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1910s in organized crime

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This is a list of organized crime in the 1910s, arranged chronologically.

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1910

Events

Births

Deaths

1911

Events

Births

Deaths

1912

Events

Arts and literature

Births

Deaths

1913

Events

Arts and literature

  • The Gangster (1913) starring Lionel Adams, Ferdinand Tidmarsh and Edna Luby is released.

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1914

Events

Births

Deaths

1915

Events

Arts and literature

Births

Deaths

1916

Events

Arts and literature

Births

Deaths

1917

Summarize
Perspective

Events

  • Former Five Points Gang members Nathan Kaplan and Johnny Spanish, are released from prison. They form a criminal gang together, made up mostly of ex-Five Pointers, to take the place of now imprisoned labor racketeers Benjamin "Dopey Benny" Fein and Joseph "Joe the Greaser" Rosenzweig.
  • February 14 - After saloonkeeper Vincent Butera is found murdered in his bar, police question Dominick Giambrone, boss of the St. Louis crime family, about the murder.[48]
  • June 7 - Fueled by the ongoing race riots in East St. Louis, a riot breaks out in the quarry of a prison workhouse between the white and black inmates. The violence escalates when Henry Griesser, a member of Egan's Rats, steals a gun from one of the guards, and begins firing at the black prisoners. The riot is finally quelled when local firemen train their firehose on the rioters. Ten black prisoners and two white prisoners are hospitalized as a result of the riot.[49]
  • September 21 - Giovanni "Johnny Spanish" Mistretta and one of his men are convicted in federal court of attempting to sell heroin to a soldier, and are sentenced to fifteen months in prison. (In the New York City papers of the time, Johnny Spanish is reported as having a real name of "Harry Weinberg," a possible alias.)[50]
  • November 5 - Rosario "Sam" Matranga, boss of the Matranga Mafia faction in Los Angeles, is shot at close range with a shotgun while sitting in his parked car in front of his home.[51]
  • November 30 - Based on the testimony of informant Ralph "the Barber" Daniello, the New York County grand jury issues seventeen indictments for murder against members of the local Camorra.[52]
  • December 18 - A little over a month after the murder of Los Angeles Mafioso and faction boss Sam Matranga, his cousin and successor, Pietro "Peter" Matranga, is also shot dead at the intersection of Eastlake Avenue and Henry Street.[53] Shortly afterwards, police begin searching for Mike Marino, who is suspected of killing both Matrangas as well as Tony Pariese in November 1916.[54]
  • December 23 - Having stopped three Italians on suspicion of carrying concealed weapons, Akron Patrolman Guy Norris begins searching one of the suspects when one of the man's companions pulls out a revolver and shoots the policeman in the chest point blank, damaging his spinal cord and causing instant paralysis. Although the gravely injured policeman is quickly taken to the hospital and manages to live through the day and into the night, he dies early in the morning on Christmas Eve.[55] (Unbeknownst to the authorities at the time, Patrolman Norris's murder is just the first in a personal vendetta against the Akron police by Black Hand gang leader Rosario Borgio in retaliation for their frequent harassment of him, and Borgio has even offered a cash bounty for every cop that is killed in this campaign of revenge.)

Al Capone

It was through the Five Points gang that Al Capone came to the attention of brutal New York mobster Frankie Yale. In 1917, 18-year-old Al Capone went to work for Yale at the Harvard Inn as a bartender and as a waiter and bouncer when needed. Capone watched and learned as Yale used violence to maintain control over his empire.

One day while working at the Harvard Inn, Capone saw a man and woman sitting at a table. After his initial advances were ignored, Capone went up to the good-looking woman and whispered in her ear, "Honey, you have a nice ass and I mean that as a compliment." The man with her was her brother, Frank Gallucio. Defending his sister's honor, Gallucio punched Capone. However, Capone didn't let it end there; he decided to fight back. Gallucio then took out a knife and slashed at Capone's face, managing to cut Capone's left cheek three times (one of which cut Capone from ear to mouth). The scars left from this attack led to Capone's nickname of "Scarface," a name he personally hated.[citation needed]

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Deaths

1918

Events

  • Frankie Yale takes leadership of the Unione Siciliane after founder Ignazio "the Wolf" Lupo is convicted of numerous charges ranging from extortion to murder.
  • Tong leader Mock Duck, upon his release from Sing Sing prison, retires from crime.
  • Jan. 10 - Just over two weeks following the murder of Akron Patrolman Guy Norris in December, two more patrolmen, Edward Costigan and Joseph Hunt, are ambushed and shot from behind with automatic revolvers while on their way home from work. Costigan is instantly killed, while Hunt dies in the hospital two nights later. Following the shooting, three "gangsters" - likely members of Rosario Borgio's gang - are observed fleeing from the scene.[56][57]
  • March 4 - Chicago Black Hand gang leader Sam Cardinelli fires a gun at Chicago Detective Charles Eitz, missing the policeman and hitting a young mother out with her baby in the knee. Although the woman drops her baby, the baby is not hurt, and Eitz is able to capture Cardinelli later the same day.[58] Charged with assault with intent to kill, Cardinelli is acquitted of the crime in September.[59]
  • March 12 - A fourth Akron policeman, Patrolman Gethin Richards, is fatally shot in a shootout with members of Rosario Borgio's gang, and dies in the hospital that afternoon. Unlike with the previous murders, however, several of the gang are quickly apprehended, and Borgio himself is arrested the following day at a hotel.[60][61]
  • April 1 - In a case similar to that of Herman Rosenthal, New York gambler Harry Cohen is shot dead in his apartment building shortly after he had contacted the assistant district attorney to arrange a meeting with him to provide information about other gamblers. Morris "Big Morris" Rothenberg, another gambler, is arrested as a suspect soon after,[62] but is acquitted at trial in October.[63]
  • May 17 - Black Hand gang leader Rosario Borgio is convicted of fist degree murder in the killing of Akron police officer Gethin Richards in March.[64] Eight days later, on May 25, Borgio is sentenced to death in the electric chair.[65]
  • June 6 – Ciro Terranova is charged with ordering the deaths of Charles Lombardi, Joe DiMarco and Michael Hayes. However, the case is later dropped.[66]
  • July 20 - In Swoyersville, Pennsylvania, mobster Ignatz Cosmano is shot dead on Oliver St. following an argument with another unidentified man, who escapes into the night after fatally shooting another man who attempts to pursue him. The following Monday, July 22, the local newspapers mistakenly identify Cosmano as Santo Volpe, the boss of the Mafia in Northwestern Pennsylvania.[67] The following day, the papers correct their mistake, explaining that the body of Cosmano, who was apparently a Volpe henchman, was found with Volpe's business card in his pocket.[68]

