Morelli, Frank (1896-1965)

b. Providence, RI, Feb. 21, 1896.
d. Providence, RI, Aug. 10, 1965.

Butsey, c. 1920.

Frank "Butsey" Morelli was an early leader of Italian organized crime in Rhode Island, mentoring a number of later Mafiosi, including Raymond Patriarca and Henry Tameleo. Morelli and some of his brothers long have been suspected of involvement in the April 1920 South Braintree, Massachusetts, robbery-murders for which Sacco and Vanzetti were executed in August 1927.

Historians attempting to pinpoint Morelli's birth and death dates have been misled by statements made by former New England mobster Vincent Teresa in his autobiographical book, My Life in the Mafia. Teresa indicated that Morelli was born in Brooklyn and moved with his family to Rhode Island around the time of World War I. Teresa stated that Morelli was nearing a death from cancer a few years after the conclusion of the Kefauver Committee hearings in 1951. Efforts to correct these errors have been hindered by the fact that Frank Morelli had a different name at the time of his birth.

Morelli was born Adolfo Molarelli to parents Gennaro "John" and Filomena "Fanny" Caruolo Molarelli in Providence in 1896. He was the last of five boys born to the couple.

The Molarelli family had spent about five years in New York, and one of Frank's brothers (Ferdinand "Fred") was born there before the clan relocated to Rhode Island. The Molarelli family, originally from Italy (probably the area of Foggia), moved to southern France following the birth of their first son in February 1881. This son was called "Stazio," generally a nickname for Anastasio, Eustacio and similar names, but became "Joe" when the family reached the U.S. Two more boys - Nicolo "Mike" and Pasquale "Patsy" - were born in France.

The family name gradually changed in Rhode Island from Molarelli to Morelli. Frank appears to have discarded his given name of Adolfo in the 1930s, as Adolf Hitler gained power in Germany.

The Morelli boys grew up in a congested North End Italian neighborhood along Ledge Street, Charles Street and Marietta Street (much of the area population is of Italian descent today). Joe Morelli became leader of a burglary gang that included his brothers and a number of other young men from the neighborhood, including Joseph "Gyp the Blood" Imondi, Anthony Mancini and Albert "Bibba" Barone.

Gennaro's death in 1918 coincided with the start of his sons' trouble with the law. Joe, Fred and Patsy were arrested for stealing shipments of shoes from freight trains in 1919. The reported holdup of a payroll truck resulted in additional arrests the same year. Mike Morelli left Providence about this time to become a resident of New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Filomena Morelli appears to have been placed in the city-run Dexter Asylum by 1920. The asylum cared for elderly, poor and mentally ill residents.

Fred Morelli and Bibba Barone reportedly were behind bars in April of 1920, but other members of the gang were free on bail pending trial, when shoe factory paymaster Frederick Parmenter and guard Alessandro Berardelli were shot to death in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Some authorities believed the Morelli gang to be responsible, but law enforcement eventually focused its attention on two other men - Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti - linked with a violent gang of political radicals responsible for a series of bombings.

Joe Morelli

Because the Morelli gang was charged with robbing railroad cars, they faced trial in federal court. Joe, Frank, Fred and Patsy Morelli and Bibba Barone were convicted in June 1920. All were sent to Atlanta Federal Prison. Gang leader Joe Morelli received the longest sentence, 12 years. Much of the rest of his life was spent in federal prisons due to several other convictions. He died of cancer in August 1950, after penning his memoirs.

Prison correspondence revealed that Frank Morelli had connections in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Troy, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Jersey City, New Jersey; Montreal, Canada; and Havana, Cuba. Morelli was released from Atlanta in February of 1924, as Prohibition Era bootleggers were organizing into cartels.

While establishing himself as leader of the Providence underworld, Morelli was involved in some violent incidents. Just months after his release, he was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon. In the following year, he was the victim of a stabbing. In 1931, authorities suspected but could not prove that Morelli was involved in the house-bombing of a Providence gambling racketeer. Morelli soon became known as leader of gambling rackets in the region and moved himself and his wife into a new home at 315 Mount Pleasant Avenue in western Providence.

As Frank immersed himself in the rackets, brother Patsy appears to have taken over control of the robbery gang.

The post-Castellammarese War Mafia reorganization recognized Rhode Island as a territory of the New England crime family. At the time, the organization was dominated by bosses from the Boston area, but Morelli remained the recognized leader in Providence.

At the conclusion of Prohibition, Mafiosi invested in gambling rackets and sought to expand their territories to tourist areas in Florida. Morelli participated in these endeavors. He was arrested on suspicion in Miami Beach, Florida, in the fall of 1936.

Butsey, c.1947

A decade later, as Raymond Patriarca returned to Providence after a term in Massachusetts' Charlestown State Prison, Morelli began turning control of the rackets over to Patriarca. Patriarca soon would rise to command the regional crime family. Around 1947, Morelli is believed to have retired from the day-to-day racket operations, but that year saw him involved twice with big-name mobsters.

