Vito Genovese: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
|||
| Line 4: | Line 4: | ||
|image_caption= |
|image_caption= |
||
|date_of_birth=[[November 27]], [[1897]] |
|date_of_birth=[[November 27]], [[1897]] |
||
|place_of_birth=[[ |
|place_of_birth=[[Rosiglino]], [[Naples]], [[Italy]] |
||
|date_of_death=[[February 14]], [[1969]] |
|date_of_death=[[February 14]], [[1969]] |
||
|place_of_death=[[New York]], [[USA]] |
|place_of_death=[[New York]], [[USA]] |
||
Revision as of 03:15, 28 October 2006
Vito Genovese |
|---|
Vito Genovese (November 27, 1897 – February 14, 1969) was a mafioso who rose to power in America during the Castellammarese War to later become leader of the Genovese crime family.
The beginning
Genovese started his Mafia career serving Joe Masseria and worked with people like Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, and Frank Costello a less known and smaller associate was Dominic Trotta, operating out of italian harlem
In April 1931, Luciano orchestrated the assassination of Joe Masseria. Vito Genovese was one of the four shooters involved in the hit on his former employer. Later that year, Luciano also arranged a hit on Maranzano, and established himself as the paramount gangster in the United States.
Rise to Power
After World War II, Genovese began a murder spree to gain new status in the underworld, taking advantage of Luciano being in exile in Italy. Facing a murder charge (of Ferdinand "The Shadow" Boccia) in 1937, Genovese was forced to flee to Italy as well.
When he later returned to the States, all the witnesses to his murder spree had disappeared. He remained a free man, and attended the infamous Havana Conference in 1946.
(Correction- Genovese fled to Italy in 1937 to escape prosecution for the 1934 murder of Boccia. He spent World War II first ingratiating himself with the Fascist power structure, and then, after the Allied conquest of Sicily, ingratiating himself with the American occupation forces (officially he was a translator) while simultaneously becoming a major player in the regional black market. He was eventually identified and returned to the US in 1945. Before his arrival, however, the main witnesses against him were killed, and Genovese was subsequently aquitted of all charges.
Also- The alleged scrap with Luciano during the Havana Conference is a highly dubious story. It originates in "The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano" (Gosch & Hammer, 1974), a book that purports to be Mr. Lucianos "as told to" memoir, but which suffers from a dubious provenance and is not taken very seriously by most crime historians.)
(Correection to your correction- the witness "The Hawk" was very much so still alive when Genovese returned to the states. The problem was that the primary witness that was to confirm the Hawk's story, one Peter La Tempa, was allegedly poisoned while in prison on January 17th 1945. This led to the state delaying the trial while keeping Genovese in custody. The Hawk, one Ernest Rupolo, was actually released as was Genovese and surprisingly the Hawk went on to live a few more years before being rubbed out.)
Apalachin Meeting and downfall
Now Genovese had control of Luciano's family and sought to strengthen his hold. He reportedly co-ordinated the Apalachin Meeting where he expected to be named Boss of Bosses.
Unfortunately for him, the meeting (November 14, 1957) went horribly wrong. New York State Trooper Edgar Croswell had been watching the house in which the meeting was supposed to be held, because he was suspicious of the owner, Joseph Barbara.
When he checked the licence plates of the cars coming in and out, he found enough reason to set up a road block on the only road leading up to and down from the house on the hill. The attendees, who actually had nothing to worry about (because they were committing no crime), panicked and fled the house, thereby calling attention to themselves and making national headlines.
Genovese was blamed for the fiasco and before he could move to take advantage of the situation Lansky and Luciano set him up on a huge drug smuggling deal.
In 1959, Genovese was sent to prison, where he died in 1969.