Esposito, Giuseppe (1847-?)

b. Alia, Palermo province, Sicily, c1847.
d. Unknown.

Giuseppe Esposito, also known as Giuseppe Randazzo and Vincenzo Rebello, served as lieutenant to the infamous Antonino Leone back in 1874 Sicily. He emigrated to the U.S. and briefly found underworld success in New Orleans before being captured by private detectives and deported to Italy to stand trial for murder.

Esposito and Leone are believed to have been responsible for the kidnaping of English businessman John Forester Rose. (According to legend, they sent several of his body parts back to his family with ransom demands). The two leaders were cornered by Italian police in 1875, but Esposito escaped to become the new boss of the island's most feared band of central hill-country brigands.

After some of Esposito's closest allies were captured, he turned himself in to friendly authorities in Alia, Sicily. Charged with a number of crimes, including murder and extortion, Esposito was transported to Palermo to stand trial. During the trip, he escaped. His escape appears to have been organized by Palermo Mafiosi, with whom he had at least friendly relations.

In the late 1870s, Esposito fled to New York via Marseilles, France. He quickly moved on to New Orleans. Adopting a new name, Vincenzo Rebello, Esposito married and began to settle into a life of crime. He was immediately recognized as leader by the various Mafia factions already in place in New Orleans. Esposito and his right hand man Joe Provenzano quickly controlled much of the profitable activity on the New Orleans docks and in the produce markets.

Esposito was betrayed by a New Orleans associate known only by the code name of Panesolo. Panesolo sent word to Italian authorities that Esposito was living in the Crescent City. Private detectives of the Mooney and Boland firm were hired to track him down. New Orleans Police Detectives Mike and David Hennessy (cousins) aided by arresting Esposito near the St. Louis Cathedral on July 5, 1881. Esposito was quickly transported to New York for an extradition hearing.

Overwhelming support from the Sicilian community there and from New Orleanians who traveled to testify on his behalf, coupled with Esposito's insistence that the authorities had misidentified him, delayed the proceedings until he could be positively identified in late September.

Upon his return to Italy, he was convicted of murders in Rome and jailed for life. Some of his former allies in New Orleans converted his possessions there to their own use and failed to provide for a wife and children he left behind. From his Italian jail cell, Esposito tried unsuccessfully to sue those New Orleanians.

Esposito's New Orleans crime organization split into two factions: the Stuppagghieri Mafia commanded by the Matranga family and a Giardinieri Mafia led by the Provenzano clan. The split eventually led to a number of deaths, including the 1890 assassination of New Orleans Police Chief David Hennessey.

Some historians doubt that Esposito was a proper Mafioso, insisting that he was no more than a bandit (and forgetting that the traditional, honored society of the Sicilian Mafia had largely degenerated into a collection of thieves, cut-throats and political radicals by the mid-1870s). In his History of New Orleans, author John Kendall defined the "brigand" view of Esposito:

"Esposito had terrorized the vicinity of Palermo. From boyhood he had been a criminal. In his maturity he was a mountain desperado, plundering, burning, and murdering. Captured by the Italian police after a desperate battle, in which his band of brigands was destroyed, he escaped from custody, and fled to America. The press teemed with stories of his terrible exploits in Italy, and he was sought throughout the world..."

However, the FBI later asserted that Esposito "was the first known Sicilian Mafia member to emigrate to the United States. He and six other Sicilians fled to New York after murdering eleven wealthy landowners, the chancellor and vice chancellor of a Sicilian province." The FBI account leans very strongly on the word "known," as Mafia organizations existed at least in New Orleans and New York at the time Esposito arrived.

Read more:

•  Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia by Thomas Hunt and Martha Macheca Sheldon.

Carollo, Silvestro (1896-1970)

Born Terrasini, Sicily, June 17, 1896.
Died New Orleans, LA, June 26, 1970.

"Silver Dollar Sam" Carollo (also spelled "Carolla") came to the United States as a young boy in early 1903. In his youth, he became affiliated with the regional Mafia organization run by Charles Matranga.
Carollo reportedly succeeded Matranga as boss of the organization upon Matranga's retirement in the 1920s.

Carollo, outwardly a restaurant manager, is believed to have participated in gambling, bootlegging and narcotics trafficking enterprises as well as New Orleans fishing, shrimping and dock work rackets.

He was convicted of a bootlegging-related offense in 1923 and was sentenced to a year and a day in Atlanta federal prison. He was paroled after serving a little more than eight months.

The year 1930 was an especially busy one for Carollo. He was arrested in February of that year for violation of the federal Harrison Narcotics Act and for shooting a federal agent. He also was suspected of murder, following the December 28, 1930, shooting death of  William "Bill" Bailey.

He and co-defendant Frank Todaro served about a year and a half in Atlanta Federal Prison beginning in January 1931 on a narcotics conviction. They were released in spring 1932 by Atlanta federal Judge E. Marvin Underwood, though three additional consecutive six-month sentences remained on their prison terms. (Underwood voided the sentences on the rationale that federal prison incarcerations needed to be for at least a year and a day. He ordered that they be returned to New Orleans and resentenced to some other institution.)

For the attempted killing of a narcotics agent, Carollo received another eight- to fifteen-year sentence in 1933. That sentence was ended after one year by Louisiana Governor O.K. Allen's full pardon.

Just two years after the pardon, Carollo was once again a resident of Atlanta prison, having been sentenced to five years for another narcotics offense.

The federal government sought to deport Carollo in the early 1940s. Despite roadblock legislation introduced by Congressman James Morrison of Louisiana in order to keep Carollo in the U.S., officials succeeded in sending him back to Sicily in spring of 1947.

Louisiana and New York racketeers entered into lucrative agreements relating to casino and slot machine gambling during Carollo's reign.