In early February 1947, he traveled to Havana, Cuba, with New York-based Mafiosi Philip Lombardo and Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno. The trip was made during Charles "Lucky" Luciano's brief stay in Havana. In early November, authorities suspected Morelli of providing a hideout for the wife and father-in-law of New York Mafioso "Trigger Mike" Coppola. The two were wanted as material witnesses to the 1946 murder of East Harlem politician Joseph Scottoriggio.

Law enforcement investigations of gambling in the Providence area in the 1950s continued to turn up evidence of Morelli involvement, though Morelli was by then under treatment for cancer of his jaw and throat. Mobster Vincent Teresa later recalled that Morelli had surgery to remove a portion of his jaw.

Through the early 1960s, the FBI considered Morelli to be one of the decision-makers in the New England regional Mafia.

Morelli died in 1965 at the age of 69, following a return of his cancer. No notice of his death was published in the press. He was quickly and quietly buried at St. Ann's Cemetery in Cranston, Rhode Island.

See also:

• New England Crime Bosses - Mafiahistory.us

Sources 
Documents and books:

•  Air Passenger Manifest of Pan American NC-88893, trip no. 424, departed Havana, Cuba, arrived Miami, Florida, on Feb. 9, 1947.
•  Certificate of Death, Rhode Island State Archives, Town or City no. 2146, State File no. 6127, Aug. 10, 1965.
•  Ehrmann, Herbert B., The Untried Case: The Sacco-Vanzetti Case and the Morelli Gang, New York: The Vanguard Press, 1933.
•  Frank Morelli prisoner file, no. 11332, Atlanta Federal Prison, National Archives and Records Administration.
•  Joseph Morelli prisoner file, no. 11330, Atlanta Federal Prison, National Archives and Records Administration.
•  Kehoe, S.A. John F. Jr., "The criminal commission, et al, Boston Field Division," FBI report BS 92-6054-136, Dec. 21, 1962, p. 3.
•  Morelli, Joseph, "Introduceing the Most Famous Case in the World: The Sacco-Vanzetti Case and the Morelli Gang," Small Manuscript Collection, Harvard Law School Library.
•  New York City birth records, certificate no. 10569, March 1, 1894.
•  Passenger manifest of S.S. Suevia, arrived New York City on June 1, 1891.
•  Polk's Providence City Directory, Vol. 1934, Providence: R.L. Polk & Co., 1934, p. 664.
•  Polk's Providence City Directory, Vol. 1937, Providence: R.L. Polk & Co., 1937, p. 798.
•  Polk's Providence City Directory, Vol. 1938, Providence: R.L. Polk & Co., 1938, p. 798.
•  Polk's Providence City Directory, Vol. 1941, Providence: R.L. Polk & Co., 1941, p. 530.
•  Polk's Providence City Directory, Vol. 1942, Providence: R.L. Polk & Co., 1942, p. 566.
•  Polk's Providence City Directory, Vol. 1943, Providence: R.L. Polk & Co., 1943, p. 562.
•  Polk's Providence City Directory, Vol. 1945, Providence: R.L. Polk & Co., 1945, p. 480.
•  Rhode Island Birth Records, Feb. 21, 1896.
•  Rhode Island death records, Feb. 7, 1918.
•  Rhode Island State Census of 1915, Providence County, Providence City, Ward 3, Congressional District 3, Representative District 5, Enumeration District 267.
•  Rhode Island State Census of 1935, Providence, no. 351191.
•  Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 035-24-4165, Sep. 7, 1965.
•  Teresa, Vincent, with Thomas C. Renner, My Life in the Mafia, Garden City NY: Doubleday & Company, 1973.
•  The Providence Directory, Providence: Sampson & Murdock Company, 1905, p. 507.
•  The Providence Directory, Providence: Sampson & Murdock Company, 1918, p. 548.
•  The Providence House Directory, Providence: Sampson, Murdock & Co., 1896, p. 471.
•  The Providence House Directory and Family Address Book, No. 8, 1899, Providence RI: Sampson, Murdock, & Co., 1899, p. 330, 571.
•  United States Census of 1900, Rhode Island, Providence County, Ward 3, Enumeration District 30.
•  United States Census of 1910, Rhode Island, Providence County, Ward 3, Enumeration District 180.
•  United States Census of 1920, Rhode Island, Providence County, Ward 2, Enumeration District 188.
•  United States Census of 1940, Rhode Island, Providence County, Ward 5, Enumeration District 80.
•  World War I draft registration card, No. 429, Ward 3, Precinct 6, Providence RI.
•  World War I draft registration card, No. 432, Ward 3, Precinct 6, Providence RI.
•  World War I draft registration card, No. 2983, No. 563, Boston MA, June 4, 1917.
•  World War II draft registration card, serial no. U-1116.

