Gangland Stories

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1953 - The smiling Joe Adonis sits in the back of a car after leaving New Jersey state prison, handcuffed to deputy U.S. Marshal Al Acerra. Adonis, sentenced to a two-to-three-year term for his part in Bergen county's (New Jersey) lucrative gambling racket, is being released after serving twenty-six months. Adonis and Acerra are en route to Hackensack, N.J., for the last formality of his release when this picture was taken. However, Adonis faces two federal actions. One accuses him of perjury before a congressional committee and the other is an attempt by immigration officials to deport him to Italy.

Sometime in 1948, Carlo Gambino made a trip to Palermo, Sicily. This trip was a closely guarded secret, and the person he went to see was the exiled former kingpin of New York’s criminal underworld Charlie Lucky Luciano.
Gambino wanted to get in on the ground floor of the narcotic operation Charlie was building. The trip was short and successful, but it was Gambino’s last visit to his homeland. At this point in time, Gambino was underboss to Albert Anastasia, however, it’s believed Gambino went behind his back, which could have been disastrous if Anastasia found out.

From that moment on, Gambino sent his trusty right-hand man Joe Biondo, more commonly known as Joe Bandy, for further discussions on the newly formed business arrangement.
Bandy had been close friends with Charlie ever since their teenage years. Living together, along with Tommy Lucchese, in a rundown apartment on East 14th Street. The trio remained loyal to each other through all the turbulence of their lives.
On every trip Bandy made, he took a suitcase full of cash to pay Charlie his share of the profits, plus to purchase more supplies.

On one particular trip in 1951, American narcotics agents tailed Bandy all over Italy. Every move he made was observed and noted. First stop he was seen dining with Charlie Lucky in Naples, next he was seen having espresso in Palermo with Nicola Gentile, followed by Roman nightclubs with deported drug dealers Frank “Chick” Callace, Dominick “the Gap” Petrillo, and Giuseppe “Joe Peachy” Pici.

He returned to Naples again to see Charlie and then headed back to New York. Within a week of Bandy leaving, Frank Callace was arrested at Rome Airport carrying three kilograms of he**in hidden in his suitcase. This information came from stool pigeon Eugenio Giannini. One year later, Giannini was shot in the head by a solitary shotgun blast, killing him instantly, on 107th Street, East Harlem.
Bandy made a few more trips in the following years to see his old pal Charlie, although it’s not clear if these trip’s were related to business, or personal.

Rare Joe Biondo mugshot

Pic and info courtesy of Vincent Arpa

When Charlie Luciano and Lepke Buchalter joined forces in the Bakery Union racket, Charlie intended to force the independent bakeries to join the union. At that particular time, Charlie and Lepke were getting a penny per loaf sold. The unionized bakeries were selling 70,000 loaf’s a day.

That would equate to 140,000 loaves of bread per day. A penny per loaf sold would be $7,000 a day, or, $98,000 a week. Almost half the bakeries around New York were independent, and they competed strongly with the union shops, so the figures would roughly be the same.

The independent shops rejected every offer that came their way, and declared war against any strong arm forces. Charlie didn't want to waste time with negotiations, so, instead, he went straight for the jugular.
He dispatched groups of thugs to put the squeeze on them, their orders were to firebomb a few bakeries to make a statement.

He wanted to send a strong message, instructing his men to firebomb a handful of bakeries.
This was a clear warning, get in line or face the consequences. The majority didn’t need any convincing, caving under the aggressive tactics, and taking the offer immediately, while others flatly refused.
Within days, New York City nights echoed with explosions.

On one occasion, Charlie sent out Benny Lombardo and Frank Livorsi to firebomb a bakery in Little Italy. Livorsi drove slowly past the bakery, while Benny hung out the window and threw a firebomb through the shopfront window. The firebomb exploded just as it hit the window, and the force of the blast sent shattered glass hurtling across the street.

Unfortunately, being close to the impact zone, pieces of glass hit Benny on the left side of his face. A glass shard sliced through Benny’s left eye and sadly he lost his eye.
All the independent bakeries began to fall in line, and a calm silence fell on the New York streets.

Raphael 'Ralph' Liguori, was born in March 1906, in Trastevere Rome, and his family migrated to New York eleven months later in February 1907, settling in at 291 5th Avenue Brooklyn. Ralph started work legitimately working as a taxi driver, but at 20 years old, he found himself working for Frankie Yale. Delivering crates of whiskey in his taxi to some local speakeasies around Brooklyn.

When Anthony Carfano took control of Frankie Yale’s operation a year later, after the latter was killed, Liguori stepped up to include hijacking and enforcement to his criminal résumé.
During a bootlegging run to a warehouse in Manhattan with Joe Adonis riding shotgun, Ralph found himself talking to the rising powerhouse, the man they call the General, Charlie Lucky. He instantly fell for the charm of Charlie and joined up with his organization.

Almost immediately, Ralph impressed the top brass with his attitude and loyalty. So much so, VIto Genovese gave him the opportunity to step into the rackets, giving him the ice racket to organize in Rockaway. The catch, he was required to partner with Frankie Yale’s youngest brother Angelo. Making sure Angelo doesn’t mess things up. Vito was convinced Angelo was a 'f**kup’ and deserved to be along side his brother Frankie.

On one fateful evening, Ralph overheard Joe Adonis talking about Charlie’s plan to expand his numbers racket. Believing this was the perfect opportunity to make money and gain the trust of the General (Charlie Lucky), Ralph approached him with the idea.

Charlie gave him a numbers book to organize, a large bankroll, and a list of controllers and runners. It was up to Ralph to organize the bank and the policy shops. But Charlie warned him, the money needs to be repaid and not to sponge in someone else’s territory. These violations will be detrimental to his health.

