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Willie "Two-Knife" Altieri, also called Willie "Two Gun" Altieri, was an American gangster who served as the chief enforcer for Frankie Yale's Italian-American "Black-Hand" gang, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in 1920s New York City. He got his nickname after his preferred method of dispatching a victim. Willie had killed dozens of rival gangsters during the 1920s and was considered an important figure in the "Black-Hand" gang.
Little background information is known about Altieri, including his date of birth, background, or how he died although it is known that an attempted assassination by Pegleg Lonergan led to "Willie" jumping through a window, narrowly escaping death. He was described as standing 5 feet 7 inches, weighing 170 pounds, and having blond hair and blue eyes. Altieri's hands were described as "soft", like a woman's, and he would often be found using his knives to clean his fingernails. Altieri was known for preferring to dispatch his victims via the use of two knives, [1] which he kept in leather scabbards around his waist. His passion was so great for these weapons that he would apparently even sleep with the knives still on his person.
Altieri killed his victims with the same modalities: a rape choking, or a Colt's gunshot close-up to the head of the victim. Each time he threw away the corpse, burying it in the surroundings of New Jersey. [2]
Mob boss Yale used Altieri on many occasions to commit murders. In 1919, Yale sent Altieri to silence an informer within the gang. Altieri stabbed the informer in the torso with both knives, then broke off blades in the victim's body. Altieri later presented the handles to Yale, who mounted them on a plaque and hung it up in his office.
At one point, Altieri himself narrowly avoided being assassinated. The White Hand Gang tried to kill Altieri because they suspected he was responsible for killing gang member Petey Behan. However, the White Hand hitmen accidentally killed Angelo Gibaldi, the father of Vincenzo Gibaldi. Vincenzo Gibaldi later became famous as a Capone gunman and a chief organizer of the Saint Valentine's Day massacre by another name, Jack "Machine Gun Jack" McGurn. In retaliation, Gibaldi with Frankie Yale's consent killed the three hitmen responsible and thus avenged his father's death.
On July 1, 1928, Yale was murdered on the streets of Brooklyn. His killing was reportedly due to a falling out with Chicago mob boss Al Capone, Yale's former underling. After Yale's murder, Altieri slipped into obscurity.
Very little is known as to the whereabouts of Willie "Two-Knife" Altieri after the murder of Frankie Yale in 1928.
Alphonse Gabriel Capone, sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1925 to 1931. His seven-year reign as a crime boss ended when he went to prison at the age of 33.
The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang on Saint Valentine's Day 1929. The men were gathered at a Lincoln Park, Chicago garage on the morning of February 14, 1929. They were lined up against a wall and shot by four unknown assailants, two of whom were disguised as police officers.
Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an agreement which includes some form of compensation, monetary or otherwise. It is an illegal agreement. Either party may be a person, group, or organization. Contract killing has been associated with organized crime, government conspiracies, dictatorships, and vendettas. For example, in the United States, the Italian- and Jewish-American organized crime gang Murder, Inc. committed hundreds of murders on behalf of the National Crime Syndicate during the 1930s and '40s.
John Donato Torrio was an Italian-born American mobster who helped build the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s later inherited by his protégé Al Capone. Torrio proposed a National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s and later became an adviser to Lucky Luciano and his Luciano crime family.
Jack "Machine Gun Jack" McGurn was a Sicilian-American boxer, mobster, and eventually a made man and caporegime in Al Capone's Chicago Outfit.
Francesco Ioele, known as Frankie Yale or Frankie Uale, was an American gangster based in Brooklyn and the second employer of Al Capone.
Vincenzo Colosimo, known as James "Big Jim" Colosimo or as "Diamond Jim", was an Italian-American Mafia crime boss who emigrated from Calabria, Italy, in 1895 and built a criminal empire in Chicago based on prostitution, gambling and racketeering. He gained power through petty crime and heading a chain of brothels. From 1902 until his death in 1920, he led a gang known after his death as the Chicago Outfit. Colosimo was assassinated on May 11, 1920, and no one was ever charged with his murder. Johnny Torrio, an enforcer whom Colosimo imported in 1909 from New York, seized control of Colosimo's businesses after his death. Al Capone, a close associate of Torrio, has been accused of involvement in Colosimo's murder but was not yet in Chicago at the time.
The Chicago Outfit is an Italian-American organized crime syndicate or crime family based in Chicago, Illinois, which originated in the city's South Side in 1910. It is part of the larger Italian-American Mafia.
Chicago, Illinois, has a long history of organized crime and was famously home to the American mafia figure Al Capone. This article contains a list of major events related to organized crime.
The Genna crime family, was a crime family that operated in Prohibition-era Chicago. From 1921 to 1925, the family was headed by the six Genna brothers, known as the Terrible Gennas. The brothers were Sicilians from the town of Marsala and operated from Chicago's Little Italy and maintained control over the Unione Siciliana. They were allies with fellow Italian gang the Chicago Outfit. After a bloody war led to their demise in the 1920s, the gang was eventually absorbed by the Chicago Outfit.
Giuseppe "Joe" Aiello was a Sicilian bootlegger and organized crime leader in Chicago during the Prohibition era. He was best known for his long and bloody feud with Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone.
The North Side Gang, also known as the North Side Mob, was an Irish-American criminal organization within Chicago during the Prohibition era from the early 1920s to the mid-1930s. It was the principal rival of the South Side Gang, also known as the Chicago Outfit, the crime syndicate of Italian-Americans Johnny Torrio and Al Capone.
The White Hand Gang was a collection of various Irish American gangs on the New York City, Brooklyn, and Red Hook waterfronts from the early 1900s to 1925 who organized against the growing influence of Italian gangsters. Their name was chosen in response to the Sicilian Black Hand gangs and carried the implication that the Irish gang was the "white" counter to the growing presence of what they considered "non-white" Italian gangsters and Italian immigrants. They were known to be virulently anti-Italian and particularly violent, with members killing each other, contributing to the unstable leadership which led to the gang's demise.
William P. "Dint" Colbeck was a St. Louis politician and organized crime figure involved in bootlegging and illegal gambling. He succeeded William Egan as head of the Egan's Rats bootlegging gang in the early 1920s.
Gangsters 2: Vendetta is a real-time strategy video game, developed by Hothouse Creations, published by Eidos Interactive, and released for Microsoft Windows in June 2001. The sequel to Gangsters: Organized Crime, and set during the final years of Prohibition, the game focuses on a story of the son of a local mob boss, who goes on a vendetta against the men who ordered their assassination, effectively becoming their own mob boss in the process. The game received mixed reviews on release.
Capone is a 1975 American action crime film directed by Steve Carver, written by Howard Browne, and starring Ben Gazzara, Harry Guardino, Susan Blakely, John Cassavetes, and Sylvester Stallone in an early film appearance. The film is a biography of the infamous gangster Al Capone.
Antonio "the Gentleman" Genna was an Italian-born mobster in Chicago. He headed the Genna crime family with his brothers. Genna was ambushed by a Genna family turncoat on orders of North Side Gang leaders Vince Drucci and Bugs Moran.
Michele "Mike the Devil" Genna was an Italian-born mobster in Chicago during the 1920s. He headed the Genna crime family with his brothers. He was killed by police officers after a shootout with North Siders, being one of the only American organized crime leaders to be killed by a policeman.
This is a list of organized crime in the 1920s, arranged chronologically.
This is a list of organized crime in the 1930s, arranged chronologically.