Periodicals (by date):

•  "Joseph Morelli takes stand in own defense," Boston Globe, May 21, 1920, p. 12.
•  "Sacco-Vanzetti motion heard," Boston Globe, Sept. 13, 1926, p. 1.
•  "Madeiros' confession read in court today," Boston Globe, Sept. 14, 1926, p. 1.
•  "Morelli denies he did So. Braintree shooting," Boston Globe, Sept. 15, 1926, p. 32.
•  "Says make of murder car has significance," Boston Daily Globe, Sept. 16, 1926, p. 1.
•  "Concludes argument against new Sacco trial," Boston Daily Globe, Sept. 17, 1926, p. 16.
•  "Sacco, Vanzetti denied new trial," Boston Globe, Oct. 24, 1926, p. B1.
•  "New trial denied to Sacco, Vanzetti; appeal to be made," New York Times, Oct. 24, 1926, p. 1.
•  Frankfurter, Felix, "The portentous case of Sacco and Vanzetti," St. Louis MO Post-Dispatch (originally published in Atlantic Monthly), April 13, 1927, p. 23.
•  "Report of Governor's Advisory Committee in Sacco-Vanzetti Case," North Adams MA Transcript, Aug. 8, 1927, p. 16.
•  "Morelli gang under arrest," Boston Globe, April 25, 1928, p. 11.
•  "Joseph Morelli takes poor debtor's oath," Boston Daily Globe, Sept. 26, 1928, p. 12.
•  "War on gang in Providence," Boston Globe, Dec. 10, 1931, p. 12.
•  Keegan, William J., and Jay Nelson Tuck, "Scottoriggio perjury indictments awaited as one jury ends probe," New York Post, Nov. 6, 1947, p. 5.
•  "Nationally backed three-city gambling ring thrives in New England," Detroit Free Press (originally published in Providence Journal-Bulletin), May 4, 1950, p. 4.
•  "Phones removed after 'booking' charged by paper," Berkshire (Pittsfield MA) Eagle, May 4, 1950, p. 2.
•  "Sacco case figure dies," New York Times, Aug. 28, 1950, p. 11.
•  Murphy, Jeremiah V., "Underworld chief? 'Prove it,' he says," Boston Globe, Feb. 26, 1967, p. 13.
•  "Patriarca is released in $25,000 bail; arrested for first time in 20 years," Nashua NH Telegraph, June 22, 1967, p. 20.
•  Krupa, Gregg, "Patriarca," Providence Journal, Sept. 6, 1987, p. Mag-6.

Alo, Vincent (1904-2001)

Born New York City, May 26, 1904.
Died Florida, March 9, 2001.

Vincent Alo

Vincent "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo was a key figure in the post-Prohibition Genovese Crime Family and a liaison between the Sicilian-Italian Mafia and the organization of Meyer Lansky. His career was the inspiration for a number of fictional underworld characters, most notably "Johnny Ola" of The Godfather Part II movie.

Alo was born in 1904 in East Harlem to Salvatore and Giulia (or Julia) Scalzo Alo, immigrants from Cosenza, Italy. Salvatore worked as a tailor in a clothing factory. Vincent Alo had an older sister, Elizabeth, and two younger brothers, Frank and Joseph. (Two other sisters show up in census records for 1905 and 1910, but they are missing from later censuses, suggesting they did not live long into childhood.) In the early 1910s, the Alo family moved to Hoffman Street near Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.

Alo left school and went to work as a clerk for a Wall Street company after just a single year of high school. Reportedly frustrated by the clerical work, in the early 1920s Alo began participating in robberies.

In October of 1923, he was caught by police following a jewelry store robbery. He was charged with second degree robbery and possession of a firearm. A conviction the following month resulted in a sentence of five to twelve years in prison. Inside Great Meadow State Prison in Washington County, New York, Alo did further work as a clerk.

Following his release, "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo became connected with Mafiosi engaged in rackets in the Bronx. This apparently provided him a measure of protection from prosecution. Alo was arrested in March 1932, once again for robbery and firearm possession, but managed to be discharged the following day. During the 1930s, he and his underworld colleagues were affiliated with the organization run by Charlie Luciano. Alo was believed to be among the leaders of a policy (lottery) ring operating in Bronx and Westchester Counties of New York in the mid-1930s.

In this period, Alo and his associates established gambling operations in eastern Florida. The FBI noted that Alo was one of the partners in the Plantation Casino in Broward County, Florida, in 1936. Other partners included Julian "Potatoes" Kaufman, Giuseppe "Joe Adonis" Doto and Jake Lansky, brother of Meyer Lansky. Alo rented a home on Dewey Street in Hollywood, Florida, which became his winter racket headquarters.

Meyer Lansky

Alo took a bride in August 1936. His wife, Florence Rose Gelinas Miller, was previously married and was the mother of two sons. Alo, his new wife and two stepsons, lived together on Holland Avenue in the Bronx and Dewey Street in Hollywood, Florida. While in Florida, Alo developed a love of the sport of golf.

The FBI learned that Alo became a partner in The Farm casino in Broward County by late 1939 and that in that winter he hosted a gathering at his Florida home attended by organizers from the International Longshoremen's Association in New York.

In the next decade, the FBI was told that "Jimmy Blue Eyes" had become a top Harlem lieutenant in the crime family then commanded by Frank Costello. Alo's home addresses changed. In New York, he moved into an apartment building at 315 Riverside Drive on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. In Florida, he moved to 1228 Monroe Avenue near Hollywood Lakes and Hollywood Beach.

