is reportedly conducted by Albert Anastasia's crew on orders from Lucky Luciano's National Crime Syndicate. Shultz's criminal operations are subsequently taken over by Vito Genovese with the help of lieutenant Michael "Trigger Mike" Coppola.
  • October 23 – Martin "Little Marty" Krompier, premier enforcer and lieutenant of Dutch Schultz's policy operations in Harlem, is severely wounded by rival gunmen. This attack comes just hours after Schultz and his other associates are gunned down in Newark. Krompier ultimately survives the attack.

Arts and literature

Deaths

1936

Events

Arts and literature

Births

Deaths

  • 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

1937

Events

Arts and literature

Births

Deaths

  • May 11 – Ferdinand Boccia "The Shadow", New York mobster and gambler
  • June 14 – Francesco Lanza, leader of the San Francisco crime syndicate and father of the future leader John Lanza

1938

Events

  • John Giannola of "Green Ones gang" of East St Louis-died age 40 of natural Causes.[2]
  • After losing his estate in Pelham Manor, New York, former mob leader Ciro Terranova returns to New York City. On February 19, Terranova suffers a stroke and dies the following day.
  • Julius Richard "Dixie" Davis, longtime defense lawyer for Dutch Schultz, is imprisoned.
  • May 2 – Detroit mobster Joe Tocco is shot in the back and dies the following day. His death was possibly connected to mobster Joseph Zerilli, who had been consolidating his power in Detroit since the end of Prohibition.
  • August 21 – Hyman Yuran, a former associate of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter is killed by Murder, Inc. His body is later found in a lime pit near the small town of Loch Sheldrake, New York.

Arts and literature

Births

Deaths

1939

Events

Arts and literature

Births

Deaths

References

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