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Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria was an early Italian-American Mafia boss in New York City. He was boss of what is now called the Genovese crime family, one of the New York City Mafia's Five Families, from 1922 to 1931. In 1930, he battled in the Castellammarese War to take over the criminal activities in New York City. The war ended with his murder on April 15, 1931, in a hit ordered by his own lieutenant, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, in an agreement with rival faction head Salvatore Maranzano.
William Poole, also known as Bill the Butcher, was the leader of the Washington Street Gang, which later became known as the Bowery Boys gang. He was a local leader of the Know Nothing political movement in mid-19th-century New York City.
Paul Kelly was an Italian-American mobster and former boxer, who founded the Five Points Gang in New York City. He had started some brothels with prize money earned in boxing. Five Points Gang was one of the first dominant street gangs in New York history. Kelly recruited young, poor men from the ethnically diverse immigrant neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan. The Five Points Gang included some who later became prominent criminals in their own right, including Johnny Torrio, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Frankie Yale.
"Big" Jack Zelig was an American gangster and one of the last leaders of the Eastman Gang.
The Five Points Gang was a criminal street gang of primarily Irish-American origins, based in the Five Points of Lower Manhattan, New York City, during the late 19th and early 20th century.
The Whyos or Whyos Gang, a collection of the various post-Civil War street gangs of New York City, was the city's dominant street gang during the mid-late 19th century. The gang controlled most of Manhattan from the late 1860s until the early 1890s, when the Monk Eastman Gang defeated the last of the Whyos. The name came from the gang's cry, which sounded like a bird or owl calling, "Why-oh!"
Edward "Monk" Eastman was a New York City gangster who founded and led the Eastman Gang in the late 19th and early 20th century; it became one of the most powerful street gangs in the city. His aliases included Joseph "Joe" Morris, Joe Marvin, William "Bill" Delaney, and Edward "Eddie" Delaney. Eastman is considered to be one of the last of the 19th-century New York City gangsters who preceded the rise of Arnold Rothstein and the Jewish mob. Later, more sophisticated, organized criminal enterprises also included the predominately Italian Cosa Nostra.
Max Zweifach born Maximillian Zweifach known as "Kid Twist" and occasionally referred to as Zwerbach was an American gangster active in the early 1900s.
The Mafia–Camorra War was a gang war in New York City that lasted from 1915-1917. On one side was the originally Sicilian Morello crime family of Manhattan; on the other side were gangs originally from Naples and the surrounding Campania region, based in Navy Street in Brooklyn and Coney Island referred to as the Camorra. The fight over the control of the New York rackets started after the killing of Giosue Gallucci, the undisputed King of Little Italy, and his son on May 17, 1915. The trials that followed in 1918 completely smashed the Camorra gangs; the protection that they enjoyed was demolished from the testimonies of their own men. It was the end of the Camorra in New York and the rise in power of American-based Sicilian Mafia groups.
Richard "Richie" Fitzpatrick was a top gunman in the Monk Eastman gang in New York City. He had defected from the Five Points Gang in the early 1900s; he was active during the late 1890s until his murder in 1904.
The Eastman Gang was the last of New York's street gangs which dominated the city's underworld during the late 1890s until the early 1910s. Along with the Five Points Gang under Italian-American Paolo Antonio Vaccarelli, best known as Paul Kelly, the Eastman gang succeeded the long dominant Whyos as the first non-Irish street gang to gain prominence in the underworld during the 1890s. Its rise marked the beginning of a forty to fifty-year period of strong Jewish-American influence within organized crime in New York City.
James T. Ellison born, better known as Biff Ellison, was a New York City gangster affiliated with the Five Points Gang and later a leader of the Gopher Gang. He was noted for his propensity for physical violence as well as a dapper appearance that led The New York Times to describe him as "looking like a prosperous banker or broker" and contemporary chroniclers as "smooth-faced, high-featured, well-dressed, a Gangland cavalier" and "a fop in matters of dress".
Louis "Louie the Lump" Pioggi was a New York criminal and member of the Five Points Gang, known most prominently for the murder of Eastman Gang leader Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach and Vach "Cyclone Louie" Lewis. He appears in newspaper accounts and public records as Louis Poggi.
The Bottler was the pseudonym of an Egyptian-born American gambler and underworld figure in New York. He ran a highly popular stuss parlor in the Five Points district during the early 20th century, one which was considered the most successful in the East Side, until his death when he confronted Kid Twist and the Eastman Gang from taking over his gambling establishment. It was his death, according to gangland lore, that resulted in the murder of Kid Twist and his bodyguard Cyclone Louie by Louie the Lump in 1908.
"Big" Jack Poggi or Pioggi was an American saloon keeper and underworld figure in New York City at the start of the 20th century. A rival of "Big" Jack Zelig, he had been the chief bouncer at Callahan's Dance Hall before opening a Lower East Side resort on Doyers Street near Chinatown's notorious "Bloody Angle". The building, known as Poggi's, could be reached through five Chatham Square alleyways, one of these being though a local dairy store and another through the back door of a barbershop, and was known to be a place "where anything goes". He later became partners with Chick Tricker, a member of the Eastman Gang, who bought an interest in his establishment to retain a connection in the district while he expanded his holdings elsewhere in Manhattan. His brother Louis "Louie the Lump" Poggi, a well-known gunman and member of the Five Points Gang, was responsible for the murders of Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach and his bodyguard Vach "Cyclone Louie" Lewis in 1908.
Michael Salter or Saulter was an American saloon keeper, ward heeler and underworld figure in New York City. He was of Russian-Jewish descent.
Jack Sirocco (1882–1954) was a New York City gangster involved in labor racketeering and strikebreaking. Originally a lieutenant in Paul Kelly's Five Points Gang, where he was the immediate boss of Johnny Torrio, Sirocco defected to the rival Eastman Gang, which he led in its last days.
References
- ↑ Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs of New York. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928. ISBN 978-1-56025-275-7
The Life and Times of a Legend. Syracuse: Nicholas J. Pedrotti 2011 [ verification needed ]