His Florida business interests expanded to include a partnership with Meyer and Jake Lansky in the Club Greenacres casino in Hollywood; a seven-and-a-half percent interest in the Colonial Inn casino in Hollywood; and a share of the Ha-Ha Club in Hallandale. Alo was believed to be a stand-in for Joe Adonis in Florida. The Colonial Inn was a substantial underworld endeavor, involving Meyer and Jake Lansky, Frank Costello friend Frank Erickson, Joe Adonis and Richard Melvin. Alo was also alleged to be a partner with Frank Erickson in a horse race bookmaking racket operated out of the Hollywood Beach Hotel. Alo was one of a number of underworld figures who frequently visited the Wofford Hotel in Miami Beach. Other regular guests were Adonis, Costello, the Lanskys, Clevelanders George "King" Angersola and Alfred "Big Al" Polizzi, New Jersey racketeers Abner "Longie" Zwillman and Guarino "Willie Moore" Moretti, Youngstown Ohio gambling boss Joseph DiCarlo, and Detroit gambler William "Lefty Clark" Bischoff.

The FBI was told that the Ha-Ha Club in Hallandale was "a night club which catered to sex perverts." Later in the 1940s, perhaps after Alo ended his financial relationship with it, the club was targeted by local law enforcement. County officials shut the business down in 1947, stating that "its cast is composed of men who impersonate women and that its performances are conducted in a suggestive, indecent and obscene manner." The ownership of the Ha-Ha Club at that time was said to be Federal Amusement Company and Charles "Babe" Baker. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the closing of the club for conducting "lewd, indecent or nasty" performances and noted "the lawful evidence presents a dirty picture."

In the post-World War II years, Alo worked alongside Meyer Lansky in setting up gambling operations in Havana, Cuba. Alo was noted in immigration records returning with his wife from a brief trip to Cuba in April of 1946.

Alo was arrested for vagrancy by New York Police in August 1947. The vagrancy charge was baseless but it allowed the police to question Alo about his underworld relationships and about the Jan. 8 murder of waterfront labor leader Anthony Hintz. Alo admitted knowing Frank Costello, Joe Adonis and Meyer Lansky. When presented with a list of names of suspects in the Hintz murder, Alo admitted not only knowing them but also seeing them in Florida shortly before the murder was committed. He claimed not to have any awareness of the murder plot, telling investigators, "If they wanted to kill someone, that's their business."

Federal agents determined that Alo was part of an "Eastern Criminal Syndicate," including Costello, Erickson, Adonis and the Lanskys, that in 1949 operated the plush Hallandale Beach casino known as Club Boheme. The same group was said to have run the Club Greenacres and the recently closed Colonial Inn. In May of 1950, records seized from the New York City offices of Frank Erickson defined his business relationships with alleged Syndicate members, as well as Mert Wertheimer and others in Broward County, Florida.

The discovery was made just in advance of hearings before the U.S. Senate's Kefauver Committee. In July, Daniel P. Sullivan, operating director of the Crime Commission of Greater Miami, testified before the Kefauver panel. He detailed the underworld gambling operations in Broward, Palm Beach and Dade Counties. According to Sullivan, the Colonial Inn gambling partnership included the Lanskys, Alo, Adonis, Erickson, Bert Briggs, Claude Litteral and Samuel L. Bratt. Originally, the group included Detroit gamblers led by Mert Wertheimer, Reubin Mathews and Danny Sullivan, but the Detroit interest was bought out by New Yorkers after 1946.

Following Kefauver hearings into Florida gambling rackets, Florida Governor Fuller Warren became involved in the fight against the rackets. Warren removed a local sheriff for accepting bribes and ordered an investigation of law enforcement corruption at Daytona Beach. Grand juries were formed to investigate the Florida rackets. These issued indictments against Alo, the Lanskys, Bischoff, Litteral, Bratt, George Sadlow, Frank Shireman and others for their roles in the running of Colonial Inn, Club Greenacres and Club Boheme.

On Sept. 16, 1950, Alo and nine other accused gambling racketeers appeared in criminal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They all entered guilty pleas to the gambling charges. They were sentenced to pay cash fines. Alo, Bischoff, Louis Oliver and T.E. Alexander were fined $1,000 each. Jake and Meyer Lansky, Bratt and Sadlow were fined $2,000 each. Litteral and Shireman were fined $3,000 each.

New York Police began a harassment campaign against known hoodlums in 1957. Alo was rounded up with more than 150 other reputed racketeers. Most were charged with vagrancy. Alo was held for questioning for several days. It probably was not a coincidence that Alo afterward began spending much more of his time in Florida. He gave up his Riverside Drive apartment, but maintained a presence in Manhattan by renting rooms at 19 West 55th Street.

FBI reports in 1958 suggested that Jake Lansky represented the financial interests of "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo and Meyer Lansky in the operation of the gambling casino at the Hotel Nacional in Havana, Cuba.  Those interests, along with other investments by American racketeers in Cuban gambling enterprises, were lost following the Castro  revolution. The hotel-casinos of the Havana area were nationalized by Castro in 1960.

