by Bruno, Joe
D'Andrea died a few hours later in Jefferson Park Hospital, after telling his wife and daughters, “God bless you.”
D'Andrea's demise left a vacancy at the top of the Chicago chapter of the Unione Siciliana, which was filled quickly by Mike Merlo, who was on vacation in Italy when he heard his good friend D'Andrea had run into some bad luck. Merlo was considered a conciliator; someone who felt peaceful negotiations were better than blasting someone with bullets. Still, that did not stop Merlo from immediately ordering the murder of the men involved in D'Andrea's killing.
Irishman Dion O'Banion was the head of the notorious North Side Gang, which was in constant conflict with the Italian mob, led by Johnny Torrio and Al Capone, over who had the right to sell their illegal booze in which bars in Chicago and in the surrounding rural areas. However Merlo, for some unknown reason, liked O'Banion. So, as long as Merlo, who as president of the Unione Siciliana was as powerful in Chicago as Capone and Torrio, kept O'Banion under his wing, O'Banion’s life was secure.
Still, O'Banion, who owned and operated a Chicago flower shop on the side, couldn't wait to stick it to his supposed Italian friends.
With a broad smile on his handsome Irish face, O'Banion approached Torrio and Capone, and offered to sell them his Sieben Brewery, on the North side of Chicago. The Sieben Brewery, which was under the protection of the North Side cops, had the reputation of producing the best quality beer in the entire state. O'Banion told the two Italian mob bosses that he had made enough money in the illegal hooch business, and that he was quitting the mob completely and settling with his lovely wife on an obscure ranch in Colorado.
Capone and Torrio were delighted at the prospect of buying the brewery, and they didn't even flinch when O'Banion told them the price was half a million dollars. As a gesture of good will, O'Banion offered to assist in the delivery of one last shipment. Then he said he was out and gone for good.
On May 18, 1924, 13 trucks stood inside the Sieben Brewery, manned by 22 men. Each truck was loading up to their full capacity with cases of beer, which due to the fact the half a million dollars had already changed hands, now belonged to Torrio and Capone. Two policemen on O'Banion's pad stood guard to make sure everything went hunky dory. Also on the premises supervising the operation were Torrio, O'Banion, and O'Banion's right-hand man, Hymie Weiss. Capone was absent because he was on the lam for killing a thug named Joe Howard.
In the blink of an eye, before the first truck had left the brewery, an avalanche of cops descended upon the brewery like roaches swarming a loaf of bread. The cop in charge of the raid was a Chief Collins, and in minutes, the beer trucks had been seized, and Torrio, O'Banion, and Weiss were arrested.
The three men were soon released on bail, but Torrio, who was known as “The Fox,” smelled a rat. He had cops on his payroll too, and one of them informed Torrio that O'Banion was in on the raid and only agreed to be arrested to cast suspicion from himself.
Torrio was further incensed when he was informed that O'Banion was bragging about how he set up the Sieben Brewery raid, saying,“I guess I rubbed that pimp's nose in the mud alright.”
Torrio immediately set up a meeting with O'Banion nemeses, Angelo Genna and his brothers Mike and Tony, Al Capone and himself, to discuss what to do about O'Banion. The group unanimously voted to whack O'Banion.
However, Torrio did caution the group that Mike Merlo, the powerful president of the Unione Siciliana, was still in O'Banion's corner. Angelo Genna told Torrio not to worry. Merlo was deathly sick with cancer, and, in fact, Merlo died on Saturday, November 8, 1924, less than a week after the meeting.
Frankie Yale, still the head of the National Unione Siciliana, flew in from New York City, and he appointed Angelo Genna the new head of the Chicago chapter of the Unione Siciliana. Yale also renamed the group the "Italo-American National Union," thereby justifying the fact that he, a Calabrese, could rightfully be the president of the former Sicilian-only organization.
With Merlo out of the way, the Chicago mob, with the blessing of the Italo-American National Union, planned O'Banion's demise.
Merlo's funeral was, up until that time, the biggest funeral in Chicago history. More than $100,000 worth of flowers were ordered, and as a result, O'Banion's flower shop was bombarded with requests for numerous floral displays.