Births

Deaths

1919

Events

  • Al Capone leaves New York, after an altercation with a member of the White Hand Gang, going to Chicago, where he becomes a top lieutenant to Johnny Torrio.
  • Recently imprisoned criminal Joe Valachi encounters inmate and future mentor New York mobster Alessandro Vollero.
  • Salvatore Sabella becomes leader of the Philadelphia crime syndicate.
  • Frank Costello forms a novelty company which makes Kewpie dolls in punchboard games. By the following year Costello had made $80,000 ($1.5 million today), which he used to become a bootlegger at the start of Prohibition.
  • January 3 - Detroit Mafia boss Antonio "Tony" Giannola is shot dead as he walks from his car toward a house on Rivard Street.[69]
  • January 19 - During a police raid on a crap game on West Fifty-Seventh St. in New York City, gambler and crime boss Arnold Rothstein draws his revolver and fires through the doors, wounding two police detectives and piercing the coat of another. Rothstein, who had previously been the victim of armed robberies in the past, believed the police raiders were more robbers attempting to holdup his latest high-stakes game.[70] In late July, the charges against Rothstein are dropped.[71]
  • February 14 - During a raid on a gambling den on Eleventh St., Buffalo police arrest fourteen men, including the owner, Benedetto Angelo "Buffalo Bill" Palmeri, underboss of the Buffalo crime family. The following day, Palmeri and another man are fined for having unlicensed revolvers.[72]
  • February 21 - Cleveland Black Hand leader Rosario Borgio and Frank Mazzanno are executed in the electric chair for the murder of Akron police officer Gethin Richards in March 1918.[73]
  • February 27 - Around midnight, Frank Costello and a friend are arrested in Buffalo for carrying concealed weapons.[74] In March, both men are convicted and sent to prison.[75]
  • April 20 - Thomas Egan, founder of Egan's Rats as well as a Democratic ward politician, dies of Bright's Disease at the age of 44 at his home in St. Louis.[76]
  • May 19 - Around midnight at the Arrowhead Inn, a saloon in the village of Burnham near Chicago, Vincenzo "Big Jim" Colosimo, the owner of the saloon, confronts Chicago Tribune reporter Morrow Krum and physically assaults him with the help of another unidentified man. The reporter had been overheard on the telephone reporting back to his employer about the Arrowhead Inn and other local saloons.[77] Later that day, Colosimo is arrested in Chicago for assault and battery, but quickly bonds out.[78]
  • July 26 - While he is playing poker at the Marginal Club on Eighth Avenue, Thomas "Tanner" Smith, former leader of the Marginals gang, is shot from behind and killed.[79][80] Later witnesses identify rival gangsters Robert "Rubber" Shaw, George "Chick" Lewis, and a third man as Smith's killers.[81]
  • July 29 – New York labor slugger Johnny Spanish is killed by three unidentified gunman possibly including rival gangster Nathan Kaplan.[82]
  • July 31 - Hudson Dusters leader Robert "Rubber" Shaw is killed and George "Chick" Lewis is wounded in a shooting in Hoboken, New Jersey, likely in retaliation for the murder of Tanner Smith on the 26th.[83]
  • August 5 - Two days after the end of the Chicago race riot, ten members of the Ragen's Colts gang are arrested after threatening to steal the weapons of militiamen protecting the black neighborhoods and use them to reignite the racial violence there. The suspects are soon released, however.[84]
  • September 1 - Claiming self-defense, gambler Marty Guilfoyle shoots and kills Chicago gangster and labor racketeer Peter Gentleman at a cigar store that Guilfoyle owns, apparently in a dispute over gambling interests.[85]
  • September 9 - Following a car chase, Chicago detectives capture a gang of six suspected safe burglars, including Earl "Hymie" Weiss (identified in the paper as "Harold Werss"). The detectives also find burglar's tools and half a bottle of nitro glycerin in the thieves' automobile.[86]
  • October 1 - The first game of the 1919 World Series takes place in Cincinnati between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds, with the heavily favored White Sox losing to the Reds 9 to 1.[87] The Reds would go on to win the Series, 5 games to 3, largely as a result of a conspiracy between eight members of the White Sox and a syndicate of professional gamblers, alleged to have been planned by New York City gambler and gang leader Arnold Rothstein in what would come to be known as the Black Sox Scandal.[88]
  • October 2 - Salvatore "Sam" Giannola, the boss of the Detroit Mafia ever since the murder of his cousin, Tony Giannola, back in January, is shot multiple times as he is leaving a bank at the intersection of Russell St. and Monroe Ave. He is able to walk back inside before collapsing and dying.[89]

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References

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