A police raid in September 1963 turned up records of a Bronx loan shark racket apparently financed by Vincent Alo. Bronx District Attorney Isidore Dollinger brought evidence to a grand jury that Alo, a top lieutenant of crime boss Vito Genovese, backed the enterprise. According to Dollinger, the racketeers lent an estimated $4 million a year, preying on indebted gamblers and charging interest rates as high as 156 percent. Alo's brother Frank, a Bronx resident, was called to testify before the grand jury. Frank Alo refused to make any statement, citing Fifth Amendment protections.

Sixty-one-year-old Vincent Alo was himself called before a federal grand jury in December of 1965. Officials identified Alo as a top figure in Harlem and Bronx gambling rackets and said he also had influence in waterfront and garment center rackets.

A year later, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles, California, investigated a fall 1965 gathering of mobsters in southern California. The meeting coincided with the Major League Baseball World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Minnesota Twins. Attendees included Vincent Alo and Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno of the Genovese Crime Family, Miami Beach bookmaker Ruby Lazarus, and Jerome Zarowitz and Elliott Paul Price, gambling operators for Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Alo was believed to be part of another meeting of racketeers in 1969. That meeting reportedly occurred in Miami Beach, Florida. The meeting was said to have included Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo, Paul "the Waiter" Ricca, John "Jackie the Lackey" Cerone and Dominic "the Angel" Angelini of Chicago; Carlo Gambino, Meyer Lansky, Vincent Alo and Anthony "Tony Goebels" Ricci of New York. Officials surmised that fourteen Kansas City mobsters, arrested as they arrived in Miami a month earlier, were also to be part of the meeting. There was some speculation that Chicago racketeer Sam "Momo" Giancana, in self-imposed exile after serving a year in prison for contempt, was also to be present.

Though Alo was constantly under law enforcement scrutiny, he had avoided prison time since the jewelry store robbery sentence of his youth. The authorities began to catch up with Alo as he moved toward retirement. In October 1969, a federal grand jury in New York indicted "Jimmy Blue Eyes" for obstructing justice by giving false and evasive answers in a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. SEC previously questioned him about Mafia influence in the Tel-A-Sign advertising company.

'Johnny Ola'

Alo was convicted in September 1970 of two counts of giving false and evasive answers to the SEC. On Oct. 27, the sixty-six-year-old was sentenced to serve five years in Atlanta Federal Prison. He served three years of that sentence before being released. A year after he got out of federal prison, The Godfather Part II appeared in theaters. The character of "Johnny Ola" (played by Dominic Chianese), Italian aide to Havana's Jewish gambling czar Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg), paralleled Alo's earlier career.

"Jimmy Blue Eyes" was in his seventies when he next came to the attention of law enforcement. He was described in 1978 as a capodecina under Frank "Funzi" Tieri in the Genovese Crime Family. The Pennsylvania Crime Commission noted Alo's connection with Miami Beach attorney Alvin I. Malnik, who happened to own two resort hotels in the Pocono Mountains and who also happened to be a close friend of Meyer Lansky. According to the crime commission, Malnik once sent Alo to represent him in business negotiations. The commission stated that the Pocono resorts were home to money laundering, gambling, prostitution and other rackets.

Alo's old friend Meyer Lansky died at Miami Beach, Florida, early in 1983. Alo's wife Florence died in Las Vegas in April 1990. "Jimmy Blue Eyes" lived quietly another eleven years, dying in Florida in March 2001.

Sources:

•  Arrest record of Vincent Alo, New York City Police Department, Feb. 24, 1951.
•  Daniel P. Sullivan testimony, Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce - Part 1, Florida, Hearings Before a Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce, United States Senate, 81st Congress, 2nd Session, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950, p. 152-174.
•  Federal Amusement Company, a Florida corporation, and Charles (Babe) Baker, v. State of Florida, upon the relation of Frank Tuppen, appeal from the Circuit Court for Broward County, Supreme Court of Florida Division A, Oct. 3, 1947.
•  Nevada Death index, April 8, 1990.
•  New York City Birth Index, Certificate no. 23392, May 26, 1904.
•  New York City Marriage Index, certificate no. 1907, June 6, 1902.
•  New York City Marriage Index, Certificate no. 24281, Aug. 26, 1936.
•  New York State Census of 1905, County of New York, Assembly District 33, Election District 10.
•  New York State Census of 1915, Bronx County, Assembly District 34, Election District 68, Block 4.
•  New York State Census of 1925, Washington County, Town of Fort Ann, Assembly District 1, Election District 1.
•  Passenger manifest of S.S. Britannia, arrived New York City on June 25, 1894.
•  Passenger manifest of S.S Monarch, departed Hamilton, Bermuda, on Aug. 9, 1939, arrived Miami, Florida, on Aug. 11, 1939.
•  SAC Miami, "Criminal Intelligence Program," FBI memorandum, MM 92-515, Sept. 5, 1963, p. 1
•  Salvatore Alo Declaration of Intention, Supreme Court of New York at Bronx, No. 106279, April 21, 1931.
•  Social Security Death Index.
•  U.S. Census of 1910, New York State, New York County, Ward 12, Enumeration District 295.
•  U.S. Census of 1920, New York State, Bronx County, Assembly District 7, Enumeration District 395.
•  U.S. Census of 1930, State of New York, Nassau County, Hempstead Town, Seaford Village, Enumeration District 30-132.
•  U.S. Census of 1940, State of Florida, Broward County, Hollywood City, Enumeration District 6-41.
•  Vincent Alo fingerprint record, Federal Bureau of Investigation, May 28, 1971.
•  "Vincent Alo," FBI memo, March 28, 1952, p. 1- 6.

