Daniello, Ralph (1878-1925)

Born Eboli, Italy, 1878.

Killed Metuchen, NJ, 1925?

Raffaele "Ralph the Barber" Daniello, whose real name appears to have been Alfonso Pepe (newspapers also referred to him as Giuseppe Pepe), was born in southern Italy. After marrying, he settled in Nocera Inferiore, just outside Naples, for a while before transplanting his young family across the Atlantic in New York.

In Brooklyn, Daniello became a member of a large Neapolitan Camorra organization. He participated in the feud between that gang and the Morello-Terranova Sicilian Mafia clan in New York. He performed several murders and conspired in others.

Facing murder charges, Danniello fled New York in 1917 and trusted in his Camorra associates to support him and his family. Camorra boss Pellegrino Morano was stingy, however. Daniello interpreted the lack of support as evidence that he had not long to live. Arrested in Reno, Nevada, the disheartened Daniello told his story to the police. That story included details of 23 gangland murders.

He and associate Tony Notaro testified against their former bosses as the Brooklyn Camorra leadership was tried and convicted in 1918. Camorra leader Allessandro Vollero was among those sent to prison. Daniello's own prison sentence was suspended because of his cooperation.

The following year, Daniello - then a resident of Elmhurst, NY - shot a man during a quarrel at the Coney Island elevated train station. Efforts to convince the victim to forget the incident were unsuccessful, though they reportedly included the burning of the man's New Jersey home and the poisoning of his dog. Daniello pleaded guilty to the shooting in January 1920.

Some sources indicate that in 1925, after his release from prison, Daniello was shot to death on a highway near Metuchen, New Jersey.

D'Andrea, Philip (1889-1952)

Born NY, Sept. 7, 1889

Died California, Sept. 18, 1952.

Phil D'Andrea served as a bodyguard and trusted adviser to Chicago mob boss Al Capone. During Capone's tax evasion trial in 1931, D'Andrea sat directly behind the prominent defendant by special permission of the court.

D'Andrea later was found to be attending the court proceedings while armed with a handgun. He was arrested as he left the courtroom on Oct. 10. At that time, the press referred to D'Andrea as "Capone's constant companion."

After Capone's imprisonment for tax evasion, D'Andrea became the president of the declining Unione Siciliana organization in Chicago.

D'Andrea was sought for questioning in connection with the April 1941 murder of Italian-language newspaper editor John F. Arena. D'Andrea was known to be part owner of a competing newspaper.

In 1943, D'Andrea and other Outfit leaders Paul Ricca, Louis Campagna and Charles Gioe were convicted of using extortion to build an empire in the Hollywood entertainment industry. They were sentenced to ten years in prison but served just three. They all were paroled on Aug. 14, 1947. The paroles did not escape notice. Federal legislators demanded all documentation on the early releases. The matter was again investigated in November 1952, after D'Andrea's death.

D'Andrea was one of the many underworld figures called before the Kefauver Committee in 1950.

He retired from the Chicago underworld and moved west to California.

D'Andrea, Anthony (1872-1921)

Born Valledolmo, Sicily, June 7, 1872.

Killed Chicago, IL, May 12, 1921.

Upon his arrival in the U.S. in the 1890s, D'Andrea became an ordained priest. In 1899, he was appointed to serve the parish of St. Anthony in Chicago. Almost immediately, he left the priesthood to marry sixteen-year-old Lena Wagner.

He took work as a translator but supplemented his income by participating in a coin-counterfeiting racket. He and his wife were arrested for counterfeiting in 1902.

In an apparent effort to free his wife of the charge, D'Andrea pleaded guilty at arraignment. The U.S. Secret Service hoped that he would provide information against other members of the counterfeiting network apprehended in western New York, where some of D'Andrea's relatives resided, but D'Andrea said he could not identify them.

(Authorities initially suspected that the New York City "Barrel Murder" victim was D'Andrea, killed because he assisted the counterfeiting investigation. The victim was later identified as Benedetto Madonia of Buffalo.)

On April 24, 1903, D'Andrea was sentenced to a prison term of 13 months and a fine of one dollar. He reached the Illinois State Prison at Joliet on April 25, becoming Inmate no. 8292. He was discharged upon the expiration of his sentence (with good time allowance) on March 4, 1904. D'Andrea subsequently received a presidential pardon from Theodore Roosevelt, allowing him to participate in politics.

The 19th Ward on Chicago's West Side came to be dominated by D'Andrea, who also became an organizer of local Mafiosi and of union labor. Mike Merlo served as his understudy. Politics in that time and place was a violent business. Blood was spilled through bombings and assassinations.

D'Andrea brought together the various Sicilian Mafia organizations of the Chicago area under his own brutal leadership. He was widely regarded as a merciless disciplinarian.

D'Andrea was shot and mortally wounded as he returned home in the early morning hours of May 11, 1921. The gunman fired at him with a shotgun from an apartment window looking out on the front stairs of D'Andrea's building. During hospital treatment, D'Andrea refused to reveal who shot him. He succumbed to his wounds on the afternoon of May 12.

Following D'Andrea's death, Mike Merlo stepped up to the leadership of the Chicago-area Mafia.

Related Links:

•  Informer (Apr 2009): The Dreaded D'Andrea by Richard Warner.
•  Anthony D'Andrea Joliet Prison File, 1903-1904
•  Read about D'Andrea in DiCarlo: Buffalo's First Family of Crime.