Carollo's immediate successor in the New Orleans mob is uncertain. The government believed Carlos Marcello was in control of the family from about 1950 on, but there are suggestions that another boss worked behind the scenes until Marcello took the helm in the early 1960s.

The Carollo and Marcello families were joined through the marriage of Carollo's son Anthony and Marcello's niece Maria Zaniatta.

Carollo did not remain in Sicily for long. He was observed in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1949. He might have been attempting to run the New Orleans rackets from that location. Some claimed he was stationed there by Charlie Luciano as part of the worldwide drug trade. Carollo also was allegedly seen back in the New Orleans area as early as July 4, 1950. He and Salvatore "Kansas City Sam" Guarnieri, who also had been deported (twice), were found living in a luxuriously furnished hideout at Slidell, Louisiana. The property, 3701 Bruxelles, was owned by Carollo's daughter, Mrs. Sarah Misuraca. Carollo was again deported in 1951.

Years later, he again returned to the U.S. According to some sources, a rivalry developed between Carollo's son and Marcello's younger brother over who should succeed Marcello as New Orleans boss. There were rumors at the time that Marcello would elect to leave the country rather than serve a pending prison term. "Silver Dollar Sam" was reportedly called out of retirement to mediate the dispute. (A source told the FBI that the 1966 "Little Apalachin" assembly of gangland leaders at La Stella restaurant in New York followed a Mafia Commission meeting on the issue of the New Orleans succession.) Authorities determined that Carollo reentered the country through Detroit late in 1969.

Press accounts indicate that Carollo, back in the U.S. illegally, was briefly hospitalized at Touro Infirmary in New Orleans after a heart attack in February of 1970. After the hospital, he is believed to have stayed with family at 13544 Granville Street in New Orleans until his death. Federal authorities at the time were consider a third deportation.

Sources:

• Colarelli, SA Thomas L., "La Cosa Nostra," FBI report, file no. 92-6054-2387, NARA no. 124-10297-10121, Aug. 22, 1968, p. 1, 6.
• Kennedy, SA Regis L., "Carlos Marcello," FBI report, file no. 92-2713-61, NARA no. 124-10214-10018, Dec. 8, 1959, p. 11.
• SAC New Orleans, "Nofio Pecora," FBI memorandum, file no. 92-8100, NARA no. 124-90093-10057, Aug. 4, 1965, p. 14.
• "Carollo faces murder charge as victim of reprisal shooting dies," New Orleans Times-Picayune, Dec. 29, 1930, p. 1.
• "Prisoners fight new sentence in drug conviction," New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 16, 1932, p. 3.
• "Widespread raids net 13 arrests on narcotic charges," New Orleans Times-Picayune, Oct. 6, 1935, p. 1.
• "Alleged leader of big narcotic ring brought in," New Orleans Times-Picayune, Oct. 7, 1935, p. 1.
• "Carollo's method of entry interests federal agents," New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 7, 1950, p. 7.
• "Orleans jury indicts Carollo," New Orleans Times-Picayune, Feb. 28, 1970, p. 1.
• "Alleged Mafia leader expires," New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 27, 1970, p. 3.

Hennessy, David (1857-1890) - New Orleans PD

Born New Orleans, LA, 1857.

Killed New Orleans, LA, Oct. 16, 1890.

Police Chief David C. Hennessy of New Orleans was ambushed by Mafia assassins on his way home from work late on the night of Oct. 15, 1890. Hennessy was less than a block from the house he shared with his widowed mother when shotgun blasts from across Girod Street knocked him to the ground. Two of his assailants then approached and fired into his midsection with high-caliber rifles. The chief was still able to stand and return fire with his revolver. The assassins fled. Hennessy stumbled around the next corner and collapsed. When fellow police officers reached him, Hennessy reportedly said he had been shot by "the dagoes."

The location where Chief Hennessy was gunned down by Mafia assassins.
The chief was returning home in the glow of electric streetlights on the
raised sidewalk to the right. Mafia gunmen hid in the shadow
of the long, sloping roof to the left.

While the Sicilian criminal society bore the whole blame for Hennessy's death the following morning, many others in the New Orleans community had motive for acting against Hennessy. Among these were the Provenzano clan, who, despite their friendly stance toward the chief, might never have forgiven him for his role in the capture and deportation of their infamous leader, Giuseppe Esposito, in 1881.

Many in the Democratic establishment also had reason to fear and despise the chief. In 1881, Hennessy killed Chief of Detectives Thomas Devereaux in a gunfight. Devereaux was well connected in the local Democratic party and was close friends with private investigator Dominick O'Malley (who was later known to be working for the Matranga Mafia organization). The corrupt old-line Democrats also might have feared the charismatic Hennessy because he was committed to the anti-immigrant, anti-political-machine reform platform of Mayor Shakespeare.

The Matranga organization was likely infuriated when Hennessy backed the rival Provenzanos in a court battle resulting from a Provenzano attack against Matranga men in the summer of 1890.

Finally, the chief apparently threatened to reveal some damaging information about affluent and influential Sicilian merchant Joseph Macheca (affiliated with the Matrangas) and his friends at the retrial of the Provenzanos late in 1890. Hennessy appears to have gained the information from Italian government sources.

Hennessy is credited with being the first law enforcement professional to identify the Mafia in America and attack it with some degree of success. He must also be viewed as law enforcement's first martyr in the fight against organized crime.

Related Links:

•  Book: Deep Water: Joseph P. Macheca and the Birth of the American Mafia
•  Informer (Sept 2008): 1891 Lyncher Admits His Role
•  "Disturbance at trial of Hennessy assassins" (Writers of Wrongs - 02 Mar 2017)
•  "$5000 awarded to family of lynch victim" (Writers of Wrongs - 13 Jan 2017)