•  Carr, Charlie, New York Police Files on the Mafia, Hosehead Productions, 2012, p. 388.
•  Janson, Donald, "Crime figures found involved in Poconos," New York Times, April 17, 1978, p. 1.
•  Lansky, Meyer II, "The Real Johnny Ola: Vincent 'Jimmy Blue Eyes' Alo," The Blog, huffingtonpost.com, Dec. 15, 2014, updated Feb. 13, 2015, accessed March 1, 2016.
•  Whitney, Craig R., "Realty man denies he knew of employe's alleged link to Mafia," New York Times, Jan. 24, 1970, p. 14.
•  "3 balk at inquiry on loan-shark case," New York Times, Oct. 24, 1963, p. 18.
•  "Alo, reputed Mafia figure, faces jail in S.E.C. case," New York Times, Sept. 29, 1970, p. 48.
•  "Fem impersonators irk Florida court," The Billboard, Oct. 18, 1947, p. 38.
•  "Florida crime drive is suddenly speeded," New York Times, Aug. 25, 1950, p. 40.
•  "Miami Beach secret Mafia meet probed," Cumberland MD Evening Times, April 8, 1969, p. 1.
•  "Police jail 155 hoodlums in New York," Troy NY Times, June 15, 1957, p. 8.
•  "Reputed Mafia man indicted after an S.E.C. investigation," New York Times, Oct. 28, 1969, p. 16.
•  "Senate group hearings on crime open here tomorrow," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 11, 1951, p. 2.
•  "U.S. jury on coast said to investigate gamblers' meeting," New York Times, Dec. 18, 1966, p. 71.
•  "U.S. jury hears Mafia figure," New York Times, Dec. 4, 1965, p. 28.
•  "Vincent 'Jimmy Blue Eyes' Alo," Find A Grave, findagrave.com, accessed March 2, 2015.

Lansky, Meyer (1902-1983)

Born Grodno, Russia, July 4, 1902.

Died Miami, FL, Jan. 15, 1983.

Lansky was a long-time friend and "business" associate of Charlie Luciano, Benjamin Siegel, Frank Costello and other big-name Prohibition Era gangsters.

He was born Maier Suchowljansky in Grodno, Russia. Various dates of birth range from 1898 to 1902. Social Security death records and FBI files contain a birthdate of July 4, 1902. Some believe that his birthdate was erroneously recorded upon his entry into the U.S. and was actually Aug. 28, 1900. Lansky appears to have used the 1902 date in official papers.

The Jewish community in his native Grodno surrounded by and often assaulted by non-Jewish residents of the area. Lansky's earliest memories reportedly were of Jewish versus Gentile warfare. Lansky, his mother and his younger brother Jacob "Jake" sailed to America in 1911. They arrived in New York harbor on April 4, and were met by Lansky's father Max, who had traveled to the U.S. years earlier and was living on Lewis Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in sight of the Williamsburg Bridge. They subsequently moved a very short distance to an apartment building near the corner of Columbia and Grand Streets.

In that neighborhood, populated by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, Lansky met and befriended Benjamin Siegel (known as "Bugsy"). A friendship also developed with young Salvatore Lucania - later known as Charlie Luciano - who lived nearby. Luciano, Lansky and Siegel cooperated on some minor criminal enterprises, possibly working for Arnold Rothstein on occasion, and in scuffles with the nearby Irish-dominated gangs. They joined in racketeering ventures - likely including bootlegging, narcotics smuggling and labor racketeering - with Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, and possibly had business relationships with Dutch Schultz.

On Oct. 23, 1918, a teenage Lansky was arrested for felonious assault. He was later discharged. During Prohibition, Lansky, Siegel and Luciano engaged in rum-running. Lansky and Siegel regularly served as guards for illegal liquor shipments sent from New York to Chicago by Dutch Goldberg, Charlie Kramer and Bill Heisman. The two men also may have worked at hijacking competitors' liquor shipments. In the late 1920s, Lansky was suspected of involvement in the murder of Kiddy Kolbrenner, he was arrested for felonious assault, for violation of penal law and for homicide. Each time, he was discharged.

Luciano was absorbed into the New York Mafia organization of "Joe the Boss" Masseria, and Lansky and Siegel served informally as his advisors and enforcers.

In the early 1930s, Lansky became a trusted financial adviser to the Mafia's ruling Commission. His presence in Chicago in the spring of 1932 was documented by his April 19 arrest. He began setting up gambling facilities in Miami and Cuba and stayed regularly at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana. He also initially supported Siegel's vision of a gambling and entertainment Mecca in Las Vegas. Lansky reportedly held a secret financial interest in the Flamingo for many years.