On Sunday, November 9, O'Banion and his partner, William Schofield, spent the entire day in their flower shop weaving lilies, roses, orchids, and carnations into wreaths of various sizes. Capone had ordered $8,000 worth of red roses, and Torrio had placed an order for $10,000 worth of various types of flowers and floral displays.
Near closing time on Sunday, Angelo Genna phoned the flower shop and told Schofield that he needed to order another wreath, and that he would come to pick it up the following day. The vast amount of orders necessitated Schofield and several of his employees to stay up almost the entire night fulfilling their floral obligations.
At around noon on Monday, O'Banion was alone in the back room of the flower shop clipping the stems off chrysanthemums. The only other person in the flower shop was a black porter named William Crutchfield, who was busy sweeping up the mess from the day before.
Suddenly, three men entered the shop. Two of Torrio's men, John Scalise and Albert Anselmi, were familiar to O'Banion, but the third man was a total stranger.
O'Banion came out of the back room and said, “You boys here for Merlo's flowers?”
The stranger was none other than Frankie Yale, who had been imported to Chicago once before, to eliminate Torrio's uncle-through-marriage and Chicago mob boss, “Big Jim” Colosimo. Colosimo's sudden demise paved the way for Torrio and Capone to take over the town.
Yale extended his hand to O'Banion, “Yes, we are here for the flowers.”
O'Banion took Yale's hand. Then suddenly, Yale yanked O'Banion's hand toward him, and he pinned both of O'Banion’s arms to O'Banion's sides. Before O'Banion could extricate himself, Scalise and Anselmi fired six bullets into O'Banion. Two blasted into O'Banion's chest, another hit him in the cheek, and two more buried themselves into O'Banion's larynx. The final shot, which was the capper, embedded itself in O'Banion's brain. The guns had been fired at such close range, there were scorch marks on O'Banion's face.
O'Banion's funeral was even bigger than Merlo's funeral. O'Banion's coffin, which was made of solid silver with bronze double walls, cost $10,000 alone; four times more than the average yearly pay of a Chicago wage-earner.
After Merlo's death, being the head of the Chicago chapter of the Italo-American National Union (formerly the Unione Siciliana), was the kiss of death. Within a year, Angelo Genna was murdered by members of O'Banion's North Side mob. Genna's place was taken by Samuzzo "Samoots" Amatuna, who was killed within a few months after he took Genna's place, by another North Side mobster, Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci.
After Amatuna's demise, Capone, who was now the Chicago boss due to Torrio's retirement, inserted one of his pals, Antonio Lombardo, as boss of the Chicago chapter of the Italo-American National Union. This was done without the blessing of Frankie Yale, who would not be Capone's friend much longer.
It seemed that Yale had wanted to appoint Joe Aiello as the new boss of the Italo-American National Union in Chicago. Aiello was not too friendly with Capone, and in Yale's opinion, was more likely to pay the proper tribute to Yale in New York city rather than Lombardo, who was closely aligned with Capone.
Yale and Capone were now at cross-purposes, and if Capone needed another excuse to whack Yale, it was presented to him in the spring of 1928.
Capone and Yale were partners in the distribution of illegal whiskey, which was sold in the Chicago speakeasies and in speakeasies in the rural suburbs of Illinois. The booze would arrive from Canada and was transported through New York in trucks on its way to Capone in Chicago. It was Yale's duty to ensure the safety of those shipments. However, Capone was dismayed to discover that some of his trucks were being hijacked on route from New York City to Chic
ago by none other than Frankie Yale himself.
On Sunday afternoon, July 1, 1928, Frankie Yale was sitting comfortably in his Sunrise Club, located at 14th Avenue and 65th Street in Brooklyn. Suddenly, the phone rang and Yale was informed that his new wife, Lucy, was in some sort of predicament concerning their year-old daughter. Yale associate Joe Piraino offered to drive Yale home, but Yale refused the offer. Instead, he jumped into his new light-brown Lincoln and headed down New Utrecht Avenue. The Lincoln’s body had been bulletproofed, but not the windows, which turned out to be a fatal mistake.
At 44th Street, while Yale was stopped at a red light, he noticed a black Buick occupied by four men following him. Yale jumped on the gas, turned down 44th Street, and a wild chase ensued.