With Charlie’s warning still ringing in his ears, Ralph hit the ground running, and flourished under the General’s guidance. Occasionally, Ralph would help out a friend with muscle when it was needed. Some time during 1934, Ralph helped Tommy the Bull Pennochio and Little Davie Betillo with some enforcement in a vice racket they controlled, which ended up with him doing a ten year stretch in Dannemora prison, along with the General, Charlie Lucky.

After his release, he was deported back to Italy just like his boss Charlie Lucky. Immediately teaming up with the General, and went back into the racket game, running numbers, black market ci******es and operating two legal nightclubs. Ralph managed to sneak back into New York after Charlie passed and lived until 1981, passing at the age of 75.

Pic…Ralph Liguori just prior to his death in 1981.

July 3, 1931, Cleveland Ohio.
Charlie Luciano, Tommy Lucchese and Joe Biondo were in town to watch the Heavyweight title fight between Max Schmelling vs Young Stribbling, at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium. With Schmelling winning by Technical Knockout, the New York trio still adrenalized by the evenings actions, decided to see what the city had to offer.

Gambling and women would have been a top priority before heading back to their hotel rooms. It was during this visit to Cleveland that most organized crime historians believe Tommy and Joe informed Charlie of Salvatore Maranzano’s plans to kill him and his top loyalists.

Both Tommy and Joe were extremely close with Charlie, and all three lived together as street punks. By this time Tommy was working with Tom Gagliano, Joe was working with Frank Scalise, and both gangs took the side of Salvatore Maranzano during the Castellammarese war, while Charlie worked with Joe Masseria. When Charlie had Masseria killed, he took control of his organization. Meanwhile, Maranzano wanted total control of the streets, but unfortunately for him, there was an obstacle in his way. Charlie.

Its not quite clear on the time, but during the early hours of the morning, July 4, the Cleveland police raided the hotel on a tip off and the trio were arrested for vagrancy, but later released with the charges dropped.

Two months later, Maranzano’s plans were thrown into chaos when on September 10, 4-6 men stormed his office posing as tax agents and killed him on the orders of the younger and smarter Charlie Luciano.

Pic-top left, Tommy Lucchese, bottom left, Joe Biondo, and right, Charlie Luciano.

This photo has Charlie Luciano sitting in the back of a police wagon. (Dark hat covering his face, 2nd from right). He and some of his co-defendants are being taken to Grand Central Station, New York, shortly after being sentenced to prison.

Once processed at City Prison (the Tombs), Charlie was placed on the train bound for Sing Sing Prison. Upon arrival, the prisoners and the heavy guard presence, had to run the massive media gauntlet into the front entrance.

On June 19, 1936, inmate number 92168, Salvatore Lucania aka Charles Lucky Luciano, was admitted into Sing Sing Prison to serve his 30-50 year incarceration. Fifteen days later, he was placed on a prison bus, surrounded by armed guards, and driven four and half hours up to Clinton Correctional Prison in Dannemora, upstate New York.

The 1920s were the most dangerous time for all mobsters/gangsters in American history. Between 1920 and 1930, a thousand plus, known gangsters were knocked in the bootlegging wars. That’s not counting the low-level unknowns. Which would make the number a lot higher. The night of July 5, 1926, Vito Genovese was caught without a pistol which almost cost him his life. According to the NYPD, Vito’s father, Felice found his son unconscious in the hallway of the family home at 5873 102nd Street in the Woodhaven section of Queens at about 5:00 A.M. with a gunshot wound to the neck.

A trail of blood led from the house to a spot about half a block away from where VIto had been shot. Vito’s wife told the police she couldn't understand why anyone would want to shoot her husband. The police went on to claim a bootleg feud was responsible for the attack. The shooting of VIto, police noted, was remarkably similar, to an attack on his 38-year-old friend Arnello Albertini a few weeks earlier.

Albertini was also ambushed early one morning in May and shot from behind with a shotgun that was found later wrapped in burlap. Vito was lucky. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he recovered from his wound, but remained silent on the shooting. Albertini died, having been hit in his back, neck, and spine with buckshot. The way both men were attacked strengthens the belief that both men were victims of a feud between bootlegging factions.

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At the dawn of prohibition, the streets of New York City turned into a war zone. Every known gang fought over territory to conduct their business with the extremely lucrative bootlegging top priority, and everyone wanted a piece of that action. Gangs began hijacking shipments and trying to muscle in on territory that was controlled by others, New York became a deadly battleground.

Bootlegging became the racket everyone wanted to control. By the end of summer 1920, every bootlegger had a type of liquor they sold, beer, whiskey, gin, or scotch where the top four movers. It got to a point where liquor orders were fulfilled, but occasionally excess stock remained.

An exchange point was established in Little Italy, along Prince street, Canal street, the Bowery and Mulberry street. This prime location was in the territory controlled by Joe Masseria, and one of his men, Gaetano Pennachio, aka Tommy the Bull, organized and controlled it. It became known as the Curb Exchange. It operated right under the eyes of the New York City police headquarters.

The idea was that every gangster, hoodlum and street thug could come here, and trade among themselves, doing whatever they wanted to suit their needs. The exchange became a melting pot for the gangs involved. Italian, Jewish and Irish mobsters mingled together and did business.

This is where the Italian underworld became divided in their quest to rule the streets. Divided by the older guys that were higher in rank, and in positions of power, they looked down their noses to the brash young turks.
The younger guys were ambitious and believed times had to change, and adapt with the American ways.

It was smart business dealing with allies instead of using bullets. The curb exchange was the perfect opportunity to gain allies outside of their community.