In 1939, Lansky reportedly attended a top-level meeting of racketeers which considered how best to handle the law enforcement pursuit of fugitive Lepke Buchalter. Buchalter was wanted on narcotics charges and other racketeering offenses. Prosecutors in Brooklyn also were investigating Buchalter's connections to a series of murders. At the meeting, Lansky, Doc Rosen, Longie Zwillman and others decided that Buchalter must leave the country. Buchalter remained and eventually turned himself over to the authorities.

Lansky is generally credited with serving as an early 1940s go-between for the jailed Luciano and officials with U.S. Naval Intelligence. Lansky was among the noteworthy underworld visitors to Luciano at Great meadows Prison in Comstock, NY.

After World War II, Lansky and his brother Jake ran a gambling house near Miami known as the Colonial Inn. They took part in gambling operations in Saratoga and Hollywood. Lansky is believed to have collaborated with Frank Costello and Phil Kastel in the opening of the Beverly Club just outside of New Orleans in 1946.

In 1948, as Florida began to crack down on illegal gambling, Lansky sold off Colonial Inn. Pressure by the U.S. government against organized crime increased in the late 1940s, and Lansky was called before the Kefauver Committee Oct. 11, 1950. By that time, he was invested in a number of legitimate enterprises, including alcohol distributorships, food companies and coin-operated machines.

Lansky's major gambling investment, the Riviera Hotel in Havana, was lost with a change in Cuban leadership. Tourists had been discouraged from traveling to Cuba during the revolution of Fidel Castro's force. When Castro took over the government and embraced Communism, tourism shut down completely. The hotel, which by some estimated cost $14 million to build, had not be open long enough to recover more than a third of the initial investment.

Lansky's health, already an issue while developing his casino in Cuba, suffered further upon the casino's shutdown. He dealt with ulcers and chest pains and was hospitalized after a heart attack.

U.S. federal law enforcement agencies hounded Lansky for much of the rest of his life. In the early 1970s, he attempted to retire to Israel. Under pressure from the U.S., which wanted Lansky back home to face charges of skimming from the Flamingo, the Israeli government refused his request for permanent citizenship in 1971. Late in 1972, the Israeli Supreme Court backed the decision and Lansky was forced to attempt to find refuge elsewhere.

An airplane exodus took him first to Switzerland, then to Rio, then to Buenos Aires and on to Paraguay, where he hoped to set up a quiet life for himself. But U.S. authorities headed him off, and Paraguayan officials refused to let Lansky off the plane. The aircraft continued on with stops in La Paz, Lima and Panama before returning Lansky to Miami and the waiting American officials.

Lansky avoided conviction but three other attempts to go to Israel were blocked. He died in Miami on Jan. 15, 1983.

Coppola, Michael (1900-1966)

Born Fisciano, Salerno, Italy, July 29, 1900.
Died Oct. 1, 1966.

"Trigger Mike" Coppola became a major figure in the New York Mafia upon the death of Joe Masseria in April of 1931. A highly regarded gunman to that point, Coppola was given control of many of the Bronx and East Harlem rackets formerly controlled by Ciro Terranova, who slipped into retirement.

Coppola entered the U.S. as a child. In 1918, he became a citizen upon his father's naturalization.[1]

As a young man in East Harlem, Coppola involved himself in hold-ups. In 1922, he reportedly was convicted of grand larceny and served a prison sentence at Sing Sing. Upon his release from prison in March 1925, he involved himself in gambling and bootlegging.[2] The gangster allies of his youth included Tommy Lucchese, Joseph Stracci and Joseph Rao. Coppola appears to have become a significant member of Charlie Luciano's inner circle, based in downtown Manhattan, later in the decade.[3]

Coppola is believed to have been involved in some way in the armed robbery of Magistrate Vitale's Bronx banquet in 1929 - a banquet attended by Terranova and a number of his underworld and political allies. That robbery and the subsequent recovery of all items taken exposed city government connections with the mob. Following the robbery, attendee John "Zacci" Savino was found to be in possession of a letter referring to Vitale and the holdup. The letter was signed "M.C."[4]

In spring 1930, Coppola was noted traveling from Cuba to Florida in the company of Luciano ally Meyer Lansky.[5] Authorities suspected Coppola in the late 1930s of involvement in the smuggling of narcotics into the United States.[6]

New York Police believed he had a role in setting up the November 1946 beating death of Republican political organizer Joseph Scottoriggio in East Harlem. Scottoriggio had been actively supporting Frederick Bryan against underworld-favored Congressman Vito Marcantonio. Coppola's old friend Joey Rao and later Coppola himself were taken into custody as a material witness following the killing. Early in 1947, authorities sought Coppola's wife Doris and her father David L. Lehmann, believing they knew something about the Scottoriggio killing. By summer, Doris was located and brought before a grand jury.[7] Early the next year, Doris, then twenty-seven, died during childbirth at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York.[8] Some insist that Michael Coppola arranged her death in order to eliminate a witness to the Scottoriggio slaying.