The Buick managed to pull alongside Yale's car, and the four men opened fire. Yale was hit by a barrage of bullets fired through the window of his car. The weapons used were two .45 caliber revolvers, two sawed-off shotguns, and a new invention called the Tommy Gun, or Thompson Submachine Gun, which fired bullets from a .45 caliber, 20-round magazine. Yale's car swerved out of control and crashed into the stoop of a house located at 923 44th Street. When the police arrived minutes later, Yale was indeed very dead.
The death of Frankie Yale greatly reduced the need for, and the influence of, the Italo-American National Union. In Chicago, Capone ran the town, and he soon eliminated both Lombardo and Aiello with bullets. In 1930, Capone put in Agostino Loverdo as the new president of the Italo-American National Union. Loverdo lasted until 1934, which by this time, Capone had already been sent to prison in 1932 on an income tax evasion charge. In 1934, former Capone bodyguard, Phil D'Andrea, was appointed boss of the Chicago Italo-American National Union by Frank Nitti, who was now running Capone's old crew.
In New York City, after the death of Frankie Yale, there was no real boss of the Italo-American National Union. After the Castellammarese War eliminated both Joe “The Boss” Masseria and his successor Salvatore Maranzano, Lucky Luciano became the head of the Italian Mafia, and he used the concept of the Italo-American National Union to start a National Crime Syndicate, which included Jewish mobsters Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, and Louis Lepke. Irishman Owney Madden was also part of the Syndicate.
So in effect, in New York City, the Italo-American National Union, formerly the Unione Siciliana, ceased to exist.
In Chicago, Phil D'Andrea kept the Italo-American National Union loosely in place until he dissolved it in 1941 due to the lack of interest from its members. However, after the dissolution of the Italo-American National Union, the Mafia continued to remain strong in New York City and in Chicago, as well as in other major cities throughout America.
The Mafia continues to thrive today as it did in the Roaring Twenties heyday of the Unione Siciliana.
THE END
*****
Murder and Mayhem in the Big Apple:
From the Black Hand to Murder Incorporated
By Joe Bruno
PUBLISHED BY:
Knickerbocker Literary Services
EDITED BY:
Marc A. Maturo
COVER BY:
Nitro Covers
Copyright 2012 -- Knickerbocker Literary Services
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What people are saying about Murder and Mayhem in the Big Apple: From the Black Hand to Murder Incorporated:
ANOTHER HISTORY LESSON! – RJ Parker “Bestselling Author of True Crime Books”
I love Joe Bruno's books. I always say that he's the NYC true crime historian. I never heard of the Black Hand until reading this book. NYC has had its share of murder and corruption over the past couple of centuries and the Author is a wealth of knowledge about it. A must read for any true crime book collector.
Another great one! – lcook0825
Another great book by Joe Bruno on the Mafia in the United States. Murder Inc. was an unbelievable group of men who got away with their crimes for some time. It is amazing to see how far police investigations have come since that time. I can't wait to start the next book by Mr Bruno.
What can I say! – Rony Barbery
This is another typical Joe Bruno book, detailed, factual and written like if you were having a conversation sitting on the stoop of your house with him. He writes like if he was an old friend that I hung out with in Brooklyn. I have two more of his books on my shelf, and can't wait to get to them. As with all of his other work, I highly recommend this book!
Great! - catenacci
Joe Bruno supplies us with a well written book that provides in depth treatments of some very interesting big time murder cases. Moreover it contains several entertaining and quite funny statements. I really enjoyed reading it.
Knock Out Punch! - Joyce Metzger
Joe Bruno delivers a hard punch, well researched, no nonsense book. People need to be reminded about dark periods of history. Murder and Mayhem in the Big Apple, From Black Hand to Murder Incorporated uncovers the atrocities committed by men who had neither compassion nor conscience. They lived by power rule of the Mafia who made their bones by killing whomever the bosses said needed to be killed. That rule brought from Corleone, Sicily by Giuseppe Morello and Nick and Vincent Terranova became the Black Hand.
Fear, hatred, and brutality are brought to our awareness in a most convincing and stark manner. The reader is an observer as chills run up and down the spine. Joe Bruno gives us a glimpse loaded with facts. This history loaded portrayal includes Buggsy Goldstein, Harry Strauss, Happy Malone, Frank Abbandando, Lepke Buchalter, Albert Anastasia and Lucky Luciano. Joe Bruno brings full realism to play and bear upon our psyches.
