Manhattan Mafia Guide Read Online Free PDF Page B

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    Frank Costello was able to keep much of his illegal interests and spent the rest of his life behind the scenes, acting as an adviser to the family until his death of a heart attack in 1972. He was eighty-two years old.
    The criminal legend was buried at Saint Michael’s Cemetery in Queens.
    D’A QUILA , S ALVATORE
91 Elizabeth Street, 1919
Alias: Toto
Born: 1878, Sicily
Died: October 10, 1928, New York City
Association: D’Aquila crime family boss
    Salvatore D’Aquila was a powerful transplanted Mafioso from Palermo who ruled the American Mafia at the dawn of Prohibition.
    With a record in the United States dating back to 1906, D’Aquila was a highly intelligent gangster who also seemingly happened to be in the right position at the right time. First, his outfit’s biggest early century rival, the Morello gang, suffered a huge setback when its leaders were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in 1909.
    Then, in 1916, Morello gang leader Nicolas Terranova was ambushed and killed by a Neapolitan gang out in Brooklyn. Not only did the Morellos lose another strong leader, but also Pellegrino Morano, the boss of the gang that did the shooting, was arrested and eventually deported back to Naples.

    91 Elizabeth Street today. Courtesy of Shirley Dluginski .

    Elizabeth Street, looking north from Hester Street, 1902. Library of Congress .
    With two major adversaries out of the way in one fell swoop, D’Aquila capitalized by absorbing as much Brooklyn territory as possible and expanding his operations in East Harlem and the Lower East Side—a location that would prove to be valuable in the ensuing bootlegging wars of the 1920s, giving D’Aquila a leg up on competition in this city.
    D’Aquila was arguably the most powerful member of the American Mafia by the beginning of Prohibition in 1920. His influence extended to several East Coast and midwestern cities, and he had a virtual monopoly on much of the Italian underworld alcohol trade in of this city; that is, until the remaining Morellos found a formidable new leader by the name of Giuseppe Masseria.
    On a crisp fall evening in 1928, the nearly three-decades-long career of Salvatore D’Aquila ended in a hail of bullets on an Avenue A street corner. Masseria replaced D’Aquila as head of the Italian underworld.
    D ELLACROCE , A NIELLO
232 Mulberry Street, 1914–1960s
Alias: Father O’Neil
Born: March 15, 1914, New York City
Died: December 2, 1985, New York City
Association: Gambino Crime Family Underboss
    With a criminal career spanning half a century, this longtime influential mob leader was a protégé of Albert Anastasia in the 1930s and a mentor to John Gotti in the 1970s.
    Born and raised in the heart of Little Italy (232 Mulberry Street was his lifelong home address), Dellacroce’s first arrest was at sixteen years of age for the robbery of a local man named Antonio Derosa. Within a few years, he found himself working for Mangano family underboss and Murder, Inc. gunman Albert Anastasia. Dellacroce headquartered out of the Ravenite Social Club, where he allegedly oversaw loan-sharking, extortion and other illegal activities for three decades between the 1950s and 1980s.

    232 Mulberry Street, the nearly lifelong home address of Aniello Dellacroce, today. Courtesy of Shirley Dluginski .
    Some insiders believe Dellacroce was a triggerman in the murder of an Anastasia (Gambino) family capo referred to as Johnny Roberts, who was loyal to underboss Carlo Gambino’s bid to dethrone Albert Anastasia in the 1950s. Despite his early support of Anastasia, Dellacroce somehow was able to make peace with Gambino by the time he took over the family in 1957 and was allowed to retain his position as capo. When Joseph Biondo died in June 1966, Dellacroce was elevated to underboss.
    Shortly after becoming underboss, on September 22, 1966, Dellacroce and a dozen fellow Mafia leaders gathered at the La Stella Restaurant in Forest Hills, Queens (at 102–11 Queens Boulevard), in