Coppola's rackets included a monopoly on coin-operating vending and gaming machines. He was also involved in numbers gambling, sports bookmaking, loansharking, labor racketeering and perhaps narcotics. His territory included areas in Brooklyn, Bronx, and Manhattan, as well as Miami Beach, Florida. Miami Beach became his home around 1950.[9] Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno oversaw some operations for Coppola.[10]

An odd gangland connection was uncovered in February 1955. Authorities investigating Buffalo Mafioso Joseph DiCarlo learned that DiCarlo had recently hosted a wedding reception for his daughter said to have cost $35,000. DiCarlo had avoided paying a Prohibition Era government fine by pleading poverty, and investigators believed the wedding proved DiCarlo was lying. It was discovered, however, that the bills for the lavish wedding reception had been sent not to DiCarlo but to Michael Coppola.[11]

In the early 1960s, Coppola was indicted for evading income taxes during the years 1956-59. According to prosecutors, he owed a total of $385,494 in addition to penalties of up to $40,000. While there were no financial records of Coppola's dealings, the IRS calculated his taxes by approximating his net worth. In 1962, Coppola was sentenced to a year in prison, four years' probation and a $40,000 fine. He served nine months of his prison term and was released in late November.[12] By 1964, the government claimed that Coppola's tax debt had risen to almost a million dollars. A settlement of $400,000 was reached in May of 1964.

In 1963, informant Joseph Valachi identified Coppola as a leading figure in the U.S. Mafia.

Notes

1.  Coppola's date of birth is not entirely certain. Doerner, Fred W. Jr., "Crime conditions in the Miami Division," FBI report, file no. , NARA record no. 124-10208-10000, Nov. 15, 1963, p. 55; Walsh, Edward T. Jr., "Paul Joseph Correale," FBI report, file no. 92-4264-9, NARA record no. 124-90066-10151, Sept. 26, 1960, p. 13.
2.  FBI interview with Coppola, Jan. 14, 1939.
3.  Doerner, Fred W. Jr., p. 55; FBI interview with Coppola, Jan. 14, 1939.
4.  "Vitale guests granted writ; hit '3d degree,'" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 31, 1929, p. 1.
5.  Passenger manifest of S.S. Gov. Cobb, departed Havana, Cuba, on April 2, 1930, arrived Key West, Florida, April 2, 1930.
6.  Walsh, Edward T. Jr., p. 13.
7.  "Mrs. Coppola still gone," New York Times, Jan. 14, 1947, p. 27; "Beaten party aide visited by Dewey," New York Times, Nov. 7, 1946, p. 15; "Election captain dies of beating; Dewey and police pledge capture," New York Times, Nov. 12, 1946, p. 1; "Scottoriggio death still is unsolved," New York Times, Nov. 13, 1946, p. 1; "Mrs. Coppola held in election killing," New York Times, July 16, 1947, p. 1; Turkus, Burton B., and Sid Feder, Murder, Inc.: The Story of the Syndicate, reprint of 1951 edition, New York: Da Capo Press, 1992, p. 129.
8.  "Mrs. Coppola dies after baby is born," New York Times, March 19, 1948, p. 48; New York City Death Index, certificate no. 6862, March 18, 1948; "5,000 at Coppola rites," New York Times, March 23, 1948, p. 27.
9.  Doerner, Fred W. Jr., p. 55.
10.  Walsh, Edward T. Jr., p. 13, 15; SAC Miami, "Miami winter season 1958-1959," FBI memorandum to Director, File no. 62-75147-29-742, NARA record no. 124-90110-10015, p. 7.
11.  "Some of DiCarlo party bills reported going to 'Trigger,'" Buffalo Courier Express, Feb. 17, 1955.
12.  Doerner, Fred W. Jr., p. 55.

Carfano, Anthony (1897-1959)

Born c1897.

Killed Queens, NY, Sept. 25, 1959.

Anthony Carfano, also known as Li'l Augie Pisano, was a noteworthy associate of Giuseppe Masseria, Al Capone, Frank Costello, Charlie Luciano and Joe Adonis.

Carfano came to power in the Masseria organization of the late 1920s. A former prizefighter and a close friend of "Joe the Boss" Masseria, he became caretaker of Masseria's Brooklyn interests after the death of Frank Yale.

Upon the reorganization of the Mafia in 1931, Carfano established gambling interests in southern Florida, smoothing the ruffled feathers of the Tampa Mafia organization nearby. The extent of gambling operations was discovered in the 1950 investigation of the Kefauver Committee. In 1955, there was some evidence that Carfano was involved in siphoning union funds into underworld rackets, but charges were eventually dropped. Carfano was questioned and released following the 1957 assassination of Albert Anastasia in New York.

Carfano was murdered on Sept. 25, 1959. He and a female companion - former beauty queen Mrs. Janice Drake - were found dead in Carfano's black 1959 Cadillac. They apparently had been shot by gunmen hiding in the car's back seat. Carfano and Drake had been dining at Marino's restaurant on Manhattan's East Side when they were called away.