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The Black Hand
They came from the mobbed-up city of Corleone, Sicily, but they perpetrated their murder and mayhem on the mean streets of New York City.
The co-leader of the Black Hand was a monstrosity of a man named Giuseppe (Joe) Morello. Morello was born in 1867 with a severely deformed right hand, which featured only an elongated pinkie finger, which was bent grotesquely downward. As a result, Morello was called, “The Clutch-Hand,” “Little Finger,” and “One Finger Jack.”
Joe Morello’s father, Calogero Morello, died in 1872 and his mother, Angelina Piazza, remarried one year later to Mafioso Bernardo Terranova. Joe Morello’s stepfather and mother had four children together: Nick, Ciro, Vincent, and Salvatrice. There is some confusion as to the exact relationships, but Nick Terranova, also known as Nick Morello, was, in fact, not Joe Morello’s brother, but his half-brother. Salvatrice Terranova married a wicked man named Ignazio “Lupo the Wolf” Saietta, who later in America, along with Joe Morello and Nick and Vincent Terranova, formed the hated and much feared Black Hand. For all practical purposes, Saietta and Morello had equal powers in the organization.
While still in Corleone, Joe Morello and his three half-brothers were introduced by Bernardo Terranova into the Corleonesi Mafia (sometimes called the Fratuzzi), where they made their bones by killing whomever the Corleonesi bosses said needed to be killed. One such victim was Giovanni Vella, the head of a quasi-police force called the Guardie Campestri, or Field Guards, which patrolled Corleone on foot, looking for Corleonesi Mafia members up to no good. In 1888, Joe Morello was arrested for the murder of Vella, but then strange things started to happen.
First, the smoking gun found on Morello when he was arrested minutes after the Vella murder oddly disappeared from the local carabinieri (police) lockup. Apparently, the gun was snatched by an enterprising carabinieri, who was paid molto lira to do so.
Secondly, there was the slight problem of a woman named Anna Di Puma, who claimed she saw Joe Morello shoot Vella to death in a darkened alleyway. Two days after Vella’s demise, Anna Di Puma was sitting outside a friend’s house shooting the breeze, when a gunman walked up behind her and shot her several times in the back, killing her instantly. With no smoking gun, and no witnesses to testify against him, Joe Morello was released from jail.
His
status in the local Mafia augmented by the Vella murder, Morello decided to make a bigger killing by dealing in the sale of “funny money,” or counterfeit bills. This went fine and dandy for a while, until Morello was arrested in 1892 with a fistful of phony cash in his good left hand. Rather than face charges in Sicily, Joe Morello thumbed his nose at the Italian authorities and absconded secretly to America, settling on the Lower East Side of New York City.
Little did it matter that Morello was tried “in absentia” in Sicily and sentenced to six years in solitary confinement. Morello was a vast ocean away from his punishment and ready to make his mark in the majestic “Mountain of Gold” – New York City.
Soon after Joe Morello escaped from Sicily and landed illegally in America, Bernardo Terranova, his wife Angela, and six of their children, boarded the ship Alsatia and headed for America to join Joe Morello. Also with them was Joe Morello’s wife, Lisa Marvelesi, with her two-month-old baby, Calogero, who was named after Joe Morello’s blood father. They passed, as did all immigrants at the time, through Ellis Island and entered America legally.
While most immigrants came to America with only the clothes on their back and a few bucks in their pockets, the Terranovas brought with them the stunning total of 18 pieces of luggage, filled with the finest clothes and who knows how much cash. Even though this was not against American law, it should have raised some eyebrows among Ellis Island officials, since Sicilian Mafioso Bernardo Terranova listed his occupation as “laborer,” even though he was a well-known Mafioso in Corleone. It’s obvious something of value changed hands from Bernardo Terranova to crooked immigration officials before he and his family were allowed to pass through customs.
When they first came to America, Morello and the Terranovas tried their best to fly under the radar of American law enforcement. Even though there was basically no communication between the Sicilian police and their American counterparts, there was a three-year grace period after which an Italian immigrant became immune to deportation. The Terranovas joined Morello and settled in Manhattan’s Little Italy on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. At first, they tried to make a living in a series of legal jobs, including plastering.